Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / May 20 - The Measure That Matters

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May 20 - The Measure That Matters · Bible Chat Devotional

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  Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
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  rooted in Scripture and relevant for today, May 20th.
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  True value over false glory. Scroll through any social media
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  feed for 5 minutes and you'll start to feel it.
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  That quiet comparison that creeps in someone else's
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  highlight reel, making your ordinary life feel not quite
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  enough. Someone getting recognition for
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  something you worked just as hard for.
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  The temptation to cut corners, to play a role, to do whatever
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  it takes to get ahead or fit in. Because the pressure to measure
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  up is constant and loud. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 8
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  offers a perspective that runs completely counter to that
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  pressure. Better is a little with
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  righteousness than great revenues with injustice.
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  In other words, a small life lived with integrity is worth
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  more than a big life built on dishonesty.
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  That might not sound exciting, but sit with it for a second.
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  God is saying that the quality of how you live matters
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  infinitely more than the quantity of what you accumulate.
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  The likes, the status, the achievements, none of it means
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  much of the way you got there compromised who you are.
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  Second Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 and 4 remind us that
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  the battles we face aren't primarily external.
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  They're spiritual. For though we walk in the flesh,
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  we are not waging war according to the flesh.
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  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have
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  divine power to destroy strongholds.
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  The real fight isn't about who's more popular or who has more.
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  It's about what's happening inside you.
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  The fear, the comparison, the pride, the need for approval.
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  Those are strongholds, and they don't crumble through willpower
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  alone. They crumble through the power
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  of God access through prayer, truth, and genuine faith.
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  And then Paul says something in Second Corinthians Chapter 11,
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  verse 30 that flips the whole idea of success on its head.
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  I will boast in what pertains to my weakness, not his
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  accomplishments, not his influence, his weakness.
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  Because that's where God's power showed up most clearly in his
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  life. He wasn't performing for an
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  audience or building a personal brand.
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  He was living as a channel for something much greater than
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  himself, and the proof of that was most visible in his
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  limitations, not his strengths. That's deeply freeing if you let
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  it be. You don't have to have the most,
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  be the best, or look the most impressive.
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  You just have to be willing to let God work through who you
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  actually are, including the parts you'd rather hide.
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  Your real story, your real struggles, your real character.
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  These are not obstacles to being used by God.
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  They're often the very things he works through most powerfully.
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  True success, the kind that actually satisfies, the kind
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  that lasts, the kind that God honors, isn't measured by what
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  the world applauds. It's measured by faithfulness,
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  by integrity in the small moments, by choosing what's
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  right when it costs you something.
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  That's the life God calls us to, and it's a life worth living.
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  Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
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  reminding me that my worth and my success are found in You, not
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  in what I own, how I look, or what people think of me.
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  Help me to resist the pull of comparison and the temptation to
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  cut corners just to get ahead. Teach me to live with integrity,
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  to embrace my weaknesses as places where your power can
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  shine, and to trust You in the battles that feel bigger than
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  me. Let my life reflect your
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  righteousness, not for applause, but because you are worth it.
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  In Jesus name, Amen. What if the battles hitting your
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  family are not random and your home can become a place where
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  darkness loses every right to stay?
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  The Secured Home is a powerful six book prayer series for
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  believers who want to guard their households with biblical
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  authority, peace and confidence in Jesus Christ.
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  Book 1, Guarded Thresholds, fortifies every doorway, room,
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  and entry point with prayerful protection.
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  Book 2, Cleansed Rooms, helps reclaim spaces marked by fear,
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  unrest, and spiritual defilement.
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  Book 3, Closed Breaches, exposes hidden access points and severs
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  every agreement with darkness. Book 4, Broken Assignments,
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  confronts oppression, torment, and attacks against your family.
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  Book 5, Consecrated Walls, dedicates every space and rhythm
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  of the home to God. Book 6, Abiding Peace, shows how
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  to maintain spiritual order, rest, and holy presence every
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  day. Order now on Amazon or visit
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  prayerscripts.org. Now I invite you to spend time
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  with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
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  Proverbs chapter 16, verse 8 World English Bible Better is a
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  little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.
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  Second Corinthians chapters 10 to 11 World English Bible Now I,
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  Paul myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of
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  Christ, I, who in your presence am lowly among you, but being
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  absent and bold toward you. Yes, I beg you, that I may not,
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  when present, show courage with the confidence with which I
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  intend to be bold against some who consider us to be walking
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  according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh,
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  we don't wage war according to the flesh.
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  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty
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  before God. To the throwing down of
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  strongholds, throwing down imaginations, and every high
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  thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and
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  bringing every thought into captivity.
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  To the obedience of Christ, and being in readiness to avenge all
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  disobedience. When your obedience is made
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  full, do you look at things only as they appear in front of your
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  face? If anyone trusts in himself that
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  he is Christ, S, let him consider this again with
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  himself, that even as he is Christ S so we also are
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  Christ's. For even if I boast somewhat
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  abundantly concerning our authority which the Lord gave
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  for building you up and not for casting you down, I will not be
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  ashamed that I may not seem as if I desire to terrify you by my
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  letters. For his letters, they say, are
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  weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his
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  speech is despised. Let such a person consider this,
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  that what we are in Word by letters when we are absent, such
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  are we also indeed when we are present.
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  For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of
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  those who commend themselves, but they themselves, measuring
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  themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with
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  themselves, are without understanding.
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  But we will not boast beyond proper limits, but within the
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  boundaries with which God appointed to us, which reach
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  even to you. For we don't stretch ourselves
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  too much, as though we didn't reach to you.
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  For we came even as far as to you with the good news of
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  Christ, not boasting beyond proper limits in other men's
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  laborers, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be
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  abundantly enlarged by you in our sphere of influence, so as
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  to preach the good news even to the parts beyond you.
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  Not to boast in what someone else has already done.
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  But he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.
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  For it isn't he who commends himself who is approved, but
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  whom the Lord commends. I wish that you would bear with
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  me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me, for
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  I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy.
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  For I married you to one husband, that I might present
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  you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as
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  the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might
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  be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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  For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn't
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  preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you
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  didn't receive, or a different good news which you didn't
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  accept, you put up with that well enough.
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  For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best
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  apostles. But though I am unskilled in
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  speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge.
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  No, in every way. We have been revealed to you in
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  all things. Or did I commit a sin in
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  humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached to
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  you God's good news free of charge?
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  I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I
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  might serve you. When I was present with you and
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  was in need, I wasn't a burden on anyone, for the brothers,
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  when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need.
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  In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I
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  will continue to do so as the truth of Christ is in me.
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  No one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of
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  Achea. Why?
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  Because I don't love you. God knows but what I do that I
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  will do, that I may cut off occasion from those who desire
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  an occasion that in which they boast they may be found, even as
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  we. For such men are false apostles,
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  deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ's apostles.
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  And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an Angel of
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  light. It is no great thing, therefore,
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  if His servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness,
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  whose end will be according to their works.
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  I say again, Let no one think me foolish, but if so, yet receive
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  me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
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  That which I speak. I don't speak according to the
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  Lord, but as in foolishness. In this confidence of boasting,
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  seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast for
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  you. Bear with the foolish, gladly
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  being wise for you. Bear with a man if he brings you
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  into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he
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  exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.
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  I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak.
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  Yet in whatever way anyone is bold, I speak in foolishness.
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  I am bold also. Are they Hebrews?
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  So am I. Are they Israelites?
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  So am I. Are they the offspring of
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  Abraham? So am I.
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  Are they servants of Christ? I speak as one beside himself.
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  I am more so in laborers, more abundantly in prisons more
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  abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths.
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  Often five times I received 40 stripes -1 from the Jews.
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  Three times I was beaten with rods.
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  Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered
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  shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in
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  the deep. I have been in travels often,
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  perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my
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  countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city,
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  perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false
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  brothers, in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger
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  and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
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  Besides those things that are outside, there is that which
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  presses on me daily. Anxiety for all the assemblies.
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  Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble?
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  And I don't burn with indignation.
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  If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my
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  weakness. The God and Father of the Lord
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  Jesus Christ, He who is blessed forevermore, knows that I don't
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  lie. In Damascus, the governor under
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  King Aretas guarded the Damascene city, desiring to
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  arrest me. I was let down in a basket
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  through a window by the wall and escaped his hands.
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  Thanks for. Joining us on Bible Chat, where
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  Scripture meets everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
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  you, share it with a friend and be sure to follow the podcast so
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  you won't miss the next conversation.
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  Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope and
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  walking. Daily with Jesus.