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Steps for a Spiritual Life · Scripture-ish

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Ed Gallagher.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reading my essay, Steps for a Spiritual Life.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say that this essay will make more sense probably if you have
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: a background in Churches of Christ.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some Christians are Bible people and others are prayer people.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: This classification is my invention.
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  SPEAKER_00: I am not completely sure that it's original with me,
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  SPEAKER_00: but I did not read about it in Scripture,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: and I have not encountered anyone else who makes the same distinction.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what I mean by it.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: My impression is that some Christians gravitate more toward Bible study,
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: and others gravitate more toward prayer.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: There might be some Christians who enjoy both disciplines,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: but it seems to me that the overlap is small.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is probably a much bigger overlap for those Christians
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  SPEAKER_00: who enjoy neither prayer nor Bible study.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, which are you?
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  SPEAKER_00: If you could choose one or the other, prayer or Bible study, which would you choose?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have time to do only one of those before you've got to take the kids
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  SPEAKER_00: to school, which one?
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  SPEAKER_00: Or which of these comes more naturally to you or gives you more comfort?
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  SPEAKER_00: Or which one excites you more or intimidates you less?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: They are both essential Christian acts,
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  SPEAKER_00: and we can grow in either one,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: but chances are one of them is going to appeal to us more.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a Bible person.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: In my experience, most Christians are prayer people.
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  SPEAKER_00: I am jealous of the prayer people.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let me circle back to the absence of this classification in Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would not be true,
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  SPEAKER_00: for instance, to say that Jesus was a prayer person more than a Bible person.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is true that we catch him praying several times in the Gospels
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  SPEAKER_00: and hardly ever reading Scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: but But the evangelists depict Jesus as having a great deal of Scripture stuck
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  SPEAKER_00: in his head.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he didn't read Scripture often, but it does seem that he meditated on it routinely.
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  SPEAKER_00: His accusation to the Sadducees that they knew not
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: the Scriptures could not have been lobbed back at him.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So also the Apostle Paul cannot be characterized as one or the other,
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  SPEAKER_00: a prayer person or a Bible person.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's both.
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  SPEAKER_00: The New Testament does not present this distinction as an inevitability,
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  SPEAKER_00: certainly not as desirable.
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  SPEAKER_00: It seems to me to articulate an obvious characteristic of both myself and many of
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  SPEAKER_00: the Christians I have known most intimately,
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  SPEAKER_00: but I wonder if the distinction would make less sense in
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  SPEAKER_00: an ecclesial context different from mine.
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  SPEAKER_00: At any rate,
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  SPEAKER_00: if we find one of these practices,
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  SPEAKER_00: prayer or study slash meditation,
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  SPEAKER_00: more difficult than the other,
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  SPEAKER_00: We are in good company and, as always, practice makes perfect.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be a prayer person because I want to be a person who gives myself wholly over to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to be the kind of person who directs everything in my life to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: It seems like that's what prayer represents.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to be the kind of person who prays without ceasing.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to say the words of Psalm 143 verse 6 with full sincerity.
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  SPEAKER_00: I stretch forth my hands unto thee.
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  SPEAKER_00: My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land.
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  SPEAKER_00: After all, this is how my Christian life began when I was baptized.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Whether I realized it at the time or not,
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  SPEAKER_00: my baptism marked the death of Of one lifestyle and the beginning of a new one.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that I am not a slave of sin and certainly not a slave to myself.
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  SPEAKER_00: But as Paul says in Romans 6 verse 18, a slave to righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_00: I buried in those waters my selfishness, my pride, my anger, my impatience.
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  SPEAKER_00: And every other work of the flesh.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I rose up to walk in newness of life.
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  SPEAKER_00: Just as Paul was crucified with Christ, so also he says that I have been.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that I am now alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: Romans 6 verse 11.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which means...
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  SPEAKER_00: If we can skip forward to Romans chapter 8, that I am not led by the flesh, but by the Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: Since I have received the spirit of adoption, I cry out, Abba, Father.
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  SPEAKER_00: When I reflect on the significance of my baptism, I want to be a prayer person.
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  SPEAKER_00: Someone in constant communication with God,
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  SPEAKER_00: someone who recognizes with Augustine and even earlier with David
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  SPEAKER_00: that my soul is restless until it finds rest in God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or as Evagrius said in the fourth century, a theologian is one who prays.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I would like to be such a theologian.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not a prayer person.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm a Bible person.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or does that distinction even make any sense?
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  SPEAKER_00: Like I said,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think the distinction does make sense of my experience and the experience
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  SPEAKER_00: of other Christians I have known, Christians I've gone to church with.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I will say,
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  SPEAKER_00: since I'm a Bible person,
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  SPEAKER_00: I can testify that there are a lot of prayers in the Bible.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean a lot.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in some religious contexts,
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  SPEAKER_00: prayer and Bible go together more intimately than I am accustomed to.
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  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about these issues at the end of 2024.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: When I heard about a new podcast that would start at the beginning of the year,
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: the Rosary in a Year.
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  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this is a Catholic podcast.
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  SPEAKER_00: I had heard about the Rosary, but I didn't know much about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: A string of beads popped into my head.
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  SPEAKER_00: I decided to investigate.
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  SPEAKER_00: The point,
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  SPEAKER_00: it turns out,
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  SPEAKER_00: of the beads was Is to aid in counting the prayers because there's a lot
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  SPEAKER_00: of repetition in the rosary.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so keeping your fingers on the appropriate bead helps you to remember,
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  SPEAKER_00: am I on prayer number six or number seven?
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  SPEAKER_00: I watched a video showing people praying the rosary and you can get the basic idea
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  SPEAKER_00: from the Wikipedia article.
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  SPEAKER_00: The whole prayer usually takes about 15 minutes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's how it goes, or at least how it begins.
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  SPEAKER_00: You start by making the sign of the cross,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then you recite the Apostles' Creed,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then you say the Lord's Prayer,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then you say three Hail Marys,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then you say a prayer called the Glory Be,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then you say a whole bunch more Hail Marys.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's especially where you need the beads to keep track of all the Hail Marys.
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  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I'm not going to be praying the rosary.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up not subscribing to that podcast,
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  SPEAKER_00: the rosary in a year, but I'm glad to know more about the rosary.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad to see that a lot of the prayer is taken directly from scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I shouldn't make a distinction between prayer people and Bible people.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a Catholic would say it's all just one and the same.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Catholics basically do say that.
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  SPEAKER_00: According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: the catechesis of children,
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  SPEAKER_00: young people,
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  SPEAKER_00: and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Practicing it in liturgical prayer and internalizing it at all times in order
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  SPEAKER_00: to bear fruit in a new life.
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  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Prayer and Scripture go hand in hand.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jews might say that too.
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  SPEAKER_00: I guess the most famous Jewish prayer is called the Shema,
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  SPEAKER_00: which observant Jews have been saying twice every day,
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  SPEAKER_00: morning and evening, for thousands of years by now.
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  SPEAKER_00: Do you know where that prayer comes from?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 and other passages.
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  SPEAKER_00: The prayer is essentially a recitation of Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: The same sort of thing Scripture and prayer combined describes some form of prayers
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  SPEAKER_00: in monasteries.
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  SPEAKER_00: Did you know there are monks who pray through the entire Psalter,
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  SPEAKER_00: all 150 Psalms, every single week?
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  SPEAKER_00: The rule of St.
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  SPEAKER_00: Benedict from the 6th century says that any monk that doesn't recite
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  SPEAKER_00: the entire Psalter every week is slothful.
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  SPEAKER_00: Think about the benefits here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not only do you fill your mind with Scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: and specifically with the book of Scripture that is almost entirely addressed
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  SPEAKER_00: to God, but also you fill your time with meditation on God.
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  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't give you much time for sin.
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  SPEAKER_00: If the idle mind is the devil's playground,
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  SPEAKER_00: a mind committed to going through the Psalter weekly,
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  SPEAKER_00: In addition to other reading and praying gives the devil little opportunity to play.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells a story about an unclean spirit In Matthew 12 verses 43 through 45 where
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  SPEAKER_00: the spirit is driven out of a house but then later he comes back
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  SPEAKER_00: and finds its weapon put in order and he brings back seven more spirits to join him.
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  SPEAKER_00: A common way of getting an application out of that parable is to say
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  SPEAKER_00: that you should not just clean up your life but you need to fill it
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  SPEAKER_00: with good things.
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  SPEAKER_00: Don't just sweep your house and put it in order.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you're praying through the Psalter weekly,
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  SPEAKER_00: the amount of time that you can dedicate to porn is very limited or go out drinking
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  SPEAKER_00: with your friends.
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  SPEAKER_00: So if prayer is the quintessential mark of the spiritual life,
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  SPEAKER_00: and if so much of prayer is taken directly from scripture, maybe it's not so bad.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, in fact,
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  SPEAKER_00: if I want to grow spiritually,
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  SPEAKER_00: if I want to grow in my prayer life, I should lean in to my love of Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should imitate those monks who pray through the Psalter every week.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me say, that's a lot.
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  SPEAKER_00: And a monk's job is basically just to pray or I mean,
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  SPEAKER_00: they have other stuff they do, but prayer is the major task as I understand it.
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  SPEAKER_00: I myself actually have a full-time job and a second job and a family.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think praying through the Psalter every week is realistic,
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  SPEAKER_00: but what I have done is gone through the Psalter in a month.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's doable.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to do Is not just mindlessly read,
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  SPEAKER_00: of course, but hear the voice of God in the text.
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  SPEAKER_00: Even as I say these words addressed to God, and not just the Psalter, but the entire Bible.
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  SPEAKER_00: Through my baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: I made a public declaration that I would submit my life to the God who provided us
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  SPEAKER_00: with this scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so essentially, I declared that I would submit my life to scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to read scripture with that in mind, recognizing it as God's communication to me.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to open myself up to what God wants to show me in scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to read scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: not just as an artifact, but as the living and active word of God that it is.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I want to hear God's word as I never have before.
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  SPEAKER_00: Part of the reason I want to approach Scripture in this way is that I want to grow
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  SPEAKER_00: in faith, and I know that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I read Scripture,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: when I hear God's voice,
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  SPEAKER_00: one challenge I will have is whether or not I am going to believe it.
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  SPEAKER_00: There are all sorts of difficult spots in Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just passages that are difficult to understand,
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  SPEAKER_00: but passages that present teaching that is pretty easy to understand on the surface,
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  SPEAKER_00: but difficult to enact.
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  SPEAKER_00: Take up your cross and follow me.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sell all your possessions and give them to the poor.
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  SPEAKER_00: Judge not lest ye be judged.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there are many, many more similarly challenging passages.
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  SPEAKER_00: Passages about forgiveness and mercy and patience and love.
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  SPEAKER_00: Am I going to allow myself to believe these passages?
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  SPEAKER_00: Will I allow myself to grow in faith through hearing God's Word?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is called for in such instances is forgiveness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Repentance.
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  SPEAKER_00: I am often confronted by a passage of Scripture that my life does not reflect
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  SPEAKER_00: or reflects only very imperfectly.
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  SPEAKER_00: If I hear God's voice talking to me through that Scripture and I reflect
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  SPEAKER_00: on my baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: at which point I publicly submitted to God and to His Word,
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  SPEAKER_00: and if I put my faith in God and in His Word, then I need to change my life.
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  SPEAKER_00: To cohere more closely with what God is revealing to me.
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  SPEAKER_00: I need repentance.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in that way, I will be acknowledging before people that Jesus is truly my Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: That he gets to call the shots in my life.
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  SPEAKER_00: That I really do trust him and love him.
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  SPEAKER_00: You remember that Jesus said,
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  SPEAKER_00: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
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  SPEAKER_00: him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven?
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  SPEAKER_00: I believe,
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  SPEAKER_00: and maybe you,
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  SPEAKER_00: dear listener,
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  SPEAKER_00: also believe,
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  SPEAKER_00: that that confession is something we do with our lips,
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  SPEAKER_00: but also something we do with our actions.
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  SPEAKER_00: People can tell,
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  SPEAKER_00: and especially my family can tell,
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  SPEAKER_00: and my fellow Christians can tell,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether Jesus is really my Lord, not just by what I say, but by what I do.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact,
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  SPEAKER_00: in the early church,
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  SPEAKER_00: the designation Confessor was reserved for those Christians who refused
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: to deny Christ even during torture.
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  SPEAKER_00: If they were tortured and they still maintain their faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: they were given the designation confessor by the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: They are the ones through their actions that had ultimately confessed Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to make that confession with my life.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to grow spiritually.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to be someone who loves God with my entire being.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want all that I am dedicated to God.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want Jesus to live through me.
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  SPEAKER_00: The life which I now live in the flesh,
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  SPEAKER_00: I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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  SPEAKER_00: To help me in this, I'm going to follow these steps.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let me go over them again.
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  SPEAKER_00: In my mind,
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  SPEAKER_00: everything starts with my baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: reflecting on my baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: that it marked the death of my dedication to the flesh and was the moment
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  SPEAKER_00: when God gave me new life,
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  SPEAKER_00: a life marked by enslavement to righteousness, which means being led by the Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because of this commitment through baptism,
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  SPEAKER_00: I returned to Scripture, seeking to hear the voice of God in the text.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to read it again and again, seeking to see more of what God wants me to see.
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to merely read it to check off some daily ritual,
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  SPEAKER_00: but to truly hear what God is revealing to me.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I need to believe,
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  SPEAKER_00: have faith in the God who gave me this scripture and is calling me to a life
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  SPEAKER_00: in harmony with him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rather than glossing over or ignoring Scripture, I need to believe it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I need to be willing to repent when I see something new.
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  SPEAKER_00: Repentance is a change of life, turning around, living in a new way.
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  SPEAKER_00: When I see something in Scripture that doesn't align with my life, I need to repent.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then I need to confess Jesus before people through my actions.
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  SPEAKER_00: These are the steps I'm proposing for spiritual growth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let me say them again in a different order that you might find easier to remember.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hear, believe, repent, confess, reflect on your baptism.
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  SPEAKER_00: Once you follow these steps to become a Christian by accepting God's offer of grace,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's time to do them again and again until you finally reach the goal of
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  SPEAKER_00: the upward call of God, having become fully conformed to the image of His Son.