#116. Do Christian Parents in a Digital Age Still Need to Know Where to Look in their Bibles? "Get the Word Out" Chapter Summary Statements with Author Betsy Corning

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Did you have a chance to listen to our last two episodes with

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nutritionist and dietician Emily Schuman?

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She spoke balance, peace, and

joy, and restored God's intention

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in an area that He has always

intended to be a blessing to us.

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Right now, often with our pursuit

of wisdom and knowledge, I think

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a lot of that joy is being robbed.

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I really appreciated the mental

reset Emily inspired in me.

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And speaking of clarity and peace

and joy, today Betsy and I are going

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to talk about another tool with our

Bible study method, Get the Word Out.

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What's so great is that each of these

tools helps you think about the Word of

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God and understand it in a different way.

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Today, we're talking about chapter

summary statements and chapter summaries

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because recently in my parenting,

there was a situation with my son

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where he was struggling to honor

an authority figure in his life.

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I wanted to guide him with the Word of

God, and I was so thankful that I knew

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to pull out 1 Peter chapter 2 to display

Jesus' submission to authority and tell my

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son what God's expectations of him were.

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I know I could have Googled it

or pulled out my phone, but I

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think it would've completely

distracted us from our conversation.

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We know you are so busy, but this might

be a simple tool that you could enact

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to help you disciple your children well.

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We'll keep this episode nice and

brief because we wanna equip you and

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help you get back to all the things.

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And if it inspires you that you really

wanna dig into the Word of God more,

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I'll link in our show notes to Get the

Word Out, and you can look more into

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how this system can help you develop

your own personal devotional lifestyle.

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also link to an episode about

my favorite tool, color-coding,

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because that's always a favorite.

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And if you're looking for a way to be more

consistent in reading the Word of God and

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you just don't know how to do it because

you are constantly needed, we get it, and

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we created The Dwelling Place podcast so

that every day you can hear the Word of

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God, know what God is calling you to, and

you and your kids will be prayed over.

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With all the messages you're receiving

on a daily basis from culture We

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want to counteract it with the

truth of God's Word because that's

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what will stand the test of time

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Steph: We've talked about a lot of

different tools for Get the Word Out, but

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there's one that I know that you really

want us to be faithful in, and I think

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it helps us to think about scripture in

a way that perhaps we haven't trained our

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brains to do, because often we're looking

for what is the encouragement that I need.

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But how can we help to have a working

knowledge of the Bible and understand

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where we could go back and find things?

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What tool would help us with that?

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Betsy: So this next tool is

called, uh, chapter summaries

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and chapter summary statements.

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And with each book of the Bible

that you read, you're gonna

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be writing chapter summaries.

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Let's say you're doing Genesis 20.

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So you're gonna read your

chapter, and you're gonna write...

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maybe you're doing this for

the very first time, and your

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chapter summary is very short.

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Maybe

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Steph: Yes, we don't wanna scare you.

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They, they can be brave, right?

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Yeah.

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Betsy: Don't be scared.

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Uh, it, it can be long, it can be short,

it can be whatever you're, you're doing.

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If you were doing it long, eventually

you'd be paraphrasing the whole Bible.

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And, uh, anyway, so it

doesn't have to be long.

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But what you're gonna do at the end of

each chapter, you're gonna go to the

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back of that chapter that's in your book.

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so I wrote for my chapter summary

statement of Genesis 1, "The world

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is spoken into being by the Trinity."

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It's the chapter of creation.

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Now, the second one I wrote, "Creation

of male and female in God's image, and

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marriage, the institution of marriage."

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So I am taking that whole chapter and

I'm condensing it down to the, you know,

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consolidating it into the key point.

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What I do sometimes is I'll make

an even abbreviated one, And

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there's, there's value in this,

where I will just say, " Creation."

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Male and female marriage.

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The fall.

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Cain and Abel," number four.

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So I have my chapter s- summaries.

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Then I have a fuller statement,

which could be a sentence or two.

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Then I have a simple phrase.

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So this is the entire book of Genesis.

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In just a simple phrase.

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And you can see how I had a hard time

keeping it to a simple phrase on the back.

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That's just me.

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Uh, anybody who knows me knows that.

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Um, anyway, but when I want

to say, "Well, where was, uh,

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Melchizedek in the, in Genesis?"

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Well, right there, 14.

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I can find it so quickly.

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Where were the Ten Commandments given?

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Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5.

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I mean, it is so easy when you have a

list like this that you've made yourself.

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Now, you can get a list that somebody

else has made, but it's not gonna

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do you any good because you have to

pick the words, you have to think

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the thoughts, you have to write the

words, and so that it all connects in

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your brain and you retain it, and then

you put it together in your thing.

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So this is really helping you

where you might think, "Well, that

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seems like a lot of busy work."

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No, this is really helping you

fine-tune from a big thought to

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a smaller thought to a condensed

thought and where it is in your Bible.

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You're really learning

your Bible by doing this.

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And, when I was in school,

sometimes they would say, Where

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is the qualifications for a king?"

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You know, Deuteronomy 17.

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You had to know all these things.

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And, uh, certain churches, I

know John MacArthur's church

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does this when they have elders.

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They have to know what chapters of

the Bible speak to certain issues.

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And why shouldn't we, um, be

doing these same sort of things?

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It's for our benefit, right?

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So, uh, very helpful to be, to

be learning things this way.

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Okay,

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Steph: It's kind of like you're

creating your own personal

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table of contents to scripture.

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And as we said, this doesn't just equip

you for your own personal study, it can

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equip you to disciple, to teach, and,

you might be having a conversation and

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someone saying, "Well, why is it so

important that Jesus rose from the dead?"

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And you can say, "All right, let's

look at 1 Corinthians 15, the most

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extensive passage on why the resurrection

matters," and you can see why.

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And so when you have this working

knowledge of scripture, you're not

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just going to man's opinion, you're

not just googling it and getting

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something that might be warped by AI.

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You're going straight to the

word of God and giving the

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right answers that God says.

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Betsy: you're not floundering around

like, "Ah, well, uh, let me see."

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Steph: Mm-hmm.

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Betsy: it really helps you,

be, straight to the point.

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Steph: Right.

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Let's say there's someone that's

really overwhelmed and , they're

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wanting to do this, and they haven't

read through scripture before.

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Do you think it would be okay to just

do the chapter summary statements

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this time around and to try to do a

concise, version of it, and then maybe

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next time to develop the summary more?

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Betsy: Yes.

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I'll say in a later s- uh, episode

what the four main things are that

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you really need to do every time.

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But the chapter summary summaries,

aren't something that you have to

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do the first time you go through it.

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But to write a statement is, because

you do wanna get this working knowledge

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of where things are found in the

Bible, so that would be important.

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Steph: Sure.

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we're wanting all of this

knowledge to transform us.

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It-- this isn't just for head

knowledge it really can equip

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us for ministry, as we said.

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I heard someone say that they read the

Bible i-in 90 days recently because

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they said you see the redemptive story

so clearly when you read it like that.

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We're so used to going

through a little bit slower.

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And, when I heard that, I

was like: How do you do that?

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I think it was about an hour a day,

I don't think that's as long as

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you would expect for it to take.

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But I think that these chapter summary

statements can also give you that

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overarching, you know, what is really

the storyline that's happening here?

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Betsy: A number of years ago, my

son Lee he was between jobs, and he

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had a couple weeks, and he listened

auditorily to the Bible in a week.

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I mean, however you do it, it

is life-changing because it's

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the word of God that has power.

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But, um, and there are

so many ways to do it.

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But we're giving tools because

we really want people to do it.

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And when you get together a group,

whether maybe it's just your husband

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or your best friend or a group of, you

know, eight people or whatever it might

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be, and you figure out, "Well, let's do

these three tools," but stick with it.

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Right now this year I'm doing

it with three different groups.

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And just absolutely love each group

distinctly and differently for where we

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are and what we're studying and how they

challenge me, and, it's really a blessing

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Steph: People often say that when they

read scripture, This could probably

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be applied to anything that we read,

but often we can get distracted

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and say, " what did I just read?"

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If you're doing these, you're

certainly never going to say that.

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You're gonna, be looking for what are

the key events that happened here, why

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is it important to the overall narrative.

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there are actually several tools

that I would say that about Get the

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Word Out, but I've never Been done

with my Bible reading and thought,

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"Oh, what did I just look at?"

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Because these really help train you to

be looking for key themes or, key ideas.

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Betsy: Well, the Word of God is gonna

naturally provoke your thinking, and

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you're gonna meditate on certain things.

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So you're gonna meditate on the things

that the Holy Spirit is challenging

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you with or convicting you of or,

um, showing you and revealing to you.

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And so it's just a wonderful thing.

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So immerse yourself in God's Word and then

watch how the Lord, works in your life.

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It's just, a joy.

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We just don't wanna be

missing out on that.

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We want other people to join

us in getting the word out.

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Speaker 3: We know you're busy,

mama, so we are truly grateful you

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joined us for this episode of Again.

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If you're looking for more information

about building your home on the

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foundation of Jesus Christ, head

to www.entrustedministries.com

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to learn more about our study for

moms, Entrusted With a Child's Heart.

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This scripture-saturated study

has blessed families around the

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world, and we want it for you too.

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Before you go, I want to pray

this benediction over you

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from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12.

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We're rooting for you.

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"To this end we always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of His

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calling, and may fulfill every resolve

for good and every work of faith by

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His power, so that the name of our

Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,

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and you in Him, according to the grace

of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

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Amen.

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Until we meet

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again.