Next Week | Response to Florida Shooting | Episode 3

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Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Welcome back to our live studio audience and to everyone watching across Dem Internets.

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I'm Jeff Durbin. This is Next Week. Very special guest right now on the show. We have Lauren Green McCaffey.

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She is the corporate ambassador of Hobby Lobby, known to Christians worldwide.

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Lauren, welcome to Next Week. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me.

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I'm honored to be here. Oh, it's our pleasure. So, Lauren, what's it mean? What's that title? Corporate Ambassador for Hobby Lobby.

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It sounds amazing, but what exactly do you do? Yes, it's a fancy title that just means

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I do company communications and PR. So I get to work with a lot of great stories and share those with the company as well as the outside world.

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Excellent. Excellent. Well, we love Hobby Lobby, especially all of us Christmas freaks at Christmastime.

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Yes. And so I'm actually always there. I did have a question. How many Christmas trees do you think is too many?

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Well, I have to say, I have eight that I put up in my house. So definitely at least eight is okay in my books.

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Okay. Well, that sounds like a problem to me, Lauren. Eight Christmas trees. So just a question, just it's on my mind.

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Just why around Christmastime do you sell synthetic squirrel tails? Is there a big market for that?

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I have no idea about the synthetic squirrel tails. I'm just wondering if the factory that's producing those does damage to your bottom line if they do stop.

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So we wanted to have you on today because you guys are just doing so much. I mean, for us, we know about the

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Green family, your family, and we know just really about the amazing business model of Hobby Lobby and the kinds of things that you're doing.

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We also know, of course, about the recent legislative battle, the fight you guys had in terms of standing up for your convictions in the area of health care.

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And we also know, of course, that you guys, your family has one of the largest privately owned collections of biblical artifacts really on the planet.

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And so it really is compelling. I guess let's start the discussion off this way. Talk to us, if you would, about the fairly recent conflict where you guys were really trying to hang on to your convictions really as believers with a successful company in terms of what the government was asking you guys to do.

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Absolutely. So what you're referring to is what's often called the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case.

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And that all began back in 2012 whenever the HHS mandate or Obamacare was handed down.

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And after we got to understand what this meant, we realized that that mandate would require us to provide the 20

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FDA approved contraceptive drugs and devices. Now Hobby Lobby was already giving a wonderful benefits plan to our employees that did cover 16 of those contraceptive drugs and devices.

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It was only four of the 20 FDA approved materials that we did not want to provide because we realized that those were abortifacient in what they did actually.

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So because of our convictions, our deeply held religious convictions, we had to make the decision, do we provide these four drugs and devices that go against our deeply held religious convictions?

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Or do we say, no, we're going to fight this and fight for the ability to follow those religious convictions.

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And following our faith in business has always been something that has been a key at Hobby Lobby for my family.

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My grandpa founded the company on his own over 40 years ago, and he's continued to live out his faith and his biblical principles every day of the business ever since.

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So we were nervous that we were not going to be able to continue to live that out. But thankfully, we have seen the victory in the court system.

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We went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and we did have the 5 -4 decision in favor of Hobby Lobby's case.

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So we do get to live out our faith. Well, I guess the good thing, and to thank

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God for that victory there, we would probably love to hear about, is just how this affected your faith, your walk with Christ.

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I mean, it was a pretty intense legal battle. I mean, when this was happening, we were talking about it on our radio program, encouraging people to be prayerful about it and to get engaged in the issue.

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But give us sort of a behind the scenes. What was it like for you guys to be really the focus of much of the nation and the media in this fight?

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What was it like for your relationship with Christ and being Christians with this very successful business and business model?

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Just tell us about that. Yeah, you know, that's a great question. I'm glad you asked, because you mentioned that you were asking people to pray.

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And so every time I get to speak about this, I just want to thank any of the listeners or people I'm talking to.

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Our whole family is so grateful for those that were praying with us. We felt the prayers of people all over the country, and really all over the world.

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We had many people reach out to us that were supporting us. So while we may have been on the quote unquote front lines of this particular issue, we know that we were not alone in the journey.

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We had many people walking alongside us. So we're grateful for that. But yes, as a family, it really was an interesting season.

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It was a two year process from the time when we first began this battle to the Supreme Court decision.

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And all of our experiences in the lower courts, we lost in all of those court decisions.

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So it was no cakewalk. It was very stressful at times.

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But ultimately, we all realized we have to put our faith in the God that we believe in and trust that He is in control of this.

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And that gave a lot of peace. And also, just the prayers of people all over the country really made a difference in bringing us peace through all of it.

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So we knew that we had to live out our convictions. And whatever happened in the end, God was going to be good. And so one particular story, we found a passage in the

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Bible that was particularly meaningful whenever Daniel is facing, again, kind of a similar situation, the government of his day, saying that he had to do something against his faith.

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And he stood for what he believed in. And so we put Bible verses around the family and even bought a billboard across the street from where our corporate office is and placed a

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Bible verse on there just to give us encouragement that people before us and people in Scripture have followed

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God and God takes care of His people. Even if it may not be the way we expect it to be,

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He is still in control. Oh, that really blesses me, Lauren. I got to tell you, I mean, I know we're not very familiar with one another, but I do want you to know, and there's people in the studio right now, that we all remember doing episodes really trying to sound the alarm and encourage people to get involved and to pray.

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And being on the other side of the trial now and seeing your faithfulness and seeing you guys stand up for your convictions and ultimately refusing to bow to the state in the way that you did is just such a tremendous encouragement to me.

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And I just want to hopefully bless you with that. It is such an encouragement to us in a time, in a circumstance that we live now where so often

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Christians divide really the world up into the secular, the sacred, the secular, the spiritual.

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And so many would be willing to let go of their convictions in an area like this because there's potential for loss, a loss of business, loss of capital.

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And your taking a stand and being salty and being light in this area is really a tremendous blessing to us.

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So thank you guys for your faithfulness. And now let's get to the really cool thing. This is exciting for me. I know all about your family and in terms of not just Hobby Lobby.

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That sounded kind of creepy, didn't it? That sounded creepy. I know all about your family, Lauren, every detail and where you keep your credit cards.

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I know all about the Green family because I'm a pastor and a theologian, an apologist, a philosopher, and so engage in a lot of apologetic stuff.

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And what excites me so much about the Green family, your family, many of us know who are in these circles that the

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Green family has this amazing collection of biblical artifacts. Your family has been faithful stewards of what you have actually gained and actually been able to produce some amazing finds, biblical manuscripts.

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I mean, so much stuff that has, many people don't know, has actually changed the landscape in many respects in terms of manuscripts that are extant, that go way back and closer to the time of Jesus and the actual writing of the

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New Testament. It really is awesome. And so I'm kind of a freak about these things. And so I'm super excited.

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So with that large collection of things and what you guys have invested so much in as a family, you now have in our nation's capital, you have the

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Museum of the Bible. That's right. So tell us about that. Yeah.

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So ironically, we were beginning the journey towards Museum of the Bible, right whenever we were in the middle of the

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Supreme Court situation. So it was around the same time that we were traveling to and from DC for the

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Supreme Court and all the oral argument and everything that we were buying a building there in DC for the purposes of Museum of the

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Bible. So it did start as a private collection and that was kind of the impetus for what is now the museum.

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But it is the largest private collection in the world, one of the largest private collections in the world of biblical materials and artifacts.

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And that collection is the foundation for what is on display in Museum of the Bible in Washington DC today.

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So the Museum of the Bible is an eight story building that is 430 ,000 square feet of space that is all dedicated to the

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Bible. It opened in Washington DC just a couple months ago in November of 2017.

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And in the first two months of the museum being opened, we saw a quarter of a million people go through and people have been really enjoying it.

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This is a museum that is not just a boring place with some dusty materials.

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This really brings the Bible to life. It is one of the most technologically advanced museums in the world and it's incredibly engaging and all the environments are very immersive.

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And it actually invites you into the stories as you walk through. So I think that there's something for everyone, even if they're not interested in the

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Bible or of no faith at all. But there's also something for people of all ages, backgrounds, you name it.

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There's something for everyone at Museum of the Bible. Awesome. I was at a conference in Tennessee and your family had a sort of a mini exhibit there like covered up and dark and everything.

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And I remember going inside this and seeing some of those artifacts and manuscripts and it was just absolutely astonishing.

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And I mean, there was a sort of a bit of trembling involved in walking up to these items that were carried by Christians and it's just an incredible, incredible thing you guys have invested in.

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Let's do something kind of fun here. I want to ask you, tell us some of the very interesting things that we will find in the

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Museum of the Bible. Because maybe some people think that sounds boring. I find it delightful. But I'd love to just hear what kind of interesting things are inside the museum.

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Yeah, well, that's a great question. And there are a million different answers I could give you. But in the museum, the main three exhibit floors talk about the history of the

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Bible. So how did we get this book? What is the history that brought it to us? We also have the floor that talks about the narrative of the

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Bible. So what are the stories from Genesis to Revelation? And then we also talk about the impact of the

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Bible. So I think that some of the unique things that you'll find is that there are video docents all throughout the museum.

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And those will guide you. Even David Stott, who drives through history, does the

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Drive Through History TV program, he did a drive through the Bible. And so you can find his video vignettes all over the museum.

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But I think that one of my favorite parts about the museum is the Old Testament walkthrough. So this is a timed 45 minute experience where you start, we let a group of 15 people in every five minutes.

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And you start at the beginning of the Old Testament. And you actually walk through from gallery to gallery an experience that brings you through the story of the

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Old Testament. It's incredible. It's very theatrical. People from Disney helped us put this together. Everyone is sure to enjoy it.

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So there's a burning bush that looks very realistic that you'll see whenever you're going through. So it's a really incredible experience.

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But that's just one sample of what's on the narrative floor. But there are great experiences like that on every level of the museum.

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I'm really so excited about this. I just cannot wait to see the whole thing finished because we we knew years ago that it was happening.

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It was sort of underway and under construction and we saw bits and pieces and we were absolutely thrilled. So let's let you let's get let's let you give the pitch

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Lauren. Why should people get on a plane and come to the nation's capital to go to the museum?

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The Bible has impacted every area of our world, whether it's technology, science, fashion, art, literature, you name it, even in ways we don't even realize.

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So whether you're interested in the Bible or not, what I think that a lot of listeners are interested in the Bible, it's an incredible experience to get to walk through the

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Bible and really experience it in a new way. So we hope that everyone will come experience the

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Bible. It would take nine, eight hour days to see everything in the Museum of the

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But come and at least spend a few days with us. We've got a restaurant, a coffee shop, a theater where you can see shows.

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We've got so many things for families to enjoy. So we hope that you'll also follow us on social media.

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Museum of the Bible has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and that can also give you a little glimpse into some of the incredible history and story of the

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Bible if you're not able to make it to Washington D .C. Okay so two more questions Lauren. One, can you tell me because I'm just a total geek about this thing.

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Can you tell me of an interesting manuscript that's in the museum or just something with some history behind it that's just really compelling?

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Absolutely. So my favorite artifact that is a manuscript is called the Codex Climaci Rescriptus.

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We bought it from an auction house in London that was being sold from Cambridge University. It is a manuscript that has been rewritten on.

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So it was an early form of recycling actually. This is made out of vellum which was on animal skin.

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It was written in the 6th century in two languages that was Syriac and Palestinian Aramaic and then in the 9th century someone tried to erase that text and rewrote on top of it in Greek.

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There are portions of the Bible on this manuscript in both layers and it's fascinating to be able to find some of the largest portions of the

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Bible in Palestinian Aramaic on that underneath layer that is only accessible through modern technology called multi -spectral imaging.

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So we're able to read a text that's mainly been hidden for centuries but because of technology we can now access it.

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So that's just one example of a really fascinating artifact that has been a recent discovery thanks to modern technology that this manuscript had never been read before and there are portions of it on display in the museum.

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Fantastic. And the next thing is we have social media platforms and connections really worldwide with the audience that watches us whether it's on the

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NRB network or across Facebook and YouTube and I would love for us to be able to come out there and to film the experience of the museum ourselves and see it to promote it so that the whole world can see it.

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Come on over. Not really a question. I'm just telling you what I'm doing. That's all. So all right,

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Lauren Green, McAfee. Lauren, where do people go just to get more information and to find out how to get tickets and location?

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Where should they go? The main site? Yeah, museumofthebible .org will have all of the information as well as links to our social media feeds.

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All right, Lauren Green, McAfee, everybody. Thank you so very, very much. God bless you. Thank you.

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All right, everybody. Thank you guys for watching next week. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Important things on the other side of this.

20:08

Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for watching. Next week, this week, I want to encourage everybody to go over to YouTube.

20:14

Check out Apologia Studios on YouTube, Apologia Studios on Facebook. Share and like the content. Get the message of the gospel out to the ends of the earth.

20:22

As always, I want to point you all to endabortionnow .com. Oh, my gosh.

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Oh, that's right. That literally scared me to death, actually.

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We have a lot of people who don't like us. When you hear loud bangs like that, you start to think things. Wow. Yeah, it's my birthday.

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Right on. Only 25 years old today. It's wonderful. Thank you, guys.

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That was wonderful and terrifying. I want to point you guys over to endabortionnow .com.

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That's the heart of this entire show. Our desire is to engage the culture with the biblical worldview and to end the culture of death on, of course, many levels, but fundamentally in the area of abortion where there are over 3 ,000 children that are killed every day in our nation.

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It's our duty as Christians, as a church, to engage that issue. Francis Schaeffer has actually a very popular statement, and it was very challenging to me.

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I want to share it with you. He said that over every abortion facility in America reads the sign by permission of the church.

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That's a challenging, challenging thing to know that we have the message of life, the message that changes hearts and minds, and that it's up to us to share that message, to communicate that message so that there's transformation.

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I often share, right now at the end of the show, I share stories of churches that are linked up with End Abortion Now that have gotten the free training and the free resources at absolutely no cost to them whatsoever.

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It's just Apologia Church wanting to bless them. I share stories like a group that's on their 42nd save right now or their 20th save or 140th save.

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These stories, of course, are very, very important. They're very important. They're encouraging. They're inspiring. But to be honest, we don't even have the ability to share all the amazing things that God is doing.

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I want you to consider this, that since we started as a church engaging this issue, there have been thousands, thousands of lives saved because people just like you watching this show were inspired and encouraged and challenged by what you heard.

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You got involved. You went out. You brought the gospel to the abortion mill. You started saving lives.

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You love those mothers and fathers. And you know, you know all that has taken place has transformed things in ways that are irrevocable.

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They can never be changed. And so people just like you have listened to these stories.

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They've gone to endabortionnow .com. They've gotten connected. Will you do the same thing? Endabortionnow .com,

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you get all the free training. You get all the free resources. And I also want to encourage you with endabortionnow .com.

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We have right now a little ways to go for our funding goal. I want to encourage you guys if you have any commitment to this ministry and a desire to serve and to help.

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I want to encourage you to go over to endabortionnow .com and give there at the donate tab. Help us to make our goal for this year so that we can continue to bless the church, to equip the church, and to once and for all end abortion in our nation.

23:37

Thank you guys for watching. Next week with Jeff Durbin. Thank you guys so very much. One more thing.

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One more thing I don't want to forget. I don't want to forget this. We are taking a two -week break because, well a number of things.

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We have some some interesting things planned for end abortion now. But our executive producer

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Marcus Pittman is getting married. He's getting married. So a two -week break.

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We will be back. What's the date again Chris? It's March the 20th. March the 20th we'll be back guys. Make sure you guys keep an eye out for that.

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We have a very exciting season planned for you guys this season and we can't wait to share it all with you guys.