A WOW Moment with Vicki, Mercedes and Rachel (Date: January 31st 2020)

Whitten Baptist Church

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It's got something to me about dinner. Can you just bring me food? We ordered pizza. Josiah walked in with it and I was like, it smells so good.

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I smell garlic bread. If you want.

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They're warm enough. If y 'all hear anything, they're warm enough. They're getting ready for their new year's service.

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Hold on, I'm getting there. I didn't even see.

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You think I'm reading your text messages. I'm blind. I can barely read my own. I'm like, what does that say? All right.

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Oh, I didn't send that. Don't you hate it when you type a text and you don't push send and then you're like, why didn't they respond?

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Yeah, I did that last night. Yeah, you kind of take it personally too. You're like, man, it's taken a long time to respond.

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It wasn't a very hard question. Yeah. Right. And you're going, you get all in your feelings.

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And then you look at your phone and you're like, oh, or the other person gets mad.

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They think that you ghosted them. Oh, no, I didn't. Right. Well, good evening, everybody and a happy new year to you.

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Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not. I thought that was going to be me. It was her that did that.

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She gets the centerpiece. I was so excited. She's she's so excited.

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It's New Year's and we're here together. And so I bought her this. She's going to take it home so I can play with it.

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Tear it up. Sure. Yeah. But it's fine. It's just that's what it's for. So, everybody, tonight we have

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Rachel Shipley. So, but anyways, so welcome to our

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Bible study. I'm Vicky. Everyone knows Mercedes and everybody should remember Rachel. She's been on with us several times before.

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Three or four. I don't know how many. But I couldn't have thought of a better person to end our year with than you.

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Are you sure you just sit with it and see me in a sanctuary and say she'll work? No. She'll do.

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She lives close by the church. In case y 'all don't know or haven't noticed, we have really had a really good time for the last 20 minutes sitting here.

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That's why we're late getting on. We've been telling each other of all stories and things.

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It's very entertaining at the church right now. Thank goodness we don't run it.

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Yeah, you may want to check in in a minute and make sure to go to the church. Oh, thank you.

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Yeah, you might want to check the comments. Can y 'all hear the

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Hispanic church? Yeah. I said they were doing a New Year's Eve worship night, but they're warming up their music right now.

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So, y 'all let us know if you can't if you hear them over us. Yeah. What am I looking for? Facebook. Facebook.

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I'm sorry, okay? Don't worry, we'll be here until midnight. We're here all night. We're here all night.

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Y 'all look great.

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That's gotta be your husband. Oh, it's gotta be. What is that thing in front of her?

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What is that thing in front of her? Anyways, okay. So, if y 'all can't hear us at any time because of their music, let us know.

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And I'll look down at my phone every once in a while. How about that? Does that work? Is that good with y 'all? Thumbs up?

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Hearts, smiles, and all that stuff. Alright. So, Rachel, as we all know, is expecting.

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And she got here and she said, I forgot my Bible. I forgot my phone.

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So, she's using the phone as a backup. I could've went outside. Well, there's a Bible in there. So, anyways.

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She was so excited when we asked her to do New Year's. So, I put on my bling for the night.

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Because we're not going anywhere but here. And Mercedes has on a

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New Year's hat. And it matches. You look very festive.

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Thank you. You look really nice. And Rachel fixed her hair. Yes. I didn't know what it looked like.

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So, anyways. So, Rachel, can you tell me so I can write down the verses you want to do.

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I think Mercedes probably has to find them. You told me Luke.

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Luke 9, 23. 9, 23. And then Romans 12, 1 and 2.

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9, 23. We have. I think we have done Romans 12, 1 and 2. We have. Once you hear why

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I chose these, you'll be like, okay, it's a goodie. You can go back to it. Well, the first time we did with you was

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Hebrews and Ephesians. Take notes with everybody.

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This is the pre -report from last night. You can't read it. Oh. Well, that one's a good one.

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Can I say who it was with? It was with Dr. Dana Sneed. Yeah.

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We did a pre -report last night with Dr. Dana Sneed. And when we run it, it will be good.

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I don't know when we will run it yet. It will be something that we use when we need a fill -in.

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Or when we have another holiday or something that we don't meet. Or somebody ends up with COVID.

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We both had it. Yeah. But y 'all didn't have it at the same time, did y 'all?

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I gave it to her. Oh, that's right. On a Thursday. I got it two weeks after she had it.

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So as soon as her quarantine was up, I went into quarantine. And your husband filled in for us.

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I do remember that. Okay, now I remember that. Yeah. So anyways, again, welcome to our study.

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This is going to be fun tonight because we're going to enjoy this. Last night just really was amazing.

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So I have to say that anytime we have

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Dana in town, I'm going to try my hardest to do one with her because she's so informative and she teaches so well.

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I miss having her teaching here. But after last night

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I told her she could go back to Kentucky. Y 'all understand me when you watch it.

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I was like, you have my permission. She goes, I don't really need it anyways. So anyways, are we going to read, do you want to read both of these or do you want to read one, discuss it and then have her read the other one?

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Well, I'll tell you why I picked the two of these and then we can read one, discuss it.

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Okay. So Rachel, why did you pick these two verses? Well, I well, it's

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New Year's and I noticed that everybody's been reflecting on, you know, everybody does that whenever a new year comes.

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They reflect on what last year was like and of course everybody 2020 was weird and rough for some people.

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Some people I think I don't think any year is ever immune to tragedy. We live in a sinful world so people go through hard times.

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Some people go through worse times than others depending on what you go through in a year. But there's never a year that doesn't have heartache or hardships or whatever just because of that's our sinful nature in just the world we live in.

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But it seems like everybody's labeled 2020 as this was the hardest year ever just because there was so much change and staying quarantined and just, you know, people losing jobs and all that kind of stuff.

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So it got me thinking though that that Christians I feel like our position has not changed regardless of, and it never should, regardless of what circumstances are going on in the year or even what 2021's

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I mean that could be worse. COVID's not gone we don't know who's gonna be in the White House and stuff so we just, we don't know like a lot of people are like, oh by 2020 you don't know, 2021 might be just as hard and stuff so I picked these two verses out just to kind of encourage that if you are a

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Christian your mindset like your goals should not change like you can come up with resolutions and stuff but in reality your goals and your mindset should not change regardless of the circumstances that are going on in our world.

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So that's just kind of where I was at that as people kind of get out of this year and go into the next year and stuff and as people face different cause you're gonna face different challenges this year, there's gonna be different struggles and stuff to just kind of carry this with them that regardless of what's going on in that that our goal should still be the same as Christians and that's and you're exactly right because it doesn't matter what happens it doesn't matter what happens tomorrow it doesn't matter what happens the next day we still should wake up every day give praise to the

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God that we serve and then go out and speak and preach the gospel as we have been called to do and in that sense that doesn't mean that you pick up your

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Bible and you carry it everywhere you go and you try to preach to everybody it's in the sense what

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I'm speaking of is you live your life as an example of the love that Christ has given to each one of us and to every one of us that are

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Christians and that have received the precious gift of salvation and sharing that every day you can do that in many different ways which is something we can talk about later but you can do just in the way that you live your life, just in the way that you treat one another just in the way that you treat a stranger just in the way that you talk to somebody is several ways that you can show the love of Christ I think sanctification is going to happen or it should happen regardless and so to me sanctification is like the

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Lord is breaking a step down in you that needs to be better and so it is kind of a hard and painful process

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I think it's a dangerous mindset for Christians to get into the thank

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God that worst year ever is over with and next year will be better let your prayer be

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Lord challenge me more, help me grow more convict me in these areas you want to grow closer we are supposed to be disciples it would be scary as a

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Christian to get to the point where you don't feel that conviction anymore wait a minute, where am

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I at right now on my walk just that kind of mindset would you read the verses would you say because I read 9 -12 9 -23 girl

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I was like how is she going to tie that in what are you talking about how is she going to tie that in all this you were intrigued like what is

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Rachel Rachel is really going to pull the cat out of the hat what did you read 9 -12

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I read 9 -3 we were both confused for a really hot minute this is going to be intriguing

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Rachel is going to do this there must be some context in that alright let's read

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Luke 9 -23 then he said to them all if anyone wants to follow after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me so the big part that stands out to me is take up his cross daily and follow me you know we are called to follow

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Christ and like I said that's regardless of the worldly circumstances like whatever pandemic hits the

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United States or even just in smaller stuff like that's big scale stuff whoever goes into the

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White House like you that doesn't change your position as a Christian and what you are supposed to be doing and what

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Christ has called you to do like scripture is still scripture and you still have to keep your goal the goal that it's supposed to be so that is the pick up your cross daily that doesn't mean oh well 2020 we were in quarantine so I don't have to do that today like I'm not picking up my cross today like you got maybe last year so let me sit it down for a minute no you can't ever sit it down you need to pick that cross up everyday and I think the big challenge was can y 'all hear them or can y 'all hear us or nobody's saying they can hear anything else but us ok well then hopefully that's just background noise but anyway sorry

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I know we're on this first but picking up the cross yes and that's it again even though this year is over and it's like oh we got through it oh

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I remember when I was going to say y 'all didn't get to bring it back so we were having to do a lot of stuff from home like people were having to work from home and I don't know we started doing loud moments and we started doing a lot of recorded stuff just making those changes and even though we didn't get to come to church if you get what

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I'm saying we didn't get to come into the church building for a while there I don't know not sitting at home and moping about that and stuff we still reached out to each other and stuff like that I think keeping that momentum going and taking care of your church family and stuff that's a big deal well to be honest with you this probably would never have started had

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COVID not hit the Lord has used COVID we've gained church family through the different interactions we've had to start doing so I mean one of Josiah's favorite it's not his favorite song it's one of his favorite passages is that the enemy will use what men met for evil,

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God planned for good there you go, Genesis 50 -20 50 -20 good job

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I knew it was in Genesis 50 -20 and that's a prime example of of COVID for me in all honesty because we wouldn't be doing this every

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Thursday night there's a lot of things that wouldn't be going on with this church

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I have a lot of my family that don't live here in Memphis or people that for whatever circumstances get not at their homebound and stuff like that they can't make it to all of the

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Bible study especially Sunday night Bible study if they've got to work on Sunday night so they say

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I love getting to watch the Sunday night Bible study I'm still doing good it's neat the good that's come out of this there's been a lot of weirdness it reminded us how important the fellowship is

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I know we don't have it we're so excited yeah it was pretty sad we had that family reunion yeah we did it was great so alright there's something on these glasses and I cannot get it off okay

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I'm just gonna go with it let's look at Romans 12 now what's the word do what what's that word say what is that is that the word you meant to say

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I didn't see that word alright 12 1 and 2 alright 1 and 2 therefore brothers and sisters in view of the mercies of God I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice fully and pleasing to God this is your true worship do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God so just a lot of people know that verse about do not be conformed to this world but be transformed just talking about that ongoing sanctification as Christians regardless of what's going on within the world there has to be something different about us there is something different about us there is change happening within us so regardless of the worldly circumstances and stuff we should still be progressing as Christians and changing and growing and still loving you can still love people even in the ugliness yes we should be standing out even more so while the world is freaking out and in fear and chaos we should be standing out more what's the verse about they'll know that you are my disciples by the way that you love one another

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I don't remember what it said but that one pops into my mind that's how we stand out is our love for one another well you know and that's the thing

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I honestly was having a conversation with my husband one day back

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I came home and he was in the kitchen and I walked in there and he goes this is early on in the election right it was shortly after the election and he goes well now

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Trump's lost for the third time this week and I said what do you mean he's lost for the third time this week he goes well you know they say he wins then he loses then he wins then he loses and I said you know honey

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I said there's really no point in having any worry or concern I said because the Lord already knows who's going to be the president and whoever is the president is who the

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Lord intended to be the president of this country whether it's for the good or the bad or whether it's what we think is for the good or the bad it doesn't really matter it's already set out it's already been nothing surprises

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God and every time I think of that I think oh

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I was so surprised I didn't know that that was going to happen you know God doesn't do that I love that reminder of his sovereignty though because it does especially when things hit like boom boom boom like when the first thing hits then you're just like it's okay the

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Lord's sovereign we'll get through this but then when multiple you can't help but kind of feed into the chaos sometimes especially if it is stuff going on within your own family or if it hits close to home for you and stuff so to have that reminder of you know

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I think it was Brother Jeff that said guys God's not sitting out there saying oh

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I hope somebody's voting for Trump or I hope they're both voting for Biden he don't care he's so past that right now it doesn't even matter to him

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I'm sure it matters but what I mean by matters is that he is God so he is the one that has laid out the plan for everything and someone said this to me last night we know what happens in the beginning we know how the end is going to happen we're in the middle right now so we're just when she said that I said to myself just tighten your seatbelt a little tighter if you get concerned or worried about anything because God's got it we don't have to worry about the end there is no concern it already tells us how it's going to play out this right here tells you everything you need to know you just need to invest some time in it you just have to actually study scripture for what scripture says not taking what's going on in the world right now and then trying to apply scripture to that it's scripture right exactly going back to what you said about how we're supposed to not just say that we're

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Christians and say the right things but we're supposed to show up by action Matthew 5 13 14 and let's just do 13 through 16 you are the salt of the earth but if the salt should lose its taste how can it be made salty it's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world a city situated on a hill cannot be hidden no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket but rather on a lampstand and it gives light for all who are in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that you may see they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven it just it kind of made me think of being that light on that hill yeah because there's a lot of people that they and that's the thing too is so many people

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I've had people come up to me and ask me this when I worked in criminal court they would come up to me and they would say why are you so happy all the time

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I mean you know we work in this and it's not a good I mean the office was okay but just in the situations that we're in and hearing about and I would just tell them because the

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Lord is so good to me how can I not be happy how can I not be that I think as a

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Christian you can see that only good things come from the Lord so when you can see

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I feel like like in your work situation you probably see a lot of broken situations and stuff like that so that way a lot of times from a non -Christian perspective you'd look at that and be like how would

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God like a lot of times how would God allow something like that like that's such a broken situation but from a

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Christian you can actually see where there is beauty and you're like that's from the Lord that's a miracle it changes your entire perspective and so it's neat to be given those opportunities and then you can give them your testimony about well here's the broken situation

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I was in and here's how the Lord carried me through it right and I do that now because I've moved to circuit court and working there

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I actually have more conversation with people and it's amazing the people that are hurt

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I mean we deal with divorces and car accidents and stuff like that but there's so much hurt in that you know so I try to use every opportunity that I can working for the government you're not supposed to mix it it's kind of you kind of got to manipulate you know

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I let them actually what I do is I let them speak the first few things to me and if they start bringing

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God into it honey the gates open yeah they have to bring it up they brought it up so I was just I didn't bring it up just telling my little tidbit of what

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I have you got to manipulate the situation a little bit I don't know who I used to work with oh it was

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Kathy Nelson people would walk in and be like hey how are y 'all doing today well better than I deserve and they would be like I think that's a

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Dave Ramsey quote it would kind of make them be like and then she could talk about grace and then they would ask questions and she would just kind of set it up for them she wouldn't even mention the

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Lord's name or anything but it was just neat how she would set it up most people would just be like whatever but a few people would be like what do you mean right it's just they're also with us going into a new year one thing that I want to make sure this is it one thing that I want to make sure of and I just noticed it's a little crooked one thing that I'm sorry

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I didn't notice we're at an angle one thing I want to make sure of is us going into a new year and for all y 'all that are watching going into into tell it one more time us going into the new year do not set new year's resolutions for yourself that are nuts this is my thing a lot of people and Pastor Jeff spoke of this a lot of times the new year hits oh this year

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I'm going to read the bible no don't just read the bible study the bible don't go and say this year

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I'm going to read a psalm a day a psalm a day no let's not do that let's study what it says and let's learn if you read one verse every single day and it's the same verse every day and it takes you reading that verse every single day to understand that verse then stay on one verse for the week it doesn't matter we're not in a race here but live it out don't just read it live it out and if you don't understand it reach out you can reach out to us get on our

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Facebook page you can ask questions on the Facebook page her husband does a question and answer every

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Saturday and he loves it and if you are studying something in the bible and it's something that you don't understand get on Saturday don't wait post it on our

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Facebook page or send it in a private message on our Facebook page and he'll cover it or somebody will get back with you and respond to the questions that you have don't sit there and just wonder because when it comes to scripture there are no stupid questions there's not there's always there's going to be an answer you just got to find it so with this new year coming in let's make sure that everybody everybody where am

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I going they are really getting cranked up in there aren't they they're going to be here until midnight that's their entertainment they were singing

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How Great Thou Art while ago and it was in Spanish and I was like it's kind of nice I didn't understand the words but I know the words yeah yeah so this is my thing this is what

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I think everybody that's watching everybody that watches this after today can do it whenever go to Luke 9 23 and read it and ask yourself what this verse means to you and if it's not meaning what it says if it's not meaning that you need to deny yourself if you're not living what it says

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I knew what you were trying to say I was trying to pull it out and it wasn't coming if you're not living to what that verse says then the next day get up and read it again and try it again and the next day get up and read it again and try it again and just keep going you've got 365 days in a year in 365 days you should be able to do that this verse makes me think of the other verse that says

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I must decrease so you can increase John I think it's

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John is it 1330 look at me I forgot what my married name was the other day

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I wrote out my maiden name so that's where I'm at right now if I get it right that's not right no it's not 1330 says after receiving the piece of bread he immediately left and it was night look

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I'm thinking about bread and sleep okay people golly what is it then maybe 330

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I feel like there's a 3 in there somewhere try 330 well

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Whitman was trying to help himself so I don't know where it is ah that's right it's

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John 330 he must increase but I must decrease see I was on the right track I just knew my other verse you got to be dyslexic

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I just knew the other one was about bread and sleep pregnancy pregnancy oh

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I went to the we went to the doctors for a checkup

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I guess it was like 2 days ago and we were asking about what to expect out of COVID and the delivery and everything

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I was legit stressing if my husband can't be in there with me it was getting the best of me

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I could feel myself getting anxious which the doctor's appointment went perfect we were reassured and everything regardless of the circumstances but but he's your coach and you don't take any drugs my plan is to go natural again and they said for St.

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Francis Park they only test you for COVID if you have symptoms so if he and I go in there with no symptoms then we don't have to get tested but anyways that's when

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I started thinking about this because I felt myself get anxious it started to dictate my mindset around birth and having a baby why did we have a baby in the middle of a pandemic this is ridiculous and I felt myself getting worried so that's when

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I thought about this I was like that I'm losing focus right now I don't need to do that we're going to be fine it's just the circumstances are changing on the outside but we can adapt and push forward hopefully everyone can take that encouragement with them as they go into this year that if circumstances change again and they will we could go back into quarantine again we don't know what next year holds we don't know what it's going to look like we didn't even know we were going to go into a pandemic but the encouragement should be if circumstances change just adapt and move forward you still have a goal to keep focused on ours will be getting ready for a baby becoming a family before our circumstances change but God doesn't and what he expects you to be doing what he's called you to do he doesn't expect you to lose that focus on what he's called you to do

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I told Josiah when we were thinking of verses to come up with what I was feeling in this it was so funny because I was like is there a time in scripture where Jesus is getting mad because everyone is losing their focus he goes you mean the disciples that's the whole new testament he's yelling at the disciples the whole time stay focused quit worrying about everything else

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I was like I guess we are we're not too far away from them he's yelling at us all the time please stay focused isn't it kind of reassuring though that the disciples walked right alongside him we're just as hardened as we are they're so dumb

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I love I forget where it's at they're pretty much arguing over who's

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Jesus' favorite Peter's like I thought I was your favorite right should we apply on the wall yes

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I thought I was your best friend I thought you loved me I love you the most they're singing how great is our

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God isn't that amazing I only know one

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Christian song in Spanish and it's Caboom into Nicaragua and it's

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Open the eyes of my heart Lord and they were singing it at a church service one time and I was like I know this song that's how

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I learned it it was cool well I hope that everyone enjoys their new years and um um and just remember that even the disciples got yelled at for not staying focused so so it's that's they made they made the cut they made the cut though even though they were losing it they made the cut so if you're a

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Christian and you think you're losing it it's okay so did the disciples and just keep in mind though and always keep this with you that our

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God is the most awesome God and he's loving and caring and he's not gonna put you um into anything that he can't get you out of I mean a lot of people say put too much on your plate but he'll get you through so so anyways

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I hope you all have a happy new year I hope everybody is safe tonight if you're staying home

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I know she wants to blow it and I keep blowing it if you're staying home then get to bed and get some good sleep so happy new year everybody bye guys thank you