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Students Ask the Hard Questions Christians Avoid · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Relish pleasing or zestful flavor a quantity
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  just sufficient to flavor to be pleased or
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  gratified by enjoy we are hoping that what
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  we bring to your table today might add some spice
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  to your life welcome back to
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  another episode of relish this is don patterson i'm
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  rowan miller and we are
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  here we're here that's pretty
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  much it that's what we will commit to today we are
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  here okay you'll love
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  this one you'll love this oh yeah what has been the most
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  draining thing in your life lately in fact there's
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  several factors in there but uh up
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  until this last week i guess it's probably
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  about a month ago but it's basketball um just
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  day in day out late night late nights
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  early mornings at times bus trips yeah film watching all that um that and just
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  like trying to balance family basketball friends just not a lot of free time
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  so um i think basketball is the biggest part of that but yeah,
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  It'll get subbed in by golf and soccer.
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  Golf and soccer. Same thing coming out. And that'll be draining. Well, yeah, yeah.
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  And I guess I think about draining things and realize that, you know,
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  it can be one thing one season and something else will drain another season.
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  But part of it, it builds our resilience. audience
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  in other words how would you
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  know how strong we are unless we had something we were
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  constantly working towards and and pushing putting effort
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  into and so i began to look at draining things
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  as oh that's pretty well normal yeah yeah
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  right that's definitely experienced that
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  like people will be like oh you have morning practice
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  that's horrible and i'm like i mean it's
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  not that bad like i'm gonna get off after school now what
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  else would i be doing you know yeah i just what it what
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  it becomes and what turns you into but yeah yeah and yeah what it makes of you
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  right after you've invested in it yeah it's good and you guys did a real good
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  job this season yeah basketball yeah wish you could have exceeded expectations you exceeded,
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  Right. That's good. That's good. Okay, I'm ready now. All right.
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  What does the Bible say about climate change? It's going to happen.
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  I somehow saw that coming. Yes, yes. And when you go through the Old Testament
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  specifically, there are times
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  that climate did change because we know that there was times of drought.
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  That's what drove Jacob to come to Egypt to find his son.
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  I mean, he wouldn't have found Joseph if there hadn't been the drought.
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  We also have it in Kings. You go to the last part of Kings, of 1 Kings,
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  and all of a sudden, Elijah's in this.
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  He basically says, okay, Ahab, there's going to be no rain until I say there's
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  going to be rain. And there wasn't any rain.
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  And even Elijah had to put up with that and deal with the fact that there wasn't
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  rain and there wasn't food.
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  And Ahab wasn't happy about that. And so then that brings them to Mount Carmel.
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  And notice, those are not consecutive events.
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  I mean, they happened hundreds of years apart, right?
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  Ruth, Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem and went to Moab because of drought.
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  And there was famine in the land. So every time in the Bible you talk about
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  famine in the land, there's been a change of climate.
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  And some of those are bigger than others. and some of those are smaller.
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  We do know that even as we look at the Old Testament today,
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  the area that is now desert maybe wasn't then desert because the Fertile Crescent
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  above the Holy Land would have been actually green at that time.
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  Euphrates area, that would not have been desert at that time.
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  It would have been lush. and so something's
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  changed even i mean and it's been that way for hundreds of
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  years yeah it's not something that happened because somebody drove a truck and
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  put out black smoke this is something that happened over hundreds of years and
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  you think then of the 30s and uh the the dirty 30s and my grandfather talked
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  about the times that the uh sandstorms would come up in western kansas,
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  and how it would blow so fine of dirt, it would come through every crack in the house.
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  Wow. And so there was just dirt everywhere. You just couldn't get away from dirt.
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  And wells would give out, and so there wasn't as much water as there should
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  be. So that's happened in the last 100 years. Yeah.
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  Okay, so then...
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  We, I, I would say we're almost due for that again.
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  That event of the thirties caused guys to put, uh, hedgerows in to stop the
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  erosion, to stop the wind from, uh, tearing up the ground like it did.
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  But I remember in my time that, uh, the wind would come up bad enough in Kansas
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  in spite of our hedges that we would have to go out and, and,
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  and make sure we harrowed it up at a little so that we'd save what topsoil we could. Yeah.
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  Um, that, I think those are subtle environmental changes,
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  climate changes that happen on a repetitive basis that we probably ought to figure will happen.
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  And I'm not sure we can identify what's being called climate change in a major
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  event, because I look at the world right now from growing up in the 60s,
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  and I remember when L.A. had smog.
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  Oh, yeah. I don't think L.A. has smog anymore.
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  Right. And I remember hearing about London and the acid rain,
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  and I remember visiting London in 1977, and you could see how those buildings were being cleaned up,
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  and it wasn't quite the problem.
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  And as I have done some looking lately, you don't see those buildings with that
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  black crud on it like they had back even in 77.
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  So almost a cleansing. Almost a cleansing. And so I'm beginning to think,
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  well, now, wait a minute.
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  If it seems like these things are turning around, are we really having climate change?
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  Yeah. And so I sort of put a feeler on that saying, boy, when I look at the
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  Bible, one major climate change event was the flood. Yeah.
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  That was major. I'll do it. That was major. And so that changed the flood, the climate, big time.
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  I think we even could look at the text in such a way and realize that somehow
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  between there, there probably was an ice event either regional ice event so.
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  It's in the Bible, it's,
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  It's sort of regular, like the famines came on a fairly regular basis.
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  And I think we would be naive to think that that's not going to happen in our
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  time, that kind of famine. Yeah.
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  So, yeah, it's a concern. And as I look at the Bible, well, we've been here
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  once before, or twice before, or three times before.
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  It's just nice to be able to grab a hold of the history and realize it's not forever.
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  Yeah.
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  Uh jesus was human but when he died he became a spirit does he look like a human now,
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  well that's interesting because uh i think he probably took on his his uh presence
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  that he had before and after i mean we have it in daniel and he's uh robed in
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  white and it has a gold gird around his waist, and his eyes are like fire,
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  and his, let's see,
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  his countenance is, oh, eyes like lightning, his countenance is like blithe.
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  Anyway, and we almost have the same thing in John's Revelation.
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  Almost exactly the same kind of presentation of who Jesus is.
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  So, I think he probably put on that kind of presence, if you will. And in the,
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  1 Corinthians 15, guess what?
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  We get to have that kind of, he's going to make us like his own glorious body.
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  I'm looking forward to that. I mean, so apart from the Gospels where he came
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  down in physical flesh, referenced in Philippians 2,
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  he is now in his majestic person.
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  Okay yeah majesty yeah yeah we worship his majesty yeah nice so it's it's very
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  special to think of the lord jesus the way he is now and the way he he's back in his glory yeah,
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  does humans come from monkeys oh heavens no,
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  i i figured i'd test you a little yeah question good
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  test good test yeah there's nothing in the bible that would say that humans
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  came from monkeys or even molecularly related
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  to monkeys other than the fact we all have blood and all lively all living creatures
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  have blood well said yeah i just yeah no no apes no yeah i have a cousin that
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  i'd wonder about but but no no and And I won't say which cousin either,
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  because they might be listening.
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  They'll know, they'll know.
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  How do we know which Old Testament laws still apply today and which don't?
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  Ah, that's a good one. And we had this in Bible study not long ago.
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  I tend to think that the more we live out our discipleship, the more we're going
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  to live into the importance. that those things that God originally gave his
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  disciples still hold traction.
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  And you look at the 10 commandments that he gave in Exodus chapter 20.
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  Those are pretty basic for being a believer in Jesus Christ.
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  The thing about having maybe two different kinds of threads in your clothes,
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  you know, a garment of two threads, two different kinds of material.
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  I'm beginning to think that there's probably some truth behind that.
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  I'm not ready to give up my nylon yet, but in my, what is it?
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  Polyester. I'm not willing to give up my polyester. They weren't so good all these years.
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  Uh, but, uh, at the same time,
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  if I'm thinking of the law as being a way that I could tell,
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  I could tell God by how I live the law that I really care about what he values.
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  Now, how can we be better at worship than telling the divine that what he's
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  actually said means something?
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  Yeah. To me, the more I treasure his law, value his words, is my way of saying, God, I believe you.
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  Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I believe what you say is true. And so,
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  boy, it might mean I give up bacon.
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  Or ice cream.
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  Oh, ouch, that hurt. But I value what God says.
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  And so the more I get into his word, more I understand what it means,
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  understand his heart towards me, then I will begin to value more what he said
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  and implemented as part of my life,
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  as the way I live with my friends and neighbors and countrymen and the way I live towards him.
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  Yeah. It's almost like when somebody gets you out on a shirt or sweatshirt or
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  something, not necessarily your favorite, but you know you're going to see them,
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  and so you put it on. Right. Yeah.
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  Precisely. So that they'll notice. Yeah. Because you value them and respect
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  them and thankful for them. Yeah.
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  And we have to realize that a lot of those laws were given to a barbaric people.
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  To civilize them, if you will, and create an atmosphere that they would grow
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  and strengthen as a culture.
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  And so, you know, they weren't going to eat things with blood in it because
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  there were people who, there were whole civilizations that disease was brought
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  into their midst by their eating blood.
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  Same way, you know, the ham was carrying those kind of things at that time because
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  they were bottom feeders.
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  And so God was protecting them through the law.
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  Well, if God loved them enough to protect them through the law so that they
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  could become a strong nation,
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  maybe that has some truth to breathe into our lives. Yeah. even though we do like ice cream,
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  i do too there's nothing in the bible about ice cream i don't think but i yeah.
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  Yes traverse city uh cherry mocha ice cream have you had that yet i ought to
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  get where i'll get you some that's just the sight of heaven,
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  all righty works for me i'm serious do you think in the in like israel's time
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  um clothes made of more than one fabric was less common than it is today it
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  was it was less common you either had wool you had uh linen grown flax that kind of thing.
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  Hides, like leather. And so it's really hard to put leather and linen together
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  and to really have it go very well.
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  That just doesn't, yeah, it doesn't happen. Yeah, I haven't seen that in the show. Oh, no.
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  And so it was less likely at that time than it is now that we have so many different
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  compounds that are used in our thread.
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  Yeah, silk would have been somewhat known, But it was very, very scarce.
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  Definitely only the fabric of a king.
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  Yeah. Well, speaking of your image of heaven, is heaven like the Garden of Eden,
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  or is it like the houses that we have now?
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  Well, it's closer to the Garden of Eden.
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  I look in the Revelation chapter 21-22 and realize that, okay,
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  so this city, this heavenly city comes down and it's all square and it's all got gold streets.
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  But it also says that there's a river running through it.
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  Yeah. And the tree of life, you know, the one they were kept from back in Genesis
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  chapter three, the tree of life is there.
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  Giving its fruit for the healing of the nations.
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  So it has to have some green space. Right. Yeah, it's not all going to be a city.
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  It has to have some green space because of that. And.
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  I just think that's so cool. Yeah, full circle moment. Mm-hmm, full circle moment.
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  You're in revelation i am in revelation and i'm looking at here we go river
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  of life 22 and then this angel showed me the river of life as clear as crystal
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  yeah makes colorado clean,
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  And on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit,
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  yielding its fruit every month.
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  And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.
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  There'll no longer be any curse.
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  The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city.
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  So it's that same city that's talked about in 21.
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  And his servants will serve him, and they will see his face,
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  and his name will be on their foreheads. Romans 4.
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  Revelation 4, 7. Yep.
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  There'll be no more night. Man.
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  No need for orthopedic beds anymore. No night. No day. Yeah.
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  Sometimes that's the best part of the day. Right. But I think it's going to be beautiful.
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  And the fact that it's not only going to be beautifully, but it's going to be functionally healing.
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  For the nations, for what's going on around it. We would hope for heaven on
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  earth, but somehow the way I live would be healing to you. The way you live will be healing to me.
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  The way we live together will be healing to the community in which we live.
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  And we would hope for that in the here and now. It will actually be a reality in heaven.
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  Yeah. Yeah. So that's really heaven yeah
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  yeah if it's not heaven it must be colonna right yeah
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  is this heaven is this heaven it's
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  colonna it's colonna yeah okay all righty
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  thank you don as always thank you all the students at hillcrest this was actually
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  all these questions were from middle schoolers high schoolers at hillcrest questions
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  guys did a good job yeah if you enjoyed it share it with somebody share with
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  a friend. Give us some feedback.
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  Submit your questions to me if you have any. And clarifications.
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  If you want clarifications or you have further questions, that's a question.
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  Be at questions, you know. Right. Questions can be at questions.
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  I suppose. Yeah.
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  All righty. Especially the way I answer them. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see you guys
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  next time. Lord willing.
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  Thank you for joining us for this podcast. Feel free to become part of this
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  ministry by sharing it with others.
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  Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who God is
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  and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Thank you again for joining us and may God bless your day.