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427 | Throwback - Spiritual Labor · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Music.
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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
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  where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
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  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
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  Music.
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  She's a happy girl.
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  There is nothing you can do on your own to merit your salvation.
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  There is no way you can pay that sin debt, but the debt is paid in full if you only believe.
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  However, God said to be careful to maintain good works constantly.
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  He was bringing it to your attention that it needed to be a conscious effort.
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  Your life needs to show forth the miraculous grace and mercy of your risen Savior.
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  Join us in this program, Spiritual Labor, as Kim Miller of Woman at the Well
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  Ministries takes us through Titus 3.8, which says, This is a faithful saying,
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  and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed
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  in God might be careful to maintain good works.
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  These things are good and profitable unto men.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries. Let us pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious, dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this
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  and other opportunity to come before you.
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  Lord, we thank you for your love and your mercy and your grace,
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  and we thank you, Lord, for the way that you change us.
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  We're thankful, Lord, that knowing you makes us different from the world,
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  not because we're better than
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  the world, but because we have something better in us than the world has.
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  Lord, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds, that we would pay
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  close attention to this verse.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would give me the words to say that would motivate and
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  inspire all of us to be more conscious of the way we live our life and very
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  well aware that we represent you.
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  And by the way we act and the deeds that we have, Lord, that we can show others who you are.
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  And Lord, that that love that you bestow upon us and that grace and that mercy
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  that you distribute to us every day is something that we have an opportunity
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  to give to others so that others may come to know that there is a loving Savior available to them.
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  Lord, use us and teach us. In Jesus' name we pray. And all of God's people said, Amen.
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  This verse says, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly.
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  Saying this is a faithful this is true and it's not just true now it's been
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  true for a long time and it will always be true that's a faithful saying and
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  he wishes that we would show this in our lives constantly,
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  It's a question I have for you. Have you ever pondered if someone,
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  your neighbors, your family members, your loved ones,
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  were to write down what Jesus meant to you?
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  If someone would come up to them and interview them and say,
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  Hey, I know you've known Kim all of her life.
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  Just tell me what Jesus means to her.
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  And then the second question would
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  be who is jesus for
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  you see you may be the only
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  bible that some people ever read
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  you may be their understanding.
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  Of who god is and
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  my question to you and to myself is this those that
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  follow us is God so real to us that
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  it makes them wonder themselves even though they've never had any interest in
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  God but because of how important God is to us does it pique their interest to
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  try to find out a little more about him,
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  And then I wonder, those who were really in our inner circle,
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  those who really spend a lot of time with us, and perhaps they're people who
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  are not people of faith, or perhaps they're not people of strong faith,
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  but what would they say about who Jesus is?
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  For what I'm getting at is this. Jesus dwells in us. And God dwells in Jesus.
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  And he loves us the way that God loved him. And he tells us that we are to love
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  one another that same way.
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  God forgives us daily. Now we get saved once.
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  And the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us. But every day we come short of what
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  God would expect of us. But his amazing, marvelous grace covers those sins.
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  And there is therefore now no more condemnation to them that love the Lord and are in Christ Jesus.
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  But would our life and the way we deal with our neighbors, our co-workers,
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  our teammates, our family members.
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  Would it play out that that's how God is if they were trying to understand Jesus through our life?
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  What i'm saying is this do we
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  treat others with the same grace and
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  mercy and love that god treats us and
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  the answer for most of us if we're very honest is
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  no no way because we often
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  come to people with judgment and maybe we're hoping to help them but but we
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  don't come in love and mercy God comes to us with love and mercy and grace and
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  loves the sin out of us. Do you get that?
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  When sometimes we go just the opposite, we become judgmental.
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  And the Bible says that we should get the mold out of our own eye before we
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  try to get the mold out of someone else's.
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  And that's what I'm getting at here. are we living a life that testifies to
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  the love and grace and mercy of God?
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  And then I wonder, are we living a life that witnesses to others the greatness of God?
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  Do we give God the glory for the great things he does in our life every day?
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  Or do we somehow try to take credit for that ourselves?
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  Or are we just ungrateful and we don't recognize or acknowledge God's hand in
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  our life and the amazing things that he does for us, the blessings that he gives?
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  You see, these are all opportunities in your everyday life, in your common day conversations.
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  To give god the glory as you recognize the
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  blessings that god showers us with each and
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  every day i believe that when he
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  says in this verse that we're to be careful
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  to maintain good works and that we are to affirm constantly who god is i believe
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  that that's what he's telling us to do we should have on our lips praise to
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  the king of kings and the lord of lords and every setting may not merit or enable you to be able to say,
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  praise the Lord, I love Jesus.
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  But every setting would be able to say, the Lord did this for me,
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  or I was so grateful that he touched me.
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  Every setting has an opportunity for
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  you to extend kindness when the
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  world would extend reprimand or
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  retribution you see you can show
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  mercy and nobody no government
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  no school system no workplace
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  no setting can keep you from extending mercy and grace and love where everyone
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  else would think it was not merited but you as a child of god know that daily
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  your trespasses are forgiven.
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  And daily he extends mercy and grace to you and he reached down to where you
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  were that he could bring you to where he is and he loved you with an unconditional love.
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  And because of that, you stand part of his family, part of the family of God.
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  And nothing you've ever done, it's by grace not of works, lest any man should boast.
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  Nothing you could ever do because
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  it was the finished work of Calvary that bought you your salvation.
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  And he indwells in you and he puts in you the Holy Spirit to comfort you.
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  You're no good, nothing, dirty, filthy rags were your works.
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  And he comes and he washes them
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  white as snow. And then he puts the Holy Spirit in to give you comfort.
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  He doesn't give us what we deserve, but he gives us grace and blessings.
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  And this verse says it's a faithful saying we should be careful to maintain good works.
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  Not because we're afraid of losing our salvation. That isn't going to happen.
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  When we receive the only begotten Son of God to live in our lives, we want to work for him.
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  We can't work our way into salvation. But once you realize all that God has
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  done for you, you are dedicated and you love him and you want to avail yourselves
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  that you might thank him for what he's done for you.
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  Jesus loves me. This I know. I don't get it. I don't understand why. But I know it.
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  And it's not hard for me to understand that I want to serve him.
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  I want to be part of what he's doing.
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  Of all the blessings he's given me, I'd love to be able to be a blessing to someone else.
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  And so I try to be his hands extended.
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  I try to be his feet. I try to go when someone needs me. I try to help when I can.
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  I try to be looking for opportunities to show the grace and the mercy and the
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  love of God because I'm so grateful for the love he's given me.
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  I want the world to know that I am nothing, but in him I have everything.
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  I want the world to know that I myself can do nothing, but in him I can do all things.
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  I want the world to know that if they're hopeless, there is hope in Jesus,
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  and all things are possible to him that believes.
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  I want the world to know.
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  That there is hope and restoration where the world would say there's nothing. And it's found in Jesus.
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  I want the world to know that they are unworthy on their own.
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  But Christ died for them because they're created in his image and he loves them.
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  And because he loves them, they are worthy.
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  And because he will dwell in them, they are worthy to stand in front of a most
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  high God. God and they are perfect because his blood washes away their sins.
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  I want them to understand that spiritual labor is not labor that is treacherous or dreadful,
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  but it is something we can be eager to do because the only thing we can give
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  back to the Lord is our availability.
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  Everything else we have, he's given us and that's the free will we have to choose
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  to serve him because we love him.
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  I love the Lord today and doing so, I want to serve him.
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  It is my prayer that you are dedicated to serve the Lord.
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  Music.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
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  You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
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  store or through our website at watwm.org.
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  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm.
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  If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
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  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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  Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
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  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
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  To learn how to partner with Women at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you, you.
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  Music.