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Someone were to say, now I have been a believer for many, many years.

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But right now I feel that God has forgotten me.

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God’s hiding his face from me.

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I’ve no sense of his love.

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I’ve no sense of his presence.

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How would you help them?

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Welcome to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith.

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I am David Pick.

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I’m glad you could be with us today.

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And Colin, that’s a question for many of us.

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How should we reach out to help someone who is going through an agony of soul?

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It’s important to remember the Bible is not only given for our immediate personal needs.

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It’s given to us as Christian believers, so that we may be equipped to be really useful

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in the purpose of God.

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You may not be in an agony of soul right now, but you may very well today, or very soon

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be brought in God’s kindness alongside a person who is.

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Now how are you going to help them?

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Well, the scripture is given to us to help us shape the words that are going to be most

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helpful to a person who is in the deepest distress.

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And that’s what we’re finding in Psalm 13 that we’re looking at today.

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And if you are in an agony of soul right now, I’m so glad that you’re listening to the program

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today.

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Because this psalm is God’s Word for you.

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And I hope that he will use it by the power of his Spirit, to bring you comfort, and to

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bring you strength, and to bring you hope today.

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So as Colin has just said, we’re looking at Psalm 13 today.

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So I hope you’ll be able to follow it in your Bible with us, as we continue the message

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How to Pray When You’re In Agony of Soul.

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Here’s Colin.

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How should you pray when, for whatever reason, you find yourself in an agony of soul?

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1.

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Lay out what you feel.

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That’s in the first two verses.

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How long, O Lord, will you forget me for ever?

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How long will you hide your face from me?

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How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

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How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

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The most striking thing, surely, about these verses is that David is speaking here with

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complete candor, absolute frankness.

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This is no holds barred saying it like it is in the presence of God.

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And David is feeling that he has reached the limit of what he can endure in these struggles.

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How can I carry on like this, he says to God.

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And he lays it all out in the presence of God.

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His struggle comes in three parts.

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He is in struggle with his enemy, whatever he is up against.

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How long shall my enemy be exalted over me.

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Notice that phrase over me.

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In other words, he’s feeling that whatever it was that David was facing, it’s got the

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upper hand over him.

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He’s not on top of it.

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It’s on top of him.

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It’s over me.

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He feels pressed down by it.

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He’s not prevailing over it.

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If you had said to David, we’ve got a seminar on Saturday called how to live a victorious

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Christian life.

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David would have said that’s not for me because I’m not living in victory.

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I’m feeling that I’m under this thing.

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That’s the reality of my experience.

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I feel defeated.

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I barely know how to keep going, let alone be victorious.

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Second he’s struggling with himself.

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Verse two.

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How long must I take council in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day?

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Taking counsel in my soul.

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In other words, he’s going round and round in circles in his own internal thoughts.

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You know what that’s like when you’re distressed.

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What am I going to do?

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Why didn’t I do this?

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Why didn’t I do the other?

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How am I going to survive?

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How can I carry on?

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And these relentless questions going on in the soul and in this situation, none of them

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making any progress whatsoever.

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There’s never any answer.

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He feels God is so far off.

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He never breaks out of this cycle of feeling completely defeated by the whole circumstance

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in which he finds himself.

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And then, of course, the heart of it which is why it’s at the beginning is his struggle

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with God.

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Oh, Lord, will you forget me forever?

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Hide your face from me?

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And here’s the heart of the problem that he’s struggling with.

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And you know what this is like if you’ve been through this kind of experience.

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Why does God seem so far away when I need him the most?

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And that’s what he’s saying here.

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Now you may be asking the question how common is this?

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This is a sort of really strange experience that David is going through.

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Listen to this comment again from James Boyce, that I found helpful.

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He says, speaking out of years of pastoral experience, I am convinced that a feeling

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of abandonment is far more common than it appears to be.

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Many people feel abandoned, first by others, but ultimately also by God.

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And he’s talking about Christian believers here.

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He goes on to say that although this is, in his experience, a common problem, he is surprised

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by the degree to which it is ignored.

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Why do you suppose this is, he asks.

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Answer, I think it is because we have been taught that Christians are not supposed to

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experience such things.

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And that we are only to have life more abundantly.

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Or to live victoriously.

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Well, thank God, David does speak about it.

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And so, how are you to pray when you are in an agony of soul?

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Here’s the first thing.

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Lay out what you feel, no holds barred in the presence of God, have no inhibitions about

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it.

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There’s nothing that is hidden from him and it is so important for you to follow the example

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and the model of David here, that’s the first thing.

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Here’s the second.

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Lift up what you need.

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Lift up what you need.

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Verses 3 and 4, consider and answer me, oh Lord, my God, and here’s the heart of his

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in the prayer, light up my eyes lest I sleep in death and so on.

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Now let me try and make this very practical for all of us here today.

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How would you try and help a person in your life group who this week, shared with you

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and the others that they felt utterly abandoned by God.

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What would you say?

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And this may very well happen in some group.

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If someone were to say, now I have been a believer for many, many years.

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Right now I feel that God has forgotten me.

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I feel he’s not looking in my direction, he’s hiding his face for me.

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What if someone was to say in your life group this week, I have been praying and praying

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and praying and I never get an answer.

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Someone just say that to me this week.

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And of course that’s something that is often a burden for a Christian believer.

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God’s hiding his face from me, I’ve no sense of his love, I’ve no sense of his presence.

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How would you help them?

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Well, let me make these three suggestions to you.

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First, it is very important to recognize the experience and that’s one of the ways in

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which Psalm 13 helps us.

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If a mature believer like David, who was a man after God’s own heart, can feel abandoned

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by God, then no one should be surprised when it happens to others among us.

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Don’t assume the worst about a believer who feels that God has abandoned them.

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You may find that someone within your life group, someone who is a Christian friend says

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some very strong things that are in the depth of grief.

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You may say, well how could they possibly have said that?

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And if you are rooted in the Bible you will have some understanding.

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You’ll say, well even David was there.

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So recognize the experience.

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Second, discern the question.

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Now here is something worth remembering.

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It is a great mistake to assume that everyone who suffers is asking the question why.

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Many people ask the question why when they suffer, but other ask the question how long,

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which is a very different question.

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These are totally different questions.

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One is a question of meaning, the other is a question of endurance.

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It’s very important if you want to help a person who is suffering, to discern which

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of these questions they are actually asking.

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Because the answers are quite different.

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The approach, the response is quite different.

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You know, there are many, many psalms that ask the question why, many psalms.

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My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

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There’s the why question, Psalm 22.

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But look for the word y in this psalm.

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It’s not there.

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What question is in this psalm?

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How long?

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Four times?

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You didn’t hear that, you weren’t listening.

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If it’s a person who is speaking to you you say how long, how long, how long, how long?

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This is not a question of making sense of suffering.

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This is a question of finding the strength to endure it.

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What this cry for is not for wisdom to which you’re going to give some answer but for strength.

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And that is why it’s so important that when the question is, how am I going to find strength,

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what’s the next thing that happens in verse 3 and 4 that you find David coming and he’s

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asking for help.

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So if you were to come to David when he’s not asking the why question, he’s asking the

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how long question and if you were simply to say to David, you know what, I know it’s years

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after you lived but one day Romans 8, 28 will be written and it says God works in all things

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for good for those who love him and so forth, David would not particularly be helped by that.

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He’s not asking, is God good?

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He’s asking, how do I get through tomorrow?

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And that’s the whole point of the prayer, so he asks for help.

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Recognize the problem, discern the question.

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This is about how to help her friends in dark places and then ask for help.

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The best thing you can do for a believer who feels overwhelmed with their sorrow and abandoned

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by God is to come alongside and to pray for them and to pray if they will allow you with

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them.

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Especially when they feel that they are not able to pray for themselves.

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And notice how David prays here or what David prays for here.

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Consider and answer me oh Lord my God, light up my eyes.

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Now that is a prayer for strength.

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Here is David and he is in an agony of soul and he is not looking for an answer.

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He is looking for strength he is looking for the help and for the sense of the presence

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of God that is going to enable him simply to keep going.

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And the best way that you can help someone who is in that situation who God may bring

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across your path this week is you come alongside.

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And you come alongside in genuine sympathy and that you help them to draw near to God

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in prayer when they feel that God is so very far off.

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So this is very practical in terms of how we pastor our own souls and how we seek to

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walk with and help with others who are suffering.

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Lay out what you feel Lift up what you need

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You’re listening to Open the Bible, with Pastor Colin Smith, and

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we’ve got to pause the message there briefly.

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The message is called How to Pray when you are in Agony of Soul, and its based on PSALM

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13, it’s one of the listener’s favourites that we are featuring all this month in our

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broadcasts.

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Back to the message now.

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Here’s Colin.

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Lay out what you feel Lift up what you need

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Number three Lean into what you know

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Lean into what you know.

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Verse five, But I have trusted in your steadfast love.

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Do you notice how the turning point in the psalm is in the character of God.

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If you study through the psalms you’ll find that again and again and again.

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That the turning point is in the character of God.

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Your steadfast love.

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Now, this is the great bible Hebrew word hesed that many of you may be familiar with and

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it’s translated in different ways.

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Steadfast love is a wonderful way to translate it.

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It’s simply means love that lasts.

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It means love that you can count on.

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It means love that endures on and on and on through thick and thin through the best and

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through the worst.

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I have trusted says David in your steadfast love.

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Think of it.

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David’s opened up all that he feels, but now he’s gonna lean into what he knows.

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What do we know about the love of God?

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The love of God for you my friend and remind your soul of this often when you’re in the

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darkest times.

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The love of God for you never began.

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It had no beginning and it will never end.

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It will be to all eternity.

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You have loved me with an everlasting love.

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And David, in the moments of his greatest darkness where his feelings are not able even

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to comprehend a sense of the presence of God leans into this great revealed truth of who

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God is and what God has revealed about Himself.

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And think about how powerful this is.

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What’s the problem David is facing?

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He is facing a problem that shows no sign of going away.

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He is facing a trouble that has been for a long time, and so his question is, how long?

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And how is he gaining help?

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He is gaining help in this way, that he dares to believe that God’s love will go on longer

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than his suffering.

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That it will outlast the pain that he endures.

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David confronts the pain of long-lasting sorrow with the longer-lasting love of God.

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And friends, there are times, and this is most of the time in the Christian life, when

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you know the love of God by faith and by feeling.

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That’s wonderful.

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But there are times in the Christian life where you know the love of God by faith alone.

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And that’s where David is here.

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There’s a gritting of David’s teeth almost, as he says this, and it’s a marvelously courageous

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statement of faith.

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I’ve been absolutely candid here O God.

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I feel like you’ve forgotten me, that you’re not even looking in my direction, but I’m

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asking for your help, light my eyes.

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And here’s what I’m going to do.

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I’m going to lean into what I know, and in this long, long, long suffering, I am going

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to find my strength in your longer-lasting love.

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Then the last thing is simply this.

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Look to Jesus Christ.

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Lay out what you feel.

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Lift up what you need.

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Lean into what you know, and look to Jesus Christ.

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We call this series with Christ in the School of Prayer.

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Remembering that the mind of Christ was saturated with these Psalms, he would have learned them

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growing up, used them in worship, he quoted them repeatedly, he used them and he experienced

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them, and he is always with us.

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Christ is with us when we pray them.

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So, it’s good to ask, what did Jesus know about this Psalm?

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How would Psalm 13 have related to him?

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You just need to ask the question to see the answer.

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Did Jesus ever know what it is to be in an agony of soul?

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That’s a question worth asking when you’re there.

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And you know the answer.

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Hebrews chapter five and verse seven.

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During the days of his flesh,

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he offered up prayers with loud cries and tears.

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Not just in the Garden of Gethsemane,

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he knew what it was to be in an agony of soul

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and therefore he’s able to stand with you

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when you are there.

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Did Jesus know what it is, verse two,

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to say, I have sorrow in my heart all the day?

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Yes, that is why he was called the man of sorrows

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and familiar with suffering.

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That’s why in the Garden of Gethsemane he says,

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my soul is sorrowful to the point of death.

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How sorrowful is that?

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Did Jesus ever know what it was, verse one,

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for the Father to hide his face,

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the Father who he had loved from all eternity?

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Oh, yes.

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, he cries out

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as he bears the sin of the world in the darkness

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right there on the cross.

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Jesus knows what it is to be in an agony of soul

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and he is the savior for those who suffer

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because he is the suffering savior.

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He’s the savior for you.

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He’s the one who can walk with you here

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in a way that no one else ever can.

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I had to, I end with two quotes.

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John Stott captures this so well

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in a moving passage in his book, The Cross of Christ.

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Begins with a very striking statement.

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John Stott says, I could never believe in God

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if it were not for the cross.

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You think about that.

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I could never believe in God

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if it were not for the cross.

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He continues, in a world of pain,

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how could one worship a God who was immune to it.

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He says, I have entered many Buddhist temples

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and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha,

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his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed,

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the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth,

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a remote look on his face

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detached from the agonies of the world,

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but each time after a while, I have to turn away,

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and in my imagination I have turned instead

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to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on a cross,

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nails through his hands and feet,

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back lacerated, limbs wrenched,

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brow bleeding from the thorn pricks,

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mouth dry and intolerably thirsty,

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plunged into godforsaken darkness,

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that, he says, is God for me.

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And that is the God for you.

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That is the only God for a world like this.

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Edward Schileto experienced the horrors

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of trench warfare,

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First World War,

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and you know how many people who endured

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the horrors of war felt that they could

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no longer believe in God as a result?

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Chileto went the other way.

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The horrors of war convinced him absolutely

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that a suffering world needs a suffering Savior.

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And he wrote a poem called Jesus of the Scars

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that includes these memorable lines.

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The other gods, he says, were strong.

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The other gods of the world, of religion.

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The other gods were strong, but you were weak.

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They rode, but you did stumble to your throne.

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To our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,

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and not a God has wounds, but you alone.

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Alone.

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And the wounds of Christ are his credentials

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to a suffering world.

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Christ suffered, and he came through it.

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By God’s grace and in his strength, so will you.

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What a great thought that is, that Christ is the savior

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for those who are suffering,

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because he is the suffering savior.

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Pastor Colin there reminding us of that great truth

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from Psalm 13.

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If you’ve missed any of our messages recently,

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or if you want to catch up or go back and listen again,

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don’t forget you can always do that

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by coming online to our website, OpenTheBible.org.uk.

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And there you can listen to any messages

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00:23:10,979 –> 00:23:12,939

which have already gone out on air.

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You can also find us as a podcast,

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and that’ll be on your favorite podcast site,

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or by following the link from our website.

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Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners,

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and that’s people just like you,

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00:23:25,060 –> 00:23:27,979

who generously give to keep Pastor Colin’s messages

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00:23:27,979 –> 00:23:30,859

on this station, and also on the internet.

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And if supporting Open the Bible

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00:23:32,420 –> 00:23:34,219

is something you’ve been considering doing,

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00:23:34,219 –> 00:23:37,000

if you’re able to set up a new donation

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00:23:37,000 –> 00:23:38,900

in the amount of five pounds per month,

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00:23:38,900 –> 00:23:41,119

or more to the work of Open the Bible,

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we’d love to say thank you, by sending you a free gift.

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It’s Pastor Colin’s new book, Flying Through the Bible.

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Colin, what do you hope that readers of this book

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will take away from it?

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Well, the people will see that the whole Bible

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is one story and that it all points

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to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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You know, I think many folks know some stories

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from the Bible.

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You know, David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale,

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and so forth and so on.

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But I find that often people don’t realise

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that there really is an overall story line to the Bible.

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It begins in the garden,

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it ends in a city,

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all the way through it’s about the Lord Jesus Christ.

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So when a person gets an overview of the Bible,

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that’s the best way to be introduced

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to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

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This is going to show you who he is,

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why we need him,

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what he’s accomplished,

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what he offers,

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what he’s able to do in the life

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of any person who turns to him in repentance and faith.

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It’s cookies on the bottom shelf

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and it’s going to be an introduction

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to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Well if you’d like to begin supporting Open the Bible

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in the amount of £5 per month or more,

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00:24:48,280 –> 00:24:50,020

we’d love to thank you by sending you

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00:24:50,020 –> 00:24:52,380

a copy of Pastor Colin’s book.

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To give online or for further information

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00:24:55,239 –> 00:24:56,099

about this offer,

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00:24:56,099 –> 00:25:00,199

come to openthebible.org.uk.

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There you’ll also find plenty of information

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00:25:02,479 –> 00:25:04,599

about the work of Open the Bible.

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00:25:04,599 –> 00:25:05,819

For Open the Bible,

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and Pastor Colin Smith,

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I’m David Pick,

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and I hope you’ll be able to join us again very soon.

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What does it mean for ordinary people

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like you and me

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when the Bible says we can have peace at all times

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and in every way?

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Find out next time on Open the Bible.