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Fire on the Earth - July 2, 2026 - And You He Made Alive · Fire on the Earth

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SPEAKER_01: Ave Maria Radio and Renewal Ministries presents Fire on the Earth a compelling look
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SPEAKER_01: at the new evangelization through inspiring teachings interviews
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SPEAKER_00: and testimonies welcome friends this is Peter Herbeck your host we're going
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SPEAKER_00: to continue to celebrate what we began on Monday the Solemnity of Saints Peter
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SPEAKER_00: and Paul just by reflecting on some key passages maybe favorite passages of mine
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SPEAKER_00: that describe beautifully describe the transformed mind
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SPEAKER_00: the level of understanding they had of Jesus and Jesus' plan and God's plan for each
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SPEAKER_00: and every one of us and the depth at which they were able to experience and
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SPEAKER_00: to understand and then communicate to others and to celebrate what they saw
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SPEAKER_00: in these young communities that they helped raise up or others did
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SPEAKER_00: and they're writing letters to and they're just rejoicing
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SPEAKER_00: because what Jesus promised is unfolding really before their eyes and through them
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SPEAKER_00: these were the apostles that it all began with these brothers and others of course
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SPEAKER_00: but they went forth under the anointing of
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SPEAKER_00: the Holy Spirit Peter's case you know came out of the upper room on the day
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SPEAKER_00: of Pentecost and began to proclaim the gospel under the leadership and the anointing
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SPEAKER_00: of the Holy Spirit the whole of the Christian life
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SPEAKER_00: and it's witnessed in these two in particular all the apostles of course and
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SPEAKER_00: the saints throughout history and hopefully in our lives but in such a powerful way
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SPEAKER_00: in both of them the working of the Holy Spirit who is the first agent of
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SPEAKER_00: the church's mission the Holy Spirit who animates brings alive makes alive
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SPEAKER_00: the church and her sacraments and her preaching and her mission
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SPEAKER_00: they yielded their lives in faith hope and love they yielded their lives in trust
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SPEAKER_00: to God and they followed the prompting and the leading of the Holy Spirit as authors
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SPEAKER_00: of these letters they were under the anointing of the Holy Spirit what they intended
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SPEAKER_00: to write is a working a grace in them of the Holy Spirit and what their co-authors
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SPEAKER_00: the Holy Spirit and the Apostle Paul or the Apostle Peter
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SPEAKER_00: so much so that we know
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SPEAKER_00: for sure this is God's breathed word this word is entirely unique there's not
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SPEAKER_00: another religious writing there's no other historical writing nothing compares
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SPEAKER_00: because this is God's living word that when it's heard and it's received in faith
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SPEAKER_00: and fully embraced in a living community
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SPEAKER_00: of people it transforms us it makes us new I want to read
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SPEAKER_00: from Ephesians chapter 2 today
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SPEAKER_00: beautiful powerful description maybe arguably the most powerful
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SPEAKER_00: in Paul's teaching Romans probably I don't need to go down that path
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SPEAKER_00: but Ephesians 2 gives us the biblical worldview and you see how sharp Paul's mind is
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SPEAKER_00: and how deep his understanding is and as we read it today let's ask the Holy Spirit
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SPEAKER_00: to help renew our minds and help us understand and internalize this so much so
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SPEAKER_00: that we have deep conviction about it
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SPEAKER_00: and it changes the way we live and understand ourselves and others and what's going
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SPEAKER_00: on in the world so chapter 2 verse 1 and you he made alive when you were dead
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SPEAKER_00: through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course
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SPEAKER_00: of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now
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SPEAKER_00: at work in the sons of disobedience
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SPEAKER_00: among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh following the desires
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SPEAKER_00: of body and mind so that we were by nature children of wrath like the rest
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SPEAKER_00: of mankind but God who is rich in mercy out of the great love with
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SPEAKER_00: which he loved us even when we were dead
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SPEAKER_00: through our trespasses made us alive together with Christ
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SPEAKER_00: He says, He says,
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SPEAKER_00: Now, this is just a very,
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SPEAKER_00: very famous passage,
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SPEAKER_00: and book upon book has been written about some of the fundamental truths here,
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SPEAKER_00: faith and grace and works and how it all works together.
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SPEAKER_00: And we'll touch on that a little bit, but I just want to take this step by step.
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SPEAKER_00: Paul begins with
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SPEAKER_00: the understanding
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SPEAKER_00: and this is what makes Christianity its message its reality different
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SPEAKER_00: than any other religion no other religion compares I was listening to somebody
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SPEAKER_00: the other day who's kind of a self-described Catholic mystic and kind
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SPEAKER_00: of approached this basic idea like all religions you know people again basically all
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SPEAKER_00: religions are the same you know if you follow their authentic desire it's all going
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SPEAKER_00: to lead to the same place or it's all pathways up the same mountain and
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SPEAKER_00: and whatever path you're taking with this sincerity and there's hardly any mention
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SPEAKER_00: at all there's no mention of the biblical worldview there's no mention of the really
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SPEAKER_00: the absolute utter uniqueness of Jesus as it is preached and taught both
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SPEAKER_00: by Jesus himself and the life he lived and the reality of what what happened
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SPEAKER_00: in his resurrection ascension to the right hand of the father
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SPEAKER_00: and what we've already looked on this week from the preaching of Peter
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SPEAKER_00: and Paul it just is so different very like a generic God and a generic pathway and
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SPEAKER_00: all of that none of this and friends this is critical
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SPEAKER_00: the biblical worldview is critical everybody on the planet needs
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SPEAKER_00: to hear this everybody needs it now the church knows and the church says if people
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SPEAKER_00: through no fault of their own who die without ever hearing the gospel
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SPEAKER_00: and they respond to the light they've been given with real faith and
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SPEAKER_00: there's a way the church understands it's possible
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SPEAKER_00: for someone not having heard this message to enter heaven eventually but
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SPEAKER_00: the real gold and what people need
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SPEAKER_00: the most is what Paul is giving us right here he begins first with
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SPEAKER_00: a Christian anthropology understanding
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SPEAKER_00: the human condition this is universal he begins with the fact
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SPEAKER_00: that we are spiritually dead
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SPEAKER_00: because of
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SPEAKER_00: the fall every human being born there's no spiritual tabula rasa no one is born
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SPEAKER_00: perfect no one is born with God's life in them and you he made alive
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SPEAKER_00: when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked
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SPEAKER_00: that once walked is a way of life right people are living Paul's talking
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SPEAKER_00: about you follow the course of this world so Paul's going to touch on
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SPEAKER_00: the big three the world the flesh and the devil the enemies of God on the Earth
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SPEAKER_00: the world the fallen dimension of God's good creation the resistance to God
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SPEAKER_00: and God's will that's in the world he said you followed that world and you followed
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SPEAKER_00: the prince of the power of the air Paul is right out there he's not embarrassed
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SPEAKER_00: to say it there is a devil there are demonic forces
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SPEAKER_00: and the devil is the god of this fallen world and he's saying you not only said yes
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SPEAKER_00: to the world but you were under the power under demonic power
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SPEAKER_00: and you were not free this is the spirit he said that's now at work in the sons
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SPEAKER_00: of disobedience that those who have disobeyed God or refused to acknowledge God
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SPEAKER_00: and come to receive salvation in Christ and in his church
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SPEAKER_00: Among these we all once lived.
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SPEAKER_00: Here's the anthropology.
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SPEAKER_00: All of us, the whole human race.
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SPEAKER_00: Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.
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SPEAKER_00: So there's the third enemy.
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SPEAKER_00: World, flesh, devil.
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SPEAKER_00: The flesh is the fallen dimension of the human person.
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SPEAKER_00: The sin-sick heart that refuses the will of God, the love of God.
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SPEAKER_00: and refuses to acknowledge the lordship of Jesus among these we all once live in
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SPEAKER_00: the passions of our flesh following the desires of body and mind and so we were
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SPEAKER_00: by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind children of wrath destined
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SPEAKER_00: for wrath destined for eternal separation from God destined for hell destined
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SPEAKER_00: for eternal torment that's
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SPEAKER_00: the default position of the human race and
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SPEAKER_00: in this beautiful letter this profoundly deep theological letter
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SPEAKER_00: that Paul is writing with so much love so much compassion so much mercy
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SPEAKER_00: in his heart he's telling it like it is this passage is kind of like the classic of
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SPEAKER_00: to understand the good news you need to hear the bad news because this is
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SPEAKER_00: the human condition and there's no way out no human resource nothing's going
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SPEAKER_00: to get us out of it
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SPEAKER_00: verse 4 but here's the pivot point but God who is rich in mercy out of
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SPEAKER_00: the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead
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SPEAKER_00: through our trespasses made us alive together with Christ
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SPEAKER_00: by grace you have been saved and he raised us up with him and made us sit with him
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SPEAKER_00: in heavenly places in Christ Jesus
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SPEAKER_00: there's such
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SPEAKER_00: a mouthful here he's just Paul's just declaring this one long sentence it's I
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SPEAKER_00: stopped halfway God is merciful God is kind God is slow to anger God is abounding
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SPEAKER_00: in steadfast love his love was so deep so profound he gave us his son
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SPEAKER_00: to make it possible for us to come out of what Paul just described he didn't come
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SPEAKER_00: to judge us he came to in Jesus to bring mercy to the world his gift and his gift is
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SPEAKER_00: to make us alive Jesus Christ took on human flesh so he could bring a life unite
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SPEAKER_00: a life to human flesh that will never die
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SPEAKER_00: and it was in him and in him alone and he passed from death to life
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SPEAKER_00: and he's raised up to the right hand of the father
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SPEAKER_00: and literally friends it's not just kind of a wonderful story it is
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SPEAKER_00: a fact Jesus Christ Mary's son is at the right hand of God the father
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SPEAKER_00: in human flesh glorified that's the future of the human race right there
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SPEAKER_00: and God's mercy is saying if you love my son if you say yes to my son
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SPEAKER_00: if you acknowledge your sins if you embrace him you will share what belongs to him
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SPEAKER_00: because the glory that as we talked about on Monday St.
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SPEAKER_00: Paul's word the father of glory let his glory come through his son Jesus and united
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SPEAKER_00: the glory of God the
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SPEAKER_00: the majesty the power the beauty the weight of God is united to human flesh wait
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SPEAKER_00: a minute human flesh fell and human flesh rebelled and human flesh is full of sin
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SPEAKER_00: and ego and pride and lust and hatred God looked upon it with mercy and
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SPEAKER_00: with great love and he knew he sent Jesus to say
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SPEAKER_00: go make them alive you might say right because we were spiritually dead those
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SPEAKER_00: who were made for glory fell from glory and in Jesus Christ was raised
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SPEAKER_00: to glory that's why Paul says here it's by grace
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SPEAKER_00: that you have been saved it's not your own doing the initial what
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SPEAKER_00: the term is justification being brought from death to life
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SPEAKER_00: comes through faith it just comes
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SPEAKER_00: through yes yes I accept I repent forgive me you're right Jesus is right I desire
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SPEAKER_00: to be saved and to be baptized that is God's free gift now we know
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SPEAKER_00: that faith works itself out in love eventually expresses itself excuse me
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SPEAKER_00: in love we can talk about that tomorrow but here's the biblical worldview
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SPEAKER_00: that Paul communicates father thank you
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SPEAKER_00: for the ministry of St. Paul.
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SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.
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SPEAKER_00: Friends, I'd like to offer you my new booklet, Does God Judge?
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SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a question, but it's a relevant question.
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SPEAKER_00: Scripture says we were all appointed to die once and then the judgment.
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SPEAKER_00: We know for sure each one of us has an appointment in our future, and it takes Scripture
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SPEAKER_00: Pastor Catechism and the Saints to help us understand the beauty of God's plan
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SPEAKER_00: and how we can look forward to the judgment as followers of Christ if you'd like
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SPEAKER_00: to get a free copy call 1-800-282-4789 or visit renewalministries.net slash foe