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640 | Promoting Peace · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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  Where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life. Whether you are listening
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  in our app, in your favorite podcasting app, or on our website at watwm.org,
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  we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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  about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we're chatting about what life looks like when we live
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  lives that promote peace.
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  Well, hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's conversation.
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  This is Erica Close, and I am here with Kim Miller.
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  Thank you so much. I'm excited about talking about living in peace and what
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  that requires of us and how that's associated with forgiveness.
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  Absolutely. So we hope that you all had the opportunity to listen to Monday's
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  podcast, which is episode 639. It was called Living in Peace Requires Forgiveness.
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  And I really do hope that you had the opportunity to take a listen.
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  I will say I didn't find it to be a simple message. There was a lot of things
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  in there that I think really sort of tugged at my heart, but I am very thankful for them.
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  And there were some things that you brought out in that podcast that I wanted
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  us to be able to just take a deeper dive into because they're very much the application piece,
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  of what our lives look like when we're promoting peace and when we're living,
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  in forgiveness and was living in forgiveness for ourselves, but offering forgiveness to others.
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  So there were just a few statements that you made, and I kind of want to just
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  go back to them and flesh those out a little bit.
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  So you made the statement in there, and you asked a question.
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  You said, what are you sowing with your relationships?
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  And I want to just think about that for a minute. The idea that our relationships are.
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  Are things that should be growing, right? We are sowing, right?
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  We are planting seeds in our relationships. And so there's a responsibility,
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  in relationships to ensure that they're being fed and watered and the right
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  things are getting sown.
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  You're either turning someone towards Jesus or you're turning someone against Jesus.
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  There really isn't any neutral ground.
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  Because if you're not turning someone towards him, you're not doing what you're called to do.
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  We are called to make disciples, and we are called to be the light of the world.
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  And what we say and what we do is the mechanism in which we pull that off.
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  You know, I think that statement that you just made can very much be like a filter.
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  By which we filter through just about everything we do in our lives.
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  Is this thing that I'm about to do going to turn someone towards Jesus or away from Jesus?
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  The truth of the matter is, if we were as in tune with the Holy Spirit as the
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  Holy Spirit desires for us to be, He is the filter, and you wouldn't even have to think about it.
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  He says, do it, do it. He says, don't do it, don't do it. But we don't give
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  him the primary voice in our life.
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  Few of us do. And many of us who do give the Holy Spirit the primary voice in
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  our life, we only are selective when that is.
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  I think something that's important, too, is to realize everyone needs Jesus,
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  whether they already have him or not.
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  Right? The unsaved absolutely need Jesus. And he needs to be active in your
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  life. He needs to be front and center.
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  He needs to be your all in all. You need to love him with your whole heart,
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  your mind, your soul, and your strength.
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  And when that is the situation, you really don't have to worry about keeping
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  your life in check because it will be.
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  And and your life is still your our lives are just showing people jesus does
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  this action show people jesus,
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  or the opposite and we're going to give account of ourselves towards the lord
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  and and as a result of that i think we should be a little bit more conscious,
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  of what we're showing those around us.
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  If you really want to know who a person is, ask the person who's around them,
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  all the time. Good times, bad times.
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  Don't ask the colleagues at work that see them only in the board meeting.
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  You know, I don't know, some people act bad in a board meeting.
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  Don't, you know, you ask somebody who really has seen that person and knows
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  them, and they'll tell you.
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  You know, you made this statement about that we will all give account.
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  And I think that's something that we likely don't want to think about,
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  right? That we will give account of our actions.
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  And I think it's important to point out that we're not giving account as to
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  whether we're saved or not. No, no, no, no.
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  This is an assessment of our life lived for the Lord.
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  Right. But even though we're saved, the assessment's still going to happen.
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  Right. And I think that's what people don't understand, though,
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  is that everybody is going to give account of themselves to the Lord.
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  And I think that's another filter by which we need to sort of think about the
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  actions and the things that we're doing in our lives.
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  Do I want this event to be something I'm going to be giving account of to the
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  Lord or, you know, something that I want to sort of see again?
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  Like, I kind of imagine, you know, when we give account of our lives.
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  I think he's going to unscroll the scroll. Right. It's Acts 4,
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  I mean, sorry, Romans 14, 12, that says, So then every one of us shall give
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  account of himself to God.
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  Because he says in Romans 14, 11, For it is written, As I live,
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  saith the Lord, Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to
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  God, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
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  Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no
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  man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
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  We are to be a stepping stone to Jesus, not a stumbling block.
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  And, you know, so in our relationships, we have to ensure that what we're sowing,
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  right, is the right thing. Because you're sowing something.
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  You're always sewing something. And I think that leads us to the next question
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  that you asked those of us that were listening to the podcast,
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  which was like, what is the purpose to your words?
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  And I think so often we don't take time to think before we speak.
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  And some of us think before we speak because we have a strategy or an intent to cut down and mark.
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  Someone out and you know there are people who speak very strategically and every single word they say,
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  really absolutely matters and I think that practice is on target but I think
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  the target they're aiming for isn't what God's asking.
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  God is asking us to strategically speak life into other people,
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  not figure out how to tear people down or hurt them or, in some cases, nearly destroy them.
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  I mean, James talks about the power of the tongue. And all through Scripture,
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  God is telling us that we are to use our words to build up and edify and encourage and comfort and help.
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  But way too often, especially if we're talking off the cuff, we just cut to the bone.
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  I think one of the things that's important to remember is that.
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  You know, we're going to give account of the things we say, and we are held
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  accountable, but it's not our job to hold other people accountable.
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  Right. It just said, you're not the judge. Don't be a stumbling block.
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  I think it is important to note that we are to lovingly correct a brother who
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  is a stray, but the intent is to move them towards the Lord,
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  not condemn them or judge them.
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  That's, it's the intent that makes all the difference because intent will change,
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  the nature of your words.
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  Absolutely. So there's another statement that you made in that I think really,
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  deals with the intent that we were just talking about. And you talked about
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  how we cannot be holy and hateful.
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  And I think that that was, that is such a simple statement but it's not holiness,
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  is not something that we are like you know.
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  Given, right? You do not get holiness conferred upon you like a diploma or something
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  like that. You don't get saved and then just be holy.
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  What you do is you get the Holy Spirit to teach you and instruct you,
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  but you must submit yourself to that instruction and you must choose him daily.
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  And if we're hateful and we are unkind...
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  Nobody's going to want what you have. Nobody's going to want what you have.
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  And it's a demonstration of holiness.
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  I think so often we think of holiness as like purity, you know,
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  and things like that. And I think that's one aspect of holiness.
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  But I can be hateful and never say a bad word, right? No, but you're not pure
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  if you're spewing hate. Exactly. Exactly.
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  You know, this is an account I'm going to give that I hope no one ever says
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  about me, but I knew a person through...
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  Instances in my life, and I knew them and interacted with them for three or
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  four years, and they were fine.
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  But at no point in that four years would I have ever even thought they were
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  a Christian, let alone a pastor.
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  And years passed, and I was at a church, and this person walked in and everybody,
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  referred to him as pastor.
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  And I thought, my goodness, this guy's gotten saved and God's done anything.
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  But he had, these people were in his congregation years before he had even met me.
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  And all that time that I knew this man, he was a pastor.
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  But you had no way. But I had no way of knowing the way he spoke,
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  the way he treated people, the way he seemingly thought, his demeanor.
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  And, oh, Lord, help me to never be the person someone can say,
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  hey, you're a Christian?
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  Are you kidding me? I mean, I was stunned.
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  Like, you could have turned on a fan and blew me over when that.
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  And I had to look twice and literally confirm that this was the same man, and it was.
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  And I thought, how horrible. And it wasn't just that he never mentioned it.
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  It was that he was 180 degrees different than what I read the scriptures to
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  say someone to be. And that's what I'm trying to say, is that we don't want that to be our lives.
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  And one of the points in the message was about forgiveness. And a lot of times
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  we are hateful and harsh because we have unforgiveness.
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  And we just can't let that happen. And Hebrews 12, 14 tells us that we have
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  to follow peace with all men. We don't get any passes.
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  I really had to pray about that one particular man afterwards,
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  because I was like, oh, my goodness.
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  You know, he talked to, in just talking about this idea of the evidence,
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  right? You didn't have evidence that he would be a Christian, let alone a pastor.
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  He wasn't sowing any salvation seeds. Well, and that's the thing.
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  Like, you made a statement in the podcast that basically said,
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  if we live like the world, why would the world, you know, why would the world want what you have?
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  Whatever you saw in him was not something that you were attracted to,
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  right? I mean, there was no kindness, loving, peacefulness in him.
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  And that's what... There was no love of God. Right. And when we show off peace
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  and we show off the love of God, people want what we have, right?
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  We need to be so bright that it's like attracting unsaved and people who need
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  the Lord like a moth is attracted to the light.
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  And it's the peace. When I think of all the things that people are really attracted
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  to, and I think it's always been this way.
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  It's not just in this modern world that is so busy and all that, but it's the peace.
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  Right when we live lives where we show that we are at peace because the world
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  does not give you peace right people want to know what that is.
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  You said something in Monday's podcast. You said that there will never be a
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  time where we're going to have peace all the way through. Right.
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  We aren't. But you said, but there is always a time for me to follow peace.
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  The world is never going to give me peace. There's never going to be a time
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  when everything is at peace.
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  But there's always a time for me to follow after peace, for me to seek the peace,
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  for me to bring the peace.
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  Yeah. I mean, in all honesty, as Christians, we should be bringing it to the table.
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  Yeah. We should be bringing it to the table. And that's not always a simple thing to do.
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  It often goes against what your flesh wants.
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  And sometimes people don't want to hear that either. People who want to fight want to fight.
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  Yes. And they get madder the more peace you give.
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  I want to just close out today's podcast with one other statement that you made.
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  And it's one that I imagine our listeners have heard you say before,
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  but it's the quote from your mom, and you and I talk about this all the time,
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  that she always said you don't have to be right, but you have to do right.
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  And I think that if there's ever a filter by which we filter the things that
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  we're doing in our lives.
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  We just have to do the right thing, which goes against every fiber of our body.
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  I mean, I'm a competitive person. I'm a strong woman, highly educated.
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  I have opinions, you know. I think my opinions are right.
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  And it is one of those things that to purposely just shut up,
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  when a situation is being fueled by what I'm saying, and we're really not getting
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  any resolution, even though I'm right, just to stop.
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  Is so hard because you want to be heard.
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  And if you're right, you want them to say, okay, you're right.
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  And it's almost like there are people who would just fight to the death.
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  But when you are soaked in the Holy Spirit, washed in the blood of Jesus,
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  fully fixated on walking in the center of his will, the only right you're worrying about is his.
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  I love it in 1 Samuel chapter 17, when it's the account of David fighting the giant Goliath.
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  What spurs him to want to desperately fight this is because the giant had said
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  disparaging words against his God.
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  That's when we should come out fighting with every word the scripture says.
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  Not when people just say things that offend us.
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  Right. Part of our problem in the world today is we're too easily offended.
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  But what I do know is this, the Lord is on my side. Amen.
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  I will not fear what can man do unto me. Psalms 118.6. Amen. Amen.
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  Well, I hope that you all have enjoyed just talking about promoting peace.
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  It's our job to promote peace. It's why we're called into this world,
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  to show people Jesus, to promote peace, and to do all that we can to bring peace,
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  in each and every situation.
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  I hope that you all have a wonderful week. We invite you to come back and listen again.
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  Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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