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Who is Micah? What education does he have?
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What does a farm boy from out in the sticks know about the complexity of business, life
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and of international politics in the City of Jerusalem?
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What does this country bumpkin think gives him the right to speak to the nation?
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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick. I’m glad you could
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be with us today and Colin, OK who is this country bumpkin?
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Well, Micah came from a little known town called Moresheth, well it’s kind of
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out of the way place and he’s speaking international life and so what right does
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he have to do that there’s only one answer to that question he’s been given
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the Word of God and he spoke the Word of God in the darkest of times during the
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years of King Ahaz and he saw the Word of God bring a transformation in the
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lives of many many people and continued prophesying into the years of Hezekiah
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where there was a whole new work of the Spirit of God
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this book speaks to us wonderfully today because it describes something that many
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Christians are longing to see happen today a return to the Lord that comes
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from God Himself drawing near to us and that’s why it’s called Close Encounters
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with the Living God. So, join us if you can as we continue our message the God
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who brings revival, here’s Colin. I’d like you to turn with me to 2nd
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Kings chapter 18 just over a couple of pages because we’re following the story
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remember that Micah preached during the time of Ahaz and during the time of
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Hezekiah so he spanned both of these experiences in national life. So let’s
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look at what it was like in the time of Hezekiah 2nd Kings chapter 18 and we
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read from verse 1, in the third year of Hosea the son of Eli king of Israel
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Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was 25 years old when
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he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. His mother’s name was
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Abjah daughter of Zechariah and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord
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just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the
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sacred stones, cut down the Asherah poles, he broke into pieces the bronze snake
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Moses had made. For up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to
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it, it was called Nahushtam. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of
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Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah
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Now here then is a king with an entirely different profile and Micah saw
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both in his lifetime. Not only did this king do what was right in the eyes of
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the Lord but we’re told there was no one else like him either before or after.
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That means that he is being esteemed more highly than King David. No one like
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him before or after. He broke free from the shackles of the Assyrians. He
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destroyed the centers of paganism with all their debauchery and pornography. He
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rebuilt the economy restoring the treasures of Jerusalem and he reopened
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the Temple of the Lord which his father had actually closed. So Micah had quite a
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life don’t you think? He lived through the best of times and the worst of times.
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He lived through a moral disaster and a spiritual revival and it seems to me
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that that’s precisely where great encouragement comes for us today. I want
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very simply to say three things. Number one, God can bring a great revival from
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the worst disaster. Micah saw it happen. If you’d lived at
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the time of Ahaz you would almost certainly have thought as I would have
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everything was lost but God did a new thing through Hezekiah. Now you can apply
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this to any crisis that you face, a crisis in your family, your business, a
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crisis in our country. God can bring a great revival from the worst disaster.
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He’s a God big enough for life. See, a resurrection can only happen when
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something is dead and God has a way of stepping in where there seems to be no
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other hope. You never see this more clearly than at the very center of our
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faith when Jesus is on the cross the life drains out of him and for the men
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and women who are watching all hope is gone a soldier pierces his side blood
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and water come gushing out so they take down his body they wrap it in cloth they
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lay it in a tomb and his followers are left to grieve what might have been.’
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But on the third day God steps in raises Jesus from the dead God has a way of
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stepping in where there seems to be no other hope and I want to suggest to you
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a god like that is worth knowing. When you can see no way forward in your
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family, no way forward in your business, you cannot know where to turn next, you
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need a close encounter with this Living God. Because knowing him is the beginning
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of hope. You’re in the worst times watch to see what God will do.
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What will God bring from this great tragedy that has befallen our nation?
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I think believing in the God of the Bible ought to direct our prayers with faith
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and with hope, don’t you? Who knows how many on the last day will trace their
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conversion back to this moment of greatest loss. May it be so.
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God can bring great revival from the worst disaster.
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Second, God can raise a great son from
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the worst father. Praise God for this. Now some of us have
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been blessed with a wonderful upbringing. Your father
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loved you. He spent time with you. He was a role model for
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you. You were blessed with a good father. Good mother. That
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experience and I testify to thanking God for it. But
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others among us had a very different experience. Your
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father was a picture of what you did not want to be and
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there are tender wounds whenever you think of your
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father or your mother. For some of us, that is still a
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huge problem that we push away, but it gnaws
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at the inside of our minds and of our hearts.
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Now, can you imagine what it must have been like for
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Hezekiah to be raised as Ahaz’s son,
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to be raised by a man who does not know how to love?
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To be raised by a father who is spiritually blind and
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morally bankrupt?
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Can you imagine, and maybe you’re saying,
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yes, I know I can imagine
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because I’ve experienced being raised by a man who
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has demons within him that he does not know how to control.
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Can you imagine living with the knowledge that your father
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sacrificed your older brother in the fire?
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Who knows what agonies Hezekiah experienced
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in his early years?
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And Hezekiah, though he would not have used these words,
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he surely would have thought like this
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because they were not naive in those days.
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He would have looked at his father
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and thought like this, he would have said,
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your genetic material is in me.
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And it would have worried him to death.
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Like father,
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like son.
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Now if that’s your situation,
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here’s the message that you need to hear
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because you need a God that’s big enough for life,
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including all that you’ve gone through in your life.
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Listen, God can raise a great son
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from the worst father, is that good news?
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Hezekiah’s story is a beacon of hope
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for any person who comes from an abusive
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or dysfunctional family.
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God can raise a great son, a great daughter
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from the worst father, the worst mother.
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Think of this, Ahaz had two sons.
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The life of one tragically is lost in the fire,
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the life of the other goes on and he becomes
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the greatest king that Israel has ever known.
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Whoever in all the world would have thought
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that Hezekiah could come from Ahaz,
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who would have thought that Abraham could emerge
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from the idolatry and debauchery of paganism in Canaan?
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Who would have thought that the apostle Paul
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would emerge from Saul breathing anger,
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fuming, slaughter, murder?
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But you see, that’s what the Grace of God can do,
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that’s the Gospel.
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A close encounter with the living God
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makes a whole new life possible even for you.
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Because he’s the God who’s big enough for life,
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life at its worst, life at its most disastrous.
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Hezekiah experienced a new life,
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a new dynamic.
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The spirit of God within him.
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And so can you.
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Oh, it won’t happen by you wandering through life
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with a vague, general belief in God
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and turning up at church with a kind of
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paganized form of Christianity, no, no, that won’t do it.
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But if you were to submit your life seriously
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to the word of God over time
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and to walk with him in proximity,
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a close encounter with the living God
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can make a son of the most wounded experience
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to be a great man of God.
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A new life is possible for you
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through a sustained close encounter with the living God.
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Oh your genetic material may still shape
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your greatest struggles,
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but there will be a different outcome.
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God will say to you, as he said to the apostle Paul,
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my grace is sufficient for you
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with all the struggles that your background
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still raises within you
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and you can prevail
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because my spirit lives within you.
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You’re listening to open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith
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and continuing the message,
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The God Who Brings Revival.
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All this month we’re talking about,
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Fly Through The Bible, Pastor Colin Smith’s new book
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which we’re sending out to say
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thank you for your financial support.
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This is the last a month to set up
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a new donation of five pounds per month
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or more and receive a copy of Fly Through The Bible.
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Full details of this offer and to give online
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come to our website, openthebible.org.uk.
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Back to the message now, here’s Colin.
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God can bring a great revival from the worst disaster.
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God can raise a great son from the worst father.
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Here’s the last thing,
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God can give a great ministry
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to the most ordinary believer.
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Now back to Micah 1 and verse one
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for these last few moments.
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Micah 1 and verse one.
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The word of the Lord came to Micah of Morethsheth
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during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
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Kings of Judah, Micah.
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Now think about Micah.
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I like the name Micah.
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I think we have at least one Micah in this congregation.
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There may be others.
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The English derivatives of the name Micah
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which include of course, Michael,
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Michel, Mickey, and so forth.
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In the Old Testament, Micah was a very common name.
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Rather like Smith is today, I suppose.
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And we’re told this fascinating piece of information
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that Micah was from Morethsheth.
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Now where in all the world
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is Morethsheth?
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I asked Dan Yoder who coordinates our AV
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to find me a map showing Morethsheth
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and he went through his entire Bible software
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and he couldn’t find it even in the Bible software.
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That shows you how obscure a place it is.
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So we have had to create our own map.
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It was actually somewhere between 20, 40 miles
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southwest of Jerusalem.
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It was about as obscure a place as you could imagine.
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No place, town.
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And who was Micah anyway?
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It is very interesting, if you look through
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the prophetic books of the Old Testament,
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we are usually told the name of the Prophet
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and then the name of his father.
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Presumably because most of them
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came from families that had some prestige,
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some reputations, some advantages in life.
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So we’re told that Isaiah was the son of Amos,
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that gave him some credibility, I guess.
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Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah.
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Ezekiel, the son of Buzie,
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I’m not sure I’d wanna be the son of Buzie,
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but there you go.
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Hosea was the son of Beri, that might be even worse,
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and Jonah was the son of Emittai.
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But you’re always told
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about the line from which this man comes,
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but Micah is just…
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Micah.
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Nobody ever heard of his father or his mother,
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nothing in his line of history
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that was particularly distinguished or award-worthy.
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And God calls a man from a two-bit town called Moresheth
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to minister in the capital city of Jerusalem.
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Farm boy from Idaho hits Washington.
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And you know, at the time, the Ministry of Isaiah,
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the greatest prophet in the Old Testament
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was already in full flow.
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Now, you put yourself in Micah’s shoes.
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How would you feel stepping out into ministry
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alongside the greatest prophet in the Old Testament
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at the peak of his life and ministry?
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Look at what we’re told here.
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The word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth.
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Think of it.
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The creator of the universe who spoke and said,
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let there be light.
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And who spoke the universe into existence,
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he spoke to Micah of Moresheth.
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It’s important because what we’re going to study
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over these next weeks are not the thoughts
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of some farm boy.
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Not some obscure religious ideas
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from the eighth century BC.
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No, this is the word of the creator himself
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who chose to disclose his truth
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in a direct, infallible, clear way
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through the prophets and decided that Micah
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should be one of them.
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So the living God gave him a message
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that is not only for Jerusalem
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at its worst and at its best,
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but is also for us today.
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And the wonderful thing, and we’ll discover this
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as we go through the book,
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that an ordinary man, with the word of God,
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changed the course of his nation.
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God can give a great ministry to an ordinary believer.
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Now, we need confidence
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and it’s not gonna come from what our name is
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or where we come from or anything about ourselves,
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but our confidence in ministry comes from the fact
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that we’ve been given the word of God.
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I mean, where else would Micah of Morisheth
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find anything else to be confident in?
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I mean, who is Micah, what education does he have?
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What does a farm boy from out in the sticks
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know about the complexity of business life
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and of international politics in the city of Jerusalem?
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What does he know about the psychological roots
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of dysfunction in the family?
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What does this country bumpkin think gives him
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the right to speak to the nation?
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And there’s only one answer.
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This man has been given the word of God
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and this word brings life.
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This word is living seed that can change a king’s heart,
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this word is living seed that can change the way
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in which a man does business.
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It can change the way in which a family dysfunctions
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and move it on to a path of stability.
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It is the word of the Living God
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who can bring a great revival from the worst disaster,
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who can raise a great son from the worst father,
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who can give a great ministry
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to the most ordinary believer.
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And I say, this is a God worth knowing.
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We want a close encounter with this living God,
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superstition won’t do it for us
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at the beginning of the 20th century.
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We need the God of the Bible.
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And we’re gonna get to know him better
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as we listen to what he says in this book.
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Of course Micah isn’t around today,
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he’s in the presence of the Lord.
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So is Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos and Hosea,
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they’re not around today,
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but the word of God is around today
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and you know who has it?
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We do.
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We do.
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We have the word of God,
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the word that brings life in the scriptures.
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And God speaks today through ordinary people
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who know his word and will be faithful then
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in bringing it to others.
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That’s why we’re learning his word
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so that we may be changed by it
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and so that we may then bring this word
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that brings life to the lives of others
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so that they may encounter the living God
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who can bring a great revival from the worst disaster
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and who brings hope into dysfunction
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because he can raise a great son from the worst father.
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He can take an unheard of person
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who feels their life is of no great significance
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and can give you a ministry
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because your life’s been changed by the word of God.
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You’re in a position to begin to share that with others.
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What an encouraging message
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Today on Open the Bible
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Pastor Colin Smith there
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wrapping up the message that God who brings revival.
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As we go on in the Christian life
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it’s easy to lose the fire
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of our spiritual life
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to get to comfortable and to begin to stagnate.
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Maybe that’s where you are yourself today.
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It’s what our series is all about
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how Israel had grown complacent
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and spiritually cold
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but then they faced a national crisis
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and in the middle of it
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Micah brought God’s word
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with clarity and power
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and led the nation
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to a fresh encounter with God,
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his word can do the same for you and me.
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We’ll hear about that
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as the series progresses
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and if you ever miss one of the series
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or if you want to 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
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openthebible.org.uk
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As the days progress
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you can go back and listen to any of the broadcasts
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which have already gone out on air.
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Also on OpenTheBible.org.uk
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you’ll find Open the Bible daily
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00:22:25,719 –> 00:22:27,760
a set of daily reflections
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based on Pastor Colin’s teaching
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and read in the UK by Sue Macleish.
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At Open the Bible
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we welcome contact with our listeners
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you can email us by using the contact form
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on our website
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openthebible.org.uk
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forward slash contact
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you can write to us
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at OpenTheBible
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PO box 1420
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Cheltenham
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GL 50
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9PG
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or you can phone us
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on 0330
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335
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8089
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if we’re not available when you call
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leave a message for us
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and we’ll return your call
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all of these contact details
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are available on our website
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OpenTheBible.org.uk
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Open the Bible
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is able to stay on this station
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and on the internet
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because of your generosity
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Open the Bible is a listener supported ministry
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so thank you for giving
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00:23:24,680 –> 00:23:26,959
and supporting Open the Bible
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if that’s something that you’re thinking about doing
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if you’re able to set up a new gift
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00:23:31,280 –> 00:23:34,160
of 5 pounds per month or more this month
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we’d like to thank you by sending you a copy
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of pastor Colin’s new book
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Flying Through the Bible
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and Colin when you do this kind of high altitude flight
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over the entire Bible story
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there’s so much in there
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that you really have to focus in
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so what are the themes that you focused on
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in this new book
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well it really is a high-altitude flight
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over the Bible story
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I mean we’re talking about around 100 pages
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so it’s covering at a great speed
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00:24:03,540 –> 00:24:06,500
but you know you can get an overview of the Bible
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very simply by thinking about 5 people
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in the Old Testament
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Adam and Abraham and Moses
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and David and Ezra
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if you get the stories of these 5 people
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you’ve really got a broad outline
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of the Old Testament story
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then when we come to the Gospels
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we look at 5 events
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in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
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He was born, He was tempted
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He was crucified
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He is risen
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and He has ascended
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grasp these 5 events
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and you have a broad outline
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of what you need to know about the Lord Jesus Christ
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and then in the New Testament letters
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there are 5 marvelous gifts
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that God gives to all who believe
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the gift of the Holy Spirit
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the gift of faith
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the gift of forgiveness
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the gift of the Church
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and the gift of Heaven itself
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So there’s a very quick fly through the Bible
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It’s cookies on the bottom shelf
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and I hope folks are going to find it really helpful
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Well we’d like to send you a copy of Pastor Colin’s book
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Flying Through the Bible
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to say thank you for supporting
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Open The Bible this month
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For Pastor Colin Smith
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I’m David Pick
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and I hope you will be able to join us again soon
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Disaster comes to both the godly
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and the ungodly
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But where does it actually come from?
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Find out next time on Open The Bible
