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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

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Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn

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Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one

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Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. You

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Speaker 1: know we all struggle in our faith from time to time.

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Speaker 1: Psalm twenty three talks about the value of darkness, and

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Speaker 1: ancient writers would refer to the dark knight of the soul.

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Speaker 1: It might be a struggle with prayer or not feeling

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Speaker 1: loved by God. We might doubt that we are forgiven.

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Speaker 1: But what if within the place where we feel the

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Speaker 1: most discouraged lies an invitation to meet Jesus in a

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Speaker 1: new way. If you need to be encouraged in your

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Speaker 1: faith as to enter this new year, then pick up Alive,

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Speaker 1: Loved and Free, Finding Jesus When Faith is Hard, Available

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Speaker 1: on Amazon dot com. Today's verse can be found in

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Speaker 1: Isaiah chapter sixty three, verse seven. Each year of my

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Speaker 1: doctoral studies included a major year end assignment. This assignment

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Speaker 1: was to sum up all the learnings of the year.

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Speaker 1: The assignment for my first year was to be a

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Speaker 1: one hundred paid spiritual autobiography. Now, a spiritual autobiography is

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Speaker 1: not like a standard biography. It asks the question where

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Speaker 1: was God in the events of my life? What did

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Speaker 1: God do? Now? This assignment, this one hundred page assignment,

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Speaker 1: seemed daunting and frankly unrealistic because I quickly did the math.

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Speaker 1: At barely fourty years of age at that time, I

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Speaker 1: would have to write over two pages for every single

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Speaker 1: year of my life. How on earth could I fill

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Speaker 1: up such a document? Was God really that active in

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Speaker 1: my life? Frankly I didn't think so. But as I

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Speaker 1: began to make my way through this assignment, I began

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Speaker 1: to see that God was a whole lot more active

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Speaker 1: than I ever thought. I began to see where God

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Speaker 1: nudged me in places where I needed to be nudged,

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Speaker 1: where God brought influential people into my life, where God

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Speaker 1: even stepped in in dramatic interventions. It quickly became clear

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Speaker 1: that God was a lot more active than I had noticed,

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Speaker 1: And there was a whole lot that I could say.

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Speaker 1: God's kindness and God's deeds of power were expressed all

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Speaker 1: over my life. One of the daring things that we

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Speaker 1: believe about God is that the God of the universe

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Speaker 1: interacts with our lives. We don't live in isolated existence.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the very incarnation of Christ testifies that God

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Speaker 1: steps into our world. We believe and in God who

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Speaker 1: is with us. That means that we live our lives

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Speaker 1: in the presence of God and with the presence of God.

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Speaker 1: We have a story to tell, and furthermore, as followers

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Speaker 1: of Christ, we have the call to share that story.

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Speaker 1: Of telling our story isn't just being able to answer

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Speaker 1: the questions of who, what, when, where, and how of

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Speaker 1: the Bible. It can be easy to believe that being

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Speaker 1: a witness simply means retelling the story from the cradle

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Speaker 1: to the cross. Now it's true. To be a witness

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Speaker 1: to Jesus, we need to know the facts about who

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Speaker 1: Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us. But

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Speaker 1: more than just the facts, we are called to talk

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Speaker 1: openly about how we experienced Jesus in our lives. This

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Speaker 1: is what the disciples did. They testified to what they

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Speaker 1: had seen and heard and come to know. And the

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Speaker 1: growth of the Church wasn't through this dissemination of information.

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Speaker 1: It was based on one person telling another one how

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Speaker 1: they encountered Christ's power. Under the guidance of the Spirit.

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Speaker 1: Isaiah encourages Israel to speak about the kindness of the Lord,

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Speaker 1: to be open about the way that God had led

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Speaker 1: them away from their exile and into the Promised Land again.

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Speaker 1: They were to be open about how God's compassion and

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Speaker 1: God's kindness surrounded them. The word for kindness and Hebrew

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Speaker 1: is has said, which is an important word in scripture.

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Speaker 1: The Old Testament particularly uses this word to describe the

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Speaker 1: essential nature of who God is. This idea the God's

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Speaker 1: kindness or loving kindness, as is often rendered, but this

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Speaker 1: idea that this kindness is expressed towards us. It is

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Speaker 1: the hallmark of who God is and what God does.

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Speaker 1: And this is why God is to be praised. This

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Speaker 1: is why God is to be adored. We proclaim the

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Speaker 1: greatness of the Lord because the Lord never stands on

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Speaker 1: the sidelines of our lives. Even in the darkest of places,

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Speaker 1: in the midst of the deepest exiles, God's loving presence

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Speaker 1: steps into our life and meets us. But our history

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Speaker 1: with God is never just for ourselves. Our experience of

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Speaker 1: God is the very testimony that we share with others,

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Speaker 1: and this is the most effective form of evangelism. It's

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Speaker 1: not dry articulation of doctrial matters, but the heartfelt account

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Speaker 1: of how Jesus has stepped into our lives. That's what

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Speaker 1: people want to know. I wonder if sometimes we think

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Speaker 1: that proclaiming the loving kindness of God is more complicated

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Speaker 1: than it ever needs to be. I wonder if you

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Speaker 1: think that we sometimes need to wrap our story in special,

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Speaker 1: theologically rich language. But it's just not the case. Just

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Speaker 1: as you would report your experience of the kindness of

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Speaker 1: a loved one, what might it look like for you

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Speaker 1: to simply speak about the kindness of God in your life?

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Speaker 1: What's your story? Now? I'm not suggesting that you sit

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Speaker 1: down and craft a one hundred page document. Well, what

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Speaker 1: would it look like for you to take some time

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Speaker 1: and prayerfully reflect on your life, searching for the places

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Speaker 1: where God's kindness towards you has been revealed? Where has

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Speaker 1: God been in the events of your life? And maybe

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Speaker 1: just start with one instance, and if something prayerfully comes

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Speaker 1: to mind, what would it look like for you to

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Speaker 1: share that with someone, to tell that story to someone else,

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Speaker 1: because who knows, maybe that simple act will help someone

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Speaker 1: else uncover the gift of God's kindness in their life,