Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / August 13 – Clearing the Way

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August 13 – Clearing the Way · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:00
  Good morning
• 0:04
  everyone, I'm Paris again. I'm here with Pastor
• 0:08
  Mike and Corey, um, got y'all for another day.
• 0:12
  August 13th, Clearing the Way. The song: Spiritual growth requires
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  more than facing the past, it requires clearing away
• 0:21
  what still stands between me and others. Ripple 1,
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  practical. Today, I will remember that willingness is often
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  the first step before action. I may not feel ready
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  to address every broken relationship,
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  but I can become willing. Growth begins when
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  I stop resisting what I know needs to be done.
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  Ripple 2: Spiritual. As I clear away the debris of
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  the past, the Holy Spirit develops humility,
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  honesty and courage within me and helps me build healthier
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  relationships going forward. The Father patiently prepares
• 0:58
  me for each step of growth, and Jesus shows me
• 1:02
  that these qualities work together to bring
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  healing. Um, you know, reading that today,
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  I was looking at that first step, you know, of willingness,
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  and I talk about willingness a lot. Because it
• 1:20
  says that the— no,
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  that's the— when you take
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  step 2,
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  right?
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  What's step 2, Corey? Magic 1. Came to believe the power
• 1:34
  to be ready for myself. Came to believe. Okay. When I
• 1:37
  take step 2, right? Came to believe. Because I've already
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  been in church. I already believed in God before
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  AA or before the programs of recovery. But when
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  I came back around this second time in the
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  program, I had to be willing to do the work now,
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  willing to take the steps. You know, see,
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  I talk about the problem and then solution a lot because that's what it is.
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  The problem was not just alcohol. It was also the
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  selfishness, the self-centeredness. And all that, right? And then I go into
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  the solution. What is the solution? It's the power that's higher and greater
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  than myself. So now I have to surrender all that to
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  him. And when I surrender that to him, then now we got to clear the
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  way, right? I like where it says, I may not feel ready to address
• 2:26
  every broken relationship, but I can become willing.
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  There's a willing word again. See,
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  doing this work now, I see that
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  A lot of, I mean, I'm going to say, just speaking on me, I remember
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  the first time I was coming around and I wasn't willing
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  to do none of that work. I had papers to sign, so I was willing
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  to get my papers signed just so I can get approved for going
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  through the process of the program of recovery courses. To avoid
• 2:56
  further consequences. Exactly. That's what I was willing to do.
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  But now, I really thought about that.
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  And the only way I was willing to change is because I
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  have friends that held me and told
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  me and held me accountable. And I saw proof that this stuff
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  works. And that willingness came in for
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  me to want to do step work, want to really take the inventory
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  list. I know we're talking about making lists. To all the people we have harmed
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  and became willing to make amends to them.
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  I remember when I did my first
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  8-step and I was writing my name list down and we had to do yes.
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  My sponsor told me to write yes, no, or never. I wanted to
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  put never on everybody because I didn't want to make amends.
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  But what would that have got me today? Was it,
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  yeah, maybe, no,
• 4:00
  maybe, yes, later, no, something.
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  Oh, maybe later. Yeah, that's interesting. Like, Harris heard never.
• 4:08
  Yeah, exactly. So now you're sponsored pretty well.
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  Um, so I think— so
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  there's, there's usually— I'm not trying to cut you off because— no, no, you're good.
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  But it's a yes or no,
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  or maybe so. Or, you know, you can, you can word
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  it however you want, but there can be a never, right? You can put a
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  never down because, you know, with some things,
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  you know, I've heard things, dudes that may like, you know,
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  but like, be willing, right? And like, you know,
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  it's almost crazy for me to tell them. I'm like, yeah, man,
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  go make that. You know, take like a whole suit too while you
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  do it so you don't get killed. But, you know, but that's not, you know,
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  the whole deal is, you know, It's not me doing this anymore.
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  It's God. Because if this is spiritual work, this is not Corey
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  by himself going out there to do this. It's me and God doing this.
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  And God perfectly presents opportunities and things in my life.
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  And I hang out with people that have made all their amends.
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  And I believe that I can make all my amends, even the ones that I
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  just think are the most gritty, grimy things that I could ever say and I
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  could ever do to go make it right. But I believe I can.
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  And so, you know, when I look at that and yeah, so I'm not— you
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  can— do you want to— you want to— did I take— do
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  you want to keep going? I'm sorry. No, no, you're good, bro. Okay. I'm sorry.
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  I was worried that he ended your thought. Yeah,
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  my thought. But so like, if I go like,
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  if I know that like the way I view amends is this, if I can
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  have some nevers, but I'll tell you the, the maybes,
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  The in-between ones, right? The laters.
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  Yeah. Those turn in. If I do enough of those and I do enough yeses,
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  then the nevers start happening. Okay. Because I could be, you know,
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  you kind of, you know, willingness, right? You kind of went to that. You know,
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  if I become willing to do the yeses and I do the yeses, then the
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  laters start happening, right? Yeah. And then the nevers start, you know, and then
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  I'm, you know, then I'm going down this road that I never thought I'm on,
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  but I'm making right and I'm getting closer with God. And the thing is,
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  is about the men and all this process is, is we
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  are people, you can call us exhibitionists,
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  extremists and all this. My drinking sure looked
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  like that, right? But so when I get ahold of this God
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  thing, just like it talks about in the book, it says what once
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  was like a fleeting thought or,
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  it's in We Agnostics, it's on page 50.
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  Page 47. I'm sorry, I'm taking up a little time.
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  We found ourselves thinking when enchanted by a starlit night, who then
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  made all this? There was a feeling of awe and wonder, but it was fleeting
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  and soon lost. That awe and wonder becomes
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  more and more of the presence of God coming into my life the closer
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  I get, because where's God? The great reality that's deep down within
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  us, right? So all this stuff I've been putting down, I'm getting out. And I'm
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  making right, and I'm getting— to me, the way I view this is I'm getting
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  closer with God. And if I got something in between me and Michael,
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  right, you know, Michael's just a manifestation of God, not just because he's a
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  preacher, because he's one of God's kids. Yeah, same with you. Yeah, and no more
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  so than either one of you. I just like to throw the preacher in the
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  thing because I'll— in case anyone forgets,
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  he got the sub-pastor. It's the whole deal. And the closer I get to God,
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  the more I find this presence of God. And it goes on
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  to say, many hundreds
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  of people are able to say that the consciousness of the presence of God is
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  today the most important fact of their lives. So if that's
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  the most important fact of their lives, and it is for me, I want to
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  get closer every day because I love more.
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  I've come to believe that I can always get more.
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  Because God's shown me that and he's shown me that I can grow and
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  that it's not just a stopping point. Right. And so if, you know, our friend
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  was listening, maybe it's kind of like a spiral, but with an ever-ending
• 8:16
  staircase. But anyways, that was my thought. Yeah.
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  Well, what I was thinking about there at the end, as I was kind of
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  watching the recording and the progress that we're making,
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  is that you're just seeing y'all's passion, you know, for the program is just,
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  it's inspiring, you know, even just talking about and debating concepts
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  within the book and things like that. I mean, you guys both have studied this
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  literature, the big book, enough to
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  be able to have those conversations. And that's where I, as Corey
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  pointed out, I was the preacher. Now my request
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  is to go and learn at least the gospels the same way in
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  the Bible. Because as I'm thinking about this, I mean,
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  this is all clearing away the debris of the past,
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  reaching out to people that we've wronged, but especially when
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  I get into the spiritual part of this, that the Holy Spirit develops the humility,
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  honesty, and courage within me, that's really where
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  the work is happening. Yeah, we start with, as we started this episode
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  with that concept of willingness, I had to be willing to
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  believe that God could and would basically
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  give me a design for living, to use recovery language, a design
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  for living that works. And that is, for me, following the teachings or
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  the way of Jesus. And we've been talking this week
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  a bit about that, about being reconciled to other people before
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  we offer our gifts and things of that nature. But I'm also encouraged
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  in scripture, and this is in Philippians 2, where the author tells us that
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  it's God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill
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  his good purpose. And again, that's just
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  circling right back around to this. I have willingness.
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  So then I take an action that's been taught to me either in recovery
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  through the Big Book, in our life of faith through the Bible, through the teachings
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  of pastors, preachers, and teachers. And when I take those actions,
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  then I do grow in the humility.
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  I grow in the willingness. I grow in the honesty, all of those things.
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  You know, biblically speaking, that's just fruits of the Holy Spirit.
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  It's what God does in us as we continue to do this good work.
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  And it's encouraging for me
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  to know that I don't have the responsibility to,
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  you know, if I do X, Y, and Z, then I'll have a
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  quantity more of willingness or sobriety or whatever I'm
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  looking for. It's not formulaic like that. It's not based on my input
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  that I get a certain amount of output. God takes what little input
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  I'm willing to give. It's called a mustard seed of faith a lot in the
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  Bible, and the fruits are well beyond
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  anything that I could have ever imagined even going into life or specifically
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  this work in recovery. In 1 John 4:20,
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  I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it says, if anyone says,
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  I love you, God, yet hates his brother,
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  he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his
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  brother whom he has seen cannot love God
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  whom he has not seen, that has given us this command. For whoever
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  loves God must also love his brother. So, you know,
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  and my brother is not just the people that are close to me, right?
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  Right. It's everybody. My brothers and sisters in this world
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  walking with me in this world, walking with us in this world, right? My neighbor
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  that You know, yeah, my neighbors are lovely people. We don't
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  always talk, but some of them, some of my neighbors, we do. Yeah.
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  And, you know, but like, I love them and I love,
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  you know, and that whole attitude, right? You know, and you
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  kind of pointed at this, you know, it's on page 13
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  of the Big Book in Bill's story. And it tells
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  me that the things I need to have to do this stuff.
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  It says, my friend promised when these things were done, I would enter upon a
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  new relationship with my Creator, that I would have the elements of a
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  way of living which answered all my problems. All my problems,
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  not just, you know, all of them. Yeah. So first was belief in the
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  power of God, plus enough willingness. There you go, Paris.
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  Honesty and humility to establish and maintain
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  the new order of things were the essential requirements.
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  That's not a suggestion. Essential is not a suggestion.
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  Essential is a must. And then, you know, there's all these words that, you know,
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  they're, they're big words and they mean a lot. But, you know, if I'm not
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  willing to do that, you know, it's like half measures of velvet's nothing,
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  right? Right. If I'm not, you know, and nothing's nothing. It's not like
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  a little bit, it's nothing. You know, that's crazy. So, you know, I come to
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  this place and the more and more I do this work, I, I think we've
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  talked about my grandfather in the past, but Um, you know how he was a
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  preacher. And man, I was going to inventory that one day,
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  you know, because he was a little bit racist, whatever. Yes.
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  And, um, man, you know, I went,
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  you know, to go write on the second column what he did,
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  and, you know, all I could write was he was just being human,
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  right? Because that's the deal. And the cool thing about
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  this whole conversation is that you went with me up to Jackson to the to
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  the cemetery for me to go make amends with this dude.
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  But the dude's just human, just like me,
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  just like you. So I come to more of
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  that, of loving my brother, and I think about
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  how God loves us and loves me. I don't know about y'all, but God
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  loves me. I don't know about you guys, but you know what
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  I'm saying? But he loves everybody the same amount, and that's the cool
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  thing. I think my job, through this work is to come more at one
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  with everybody and every one of God's kids. And that means
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  everybody, not just some people. Well, I'll tell you this before Paris
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  gives our closing statements and arguments here.
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  But what I'll tell you in answer to your question there is that what I
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  learned as a young child, which is that Jesus loves me,
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  this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
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  Y'all know that one, right? Do you know that? I think I heard it before.
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  Yeah, I know. It's Sunday school growing up.
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  He, he just told us he was a rapper. What are you talking about?
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  That's definitely getting cut out of the episode anyway,
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  Maris. Yeah, I mean, I also want to add something.
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  I know we running a little over on time. Yeah, we're fine. It said it's,
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  um, you know, Ezekiel 36, right? Um,
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  verse 25, it says, um, I will sprinkle clean water on you
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  And you shall be clean from all your uncleanness,
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  and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
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  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put
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  within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and
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  give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit
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  within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and
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  be careful to obey my rules.
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  And that counts,
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  it's a good reference to where we're at in the
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  recovery program of making those amends.
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  Because once I make those amends, I'm changing, I'm taking out the old
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  bitter, old darkness that I have to try to become
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  that freedom, wanting to be free.
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  But yeah, that's all I had. And if y'all don't have anything
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  else, then we can close with a prayer. Well, before we close with
• 15:52
  the prayer, I know that we started out, you spoke for a few minutes,
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  we kind of jumped in and kind of took over the body of
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  the episode. You had a few minutes at the end, so I just make sure
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  you got all your thoughts in today. I don't want to be disrespectful of our
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  guest here. Yeah, I love it, man. I'm just honored to be on
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  this podcast with y'all for this work that y'all do,
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  to do the service and give back what you
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  have got. That's, you know, that's real work. I appreciate having
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  you as well. Yep. All right, prayer. Father God,
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  make me willing to do what needs to be done. Through your
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  Holy Spirit, grow in me the courage, honesty, and humility
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  that leads to healing. Shape my
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  life through the example of Jesus and help me walk forward in
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  freedom and love. Amen. Amen.