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Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your

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Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at BibleStudyHeadquarters.com. You're listening

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Speaker 1: to Daily Devotions with Pastor John. I'm John Stonge, and

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Speaker 1: today's devotion is inspired by 2 Corinthians 10, verses 5

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Speaker 1: and 6, which says, We destroy arguments and every lofty

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Speaker 1: opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every

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Speaker 1: thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every

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Speaker 1: disobedience when your obedience is complete. Every behavior in your

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Speaker 1: life is tied to a belief. In this era we

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Speaker 1: live in, information is everywhere and it's never been easier

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Speaker 1: to access. There are all kinds of ideas and philosophies

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Speaker 1: being proposed every day. There are all kinds of arguments

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Speaker 1: and ideologies being debated continually. Everyone seems to want a label,

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Speaker 1: and everyone seems to take pride in belonging to one

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Speaker 1: camp or another. And just like we see today, in

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Speaker 1: Paul's time, lofty-sounding arguments were also being presented against the

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Speaker 1: true knowledge of God. Sadly, It can even be easy

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Speaker 1: for uninformed Christians to buy into some of these worldly

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Speaker 1: philosophies and arguments. For that reason, Paul encourages the church

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Speaker 1: to take every thought captive to obey Christ. Effectively, this

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Speaker 1: means that we're called to hold what we believe up

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Speaker 1: to the light of the gospel. If our core beliefs

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Speaker 1: don't match with the redemptive message of God's word, And

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Speaker 1: if our personal philosophies conflict with the good news of

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Speaker 1: Christ's grace, then we need to repent of those false

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Speaker 1: beliefs and embrace the profound truth of Christ's grace, mercy, forgiveness,

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Speaker 1: and righteousness once again. Do your personal beliefs line up

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Speaker 1: with that message? Christ wants you to experience the joy

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Speaker 1: of living in spiritual victory. Every belief we attest to

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Speaker 1: needs to be held up to the light of the gospel.

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Speaker 1: At your core, what do you believe? Let's pray. Lord,

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Speaker 1: we thank you for your word. And we thank you

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Speaker 1: for the privilege that it is to be able to

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Speaker 1: read this portion of Scripture together today from the book

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Speaker 1: of 2 Corinthians. And Lord, we realize that just as

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Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul did, that we live in an era

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Speaker 1: when all kinds of arguments and ideologies are being proposed

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Speaker 1: that do not line up with the truth of your gospel.

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Speaker 1: There are worldly beliefs that all sorts of people attest to.

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Speaker 1: There are even things that we as believers at times

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Speaker 1: have allowed ourselves to mistakenly believe. But Lord, your desire

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Speaker 1: is that we continually come back to the truth of

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Speaker 1: your gospel and and that we hold up all of

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Speaker 1: our beliefs to the light of what you've revealed. Lord,

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Speaker 1: we know that we're surrounded by all sorts of information,

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Speaker 1: and all kinds of beliefs are continually being thrown at us.

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Speaker 1: But Lord, we pray that we would think intently about

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Speaker 1: what you have revealed, and that worldly arguments and lofty

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Speaker 1: opinions that are raised against knowledge of you would be

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Speaker 1: dealt with in such a way that you receive honor,

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Speaker 1: that our thoughts would be taken captive, and that we

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Speaker 1: would learn what it means to obey your Son, Jesus Christ,

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Speaker 1: in a manner that reflects our genuine trust in the

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Speaker 1: truth of what you have revealed. So thank you, Lord,

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Speaker 1: for this admonition from your word today. And by your grace,

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Speaker 1: we pray that our beliefs would line up with the

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Speaker 1: truth of your gospel. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.