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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 finish our series God Meets

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Speaker 1: Us in the Wilderness with a discussion of today's verse.

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Speaker 1: Today's verse can be found in Romans five, Verse eight.

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Speaker 1: God demonstrated his own love for us in this while

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Speaker 1: we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The other day,

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Speaker 1: I read a list of seven reasons why chocolate is

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Speaker 1: better than your partner. Now, I expected this list to

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Speaker 1: be fun, maybe a little campy, a little tongue in cheek,

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Speaker 1: but in reality, it was kind of heartbreaking. Here are

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Speaker 1: the seven reasons chocolate is better than your partner. Because

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Speaker 1: number one, chocolate won't reject you. Number two chocolate will

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Speaker 1: always call number three chocolate is always there for you.

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Speaker 1: Four chocolate won't hurt your feelings. Five chocolate won't insult you.

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Speaker 1: Number six chocolate won't make you do something that you

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Speaker 1: don't want to do. Seven you don't have to impress chocolate. No. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: this was supposed to be a fun look at the

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Speaker 1: benefits of chocolate, but it actually spoke to a deep need.

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Speaker 1: Because if we look beyond the references to chocolate, what

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Speaker 1: we find are seven expressions of a deep inner yearning.

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Speaker 1: A yearning for love, A love which accepts us as

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Speaker 1: we are, A love which covers over a multitude of

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Speaker 1: mistakes and faults, A love which frees us to be

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Speaker 1: who we were created to be. I think all of

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Speaker 1: us in some way can relate to this yearning. In

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Speaker 1: Paul's letter, he writes that God has proved this kind

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Speaker 1: of love for us. How Jesus died on the cross.

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Speaker 1: The love of God comes to us, he says, not

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Speaker 1: because we deserved it or earned it, but because we

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Speaker 1: need it. While we were still sinners, God's love was proved,

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Speaker 1: which shows that it is something that we can trust.

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Speaker 1: Even amid all the places where we might turn our

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Speaker 1: back on God, God's love is still revealed in Jesus.

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Speaker 1: Jesus went to the cross to illustrate the unyielding and

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Speaker 1: unbreakable love of God. See, Jesus was not just a

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Speaker 1: guy who had some interesting things to say about life

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Speaker 1: and morality. He wasn't just a martyr that we look

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Speaker 1: to as an example of selfless living. Jesus was the

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Speaker 1: presence of God in life, and never once did Jesus

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Speaker 1: turn his back on sinful humanity. Through all the rejection,

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Speaker 1: through all the mockery, through all the violence, Jesus continued

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Speaker 1: to be the very incarnation of the love that comes

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Speaker 1: to us, a love that does not reject, that does

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Speaker 1: not insult, a love that does not fade over time

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Speaker 1: or weighe with the seasons. But here's the thing. If Jesus'

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Speaker 1: life just ended at the cross, well, then that would

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Speaker 1: have been the end, and when did it. Jesus would

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Speaker 1: have been a nice story of self getting, but one

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Speaker 1: locked in history, and Jesus would be just another person

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Speaker 1: in a long list of people who died on the cross.

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Speaker 1: If Jesus' life ended at the cross, Paul would never

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Speaker 1: have looked to the cross as proof of God's love

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Speaker 1: because the cross would have been at defeat. It would

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Speaker 1: have been an end. But the cross wasn't an end.

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Speaker 1: It is only because Jesus rose again that the cross

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Speaker 1: testifies to God's unyielding love. It is only considering the

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Speaker 1: resurrection that the cross proves to us that there is

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Speaker 1: nothing in our lives, and there's nothing in death that

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Speaker 1: can ever be so big that God's love will not

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Speaker 1: overcome it. The resurrection proves that God's love is unstoppable,

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Speaker 1: and that earth shattering, that life changing love of God

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Speaker 1: it has held out to you today. God has shown

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Speaker 1: God's own love for you in this way, while you

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Speaker 1: were still a sinner. Jesus died for you. If you

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Speaker 1: are willing to believe it, if you will dare to

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Speaker 1: see this as a word spoken over you today, then

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Speaker 1: you too can experience the depths of God's love. God

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Speaker 1: draws you to God's Self, not to experience punishment, not

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Speaker 1: to experience the weight of sin, but to be enfolded

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Speaker 1: in the love of your risen savior. This love frees

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Speaker 1: us from all that weighs us down, all our shame

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Speaker 1: and all those condemning voices of sin and rejection that

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Speaker 1: we sometimes fight against. And because Jesus is alive, we

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Speaker 1: can trust that He is with us now and his

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Speaker 1: love for us will never end. If there is a

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Speaker 1: small part of you that recognizes that you need that

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Speaker 1: embrace of divine love in your life, then I invite

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Speaker 1: you to close your eyes and just pray with me.

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Speaker 1: Dear Jesus, I hear the scriptures tell me that I

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Speaker 1: am loved. I hear the scriptures tell me that your

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Speaker 1: death on the cross and your resurrection from the grave

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Speaker 1: proves to me that I am loved. But there are

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Speaker 1: times where I have a hard time accepting this truth.

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Speaker 1: But in this moment, today, I open myself to you. Today,

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Speaker 1: in this prayer, I dare to believe that your love

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Speaker 1: is true and it is held out to me. Help me.

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Speaker 1: I pray to feel your love, the love that accepts

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Speaker 1: me in awfulness, and give me, Dear Jesus, the strength

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Speaker 1: to live in the truth of that love. Bumen