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Witchcraft and Spiritual Warfare · Relish: a Christian podcast

• 0:02
  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 well ron how's your great week it's been well don how about yours
• 0:20
  yeah good i'm glad spring is coming yeah it has been warming up lately seems
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  like it's late but yeah i guess It's just been all winter. I guess we've missed spring all winter.
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  Yeah. That makes sense. That's a good way to put it. Yeah.
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  So glad for it. Hope all of you are glad for it. And this recording finds you well. Yeah.
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  Well, we have a bunch of questions left over from when we filmed at Hillcrest Academy.
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  So we'll be working through those, the questions submitted by the students there.
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  That usually takes a while. It does. And they're good questions.
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  Got a page front and back here. Oh, okay. Just one page front and back and small
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  letters. Yep. Small letters. Oh, yeah.
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  Yeah. Well, I can't read them. My bifocals don't focus in quite that good.
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  Okay. I am ready, Rowan, I think. Okay.
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  This first one's more personal. Why did you become a pastor?
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  Oh, man. Yes. Good question. Well, I...
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  I fought it as long as I could.
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  So when I was back in high school, often I would be dubbed to do the message on Youth Sunday.
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  Oh, yeah. Youth Sunday. I don't, we wouldn't, maybe we ought to start doing
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  that Youth Sunday and having our youth preach the message.
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  But during that time, got a lot of affirmation from the church that maybe I
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  should think about being a pastor.
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  Well, my track was I was going to be an architect. And then after that,
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  when I found out that was too many years of school, I decided,
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  well, I'll teach speech and drama because I'm good at that.
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  And so I had my life path paved out, you know, sort of like juniors and seniors
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  in high school think they do. Okay.
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  And so I went into college and three years of college training,
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  I all of a sudden really felt inside myself a calling.
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  And I decided to ask Edmund G. Miller.
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  Edmund J. Miller, E.J. Miller, my pastor.
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  Okay, how do you figure this out? How do you figure out you want to be a preacher or not?
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  And he said, well, for him, it was asking God to open or close doors so that
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  he would know what God's will is.
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  And so I went back that evening to my mod at Bethel College and prayed that prayer.
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  And I think I've shared this some other times. It was after that prayer that
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  God changed my language, changed my approach to life.
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  And on Christmas Eve that year, which was just maybe three weeks later, it was as if E.J.
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  Miller was speaking directly to me, even though he wasn't that night.
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  I went back and checked the recording.
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  And no, he wasn't speaking directly to me. But it was a message that through
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  who, through God used E.J.
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  Miller to speak to me, even though he wasn't.
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  And the irony is, when I did make the decision that I was going to at least
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  go to seminary, I decided I was going to tell him the next day.
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  And he died that very next day. Wow.
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  And sort of sent me into his tailspin. But what it did was allowed someone to
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  be in my life, Palmer Becker, might as well say who it is because he's well
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  known in the midnight circles, was going to church there at the same time.
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  And he could mentor me in my worship leading and scripture reading and preaching.
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  And so even before I went to seminary and committed to seminary,
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  I was given opportunities in the local congregation to exercise those gifts.
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  And there's been several times in my life where, in fact, Charlene's grandfather
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  told me one time, he says, why don't you just give up this preaching business?
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  Because it's way too much trouble.
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  And even in those times, somehow God has kept calling me back.
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  Well, and even here, in this situation, at my age, I was planning on dialing
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  down, and here I am in full-time ministry again.
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  It was more than full-time. Even more than full-time because it's outside of
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  the congregation I'm currently serving as well.
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  And I think when God puts it that hard on your heart, it'd be full disobedience not to follow.
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  Yeah. I mean, just outright disobedience. So how did I know?
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  God led me step by step every day of the way, every day, every way.
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  That prayer that I prayed that night in 1977 was.
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  Was the first step of many in following the Lord, being faithful?
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  Good question. Did I answer it? You did. Yeah.
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  Sometimes we get on these rabbit trails, we've got to make sure that we actually
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  did answer the question that was being asked. Yeah, that was a good question.
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  What are your thoughts on witchcraft and things like that? Do you think they're
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  real and why are they real? They are very real.
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  There is a evil at work. We can call it the devil, demonic.
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  It is at work in the world today. I think there's a lot of push to downplay it, but I have found,
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  especially in my involvement with healing prayer and things like that,
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  the subtlety of witchcraft and demonic manifestations can't be missed. Yeah, they're there.
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  I'll flip that and say, and when we are able to get rid of it,
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  it surprises the individual.
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  How real it really was yeah and how it was how much of their lives it was affecting yeah,
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  so yes it's very real if you are having any trouble with demonic witchcraft
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  any of those things that are anti-god i'd put that in the anti-god movement
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  because that that's satan yeah.
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  Get a hold of a pastor, get a hold of someone who does healing prayer or real
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  prayer and have them help you out of that.
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  Because it is amazing the changes that come when you actually bind and cast out those dark spirits.
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  And I think we think, I think so often it's misunderstood in Christian circles
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  that you have to have some degree in exorcism to make it happen.
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  And it really isn't that way because God has put into the individual believer
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  the authority to cast out any spirit.
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  The problem is we have so much fear and doubt that we can't often act on those.
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  So get somebody who's done it before. They'll take care of it.
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  I've even been in situations where we could take care of it without even having
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  the individual in the room that we were praying about.
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  So yeah, it's real. It's stuff to be taken care of. And there is no reason a
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  Christian has to live under that.
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  Yeah. Do you think it's as, I don't know if strong is the right word,
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  but we'll just use strong or powerful.
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  Do you think it's as powerful as like New Testament times when Jesus would encounter demons? Oh, yeah.
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  I think it's as least as powerful as at that time. The difference is they recognized it.
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  And so when Jesus would walk up, not only, okay, I'm thinking as at the Gadarene demoniac.
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  So Jesus basically just barely gets off the boat and the demon recognizes Jesus
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  and sort of recoils and says, oh, what are you doing here, Jesus?
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  And so we don't have that going on.
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  Although I do remember walking to a lady's room and beginning prayer with her,
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  and supposedly she couldn't talk.
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  And all of a sudden she did, and it wasn't her talking. It was a man's voice, a deep man's voice.
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  So it's possible that we, because we're following Jesus, can put evil spirits
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  in shock, I guess, that we're all of a sudden there and praying.
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  And so they will manifest.
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  We have authority. We should not doubt or fear.
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  Just take care of business. Neil Anderson's book, I like it,
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  Steps to Freedom, is a really good introduction.
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  Very simple for people to do. And speaking those prayers, I have found powerful
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  things happening when I've led people through those prayers.
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  So don't fear it, Christians.
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  Yeah. Yeah, Satan's out there just as much as in the New Testament.
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  I think the more dangerous thing that's going on here is we don't,
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  I guess we doubt it enough.
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  Yeah, kind of like- To not understand that it's being manifest in our place. Yeah.
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  And so then it actually gets power that it doesn't need because of our,
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  is it, and that's not really our lack of faith in Jesus.
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  It's our lack of faith that it really impacts
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  us now that there's really a
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  spiritual dimension to our lives now that's that dynamic but it is it is yeah
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  yeah i could go in some examples but just don't doubt there's more spiritual
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  stuff going on right now than we are giving credit to,
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  or that we're dealing with.
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  Yeah. Or that the church is ready to deal with. Yeah.
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  When, well, we've talked about this before, so maybe you don't need to go too
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  in depth, but when will the events of Revelation happen?
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  When the last signs are revealed and we're getting closer.
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  If you've studied the book of Revelation, I often see Revelation maybe telling
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  the story of the end times seven different directions.
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  And so I think we're closer than we'd like to admit.
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  The trouble is we, well, Jesus himself admitted we aren't going to know the
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  day nor the hour because he didn't know the day nor the hour.
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  And I guess if Jesus didn't have it, maybe we aren't supposed to expect we do.
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  But things will start happening and we'll start noticing. My thing to the Christian
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  today is at least no scripture well enough that you could see these innuendos
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  as prophecy begins to be fulfilled.
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  Jesus said himself, no one knows the day nor the hour, not even the angels of
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  heaven nor the sun, but only the father.
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  And that is Matthew chapter 24, 36.
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  And it'll be subtle. It won't be announced except by a trumpet.
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  Boy, guys, you hear the trumpet call, you know it's happening.
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  And that is in verse 31 of 24.
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  Interestingly enough, that's the same words used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.
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  So I don't think we should doubt the trumpet.
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  We're going to hear the trumpet, guys. It's going to signal those days. Just be ready.
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  And I would nudge, maybe after my sermon this morning, I would nudge us to think
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  about the fact that when that day comes, it's too late to do evangelism.
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  It's too late to talk about Jesus with your friends and neighbors and loved ones.
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  Do it now. Do it now. Don't wait till then.
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  Because we could lose a whole generation very quickly because we're not sharing our faith.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Always be prepared. Exactly. Well said. Couldn't say it better myself. Yeah. Good.
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  What does being made in the image of God really mean? Is it the fact that we have a soul?
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  That, yes. It's the fact that we have a soul and it does not dissipate with our body.
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  The soul is eternal. It's the eternal part of who we are.
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  I think we all believe we have personalities that we'll live on,
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  but it's the fact that we will have a soul that lives on.
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  And I just have this nudge. I'm not sure we're taking care of our soul as well
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  as we're taking care of our body.
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  And that part will live on forever. It's an important part of who we are.
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  That reflects God probably as much as anything does.
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  I mean, we're capable of design and creation and free thought.
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  That's God too. I mean, he definitely created and designed all of nature uniquely.
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  He has that freedom, that ability.
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  And we have the ability to create not quite as big as he does.
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  That reflects God. Yeah, that reflects God.
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  The fact that we care for one another, that reflects God.
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  Our compassion, our empathy, that reflects God. But I mean, for God so loved,
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  agape, the world that he gave his only son, that shows God's heart.
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  So we reflect that part of God as well.
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  The soul, I agree, that is probably the basis of all those.
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  But there's things that we can trace out otherwise that would reflect God as well.
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  So, being created in the image of God is basically saying there's a shadow,
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  if you will, of who God is in us and how we interact and how we think about
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  others and how we embrace life.
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  Yeah. Life as a gift that he gave.
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  Now, did I, did I get that question at all? I think you did.
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  If we didn't, if we didn't get your question answered, you have all the authority
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  to call us on and get a hold of Rowan and say, nah, Don missed that one altogether.
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  You better send that back.
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  He'll be happy to answer it again. Yeah, I'll be happy to answer it again.
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  That's for sure. And especially if there's some, some specific part you wanted to be addressed.
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  Yeah. Or if we took it the wrong way or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah.
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  Thank you for your time again, Don, answering all those questions.
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  You're welcome. Thank you for the questions. And thank you guys at Hillcrest.
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  It was really good to be with you again.
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  And hey, not only Hillcrest can send questions, anybody can send questions.
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  There's people, there's a link down at the bottom, just send them in.
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  And Alex will get it to Rowan and Rowan will get it to me. and we'll just have
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  a lot of fun looking at them. Yeah.
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  We appreciate your time. Enjoy your questions too. So yeah, we'll see you next time. Take care.
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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 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.