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The sovereignty of God leaves me with a thousand unanswered questions, but I would rather live

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any day of my life—and especially the darkest day of my life—with the unanswered questions

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that arise from the sovereignty of God—the God of the Bible—than to plunge into an

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abyss of a small God—a small G who stands by as a helpless onlooker with the disasters

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of life somehow beyond his control.

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick.

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And Colin, there may be many who will identify with what they just heard because they’re

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struggling right now.

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Yeah, and my heart goes out to you if that’s where you are today.

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I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in.

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We’re in the Book of Micah where the prophet speaks directly to people who have faced an

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extraordinary disaster.

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And so today from the scripture we’re going to look at three things that you can do that

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will really help you when you find yourself facing the darkest days of your life.

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You’re in the middle of a disaster and you know what the first one is?

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The first one is to affirm that God is in control.

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If you lose sight of that you lose sight of the very basis of hope itself.

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That’s where it begins.

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But there are some other things to do and they come directly out of the scripture.

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And I’m so glad that we have this book of Micah that speaks so clearly and powerfully

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into the darkest days of our lives.

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So join us if you can in Micah chapter 1 as we continue the message,

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the God who brings disaster.

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Here’s Colin.

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Now I want to suggest to you three things that we should do when disaster comes.

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So we’re talking particularly this morning for our faith

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and how we respond as Christian believers with regards to our faith in such times as these.

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Three things.

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Number one, we must affirm that God is in control of disasters.

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We must affirm that God is in control of disasters.

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If God is not in control of all things, then we are adrift on the sea of chance.

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The Bible therefore brings us the good news that God is in control even of the disasters

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of our lives.

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Let me give you Scripture for that.

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First, Micah chapter 1 and verse 12, right where he is.

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Where he speaks of the disaster that comes from the Lord.

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It’s not coming through another hand apart from his.

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Psalm 107, you might like to look through verses 25 to 30, that speaks specifically

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of the God who stirs up the storm.

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Some people went down to see in ships, the psalmist writes, and they saw the works of

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the Lord, for he spoke and stirred up the tempest, and lifted high the waves.

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And then he pictures this boat mounting up to the heavens, and the panic as the sailors

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are reeling like drunken men, it says, at their, and they call out to God.

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And then God stills the storm.

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But you see the Bible attributes both the raising of the storm and the stilling of the

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storm to the same hand of God.

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You find the same, of course, in the book of Jonah, chapter one and verse four.

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It was the Lord who sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm that the ship

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threatened to break up.

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But perhaps the greatest testimony to the good and the bad, coming from the hand of

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comes from Job himself.

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The righteous man in the Old Testament who experienced such terrible loss in a terrorist

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attack and a natural disaster we saw last time on the same day.

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And in Job chapter 2 and verse 10, this is what Job says in response,

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Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?

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You say I’ve affirmed that good has come to me through the hand of God.

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Here’s trouble now.

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Shall I not accept that too and submit to it from the hand of God?

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Now we know from the book of Job that Satan’s hand was behind what Job suffered.

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The Bible will never allow us for one moment to think that Satan operates as some kind

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of free agent.

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Martin Luther said and I find this profoundly helpful, he said even the devil is God’s

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devil.

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His point was that Satan’s best effort to destroy God’s work always ends up contributing

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to its growth.

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That’s the ultimate frustration for the evil one.

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He can never ultimately accomplish his own ends.

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So now the mystery of Gods sovereignty leaves us with many, many questions but I would far

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rather live with these unanswered questions than with the alternative which would be that

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the storms of life are somehow outside of God’s control.

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Dr. Joe Stoll tells a story about how one day he was preaching at a conference on the

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theme of the sovereignty of God which is what we are talking about here, and afterwards

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a couple came up with tears in their eyes to thank him for his message and said to him

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that it had been a tremendous comfort, the words that he had spoken.

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They then told their story, they had lost their son early in his life through a tragic

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and sudden illness.

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They had gone to their pastor grief stricken and the pastor had shared and entered into

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their grief.

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They were looking for something to cling onto, some word of hope, and their pastor said to

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them this, I really don’t know what to tell you except to say that sometimes even God

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makes mistakes.

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My friends, that’s the abyss.

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The sovereignty of God leaves me with a thousand unanswered questions, but I would rather live

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any day of my life and especially the darkest day of my life with the unanswered questions

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that arise from the sovereignty of God, the God of the Bible, than to plunge into an abyss

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of a small god, small G, who stands by as a helpless onlooker with the disasters of

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life, somehow beyond his control.

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Nothing happens to you or to me except it passes through the hand of a sovereign God.

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My dear friend Ray Pritchard puts it like this, what you call circumstances, is really

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God working in your life.

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The circumstances in your life may be very far from what you would like them to be right

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right now, but they are under the control of God.

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And that’s the first thing you need to know in times of disaster.

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We must affirm that God is in control of disasters.

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It’s a bedrock of Christian faith.

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Second, we must reserve judgment on the cause of disasters.

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We must reserve judgment on the cause of disasters.

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You don’t know why great losses or pains come into your life.

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I don’t know why they come into mine.

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And we do not know why some of the mysterious things that happen in our world and in each

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other’s lives take place.

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We must reserve judgment on the cause of disasters.

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Now, this point came home to me again powerfully last week when I had the opportunity of sharing

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in a live television program about the Katrina disaster that was broadcast on Total Living

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Network television.

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The folks at TLN had put together some excellent material about the disaster, including some

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moving testimonies, giving stories of Christians involved in the relief effort, and some guests

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in fact who had lost their entire livelihoods and were able to testify to God’s grace in

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their lives. It was very, very moving.

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And then they opened up the phone lines for questions and for comments.

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Now, folks called in from all over the country. There were many calls, and some of them had

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helpful things to say. But the thing that struck me was that many of the callers were

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confident that they knew why God had sent the hurricane.

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One caller said that it was because of the particular sins of partying in New Orleans.

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A few minutes later, someone else said it was because of the widespread scale of abortion

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in America.

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And then the most creative, as far as I was concerned, one caller was quite sure and adamant

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that the reason the hurricane had come to New Orleans was because of NASA’s initiative

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in space.

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And she had noticed and charted that every time the Challenger goes up into space, there

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is some natural disaster someplace in the world.

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Now, it seems to me, because these are folks who profess faith in Christ.

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They’re Christian folks who are phoning up and making these comments, that this is where

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we desperately need to remember the difference between Micah and you and me.

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And here’s the difference.

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Micah was a prophet, you’re not, and neither am I.

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It’s different.

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What that means is that God spoke to Micah directly.

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God gave to Micah precise revelation about exactly what was going to happen in his own

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lifetime and beyond his own lifetime.

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This was a direct revelation in which God spoke actual words to the prophets.

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That is why we study the Bible, because it is revelation from God, it is different from

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all of our particular individualistic thoughts, it’s in a different category.

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We are not prophets.

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I cannot tell you why there was a terrorist attack on 9-11, or why there was a tsunami

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in Indonesia.

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I cannot tell you why Hurricane Katrina came as and when it did.

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Neither can you tell anyone else.

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Presumptuous to pretend that we might be able to do so.

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And at a more personal level, if you were to come and to ask, I cannot tell you why

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it would be that you’ve been diagnosed with cancer.

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Or someone around whom you have built your life has been taken from you.

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Or your job has come to an end.

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Or some great financial crisis has come into your life.

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There was one Scripture that I quoted on the program, and I think it is of such importance

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for every Christian when we think about these kinds of situations.

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It’s Deuteronomy chapter 29 in verse 29.

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Easy to remember, Deuteronomy 29, 29, and it’s one that’s well worth having buried in

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your mind and heart.

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The secret things belong to the Lord, our God.

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But the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever.

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You see what God is saying here?

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Remember my children, He’s saying that there are two categories of knowledge.

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There are the secret things and you don’t know them.

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There are the revealed things and you do.

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The problem is, when we start pretending that we know the secret things, we lose all credibility.

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And when Christians begin to suggest reasons for the secret things, like why a person has

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cancer or why a person suffered loss or why a hurricane came to a certain part of the

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country, when Christians start speaking as if they knew the secret things, you know what

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happens?

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We lose all credibility in the eyes of the world when we actually speak about the revealed

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things.

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Because the world listens to us and says, well obviously you’re just guessing about

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these things, so when you speak about the gospel, presumably you’re just guessing in

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a naïve old way as well.

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So this principle of reserving judgment over the cause of disasters is very important.

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We must have great humility before the secret things and great confidence in the revealed

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things.

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Get them the other way around, and that will be a disaster.

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You’re listening to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message called The God

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who Brings Disaster

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We’ll get right back to the message shortly.

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The messages part of our series Close Encounters with the Living God

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If you ever miss one of the series, you can always catch up or go back and listen again

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online Come to our website openthebible.org.uk

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There you can hear any of the messages that have gone out on air

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You can also find our messages as a podcast if that’s a better way for you to keep up

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with Pastor Colin’s teaching Those are available on all major podcasting

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Search for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates

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There’s also a link to the podcast on our website

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Back to the message now We’re in Micah, Chapter 1

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Here’s Colin

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We must affirm that God is in control of disasters

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Second, we must reserve judgement on the cause of disasters

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Here’s the last thing

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We must draw near to God in the light of disasters

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Notice how Micah responds to the unfolding of this great disaster

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The last verse of the chapter

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Obviously, the shaving of the head in that culture was

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an expression of mourning before the Lord

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Micah is saying when I see what is going to happen to the land that I love

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And what is going to befall the next generation

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I mourn for myself and I mourn for my children

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Now, disaster will always have one of two effects in your life

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Always

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Either it will lead you to shake your fist at God

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Or, it will lead you to shave your head before God

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These are two wonderful pictures of reaction to every disaster

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Either it will bring you to shake your fist before God

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Or to shave your head before God

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See, Job’s wife, remember, she shook her fist

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She said to Job in the light of all this trouble that has come upon us

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Why don’t we just curse God and die?

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That is shaking your fist

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But Job did the other thing, he shaved his head

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He said, shall we accept good from the hand of the Lord and not trouble?

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See, the disasters of life will reveal who you really are

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Time and again we see this in the body of Christ

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A Christian comes to face a real disaster

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And it proves to be their finest hour

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And you will hear them saying, I can’t explain this

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I have so many unanswered questions

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The pain is so deep within me

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And yet I have discovered God in a whole new way

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Disasters in your life will always lead you

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Either to shake your fist or to shave your head

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It will reveal who you really are

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But you don’t need to wait for a disaster in your own life

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to draw near to God

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Look – and this is the last thing with me for just one moment at verse 2

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Cos it’s easy to skip over this and to miss its importance

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Micah says, Hear O peoples, all of you

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Listen O earth, and all who are in it

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So the word of the Lord is coming to everybody on a worldwide basis

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Now that’s very significant, because remember that Micah is describing

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a disaster that will happen in one country, in Samaria

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But what he says at the beginning, in effect, is that God will speak through

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this one disaster in Samaria to everybody in the whole world

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That raises an important question

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Are you allowing God to speak to you through other people’s loss?

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Every Christian should go to a funeral at least once a year

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If you have not been to one for the last year because you are not close enough

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to someone who has died, just come to one anyway

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I mean it

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Every Christian should come to at least one funeral at least once a year

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And when you are there, you should say to yourself

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One day this will be me

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Or

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One day this will be my wife

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Or my husband

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And then you will know better how to live

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Has your friend lost his job?

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His home?

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Her health?

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Their business?

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Their son or daughter?

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And may God speak to you through that

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so that you will better know how to live in this world.

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And if that is true of personal loss,

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as we interact with each other in the

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fellowship of the body of Christ,

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surely it is true of the great events

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that capture the attention of the whole world.

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When a tsunami happens in Indonesia

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God is speaking much more broadly through that

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in Australia and in South Africa, China,

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around the world.

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We’re being reminded that this world is passing away

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and that nothing that we hold dear is forever.

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And when there’s a hurricane in Louisiana,

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God is speaking not simply to people in New Orleans,

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but also in Florida and California and Nebraska

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and Illinois.

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And he’s calling us to draw near to him.

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The Christian response to disasters is not

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to say, Oh well, God is judging Muslims in Indonesia

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or God must be judging partying people in New Orleans.

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No, we have to reserve judgment on the cause of disasters.

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You are not a prophet, you don’t know.

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What we should say is this, God is speaking to me

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through this.

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And my response will be to draw near to him.

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Listen to how Peter puts it at the end of his

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second letter.

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And with this we close.

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The day of the Lord, he’s talking about the

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cataclysmic day when the Lord in power and glory

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comes to the earth.

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He says, the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

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The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements

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will be destroyed by fire and the earth and

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everything in it will be laid bare.

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Then he says to Christians, since everything will be

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destroyed in this way, what kind of people should

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you be?

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You want to live holy and godly lives as you look

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forward to the Day of God and speed its coming.

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That day will bring about the destruction of the

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heavens by fire, and the elements will melt

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with heat.

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But in keeping with his promise, we are looking

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forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home

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of righteousness.

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So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward

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to this, make every effort to be found spotless,

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blameless, and at peace with him.

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Are you spotless, blameless, and at peace with him?

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It would feel like a good reason to come to Jesus,

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wouldn’t it?

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Are you peaceful and at peace with God?

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Maybe you realize that you don’t have that peace

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that Pastor Colin’s been talking about,

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but that you’d like to.

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If that’s true of you, I hope you’ll take the time

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to go and talk to a trusted Christian friend

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or family member,

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or maybe go along to a local Christian fellowship.

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Talk to the folk there, pray with them.

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Giving your life to God through Jesus isn’t hard to do,

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it’s only a prayer away

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and it will make all the difference.

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You’ve been listening to Open the Bible

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with Pastor Colin Smith

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and a message today called The God Who Brings Disaster,

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part of our series called Close encounters

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with the living God based on the book of Micah.

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And if you’ve missed any of the series,

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you can always come online to go back and listen again.

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That’s at openthebible.org.uk,

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or find us as a podcast.

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That’s on your favorite podcast site

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and you’ll find it by searching for Open The Bible UK

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or by following the link on our website.

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Also on our website and available as a podcast

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is Open The Bible Daily,

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and that’s a series of short two to three minute reflections

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based on Pastor Colin’s teaching

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and read in the UK by Sue McCliche.

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There’s a fresh one every day

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and many Christians find it’s a great way to start each day.

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Open The Bible is supported entirely

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by the generosity of our listeners

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and we want to thank you

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for supporting our ministry in that way.

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If you haven’t previously supported Open The Bible

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but you’d like to begin doing so

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we’d like to thank you by sending you a copy

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of Kevin de Younge’s book, Impossible Christianity.

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It has a very long subtitle.

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The subtitle is why following Jesus

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does not mean you have to change the world,

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be an expert in everything, accept spiritual failure

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and feel miserable pretty much all the time.

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Colin, how did the book help you?

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Well it brought a fresh sense of peace to my soul.

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The problem is that sometimes we put burdens on ourselves

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that God never intended us to carry.

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We all know that we never do anything perfectly

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and that none of us is perfect

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but what we can lose sight of

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is that it is actually possible to live a life

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that is pleasing to God

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and that acts of faith and hope and love

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really are pleasing to Him

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and Kevin de Young brings this out in a beautiful way

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that I think will bring a sense of relief

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to the souls of many people who read this book

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and that’s why I’m really excited

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that we’re able to share it this month.

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It was immensely helpful to me

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and I think that it will be immensely helpful

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to everyone who reads it,

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especially people who have a tendency

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to put too great burdens on themselves.

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Well, we want to send you a copy of this book,

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Impossible Christianity, by Kevin de Young

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as a way of saying thank you

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for your financial support this month.

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If you’re able to set up a new payment

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of five pounds per month or more

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to the work of Open the Bible,

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we’d love to send you this book.

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Full details of this are on our website

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and you can give online.

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For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith,

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I’m David Pick

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and I hope we’ll see you again next time.

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You can’t see God or hear God or touch God,

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so how can you ever come to know him?

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Find out next time on Open the Bible.