tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63422230037992822722024-03-13T23:36:07.302-07:00Setting the prisoner freeChaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.comBlogger234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-18870388844402663572022-03-10T14:47:00.001-08:002022-03-10T14:48:12.136-08:00Presence amidst uncertainties<p> <span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre-wrap;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Presence </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">amidst </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">uncertainties</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{11da74bd-84b5-48da-aed0-38639bb7a277}{214}" paraid="1218005481" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{11da74bd-84b5-48da-aed0-38639bb7a277}{220}" paraid="1001735459" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{11da74bd-84b5-48da-aed0-38639bb7a277}{226}" paraid="875180856" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{11da74bd-84b5-48da-aed0-38639bb7a277}{230}" paraid="1375456659" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">R</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">emaining</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">fruitful in our roles in</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> jails and prisons during these uncertain times </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">requires wisdom</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. I don’t know </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">what these next </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">months</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">hold. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I am committed </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">to purposeful presence as a chaplain.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{9}" paraid="1296360506" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I began serving at the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlSpellingErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Maleng</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> Regional Justice Cent</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">er—Adult Detention</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> (</span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">MRJC)</span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); 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background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">in</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> Kent</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> in </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">2002 with evening Bible studies </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">in two units</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. In 2006, I was invited to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">join P</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">FC</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> as a </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">full-time support-raising </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">chaplain</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{43}" paraid="1727294565" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{47}" paraid="1240419082" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Up until the Covid-19 pandemic in March of 2020,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> 18 years later,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">ministered shoulder-to-shoulder </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">with Dick and Judy </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Rothlisberger</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> Monday-Friday</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> in the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">MRJC </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">units.</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">After Dick passed into glory in April of 2021, Judy continues to serve</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> as the Protestant Chaplain for women</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> while I assumed the same role for men.</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{85}" paraid="2082376482" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{89}" paraid="986481318" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">As in most areas of our li</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">ves, so much continues to change</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. We aren’t certain </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">how our </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">jail </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">services </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">and over</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">all programs </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">will continue. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Our on-site ministry </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">slowed way down from November through January. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">We </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">returned to</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> active</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> one-to-one </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">telephone and window visits</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> in </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">February Monday-Friday.</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> We remained masked.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{131}" paraid="1388116055" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{137}" paraid="915405279" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Ministries of presence</span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{149}" paraid="1282521293" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{153}" paraid="1103852462" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I’ve gained </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">great respect for </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">“</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">ministries of presence</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">”</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> with the inmates, uniformed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> staff, and support staff. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I want to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">available to care for everyone connected to the jail</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">careful not to push nor force conversations</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> about faith, the Bible, </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">spirituality, or their church experienc</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">es. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Those I speak with have requested visits. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Often, we read Scripture and pray together. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">When doors open, I am active with evangelism and discipleship.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{191}" paraid="891396242" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{195}" paraid="1712966148" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">When I speak of presence, I am referring to showing up faithfully. On numerous occasions while carrying out ministries in the state prisons, men approached me. They said, “I remember you from the RJC in Kent. You came into our unit regularly. I never spoke to you but </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">your</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> coming in regularly meant so much to me.” </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{223}" paraid="107477123" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{227}" paraid="1572172578" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Presence focuses on what’s most important</span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{235}" paraid="353291360" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{c620bba3-03ff-403e-ac58-4ee40b15fa73}{239}" paraid="1942175069" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Presence also means our sharing concentrates on what is most important to them. My purpose is to engage them with what matters most to them. Often, it takes a minimum of three to four visits before they </span><span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">open up</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> about their past. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{10}" paraid="605422940" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{14}" paraid="2077775241" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">One prison pen pal recently wrote, “</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I have been focusing </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">on meditation and f</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">inding those calm, peaceful, and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">moments with God. I still struggle with a mind that wants</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> to wander</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">…Did I finish my school</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">work? I wonder when I’ll get back to </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">work?</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I bet my family is at their </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">retreat spot</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">..</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Its</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">really tough</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> in a cell with four </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">guys and an adjacent </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">dayroom</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> constantly</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> full of noise</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">.”</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{52}" paraid="894858505" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{56}" paraid="1356117327" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Presence re</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">cognizes abuse and trauma</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{66}" paraid="188507591" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{70}" paraid="655966492" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">A great percentage of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">the inmates</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> experienced </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">abuse and trauma</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> from </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">when they were infants </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">and young children. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Many</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">experience</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> death of loved ones while they </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">incarcerated. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">They are traumatized and grieving. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">If they experienced religion or church, it was </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">as a young child with a grandmother</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. Their father and their children are also incarcerated </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">or at high risk. They stopped being interested in school </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">early on and are at an at-best third grade reading level. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Their relationships with their fathers and children </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">is</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> severely damaged. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{110}" paraid="249799525" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{114}" paraid="1308627830" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Pr</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">esence </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">offers life preservers</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{128}" paraid="1945596269" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{132}" paraid="1992778099" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Presence means offering them a safe conversation and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">life preserve</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">r</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> that fits </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">each one</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. I share about my own </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">challenges that cause me to be triggered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">, multiple experiences when </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">“</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">lost my cool</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">” in many settings. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">When I’m </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">triggered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I shut down</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">, am easily annoyed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">, and embarrassed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. People around</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> witnessed it. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">These things happened for me in the jail. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">These </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">same </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">things </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">surround incarcerated men and women on an hourly basis.</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> Sometimes, its violent.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{184}" paraid="1509058188" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{188}" paraid="1129637567" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Presence </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">asks questions and listens</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{198}" paraid="723843000" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{202}" paraid="1145047171" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">start by</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> presenting </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">six statements to evaluate their own </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">well-being, this list is called a “relational circuits</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> checklist and is part of brain science. Each statement </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">often causes tears and silence, at first. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{220}" paraid="1737714699" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">This list is based on the work of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Karl Lehman, M.D. www.k</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">cleman.com</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{230}" paraid="497341891" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Here’s the list:</span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{236}" paraid="1470719403" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ol class="NumberListStyle1 SCXW73548065 BCX8" role="list" start="1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Calibri" data-leveltext="%1." data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{240}" paraid="414065682" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I just want to make a problem, person, or feeling go away.</span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></li></ol></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{247}" paraid="1806335215" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ol class="NumberListStyle1 SCXW73548065 BCX8" role="list" start="2" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Calibri" data-leveltext="%1." data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{bb3b0cc3-5215-4380-ba93-2a943b1124bc}{251}" paraid="109565974" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I don’t want to listen to what others feel or </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">say.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></li></ol></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{5}" paraid="611938260" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"335559685":720}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div></div><div class="SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ol class="NumberListStyle1 SCXW73548065 BCX8" role="list" start="3" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Calibri" data-leveltext="%1." data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{9}" paraid="1640224117" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">My mind is “locked onto” </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">something upsetting.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></li></ol></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{18}" paraid="820035903" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"335559685":720}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ol class="NumberListStyle1 SCXW73548065 BCX8" role="list" start="4" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Calibri" data-leveltext="%1." data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{22}" paraid="962747459" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I don’t’</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">want to be connected to ________. Someone I usually like.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></li></ol></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{33}" paraid="226119688" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"335559685":720}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ol class="NumberListStyle1 SCXW73548065 BCX8" role="list" start="5" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-font="Calibri" data-leveltext="%1." data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{37}" paraid="677185189" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I just want to get away, fight, our freeze.</span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></li></ol></div></div><div class="SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{44}" paraid="332702518" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"335559685":720}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ol class="NumberListStyle1 SCXW73548065 BCX8" role="list" start="6" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="6" data-font="Calibri" data-leveltext="%1." data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{48}" paraid="1602624535" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I more aggressively interrogate, judge and fix others.</span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></li></ol></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{55}" paraid="921737092" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{59}" paraid="1190228423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">The next step is </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">gracious </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">silence. Stop talking and listen </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">attentively. I want to be curious, appreciative of their attention, kind, and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">make deliberate eye-contact. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I’ll ask which one or two of these statements </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">connect? </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Its</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> all about loving, safe presence.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{79}" paraid="933674094" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{83}" paraid="311925078" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{87}" paraid="1558328770" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW73548065 BCX8" paraeid="{91dc2e24-9a4e-4286-94ea-25b60d759f96}{91}" paraid="1832202799" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="TextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW73548065 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW73548065 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-27655328103161341342021-12-20T11:48:00.001-08:002021-12-20T11:48:23.289-08:00Rejoicing hope<p> <span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">December 2021</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{6f348483-ed2f-43cc-841a-a5edd8b58290}{61}" paraid="1998360332" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Family greeting and ministry update</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{d60f7671-1dc2-4c3e-861f-36f89c7fa242}{40}" paraid="1063215432" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: "system-ui", system-ui_EmbeddedFont, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 22.6625px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{d60f7671-1dc2-4c3e-861f-36f89c7fa242}{40}" paraid="1063215432" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="none" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: "system-ui", system-ui_EmbeddedFont, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 22.6625px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. ~Romans 15:13</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: "system-ui", system-ui_EmbeddedFont, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 22.6625px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{6f348483-ed2f-43cc-841a-a5edd8b58290}{247}" paraid="338468033" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{6f348483-ed2f-43cc-841a-a5edd8b58290}{247}" paraid="338468033" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Dear loved ones,</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{12b55faa-f1a3-4fe7-8101-d063aa7a6b9e}{71}" paraid="1843979757" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I write with Katharine to wish you a comfort and hope-filled celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and genuinely fruitful new year. </span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{0fba2a75-305c-4f4d-a97c-31d6ee19b111}{169}" paraid="485312592" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{0fba2a75-305c-4f4d-a97c-31d6ee19b111}{169}" paraid="485312592" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Katharine and I are privileged along with Jon to spend time with Andy and Pete’s families this season. We enjoyed a Christmas Program with Andy, Sheri, Loxi, Paul, and Cora at their church along with Jeff and Marcy, Sheri’s parents. In the spring and summer, we cheered on Paul and Andy in their first t-ball season in Enumclaw. We had a great early dinner with Pete, Nellie, Farah, and Lilah at the McMenamins Kalama Harbor Lodge. Hopefully, we will be able to share photos in coming days. </span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c977fb0d-59e3-49ed-9cb7-cd0ff11dbb53}{199}" paraid="1286495958" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c977fb0d-59e3-49ed-9cb7-cd0ff11dbb53}{199}" paraid="1286495958" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Katharine is in her 26</span><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun Superscript SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-fontsize="11" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> year primarily at the Covington Library within the King County Library System through the COVID-19 pandemic and post shutdown seasons. </span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{147033d0-36c9-4343-8eff-1af6a340280c}{73}" paraid="264455890" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{147033d0-36c9-4343-8eff-1af6a340280c}{73}" paraid="264455890" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Jon, our youngest son, 29, moved back in with us during this past year and works full-time as a mover with First Due. We love having him with us during this transitional season for him.</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{2a59ebaa-d5c6-4a06-8828-5025092965ac}{130}" paraid="1446657393" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{2a59ebaa-d5c6-4a06-8828-5025092965ac}{130}" paraid="1446657393" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I am in my 19</span><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun Superscript SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-fontsize="11" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> year serving as a volunteer chaplain for men at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent and 16</span><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun Superscript SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-fontsize="11" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> year with Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries. My last PFC international mission trip was in Cameroon in February of 2020--there were four canceled trips. Our many PFC teams pivoted—for me, it means fruitful Zoom conferences and evangelism services with our national missionaries throughout Africa, the Philippines, India, Nepal, and recently in Mexico. I regularly write pen pal letters to former inmates.</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{a72eb7dc-a6b6-4001-8eaf-a4c37ae7c48e}{212}" paraid="1926653271" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{a72eb7dc-a6b6-4001-8eaf-a4c37ae7c48e}{212}" paraid="1926653271" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">As part of my pivot and lifelong learning, I am training and actively participating in leadership strength coaching as a personal business through </span><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlSpellingErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0iVVRGLTgiPz4KPHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iNXB4IiBoZWlnaHQ9IjRweCIgdmlld0JveD0iMCAwIDUgNCIgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4xIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHhtbG5zOnhsaW5rPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8xOTk5L3hsaW5rIj4KICAgIDwhLS0gR2VuZXJhdG9yOiBTa2V0Y2ggNTYuMiAoODE2NzIpIC0gaHR0cHM6Ly9za2V0Y2guY29tIC0tPgogICAgPHRpdGxlPnNwZWxsaW5nX3NxdWlnZ2xlPC90aXRsZT4KICAgIDxkZXNjPkNyZWF0ZWQgd2l0aCBTa2V0Y2guPC9kZXNjPgogICAgPGcgaWQ9IkZsYWdzIiBzdHJva2U9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMSIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgZmlsbC1ydWxlPSJldmVub2RkIj4KICAgICAgICA8ZyB0cmFuc2Zvcm09InRyYW5zbGF0ZSgtMTAxMC4wMDAwMDAsIC0yOTYuMDAwMDAwKSIgaWQ9InNwZWxsaW5nX3NxdWlnZ2xlIj4KICAgICAgICAgICAgPGcgdHJhbnNmb3JtPSJ0cmFuc2xhdGUoMTAxMC4wMDAwMDAsIDI5Ni4wMDAwMDApIj4KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIDxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0wLDMgQzEuMjUsMyAxLjI1LDEgMi41LDEgQzMuNzUsMSAzLjc1LDMgNSwzIiBpZD0iUGF0aCIgc3Ryb2tlPSIjRUIwMDAwIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjEiPjwvcGF0aD4KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIDxyZWN0IGlkPSJSZWN0YW5nbGUiIHg9IjAiIHk9IjAiIHdpZHRoPSI1IiBoZWlnaHQ9IjQiPjwvcmVjdD4KICAgICAgICAgICAgPC9nPgogICAgICAgIDwvZz4KICAgIDwvZz4KPC9zdmc+")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">WeAlign</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">. My purposes are to grow in godly maturity to constantly finish well and to serve others. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> I continue to participate on the leadership team with Celebrate Recovery at the Kent Covenant Church Thursday nights</span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{e1ece378-767c-4dd2-aa97-0f4bfd987547}{28}" paraid="1979968561" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{e1ece378-767c-4dd2-aa97-0f4bfd987547}{28}" paraid="1979968561" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">I’m a leader and mentor in my second year in the Colson Fellows Program and attended my first </span><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: var(--urlSpellingErrorV2,url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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")); background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Wilberforce</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> Weekend in May held in Fort Worth, Texas. My second is scheduled for May in Orlando, Florida</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{d60f7671-1dc2-4c3e-861f-36f89c7fa242}{255}" paraid="1594125800" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{d60f7671-1dc2-4c3e-861f-36f89c7fa242}{255}" paraid="1594125800" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Throughout this past year, I was privileged to preach memorial services for two lifetime friends--</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{7c2b5549-680d-4f90-879e-b5ff571ce9c2}{63}" paraid="1542437896" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{7c2b5549-680d-4f90-879e-b5ff571ce9c2}{63}" paraid="1542437896" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">In May, for Dick Rothlisberger, my chaplain co-worker at the MRJC since 2002 where I still serve with Judy, his precious widow.</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{7c2b5549-680d-4f90-879e-b5ff571ce9c2}{48}" paraid="1212818813" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{7c2b5549-680d-4f90-879e-b5ff571ce9c2}{48}" paraid="1212818813" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">In September, for Steve Merrick with Paul and Amy and their families at the Baptist Church in Union, Oregon where I served as pastor from 1989-1992.</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{6090c3f4-a3e1-4d6a-8eef-cc14df8a3ecc}{186}" paraid="100590018" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{6090c3f4-a3e1-4d6a-8eef-cc14df8a3ecc}{186}" paraid="100590018" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">In Christ,</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW30043510" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW30043510 BCX8" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{d60f7671-1dc2-4c3e-861f-36f89c7fa242}{225}" paraid="1313035898" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Mark</span><span class="EOP SCXW30043510 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-84218140768291592942019-07-05T14:48:00.000-07:002019-07-05T15:00:48.845-07:00Faithful men <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pyESm_t0oS8/XR_FSI8M49I/AAAAAAAANqk/zn1uAGSQK5Y7F5NO8bnFAn4dNhbNAp-DQCKgBGAs/s1600/PFC_Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pyESm_t0oS8/XR_FSI8M49I/AAAAAAAANqk/zn1uAGSQK5Y7F5NO8bnFAn4dNhbNAp-DQCKgBGAs/s320/PFC_Logo.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several years ago, Lonnie began serving his lengthy sentence in a Department of Corrections facility. We met together for several years at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent where I minister through Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries full-time since 2006.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lonnie's first language is Spanish and he maintained a minimal Roman Catholic spiritual background when we started meeting. I shared introductory Bible studies from the Gospel of John and prayed with him as he was seeking truth and a changed life when he first arrived in Kent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One day, he inquired if I might teach him the Bible and answer his questions. We started with Galatians and session-by-session worked through most of the New Testament and several Old Testament books line by line, paragraph by paragraph and chapter by chapter. We continually focused not on religious labels but what the Bible teaches.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He was uncomfortable reading English so I did the reading and he followed along closely, and I became aware he was fully engaged. I provided a Spanish Bible and several Spanish books and articles. His a questions and comments were always completely connected to what we studied. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He often asked the question that mattered most to him within two minutes before I needed to leave. I humorously told him this was my "two-minute rule." People I meet with pose what really matters to them when we first start but more often when I'm just about to leave. It was always spot-on and told me</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he was "getting it." Early on, he made a clear faith commitment to Christ and continued to grow with some roller-coaster stops and starts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His case plodded on. He balanced hopefulness and bitter discouragement. but it didn't look good to me. I didn't ask questions about his case with him. We shared a continuing discipleship ministry, innocent or guilty, as long as he was willing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He grew deeply angry and disappointed over about sixth months and didn't want to meet but I kept coming in to be available to other inmates and him. The Lord gave me another man to meet with </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">met with consistently. One day, he approached me almost out of the blue and we continued on. We met fairly regularly about Bible themes and his life change until he received his sentencing. He remained angry about his sentence because he claimed he was innocent of his charges and hoped to appeal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lonnie was virtually never openly expressive although he was thankful for our often twice weekly meetings. Close to when he left to serve his sentence, I was really touched when he told me he considered me one of his friends and brothers. I teared up and we prayed together. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At his prison site, I sent him Wayne Grudem's "Systemstic Theology," in Spanish. He actually wrote me once and acknowledged receiving the book. I even called the facility mail room to ensure he received it. He hasn't written again and did not respond to a letter I sent him later. </span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-91974787045324060172016-04-22T10:36:00.000-07:002016-04-22T10:36:05.827-07:00Matthias and Justus<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FHy78zz3GCM/U6XeEarz82I/AAAAAAAAEt8/BdCp61h-8kE/s1600/PFC+North.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FHy78zz3GCM/U6XeEarz82I/AAAAAAAAEt8/BdCp61h-8kE/s1600/PFC+North.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spending time thinking about how I respond to God's placing His servants where He chooses. In Acts 1:12-26, Luke reported the events after the death of Judas and the ascension of Christ. The apostles prayed He would show them who He would choose to replace Judas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="selected" original-title="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"23 And they put forward two, Joseph called </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barsabbas, who was also called </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Justus, and </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Matthias. </span><span class="verse-num" id="v44001024-1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: grey; font-size: 0.7em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">24 </span><a alt="esv_01" class="va" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342223003799282272" rel="v44001024" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">they prayed and said, “You, Lord, </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen </span><span class="verse-num" id="v44001025-1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: grey; font-size: 0.7em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">25 </span><a alt="esv_01" class="va" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342223003799282272" rel="v44001025" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to take the place in </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this ministry and </span><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” </span><span class="verse-num" id="v44001026-1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: grey; font-size: 0.7em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">26 </span><a alt="esv_01" class="va" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342223003799282272" rel="v44001026" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles."</span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">~Acts 1:23-26</span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, they prayed. "You, Lord, know the hearts of all..."</span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, they asked the Lord to show them His chosen one. </span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "...which one of these two you have chosen..."</span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Third, they desired to strengthen the work God gave them.</span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "to take the place in this ministry and apostleship..."</span></span><br />
<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fourth, they were humbled about Judas.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;"> "from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">Fifth, they submitted to the Lord using their method.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;"> "Matthias...was numbered with the eleven apostles."</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">I am preparing with our Faith Student Movement Serve missions team from Faith Baptist Church near Tiajuana, Mexico July 16-30. We are using a Youthmark text by Brian Aaby to work through faith-building accounts from Acts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">One of the early studies is from this text in Acts 1. Brian asked who the youth might choose from our church to participate in servant-leadership roles on a missions trip. They are also asked who they and we would count on for help when we really need it.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">He is asking if I might be one in our church family people would count on.</span></span><br />
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<span class="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-63644063543692548602016-04-18T14:04:00.000-07:002016-04-18T14:04:20.291-07:00Testhello from iPad with chrome!<br />
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<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-39824441603557295022014-06-21T11:19:00.000-07:002014-06-21T12:32:31.037-07:00Faithful Hall of Fame Mother--Alicia Gwynn<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rr481dwBkzo/U6W32wGOj8I/AAAAAAAAEs0/2Whm7ijyARM/s1600/PFC+North.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rr481dwBkzo/U6W32wGOj8I/AAAAAAAAEs0/2Whm7ijyARM/s1600/PFC+North.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tony Gwynn, one of Major League Baseball's Hall of Famers, died at 54 of salivary cancer as a result of a lengthy smokeless or spit chewing tobacco habit. He succumbed to a nasty substance abuse addiction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chris Gwynn, 50, Tony Sr.'s brother, is the Seattle Mariners director of player development since 2011. Tony Jr. is an outfielder with the Philadelphia Phillies after stints with the Padres and Dodgers.</span><br />
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Chris Gwynn spent a dozen years working in the Padres' scouting department and was their director of player personnel two seasons after concluding a 10-year career in the Major Leagues. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Gwynn</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chris oversees the entire Mariners' Minor League system. He </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em;">carved out his own career, batting .261 with 263 hits, 17 home runs and 118 RBIs after being a first-round Draft pick of the Dodgers in 1985.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I learned more about the Gwynn family from Ken Gurnick's recent column, at MLB.com. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Hall of Fame faithful mother</span></b></div>
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Everybody knows that Tony Gwynn Jr. is the son of Hall of Fame hitting machine Tony Gwynn Sr. He's also the son of Alicia Gwynn, no minor footnote to the younger Gwynn.</div>
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"She's an extremely strong woman, born in South Carolina, five brothers and two sisters, a strong Christian and <i><u>she</u></i> raised me and my sister as such. We got a sound foundation," said the younger Gwynn.</div>
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Note that Gwynn said "she" raised the kids. <span style="line-height: 1.3em;">Dad was busy winning batting titles.</span></div>
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"Mostly, it was me and her and my sister (Anisha)," Gwynn said. "She was on top of us to go to school, clean our room, do the right things. She was the disciplinarian. Dad was focused on being the best he could be on the field. And Mom had no hesitation or animosity with her part of the deal. That was her job.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.3em;"></span>"Everybody knew about Dad and I. But I was just as close with Mom as Dad. I'd go to Dad for advice, but a lot of times he was on the road and I'd go to her. It was more comfortable going to her than Dad."</div>
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"I was. And we've talked a lot about this as I've gotten older, and he never understood why, but that's how I felt for a long time, longer than it should have," Gwynn said. "I would go to the field with him and see the intensity in how he'd work. It was a little scary for a young kid. That's why a lot of times I went to Mom. She figured it out early."</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.3em;">"I've told her, but not as much as I should," he said. "Women in this lifestyle don't get enough credit. For home games, he'd leave the house at 12:30 and wouldn't be home until late at night. They didn't spend a lot of time together, but she completely understood. My dad would tell you straight up: Without Mom holding him up, he wouldn't have been as successful. She would throw batting practice to him with a Wiffle ball. She was his work partner. Dad would always say Mom was the better athlete.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">"Her faith needs to be brought up; her faith in Jesus Christ helped my dad get through a lot. He's won eight batting titles, but he's had trying times [including two bouts with cancer]. I remember hearing a story -- one year at the break he was batting under .300 and Mom told him he'd win the batting title. He did. Her faith kept the family intact and going in the right direction."</span></b></div>
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Alicia Gwynn, whose parents were church elders, said she never pushed her son into being an athlete, only to be the best he could be at whatever he chose to do.</div>
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"We taught our children responsibility, character and how to lead a sustaining life," she said. "I like to think I have the best son in the world. He's grounded. I'm proud of the way he carries himself. I remember one time he didn't clean his room and he said he didn't have to because we had a housekeeper. I told him, 'She works for me, not for you, now go clean your room.' I wanted him to understand that, even though you are blessed, you still do your chores. He needed to grow up and appreciate the value of what he had.</div>
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"I'm proud of him as his mother. I went to his house and saw the routine he had with his three girls. As a mother, I appreciate how he is living his life. I always told him it's not about being a good player, it's about being a good human being."</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Baseball and smokeless spit tobacco</b></span></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Research by the Pro Baseball Athletic Trainers Society revealed the number of major leaguers who use spit tobacco has declined from about 50% to 33% in the last 20 years--</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">about 10 times the amount in the general population, according to the American Cancer Society, whose data from 2012 showed 3.5% of Americans 12 and older – or 9 million – use the highly addictive product.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyle Seager</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Seattle Mariners, Kyle Seager and DD/WDS Dental Director, Dr. Ron Inge were featured on King 5 Evening Magazine discussing the risks of smokeless tobacco. </span><a href="http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine/-Kyle-Seager-and-smokeless-tobacco-208687281.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine/-Kyle-Seager-and-smokeless-tobacco-208687281.html</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The current collective bargaining agreement, in effect from 2012-16, bans players, managers and coaches from using smokeless tobacco during TV interviews and team appearances. And they have to keep tobacco products out of sight while fans are at the ballpark.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">In addition, MLB and the players union have stepped up educational efforts, and teams – which in the past freely distributed cans of dip in the clubhouse – can no longer do so and are now required to administer oral exams as part of the spring training physicals every year.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Here is a video of Tony and his wife Alicia sharing about their cancer ordeal before his passing: </b></span></span><a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:6254063" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:6254063</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wyLcvgeTymA/U6XG1nDfXgI/AAAAAAAAEtc/LnMaBcxd6lA/s1600/Joe+Garagiola.smokeless+tobacco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wyLcvgeTymA/U6XG1nDfXgI/AAAAAAAAEtc/LnMaBcxd6lA/s1600/Joe+Garagiola.smokeless+tobacco.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe Garagiola</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Longtime TV announcer Joe Garagiola, who quit his smokeless tobacco habit in his 30s, made it his life's mission to warn other baseball folks about its dangers, making presentations during spring training alongside former major league outfielder Billy Tuttle, who died of oral cancer at 69 in 1998.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"I don't think we talk about it enough anymore," says Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "I remember as a young A-ball manager, Joe Garagiola would always come around in spring training with Bill Tuttle. It was scary.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"And I still see people chewing tobacco. Not only in the big leagues, but you still see kids in junior high and high school. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">For me, it's not enough yet. It's a shame."</span></span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-30592537112168385252014-03-17T07:24:00.001-07:002014-03-17T07:39:03.261-07:00New life multiplied in God's kingdom<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g6Z37idvp6A/UvER9Bb4vTI/AAAAAAAADMw/MFtSt3K63bE/s1600/PFC+North.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g6Z37idvp6A/UvER9Bb4vTI/AAAAAAAADMw/MFtSt3K63bE/s1600/PFC+North.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When I first came to the jail, I was still high. It took me a long time to realize what I had done. I was numb and didn't fear anything back then. I even tried to commit suicide. I felt sick to my stomach. I spent time crying and praying." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brad is a 26 years-old Native American incarcerated at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center since 2012. He was recently sentenced to 19 years likely at Walla Walla or Clallam Bay correction centers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the weeks before sentencing, he wrote out his testimony and gained a heart to influence other inmates about God's kingdom. We shared together about persevering in our deepening love for Jesus and remaining faithful in the Scriptures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his journey through the Department of Corrections sites, he will need to lean hard on Jesus in prayer. We prayed together purposefully about God bringing to Brad another faithful man he might fellowship and grow together with. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We kept studying about God's purposes in saving sinners to follow Jesus and multiply themselves with other men. We are miraculously gifted in the Holy Spirit to work out being God's men to reach other men within the amazingly creative ways He prepares each of us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span class="text 2Tim-2-1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">You then, <span class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29812A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></span>my child, <span class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29812B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></span>be strengthened by the grace that is in <span class="ex37ybl536" id="ex37ybl536_2" style="border-left-color: transparent; border-right-color: transparent; border-style: solid; border-top-color: transparent; border-width: 1px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Christ Jesus</span>,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="text 2Tim-2-2" id="en-ESV-29813" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">2 </span>and <span class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29813C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></span>what you have heard from me in the <span class="ex37ybl536" id="ex37ybl536_10" style="border-left-color: transparent; border-right-color: transparent; border-style: solid; border-top-color: transparent; border-width: 1px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">presence</span> of many <span class="ex37ybl536" id="ex37ybl536_8" style="border-left-color: transparent; border-right-color: transparent; border-style: solid; border-top-color: transparent; border-width: 1px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">witnesses</span> <span class="crossreference" style="font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29813D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></span>entrust to <span class="ex37ybl536" id="ex37ybl536_12" style="border-left-color: transparent; border-right-color: transparent; border-style: solid; border-top-color: transparent; border-width: 1px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; float: none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">faithful</span> men</span><span class="text 2Tim-2-2" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>who will be able to teach others also. ~2 Timothy 2:1-2</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Here is the MRJC part of Brad's own story</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I grew up on a reservation with a loving and hard-working mother and a verbally and physically abusive step-father. As a youth, I kept to myself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When I was 17, my life drastically changed as I got into drugs, alcohol, sex, and gang-banging. There were many fights. I had to bury a lot of my family and friends. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was depressed and felt hopeless. I didn't care if I lived or died, at that point. Drugs and violence were my life which landed me in jail and drug treatment."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brad passionately believed he could somehow save his people from drugs and alcohol and tried to quit drugs and alcohol, himself. There were four different trips to drug treatment. He held on to his heritage and culture. He clung to believing knowing and loving his native culture would solve the problem. He made many trips to the river with his drum to sing and pray. He searched for a peace. He always felt a Creator would show him the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I had a prejudice against the Christian faith because older missionaries wanted to "culture us" to their way of living. They put us on a little reservation and threw the kids in a boarding school. They beat our people if they practiced their language and culture. So, I never opened my heart to Jesus. On December 24th, I was really high and drunk and killed my cousin then I attacked and almost killed a police officer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"One night when I was in treatment, a missionary on the street told me to open my Bible. I was stubborn. Hate and prejudice filled my heart. I didn't listen because I wanted to have my own beliefs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Now I know it was all God's plan from the beginning. I put in a kite for pain medication when I really started reading the Bible. The nurses suggested I speak to a chaplain. I did and Chaplain Mark showed me where to start in the New Testament and a prayer to forgive me and for salvation. We did it but it was half-hearted because of my prejudice. I now know the devil tried to stop God's plan to save us from the lake of fire and eternal death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I've spent time in my cell reading and trying to understand the truth. It was very hard battling my pride, pain, and hate. I didn't want to change. It took time but I learned God loves me."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Epilogue</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brad and I met for weeks at the beginning and then he went through a season when he told me he didn't want to spend time with me. I go into his unit several times a week so I remained available to all the inmates. This cycle of meetings followed by apparent lack of interest repeated for around nine months.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9jtnmY6Bk5U/UycHVKEnR0I/AAAAAAAAD1M/UfLfomtb4x8/s1600/New+King+James+Study+Bible+with+Radmacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9jtnmY6Bk5U/UycHVKEnR0I/AAAAAAAAD1M/UfLfomtb4x8/s1600/New+King+James+Study+Bible+with+Radmacher.jpg" height="320" width="225" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God held Brad's heart but he was doing battle with those issues of hate and prejudice he shared in his testimony. Spiritual warfare was fully active. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many men in that unit ridicule those seeking to follow Jesus. His eyes telegraphed he wanted to meet but something was holding him back. I continued to pray and greeted him when I visited the unit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I invited him to meet with me and he was not interested until one day about 18 months ago. He shared he was ready and wanted to meet. He had been reading and marking his Bible. He brought in his NKJ Study Bible and began asking me questions about growing faith. We read, prayed, and laughed together. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were always more questions. His inquiries grew deeper as he was gaining understanding. God's truth was catching fire in Brad. My purpose was to answer his questions by showing him how to find the answers himself around the context in the passage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I repeated, "Where can you find the answer yourself? Let's look!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We worked together through learning to use the cross references, concordance, and study notes. I asked him to do his own study and share with me what he learned the next visit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would you join me in praying for Brad? We may be writing in the next weeks. Pray God Himself will use Brad to reach other men. Pray Brad will continually remain passionate to remain faithful and be God's man to multiply others in the correction center where he will be placed. </span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-34966388268502842442014-01-29T08:11:00.000-08:002014-01-29T19:23:38.225-08:00Multiplying disciples with marbles<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #555555; line-height: 19.5px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">"In my own </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">life</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">," Howard Hendricks said several years ago, " I can recall several profoundly influential figures who were strategically used by God to </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">change</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;"> the course of my life." </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">"The first was a man named Walt. Had it not been for Walt, I seriously doubt whether I would have ever become a follower of </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">Jesus Christ</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.5px;">." </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God often chooses to use ordinary folks to be His disciples and do life-changing, multiplying disciple-making. People are impacted by changed people who love other people toward walking with God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mike and Travis, an accountant and an engineer in our church family, are these kind of men. Each man just took off on "another level" with their Sunday School classes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Disciple-making lifts ministries into new stratospheres</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both were "out of the box" guys but never saw it, really. They wouldn't say they are creative, either. They put together special events with their curriculum of loving disciple-making. Classes were invited to their </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">homes </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for games and pizza.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It became common place to witness these men using a curb on our church campus to talk to the boys one-on-one. The boys loved these men.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Mike" and "Travis" are everywhere in our churches. They are following Jesus as His disciples and serving as His ministers in and all around the church. Some go into our communities and even around the world. Some go to the streets and into jails and prisons. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Disciple-making men and women are artists, accountants, bakers, computer geeks, custodians, engineers, fruit growers, gamers, nurses, physicians, software engineers, mothers, and dads, grandpas and grandmas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Disciple-making begins on the ground</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"I came from a broken home," Hendricks recounted. "My parents were separated before I was born, and neither one paid much attention to my spiritual condition. To put it bluntly, I could have lived, died, and gone to hell without anyone even bothering to care. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"But Walt cared. He was part of a tiny church in my neighborhood that developed a passion to affect its community for Christ.</span><br />
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“One day, he asked me, Would you like to play marbles?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />"Walt’s passion was to reach nine-and ten-year-old boys like me with the gospel. I’ll never forget that Saturday morning I met him. I was sprawled out on a Philadelphia sidewalk playing marbles. Suddenly someone was standing beside me. I looked up to see this gangly guy towering over me—all six feet, four inches of him. My mouth sort of dropped open.</span><br />
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“Hey, son, how would you like to go to Sunday school?” he asked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />"That was an unfortunate question. To my mind, anything that had the word “school” in it had to be bad news. So I shook my head no.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Disciple-making talks their language</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Walt was just getting started. “How would you like to play marbles?” he asked, squatting down. Now, he was talking my language!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Younger Howard Hendricks</span></td></tr>
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“Sure!” I replied, and quickly set up the game. As the best marble player on the block, I felt supremely confident that I could whip this challenger fairly easily.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><i>"Would you believe he beat me in every single game! In fact, he captured every marble I had. In the process, he captured my heart. I may have lost a game and a bit of pride that day, but I gained something infinitely more important—the friendship of a man who cared. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>"A big man, an older man, a man who literally came down to my level by kneeling to play a game of marbles. From then on, wherever Walt was, that’s where I wanted to be.</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Disciple-making builds into lives</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Walt built into my life over the next several years in a way that marked me forever. He used to take me and the other boys in his Sunday school class hiking. I’ll never forget those times. He had a bad heart, and I’m sure we didn’t do it any good, running him all over the woods the way we did. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"But he didn’t seem to mind, because he cared. In fact, he was probably the first person to show me unconditional love.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Disciple-making models faithfulness</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"</span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He was also a model of faithfulness</b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">. I can’t remember a time that he ever showed up to his Sunday school class unprepared. Not that he was the most scintillating teacher in the world. In fact, he had almost no training for that. Vocationally, he worked in the tool and die trade. But he was for real, and he was also creative. He found ways to involve us boys in the learning process—an approach that made a lasting contribution to my own style of teaching.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Disciple-making incarnates Christ</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Overall, Walt incarnated Christ for me</b>. And not only for me, but for thirteen other boys in my neighborhood, nine of whom also came from broken homes. Remarkably, eleven of us went on to pursue careers as vocational Christian workers—which is ironic, given that Walt himself completed school only through the sixth grade. It just goes to show," Hendricks concluded, "that a man doesn’t need a Ph.D. for God to use him to shape another man."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Disciple</b> in the Biblical context simply means one who follows and learns from a teacher. The disciple is mentored by another. The curriculum is knowing Christ. It doesn't require a Bible School, Seminary education, nor a library of books. Published curriculum is helpful but isn't necessary. The disciple's handbook is the Bible and the most faithful work life-on-life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Using Mike, Travis, Walt, Howard, and 13 boys, disciple-making starts where we meet people and where we want to invite them to join us. That's great for me because it tells me I can do it where the person I am meeting with and I are safest. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At Prisoners for Christ, we have a pen pal ministry. Letter writing is a form of disciple-making. Women are great at writing letters. There is a long list of male inmates who requested a faithful man to write them. They are still waiting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Disciple-making passionately serves</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dawson "Daws" Trotman founded the Navigators ministry and summarized disciple-making as, “a passionate call to maturity, spiritual reproduction and spiritual parenting </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to help fulfill the Great Commission,” in his text, "Born to reproduce."</span><br />
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<a data-datatype=""bible+esv"" data-reference=""Matthew 28:19"" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342223003799282272" rel="milestone" style="background-color: transparent; color: #006ca6; display: inline-block; font-size: 1em; height: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 0px;"></a><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: super;">19 </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Go therefore and </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">make disciples of </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">all nations, </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">baptizing them </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">in</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 0px;"><i> </i></span></span></span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Spirit</span></span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #dd0000;">,</span></span><span style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> </span><a data-datatype=""bible+esv"" data-reference=""Matthew 28:20"" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342223003799282272" rel="milestone" style="background-color: transparent; color: #006ca6; display: inline-block; font-size: 1em; height: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 0px;"></a><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: super;">20 </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">teaching them </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to observe all that </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I have commanded you. And behold, </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am with you always, to </span><span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the end of the age. </span></div>
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<span class="words-of-christ" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #dd0000; font-size: 1em; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~Matthew 28:19-20</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Effective disciple-making, Trotman taught, was based on three principles:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Remember, nothing under heaven except sin, immaturity, and lack of communion will put </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you in a position where you cannot reproduce.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-waDSn-FgwVo/UuknRMOlkmI/AAAAAAAADMM/qTRY2v3qlrc/s1600/Daws+Trotman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-waDSn-FgwVo/UuknRMOlkmI/AAAAAAAADMM/qTRY2v3qlrc/s1600/Daws+Trotman.jpg" height="267" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Daws Trotman enthusiasm</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. But when all things are right between you and the Lord, regardless of how much or how little </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">you know intellectually, from the standpoint of the world, you can be a spiritual parent And that </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">incidentally, may be when you are very young in the Lord. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. The Gospel spread to the known world during the first century without radio, television, or the </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">printing press, because these produced men who were reproducing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Daws started the Navs, there was no internet nor social media, both can be tools for disciple-making. There are many articles, booklets, and books available to do this disciple-making. You can fill in blanks together or read and discuss chapters. What might work best for you? You can start by simply meeting a need or acting on Paul's "one another" passages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Disciple-making loves Christ into the lives of others</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This ministry requires time and love. Disciple-makers love people enough to spend time with them. It is more than a casual conversation at the grocery story or in between services. Spending time together is incredibly flexible because it can be doing many things. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daws recounts the story, repeated many times over, of Sally, a young woman telephone worker who received Christ as her Savior at a Billy Graham Crusade. She found Pat, who wanted to learn about Jesus, who became another faithful woman. They followed Christ together. Sally had a daughter in Christ. After awhile, Pat met Sue and they did the same thing. Sally was now a spiritual grandmother and Pat had a spiritual daughter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"How was this done? God used the pure channel of these young Christians’ lives in their exuberance and first love for </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christ, and out of their hearts the incorruptible seed of the Word of God was sown in the hearts of other people." ~"Born to reproduce"</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-36251567884430821242014-01-14T07:15:00.000-08:002014-01-14T15:01:38.037-08:00Solitary hiding place<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TF1eDllsq1A/UtGdllGXHTI/AAAAAAAADKI/FO_xIo3PYq8/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TF1eDllsq1A/UtGdllGXHTI/AAAAAAAADKI/FO_xIo3PYq8/s1600/pfc-logo.png" width="312" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I am afraid what will happen after I am released. I don't want to be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Ron confided.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ron is an inmate at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center, in Kent, Washington where I serve as a chaplain through Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over several months, he completed Bible studies, meets with several solid chaplains and appears to be progressing in daily faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Men may show signs of being responsive. They experience stress and take steps to change their lives. They want to live a better life but are not certain what that will look like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They will have to change their behaviors. They need to have a definitive plan and support to live differently. They aren't sure they want to do that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some want to change because they think God will be proud of them. Really, they will get out of jail quicker. They want a "get out of jail" card.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If they are looking for this quick out, they will be sadly disappointed. They are going to face the court. There are consequences for what they are guilty of. My heart is to care for them whether they are innocent or guilty and whatever the courts and lawyers determine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I tell them circumstances may get more complicated after they choose to follow Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One officer this last week said to me, "Over the years, I have learned you can't tell the book by its cover."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ron wants to be sure he continues in the faith after leaving the jail. His wife is not saved and she is not certain what is happening in Ron's life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His old "fellow users" are in his neighborhood. As his release date approaches, he worries about what is out there. He knows how he acted before he came into jail. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For some, change goes as far but no further than talking to fellow inmates. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some request prayer and talk a couple of times. Others examine their lives and want to hear about walking in faith--we might meet 10 or more times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many attended church as a child. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They participated with church and would say they are Christians.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>They remember praying grandparents or a faithful mother. In staggering numbers, inmates do not have a solid father in their lives--he is often not part of their lives. </span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I start asking simple questions... </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Could you share your testimony with me? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is your spiritual journey? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have you attended church? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you have a Bible in your room...are you reading it?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would you like to read with me?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How may I pray with you, right now?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Jesus, Jesus, Jesus</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just listen and keep asking questions, praying along the way. The Lord may lead me to a passage of Scripture. They may want me to pray. When they see I genuinely listened and prayed with them, I a great ministry may be accomplished. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I start, often with us reading together the conversion testimony of Charles Spurgeon. Here it is...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Un71TfEVhdM/UtGeY8qg2sI/AAAAAAAADKQ/C1EhLUDsUtk/s1600/Charles+H.+Spurgeon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Un71TfEVhdM/UtGeY8qg2sI/AAAAAAAADKQ/C1EhLUDsUtk/s1600/Charles+H.+Spurgeon.jpg" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles H. Spurgeon</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"On
a memorable sixth day of January, 1850, at 15, Charles Spurgeon rose before the
sun, to pray and to read one of his bedside books. He found no rest. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I
cried to God with groaning—I say it without exaggeration—groaning that cannot
be uttered! And oh, how I sought, in my poor dark way, to overcome first one
sin and then another, and so to do better, in God's strength, against the
enemies that assailed me, and not, thank God, altogether without success,
though still the battle had been lost unless He had come who is the <i><b>Overcomer
of sin</b></i> and the <i><b>Deliverer of His people</b></i>, and had put the hosts to flight."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Jesus. <span style="font-size: large;"><i>Jesus</i>.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">JESUS!</span></b><b> He alone, He without another, had become the solitary
hiding place against the storm. <br />
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I sometimes think I might have been
in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God in
sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of
worship. I turned down a side street, and came to a little <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Primitive</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Methodist</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>. </span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In
that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the
Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads
ache; but that did not matter to me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>I wanted to know how I might be saved.</b><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br />
The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a
very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went
up into the pulpit to preach. Now it is well that preachers be instructed, but
this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple
reason that he had little else to say. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
text was—<b>"LOOK TO ME AND BE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH."</b>
(Isaiah 45:22) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">He did not even pronounce the words
rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for
me in that text.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The preacher began
thus:</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This
is a very simple text indeed. It says ‘<b>LOOK.</b>’
Now, <b>looking</b> don’t take a deal of pain. It doesn't require lifting your foot or your finger, It is just ‘<b>look</b>.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to <b>look</b>. Nobody needs a huge salary to <b>look</b>. You may be the biggest fool, and
yet you can <b>look</b>. Anyone can<b> look</b>; even a child can <b>look</b>. But then the text says, ‘<b>Look to <st1:state w:st="on">Me<span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></st1:state><span style="font-weight: normal;">’
Ay!" he said in broad <st1:place w:st="on">Essex</st1:place>, "</span>many
of you are looking to yourselves, but it’s no use looking there. </b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“You’ll
never find any comfort in yourselves. Some say <b>look</b> to God the Father. No, <b>look</b>
to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘<b>Look
to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Me<span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></st1:state></st1:place></b>’
Some of you say ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin.’ You have no business
with that just now. <b>Look to Christ</b>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The text says, ‘<b>Look to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Me<span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-weight: normal;">’ "Then the good man followed up his text in
this way:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hxqDUzi1w1U/UtG8p1mrQkI/AAAAAAAADKg/PBW1nRktctw/s1600/Jesus+crucified.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hxqDUzi1w1U/UtG8p1mrQkI/AAAAAAAADKg/PBW1nRktctw/s1600/Jesus+crucified.png" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Look
to Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look to Me; I am
hangin’ on the cross. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Look to Me, I am
dead and buried. </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look to Me; I rise
again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look to Me; I
ascend to Heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look to Me; I am
sitting at the Father’s right hand. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">O poor sinner, look
to Me! Look to Me!"</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">When
he had managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his
tether. Then, he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay with so few
present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew
all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable." Well, I
did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my
personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He
continued, "And you will always be miserable—miserable in life and
miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment,
you will be saved." Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a
Primitive Methodist could do,</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"Young man, turn to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!"</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I
saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take
much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought . . . .</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I had been waiting to do fifty
things, but when I heard that word, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>"Look</b><b>!"</b></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> what a charming word it seemed to me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Oh!
There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that
moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the
most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple
faith which <b>looks alone to Him</b>. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh, that somebody had
told me this before, </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>"Trust Christ, and you shall be saved."</b></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yet it
was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say—</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 10pt;">"</span><b><span style="color: #990000;">E’er since by faith I
saw the stream</span></b><b> <span style="color: #990000; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Thy flowing wounds supply,</span> <span style="color: #990000; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Redeeming love has been my
theme,</span> <span style="color: #990000; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">and shall
be till I die. . ."</span> </b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
That happy day when I found the Savior, and learned to cling to His dear feet,
was a day never to be forgotten by me . . . . I listened to the Word of God and
that precious text led me to the cross of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I
can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. I could have
leaped, I could have danced; there was no expression, however fanatical, which
would have been out of keeping with the joy of that hour. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many
days of Christian experience have passed since then, but there has never been
one which has had the full exhilaration, the sparkling delight which that first
day had. I thought I could have sprung from the seat in which I sat, and called
out with the wildest of those Methodist brethren . . . <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I am
forgiven! I am forgiven! A monument of grace! A sinner saved by blood!"<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b>My
spirit saw its chains broken to pieces; I felt that I was an emancipated soul,
an heir of heaven, a forgiven one, accepted in Jesus Christ, plucked out of the
miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my
goings established. </b></span></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Between
half-past ten o’clock, when I entered that chapel, and half-past twelve
o’clock, when I was back again at home, what a change had taken place in me!</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simply by turning
to Jesus </span></span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I
had been delivered from despair, and I was brought into such a joyous state of
mind that, when they saw me at home, they said to me, "Something wonderful
has happened to you," and I was eager to tell them all about it. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh! There was joy in the household that day,
when all heard that the eldest son had found the Savior and knew himself to be
forgiven."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>My solitary hiding place against the storms</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tears start falling for some in the the first couple of paragraphs. "<b>Jesus. <i>Jesus</i>. JESUS!</b><b> He alone, He without another, <u>is</u> my solitary hiding place against the storms in my life." </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we read together, I am praying the Lord will use this testimony to touch this man's heart. I want to learn how genuinely interested they are in seeking repentance and forgiveness for their sins. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now, what are they willing to say about where are they really at? Where do they stand with Jesus? Are they just looking for a way out, again?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S_HknGkx-a4/UtNJc8W1U8I/AAAAAAAADKw/_rRpeEVFGTk/s1600/repeent+means+change+your+mind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S_HknGkx-a4/UtNJc8W1U8I/AAAAAAAADKw/_rRpeEVFGTk/s1600/repeent+means+change+your+mind.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Looking or turning to Jesus goes directly with believing and repentance. The sinner changes his mind and turns away from his or her old life. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Life with Jesus is all about the person. Repenting people look or turn directly to God through Jesus Christ and bring their sins to Him. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The inmate finds out they thought they were Christians but never heard of any of this before....or, they have prayed numerous times to be saved. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some "prayed the salvation prayer" repeatedly only to walk out of their jail and prison experience and returned to their old experiences. They may be saved and have stumbled badly and repeatedly. We need to be discussing walking in obedience and what it means to be His disciple. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Like every inmate, I have scrapes on my knees and elbows to prove it. My sins are different than theirs... but we are all sinners. I am His and He is mine. I am loved by a great God. I am forgiven based on what Jesus accomplished, once and for all. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't need to keep asking Jesus to save me. He already saved me. The repenting one needs to obey the commands of Jesus and grow up in godliness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The priority is always about Jesus. Jesus calls for repentance from the heart, receive forgiveness and be saved, and be His disciple. Following Jesus, being His disciple means obedience to the truth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That is where we start. I may ask them to read John 3:1-21, 10:1-10-27-29 and John 14:1-6 and 15:1-16. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </b></div>
Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-89774261018490505762013-06-17T17:00:00.000-07:002013-06-17T17:00:13.931-07:00Angry skeletons<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NfKHJlyqOrA/Ub3VdP-gHXI/AAAAAAAACYc/YhI3LRK7x24/s1600/DFEE2D07-E722-46F6-8F03-46E5CA7DABED.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NfKHJlyqOrA/Ub3VdP-gHXI/AAAAAAAACYc/YhI3LRK7x24/s200/DFEE2D07-E722-46F6-8F03-46E5CA7DABED.PNG" width="195" /></a><br />
<blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 50px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to </span>smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back–in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. </span>The skeleton at the feast is you."</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">―Frederick Buechner, <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wishful-Thinking-Seekers-Frederick-Buechner/dp/0060611391/?tag=thegospcoal-20" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC</a></em> (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 2.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Proverbs 6:16-19 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These "seven deadly sins," as they were coined, are outlined by Solomon.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MqIWsg2O_mI/Ub-ihhN5u4I/AAAAAAAACZI/JLGcA3hLyhc/s1600/Buechner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MqIWsg2O_mI/Ub-ihhN5u4I/AAAAAAAACZI/JLGcA3hLyhc/s200/Buechner.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>16 </b>There are six things that the <span class="small-caps" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord</span> hates, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">seven that are an abomination to him:</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>17 </b>haughty eyes, a lying tongue, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">hands that shed innocent blood,</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-indent: -3.5em;"><b>18</b> a heart that devises wicked plans, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">feet that make haste to run to evil,</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>19 </b>a false witness who breathes out lies, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and one who</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">sows discord among brothers.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are six things our great and awesome God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hates. In the next phrase, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The seventh, "one who sows discord among brothers," reaches the level of abomination. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God hates sin. That ought to make me fear His discipline and bow down to worship Him in holy humility.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The six, and seven, things are:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. haughty eyes</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. a lying tongue</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. hands that shed innocent blood</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. a heart that devises wicked plans</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. feet that make haste to run to evil</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. a false witness who breathes out lies</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. one who sows discord among brothers</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Memorizing this text through our church Awana program several years ago, we noted these things run from head to toe. They run from our eyes to our tongue three times, to our hands and finally to our heart. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Feast anger</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The exact word "anger," doesn't appear. Angry behaviors run right through virtually it all. The haughty eyes are prideful and can lead to angry responses to others. A lying tongue is angry. Hands shedding innocent blood are angry. Hearts devising wicked plans. Angry. Feet running to evil. Angry. False witness lying mentioned twice in 17 and 19. Initiating anger. Sowing discord among family and friends is anger boiling over. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Domestic violence and no contact orders are really common among the male inmates, their families, in relationships among themselves where I serve as a chaplain at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent through</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PFC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I watched anger in my schools growing up and right through my Masters level work. I saw it in the middle schools where I worked as a special ed teacher among certain students, other teachers, and administrators. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I experienced anger among youth teams I played on, later reported on as a newspaper sports reporter, and those I later I coached. In one season in particular, I acted out. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I experienced wrath and anger in the churches I have attended. Some are very angry in churches. I was angry especially in one of the churches where I was the pastor. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People I thought were caring stirred up trouble to cause divisions among their friends. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was anger flashing in my home growing up and with our own home. I grew up in a great, caring family with loving parents and a brother and sister. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I think it is everybody else, sometimes the Lord wakes me up in the middle of the night. It was me. He reminded me of events. I experienced anger in other people who hurt me. I was angry toward others so I hurt them. That is the definition of dysfunction. Hurting people hurt people. God hates these things. They are abominations, He said. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Buechner said,</span>" <b><i>I</i></b></span><i><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">n many ways it is a feast fit for a king.</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. </b></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>The skeleton at the feast is you.</b>"</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Anger "licks it's wounds."</b> The angry person wants to feel sorry for himself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Anger "smacks its lips over grievances past."</b> The angry person keeps remembering and rolling over what happened. The grievance was from a long time ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Anger revels in "</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>rolling over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come.</b>" The angry person rehearses with other people what might never happen. The more the future confrontation is considered, bitterness grows. The confrontation has not even happened. Anger may easily escalates into confrontation with listeners who are not involved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">"Therefore </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,</span><a alt="esv_01" class="va" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6342223003799282272" rel="v58012013" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">but rather be healed. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">Strive for peace with everyone, and for the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">holiness </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">without which no one will see the Lord. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">See to it that no one </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">fails to obtain the grace of God; that no </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; line-height: 22px; text-indent: 25.920001983642578px;">“root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled..." ~Hebrews 12:12-15</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Anger "</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>savors to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back.</b>" This is a twisted pleasure. Savoring something at a great holiday meal means we </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.296875px;">appreciate the smell, taste or feeling</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24.296875px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.296875px;">of a particular dish. The angry man or woman works over pain they are experiencing and what they are dishing out. </span></span><br />
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Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-78199567672785574202013-06-15T09:35:00.000-07:002013-06-15T13:07:59.346-07:00Writing as an acute gift<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"This is a gift I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s0-qBxiXJIw/UbtfXTczIUI/AAAAAAAACWI/mctwEt-lgUQ/s1600/DFEE2D07-E722-46F6-8F03-46E5CA7DABED.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b></b></a></span></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s0-qBxiXJIw/UbtfXTczIUI/AAAAAAAACWI/mctwEt-lgUQ/s1600/DFEE2D07-E722-46F6-8F03-46E5CA7DABED.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s0-qBxiXJIw/UbtfXTczIUI/AAAAAAAACWI/mctwEt-lgUQ/s200/DFEE2D07-E722-46F6-8F03-46E5CA7DABED.PNG" width="195" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions...But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it."</b></span> ~William Shakespeare on writing<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-soN--Z9ZdqI/Ubuk0M786ZI/AAAAAAAACWU/RyBGqRHPdMI/s1600/Writer's+idea+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-soN--Z9ZdqI/Ubuk0M786ZI/AAAAAAAACWU/RyBGqRHPdMI/s200/Writer's+idea+book.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seeking to rekindle my writing, I rechecked a book out of the library. Shakespeare's gift is the process of writing, whether anybody else reads it or not. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book is, "<i><b>The writer's idea book--How to develop great ideas for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and screenplay</b>,</i>" by Jack Heffron. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WhPGDuuhVS0/Ubx9BJViFfI/AAAAAAAACXI/IB3Zj4KdTbg/s1600/Writers+Notebook+by+Ralph+Fletcher.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WhPGDuuhVS0/Ubx9BJViFfI/AAAAAAAACXI/IB3Zj4KdTbg/s200/Writers+Notebook+by+Ralph+Fletcher.png" width="134" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I dabbled with his writing prompts and it was very helpful to stimulate right activities to write. I discovered blogs. His book carried me a long way. I need his friendship and mentoring in my writing, again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also appreciate Ralph Fletcher's, "<b>A writer's notebook--unlocking the writer within you</b>." This is a very helpful text for youth and adults in small book, 137 pages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ralph encourages writers to maintain their own, customized notebook with seed thoughts, prompts, pictures and themes. Creating a notebook is all about experimenting. I tried to use it with special education middle school students. It seems far more productive for me/</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The gift I have, simple, simple</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My path of writing started in junior high and high school. My Mom had me write family Christmas letters. My parents were always so encouraging. I still have a set of magazine articles from my great aunt on writing. It looked so good but sitting still and concentrating that long was imposing. I wanted to shoot my basketball or play catch. Always diversion and distractions from the gift. Still, I was already on my lifelong path of writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Family and friends told me how much they appreciated my <b>hand-written letters</b>. I hadn't started using my Smith Carona typewriter. Word processors and computers were in the next decade. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started <b>sports writing </b>in high school. Readers were very encouraging. I focused on <b>journalism</b> at Green River Community College and graduated with a bachelors degree in communications journalism from Washington State University. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While working at Boeing in Auburn, I was a <b>procedures writer</b> and published a <b>"Good news at work" monthly newsletter</b> circulated in several sites, even as far as Wichita. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the mid-1980s, I participated in <b>writers critique groups</b> and had a couple of <b>articles published</b> in smaller Christian magazines. I attended several <b>writing conferences</b> in Washington and Oregon. Other published writers gave me loving pushes and some strong exhortations, to keep writing. I <b>journaled</b> in three-ring notebooks for a long time. I was hopeful and productive in my writing. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a pastor, I wrote many <b>sermons and Bible studies</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, I was engulfed in painful experiences around my pastoral ministry and a succession of job losses. I entered what John Bunyan described as a "slough of despond." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was hurt and very angry. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The writing changed alot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was writing then but it wasn't the same. Our great God was teaching me about pride and humility through His University of life. I needed and finally received counseling for anger.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am engaging where I feel acute pleasure in writing. Often, I <b>publish these blog posts</b>. Other times, I <b>write and edit emails</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I may be able to get published other places but it doesn't matter where or if I am published anywhere else. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writing is a gift from the Lord for others and me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I living in a simple, focused gift, I I move from </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b>have to</b></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic;">want t</b><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>o</b></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The gift becomes acute. Even after I publish, more editing cycles are needed. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The long process of writing, editing several times, and publishing helps me to think about other ideas to keep writing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Do you need to rekindle gifting?</i></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>loving your spouse... </i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>caring for your children... </i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>praying... </i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>participating in or leading a small group...</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>writing songs or lyrics...</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>writing poetry...</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>playing an instrument...</i></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>What are good, acute pleasure gifts in your life?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Extravagant spirit in finding Scanectady</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ABMRJihGdKg/UbxrQxum7AI/AAAAAAAACWk/yfHr1t6Yy9Y/s1600/Scanectady+rose+garden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ABMRJihGdKg/UbxrQxum7AI/AAAAAAAACWk/yfHr1t6Yy9Y/s200/Scanectady+rose+garden.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Scanectady rose garden</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An extravagant spirit motivates the writer to keep at it. Writing gets me into a place where I concentrate. I write, stop, and write more. I need to do other legitimate things so I put it aside. When I am in the writing mode, I am thinking about my writing while I am doing those other things. There is always more editing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sci-fi author Ray Bradbury was asked where he gets story ideas. He quipped his ideas come from "<b><i>The</i></b> <i><b>Scanectady Center for Ideas</b></i>." Where is that? It doesn't exist. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An extravagant spirit finds great ideas to start writing. When I don't write regularly, my ideas have little more than jiggles. Creativity seems non-existent. Writing is lonely. You just write. Some say great writers sacrifice in blood.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJbSXDf0iLM/Ubxtlq-WbSI/AAAAAAAACW0/21wlkGmLJRo/s1600/Scanectady+Nott+Memorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJbSXDf0iLM/Ubxtlq-WbSI/AAAAAAAACW0/21wlkGmLJRo/s200/Scanectady+Nott+Memorial.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nott Memorial in Scanectady</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are no short-cuts to developing ideas for writing. Ideas might come from something a friend says. It didn't mean too much, at first. Then, it grabs you. Heffron gives me writing prompts. There are websites available, as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Could the the Nott Memorial, built in 1815, on the campus of Union College in Scanectady be Bradbury's center for ideas? It is truly stately but there is no "center for ideas." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writing requires tapping into memories, ideas, reflections, responses to what is happening all around. Scanectady is where I locate subjects. Remarkable subjects come from the Holy Spirit. Somebody you don't even know may need exactly what you are hearing. I learn to trust what I am hearing and write. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ukYIabiLbo/UbyRx1mQolI/AAAAAAAACXk/ejUGl_mpdu4/s1600/writers+notebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ukYIabiLbo/UbyRx1mQolI/AAAAAAAACXk/ejUGl_mpdu4/s200/writers+notebook.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a writer's notebook</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writers keep some kind of file for ideas. I won't just magically remember. I have a place now on my phone and Ipad to record ideas. I also have a small spiral notepad. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An extravagant spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit to to discover ways to enter into Scantectady places that seemed locked. Writers get back to writing. As I write on one topic, other memories come to the surface. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Full of forms, figures and shapes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writing comes in multiple forms, figures, and shapes.</span><span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> In am listening to the flow and colors in the descriptive western writing of Zane Grey. He paints word pictures with vivid colors in his settings. We smell and feel life in 1916 western US. We are right there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't see myself as creative. I fill up my life with other things which become diversions. This isn't a guilt trip. Sometimes, other things really need to be done. Writi</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ng requires getting buckled into a seat with a "keeping at it" spirit. There are more descriptive words and tightening the text to be attended to. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Acute pleasure comes in many figures and shapes. Recently, a brother received an e-mail from a very gifted vocalist. They participating in singing lessons together. Their instructor encouraged her to participate in one of the national television singing contests. She could be very successful. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My friend confirmed her amazing giftedness. She takes pleasure in singing. Using Shakespeare's analogy, the question is her sense of acute pleasure in using her singing gift. She considers how and where will she use her gift. What or who motivates her to sing? Why sing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My friend pointed her to Paul, "</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">And </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px;">giving thanks to God the Father through Him."</span></span><span class="extra_text" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span class="extra_text" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #363030; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">~Colossians 3:17</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">She is fully engaged with her husband in their local church. She is finding figures and shapes, all kinds of venues, to use the gift God gave her. Many strongly encourage her to keep singing. Using God's gifts is dynamic. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Our gifts come in many figures and shapes. We like things to be steady and sometimes they are. Other times, we know all too well, are rocky with twisted turns.Some experiences getting a cars back on the road. There are places we don't expect and haven't planned for. The use of our gift helps us stay on His path for us. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Apprehensions, motions and revolutions</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Some writing digs deep into hard places. Apprehension is an a</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">nxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen. </span><span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Some authors take readers to dysfunctional, hurting places. Apprehension believes there may be no exits of freeways of pain. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dock in life needs repair</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Grief and sorrow are dark rooms. There are cycles of family strain, prodigal family members, painful job loss, conflict, and struggle. Sometimes, there are doesn't appear to be a happy ending. </span><span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Apprehensions are where many readers and writers live in daily experience. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">There are resolutions and reconciliations, new jobs, and relief. </span><span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Life is in motion. Writers take us to those places, too. Kids grow up, start their journeys, and leave home. Authors take us through the changes of life. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">The apprehensions, motions, and revolutions in best stories, like some of the parable of Jesus and chapters in our lives, have unfinished endings. We can write and live the endings.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Shakespeare's revolutions involved political and interpersonal conflict. He writes about intrigue. Macbeth and Brutus are hard. He makes his characters real because we identify with their actions. We recognize his characters in people we see in our contemporary life experience. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">We all have very important other things to do. Obedient living requires balance. We need to do needed and right things at home, in our churches, and wherever we are serving on a daily basis. The pleasure is acute when we exercise right responsibility. Using our gift requires careful time management. We are right to be passionate about loving God right through the roof. We can rejoice to have many interests. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cya2HhsEB24/UbyWvecmJJI/AAAAAAAACX0/en7LiaBBcSM/s1600/scheduling+time+to+write.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cya2HhsEB24/UbyWvecmJJI/AAAAAAAACX0/en7LiaBBcSM/s200/scheduling+time+to+write.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Acute writing exercises here</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Acute pleasure comes when we carefully work out scheduling time to write. We could be doing so many other things. If I want to be consistent with writing, I need to be acute. When I am scheduled to write, I need to write at the appointed time.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #363030; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Acute gifts whisper in our ears to invite us back. The gift brings us to healing, good places for each of us. We come back to the right pleasure. When it is this "good acute pleasure," we need and want to be there. The gift brings us to peace and worth. </span><br />
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Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-64261434550923610062013-03-23T22:06:00.004-07:002013-03-23T22:09:04.199-07:00Retreating doesn't resolve conflicts <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MtudOyNOwgc/UU4xdDVqysI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/yN0Gf6YLg60/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MtudOyNOwgc/UU4xdDVqysI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/yN0Gf6YLg60/s1600/pfc-logo.png" /></a>"I <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">get frustrated with all the talk around here, I've been spending most of my days by myself in my unit or watching TV," Jack admitted, recently. Jack is an inmate at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent and we've met together regularly the ninth months he has been here. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This retreating away from others is Jack's pattern. He gets really hard on others all around him. We often discuss ways to get away from the stress with short time-outs racked back in his unit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a Christian, he meets with several others for Bible reading and fellowship most days. In the process, he gets disrupted and stays away from the guys who really care about him for several days. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jack is writing out his testimony. We talk about what the Lord has done and continues to do in his life. Retreating from conflicts isn't solving his inner turmoil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In balance, most of the men don't tell the chaplains everything that happens when they share about their conflicts in their units in the day rooms. The picture presented to us is most often warped. Once recently, the day officer who knows Jack well even confronted Jack about staying away from the others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Preparing for the Republic of the Congo in May</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I share more about Jack, I am raising support, about 1/4 completed toward $3,500, and making plans for another PFC short-term missions trip to the Republic of the Congo beginning May 1 with Nate Bean and Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel. I'll be overseeing finances with our Excel spreadsheet again and coordinating our airport travel details as part of my servant-leadership training.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are planning three evangelistic prison services and two conferences to encourage those already serving in prisons and others wanting to get started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the geographically smaller and more western on the two Congo nations in Africa, the other being the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We will be flying into Brazzaville, on the southeast borde</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is common for conflicts to stir just below the surface most days--the reality of jail and prison life everywhere. Often, it takes very little for these little things to erupt. The men stay in an open day room with circular tables and plastic chairs. They can play cards and watch TV while they are out. They can walk around and get exercise in the contained recreation area. Guys talk about their lives outside the jail and often tell expanded stories about what is going on. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guys get frazzled around twisted attitudes and short tempers. Some get frustrated enough to raise their voices, argue, and occasionally break into fights. I remind the guys they are incarcerated. Some purposefully look for ways to get under their fellow-inmates skin. Others are manipulating controllers. If they can draw another man into their behaviors, they like it all the more--they think highly of getting others suckered in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Resolving conflicts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jack and the other men know they struggle with conflicts. It is a defeating cycle and for many of them, a pattern in their lives since boyhood. We read and carefully walk through key Bible passages with men about practical spiritual growth so their wives, children, and families recognize their transformation. Some grow a great deal. Others talk a good game. Another group deeply cares and makes small but real incremental steps of growth.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lj_M3aTh6dM/UU48c3gvF3I/AAAAAAAAB9g/FYfuyvlM5Ew/s1600/Peacemaker+by+Sande.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lj_M3aTh6dM/UU48c3gvF3I/AAAAAAAAB9g/FYfuyvlM5Ew/s200/Peacemaker+by+Sande.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, I attended a Friday-Saturday regional seminar in Beaverton, Oregon about Biblical peacemaking--applying the gospel to conflicts of daily life through <i>Peacemaker Ministries out of Billings, Montana</i> with some new friends from the Maple Valley Presbyterian Church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I read a book by Ken Sande around 20 years ago called, "The Peacemaker." I've returned back several times as conflicts arose among my own family, our employment, and stir within our churches we attend. While I served as a pastor in two small churches, we struggled very unsuccessfully with unresolved conflicts. Conflict is everywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the years, I've gone to seminars that seemed so good while attending but when I returned the material didn't fit. I thought it would all be so good. While at this event, it was very clear I could start using the material, immediately. Starting this past week, I actively tweak my presentations for the individuals I am sharing with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Escape or attack modes </span> </span><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Md31RGi-pw/UU6BL2EVpyI/AAAAAAAAB9w/vzz4gv18Qbg/s1600/Peacemaker+slippery+slope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4Md31RGi-pw/UU6BL2EVpyI/AAAAAAAAB9w/vzz4gv18Qbg/s400/Peacemaker+slippery+slope.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Returning to Jack, in my inmate discussion, Peacemaker Ministries presentation notes we revert to escape or attack when we are confronted with a sticky conflict. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I asked Jack and he didn't hesitate. He retreats. He runs away. He hides within himself. I asked what his wife would say. He said, she would say I escape away from the family. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The escaping person might go so far as to consider suicide. Most often, they flee or live in a world of denial. In some ways, this escape mode is every bit as aggressive. The passive aggressive response is an assertive way to seek attention and manipulate others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The attacking person might consider murdering another person. Yes, again, that is far out. They will verbal assault or accusation. Their legal action is litigation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The purpose is to move further inside the peacemaker responses. the peaceful person overlooks an offense toward reconciliation. Negotiation with compromise and win-win between the parties is the goal. Mediation with a third party to facilitate compromise may be required. We want to draw as close to win-win, as possible. If needed, we agree to a mediated resolution so we can move ahead productively.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to resolve conflict, it seems so basic to note both parties need to be willing to participate. We know, sometimes circumstances are so strained communication and participation becomes very hard. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do you respond to unresolved conflict or when you don't get your way? Do you escape or attack? Where are you at on the diagram? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-73196884830253209782013-03-08T21:35:00.001-08:002013-03-08T21:37:12.235-08:00Police follow-up in Chennai<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-24QCLhaipgA/UTo5Dekq5xI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/hEK_Qeldaks/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-24QCLhaipgA/UTo5Dekq5xI/AAAAAAAAB8Q/hEK_Qeldaks/s1600/pfc-logo.png" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We confronted yet one more unexpected event every day on the last leg in our short-term India missions trip to Chennai and back up to Dehli. Chennai is on the southeastern coast of India.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am making plans for our next missions trip to the Congo beginning May 1 with Nate Bean, and Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we got to Chennai, we connected with Prem Raj, our PFC missionary for the southern part of India, and Charles Finney, who is working with Prem Raj. We participated in two teaching conferences and visited the Basilica of St. Thomas and the St. Thomas Mount around Chennai.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MO__5ZKFnyg/UTqGJIWiKxI/AAAAAAAAB9A/YTb0owqa1_k/s1600/India.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MO__5ZKFnyg/UTqGJIWiKxI/AAAAAAAAB9A/YTb0owqa1_k/s320/India.gif" width="291" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We visited Chennai's beach, recognized as the largest in the world and the site of a chilling tsunami in 2004 and tremors from an 8.6 Indonesian earthquake in April of 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also visited an Christian orphanage with 46 children Charles Finney helps to oversee. Looking out over the children on that sunny day, I actively prayed for several couples in our Faith Baptist Church family who adopted children over the past many years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Families take orphans one by one. The remaining children stay where they are. There are teams of faithful workers who care for these precious youth until the kids are 18. What a quiet ministry. Some orphanages care for children of inmates.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d6yj_AE1ITQ/UTo7TQ16VhI/AAAAAAAAB8g/_liA9NIx8OM/s1600/prayer+with+Charles+in+Chennai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d6yj_AE1ITQ/UTo7TQ16VhI/AAAAAAAAB8g/_liA9NIx8OM/s200/prayer+with+Charles+in+Chennai.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greg led prayer</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just before departing for Dehli, our team visited with Charles in his Chennai home. In the adjacent picture, Greg Von Tobel and our team prayed with Scott Minter, Prem Raj, Charles Finney, and me. Don Szolomayer rested on that day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Police follow-up in Chennai</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the conferences, I taught sessions on <i>working with prison officer staff members</i> and the <i>code of conduct</i>, knowing and following the rules in the jails and prisons where we serve. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We learned the police visited the host church where we presented the second conference after we departed--another chapter to take a deep breath and surrender the trip to the Lord. It appears the police wanted to know what we, the foreign missionaries, were presenting or what we were doing there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The exact reason for the police follow-up was never made clear. After our initial experiences at the prayer conference the previous week, we asked among ourselves if there was some kind of connection between the two events. What kinds of spiritual warfare might have been active around us? As we prayed, we asked Him for discernment concerning our time in India. We still don't know the direct answers to our questions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we are sharing with people in the country and traveling, I now see why we identify ourselves as tourists and emphasize the places we visit. I shared once about teaching conferences and described it as character development. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was cautioned about quietly singing hymns on a previous trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dehli included the Red Fort</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l__bZhbNs_s/UTo_uiyVTrI/AAAAAAAAB8w/n4J5DXEz1-8/s1600/Red+Fort,+Dehli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l__bZhbNs_s/UTo_uiyVTrI/AAAAAAAAB8w/n4J5DXEz1-8/s1600/Red+Fort,+Dehli.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Fort in Old Dehli</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before returning home, we completed a shopping tour in Dehli and visited the outside of the Red Fort with Joshua Gawda, our PFC missionary in the northern part of India. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikipedia notes the Red Fort was built in 1638:</span><br />
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The Red Fort covers a total area of about 254.67 acres enclosed within 2.4 kilometres of defence walls.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Batra2008_1-1" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort#cite_note-Batra2008-1" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup> The walls are punctuated by turrets and bastions. They vary in height from 18 m on the river side to 33 m on the city side. The fort is shaped like an octagon with the north-south axis longer than the east-west axis. The use of marble, floral decorations, double domes in the buildings inside the fort exemplifies the later phase of Mughal architecture.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Langmead178_20-0" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort#cite_note-Langmead178-20" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">[20]</a></sup></div>
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It showcases a very high level of art form and ornamental work. It is believed that the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohinoor" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Kohinoor">Kohinoor</a> diamond was a part of the furniture. The art work in the Fort is a synthesis of Persian, European and Indian art which resulted in the development of unique Shahjahani style which is very rich in form, expression and color. Red Fort is one of the important building complexes of India which encapsulates a long period of Indian history and its arts. Even before its notification as a monument of national importance in the year 1913, efforts were made to preserve and conserve the Red Fort, for posterity.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also had lunches at KFC and McDonalds, both more expensive than other restaurants. While in a foreign country, we don't drink fruit juices or unbottled water. We don't eat lettuce, uncooked vegetables, or tomato slices. We are careful what we order. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am especially cautious everywhere because I don't handle spicey foods nor curry-flavored items. Yes, that means I watch very carefully and commonly eat smaller meals. That doesn't hurt anything. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apostle Thomas sites were deeply moving</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Vde-7gNQTE/UTo-t5uLJVI/AAAAAAAAB8o/vJ6fUOb-hB4/s1600/Apostle+Thomas+in+Chennai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_Vde-7gNQTE/UTo-t5uLJVI/AAAAAAAAB8o/vJ6fUOb-hB4/s200/Apostle+Thomas+in+Chennai.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas touching Jesus</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Visiting the sites surrounding the Apostle Thomas were more deeply moving for me than I ever anticipated. He planted several churches in the southern region of India and made in-roads with the Brahman Hindus. Several of these Brahman chased him to the mountain and speared him in his martyrdom death. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The very clear historical foundation for our Biblical text was clearly established for me. The apostles all took the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations very seriously, as I wrote before. We were on location where Thomas evangelized and planted churches.</span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-55326600914553769612013-02-28T08:07:00.000-08:002013-03-04T17:03:18.485-08:00Once in a lifetime...every day<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9tXpBnafy1Y/US94VkRVuVI/AAAAAAAAB5I/r0K8QL7Spag/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9tXpBnafy1Y/US94VkRVuVI/AAAAAAAAB5I/r0K8QL7Spag/s1600/pfc-logo.png" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After completing our prayer conference ministry and being locked down with police presence in Lakhimpur, we returned to conduct our single prison service on this PFC missions trip in Loxnou.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As Scott Minter shared, we continued to <i>experience once in a lifetime event...every day.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We couldn't have anything as big as being locked down in the conference. Yes, we did. Greg would call this the most frustrating prison service in 30 international missions trips for him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the activity filled up to 1500, we enjoyed participating with PFC missionaries Joshua Gowda from the Dehli region, and Arthur Cocker from this region along with his wife Janice and their adopted daughter Hannah. Arthur shared we were the first foreign missionaries to provide a service at this facility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Small group of inmates settled in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A music group led in worship and experienced trouble with their sound equipment which caused some of the inmates to stir. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One group of inmates came in at the very beginning and remained really attentive the entire service. That was not the case for most of the rest. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j5TxFD72jCA/US-ABnvZ2BI/AAAAAAAAB64/ceQNs6rbtPA/s1600/Preaching+in+Lucknow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j5TxFD72jCA/US-ABnvZ2BI/AAAAAAAAB64/ceQNs6rbtPA/s200/Preaching+in+Lucknow.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preaching from Luke 15</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The disruptions built up. The church group of young adults provided a very powerful Jesus Skit choreographed to music and tried to add more worship only to have more sound equipment problems. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We could smell and noticed several men smoking marijuana without correction by attending officers. Some inmates began leaving the service and the noise level ramped up. Scott shared a testimony. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before my part of the service, Janice took the micophone and tried to quiet the inmates with limited results. The officers took no action. I spoke from Christ's parable in Luke 15:1-7 about the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep. Jesus seeks, saves, and rejoices over broken people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q5HySWAfrco/US98v7Iqv_I/AAAAAAAAB5g/WZNJtcupYLI/s1600/Jesus+seeks+lost+sheep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q5HySWAfrco/US98v7Iqv_I/AAAAAAAAB5g/WZNJtcupYLI/s320/Jesus+seeks+lost+sheep.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Good Shepherd saves</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>~</b></span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Luke 15:1-7 ESV</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The inmates were already almost out of control again halfway through my message. I started praying in earnest and constantly while preaching. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Inmates kept getting louder</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OiB-u33Q2CQ/US96xRPibmI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/BhauR0aOBfI/s1600/Jesus+carries+lost+sheep+to+safety.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OiB-u33Q2CQ/US96xRPibmI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/BhauR0aOBfI/s200/Jesus+carries+lost+sheep+to+safety.jpg" width="144" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heaven rejoices</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time Don entered his longer sermon on blind Bartimaeus, the entire power went out and stayed off for a solid 20 minutes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The behaviors and noise built up to another level. Don made several solid attempts to continue preaching and Janice intervened a second time both to no avail. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More inmates continued to leave the room, the noise level remained dangerously high, and the officers took no action. While still praying, it was clear something very harmful could have occurred. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, we were praying together in small groups. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We kept praying</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don finally gave up and joined us praying. Greg calmly took a seat on the main floor. There were still a flow of men drifting out of the service. While Greg remained in his seat, we continued praying. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lost sheep saved</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, the men who came in at first, maybe 500, remained and quieted. Greg gave an impassioned call for inmates to receive Jesus as Savior. Approximately 250 responded as Greg prayed and we laid hands on the heads of as many inmates as possible. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just another <i>first time even every day </i>on this global encounte</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">r</span>--250 out of 1500 responded to the glory of God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the men were praying with us, part of the team passed out Hindu language Gideon Bibles. We participated in handing out 35 boxes of miscellaneous fruit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day, we boarded a plane for Chennai.</span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-61320664401412128322013-02-27T18:31:00.001-08:002013-02-27T18:31:30.810-08:00Lakhimpur prayer encounters<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f99P4UGDRSI/US6wtRO657I/AAAAAAAAB1A/O9JoeNmvkzI/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f99P4UGDRSI/US6wtRO657I/AAAAAAAAB1A/O9JoeNmvkzI/s1600/pfc-logo.png" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Our first awesome leg of our PFC global encounter with Greg Von Tobel, Don Szolomayer, Scott Minter, and me was in Lakhimpur in the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Khiri U.P. We trekked</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> three hours from Lucknow into the countryside of India for the North India Prayer Leadership Conference from February 18-23.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">We met a broad spectrum of international missionaries who were invited by Roderick Gilbert, the host, who opened his 20-acre sugar cane and what farm for 3500 worshipers.</span><br />
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While Katharine delivered me to Sea-Tac Airport, I was incredibly blessed by Travis Allen as we shared prayer and encouragement around my trip. Just before leaving Greg Von Tobel received an uplifting email from Howie Pollock from Steel Lake Presbyterian Church in Federal Way and now in Boise, Idaho on my behalf. I was almost blessed to tears.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">As many as received Him</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Throughout the lengthy flights from Seattle to Amsterrdam, New Dehli, along with taxi rides to our ministry destinations, the Lord brought me back to a mind and spirit for Scripture memory review in the Gospel of John<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> 1:11-18, 3:16-19 and 36; and 5:24. I was struck by the stunning promise of John 1:12, "as many as received him..."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wilson and Sheela George</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-soFq1MyrWL4/US7AlfgaAZI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/9jUju4oLecg/s1600/Scott+playing+in+Lakhimpur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-soFq1MyrWL4/US7AlfgaAZI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/9jUju4oLecg/s200/Scott+playing+in+Lakhimpur.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scott playing his mandolin</td></tr>
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We met Pastor Wilson and Sheela George, from Chandigarh. Wilson writes worship music and has recorded 26 albums. Sheela preaches and teaches through Assembly of God and other churches. Scott Minter shared and played for Wilson and was privileged to play in a worship service at his invitation Friday morning.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Greg gave message to large tent on Thursday about 11. Around 150 came forward for first time decisions and maybe three times that many came forward for healing prayer. I participated in laying hands on and praying for those who came forward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">On several occasions throughout our time, Scott was blessed to play his mandolin.</span><br />
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Don, Scott, and I made a 30 minute presentation exhorting women to visit women and juvenile youth in India. I spoke for ten minutes from Matt. 28:19-20 urging the women hearers to making disciples of all nations in the prisons and jails when they returned home..</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Among the missions teams active at the prayer conference was a contingent from the Seattle area.</span> <span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">As two members of that team left for home Thursday, we learned their pictures were taken in a newspaper with an accompanying article accusing the conference of forced conversions by foreigners based on second and third hand quotes. Nobody was quoted by name. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Droid Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">A group of police interviewed or investigated Roderick about the multiple foreigners proselytizing around the conference on his private farm site. As a result, the foreign missionaries were restricted to the conference headquarters house. We could move around outside as long as we had no perceived contact with Indians nor their contact with us even to greet us.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">It appeared our public ministry with still 3500 participants eager to have us touch them, take their pictures, and pray over them by touching their heads would be restricted heavily if not outright prohibited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">We finally were allowed to carry out our two-hour PFC teaching conference session. I spoke on working with staff, the code of conduct, and networking to build teams. I seemed to relax and feel confident and free in speaking </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">The drama with the outside photographers and police continued. Roderick showed us a 16-inch knife in a bag was discovered on the grounds in the mid-afternoon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Droid Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">In the evening, four paparazzi-type photographers came back on the grounds and were detained by Roderick's team. One photographer somehow jumped off a balcony and escaped. The cameras were confiscated and the three accused were encircled by women until the police arrived. The foreign missionaries again were restricted to the headquarters site.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Droid Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">We left on Saturday the 23rd encouraged and ready for our Lucknow phase which would call us to even deeper focused prayer as we watched the Lord do awesome things and the enemy work to tear down.</span></span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-66797772470430639732013-02-17T00:32:00.003-08:002013-02-17T00:32:33.855-08:00Revisiting the Gospel of Thomas<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1MES3QVK-Vc/USCULw_l8PI/AAAAAAAAByc/CjzHumKEkic/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1MES3QVK-Vc/USCULw_l8PI/AAAAAAAAByc/CjzHumKEkic/s1600/pfc-logo.png" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our PFC global encounter team is sitting in layover at the Amsterdam Airport after our 10-hour flight from Sea-Tac Airport. In about three hours, we'll board for an eight- hour flight to New Dehli.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my previous blog, I introduced the missionary travel of the Apostle Thomas around Chennai, India. One of the Gnostic Gospels uses his name. Here is some background information about this writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://carm.org/gospel-of-thomas">Gospel of Thomas</a> is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus that was discovered in 1945 at the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. Before the Nag Hammadi discovery, very little was known about the Gospel of Thomas other than three small fragments from Oxyrynchus that date to 200 A.D. and roughly a half dozen allusions from church fathers. The manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi date to around 340 A.D., though the original composition of the Gospel of Thomas was definitely before that time, probably sometime around 140 to 180 A.D.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The date of this writing</span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.03125px;">Even though the Gospel of Thomas is perhaps the earliest, most popular, and best "Gnostic" Gospel around, it does not belong in the New Testament since it was written in the second century at a time when all of the apostles of Christianity had already died. This second century date of composition is demonstrated by:</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.03125px;"> </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(1)</strong> its dependence on more than half of the New Testament writings, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(2)</strong> its likely mid to late second century Syrian influence, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(3)</strong> its heretical nature with Gnostic overtones, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(4)</strong> its lack of references from early church fathers or first century witnesses, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(5)</strong> its disagreements and variations from the first century context of the New Testament gospels, and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(6)</strong> its self-conscious promotion as an apostolic book which reflects a later time period. In fact, even many adherents to a first century origin for the Gospel of Thomas argue that, in its present form, Thomas reflects later editing.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lmq5VntYiFQ/USCSc9WG2JI/AAAAAAAAByQ/jykIWG0tQCE/s1600/Gospel+according+to+Thomas.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Lmq5VntYiFQ/USCSc9WG2JI/AAAAAAAAByQ/jykIWG0tQCE/s320/Gospel+according+to+Thomas.JPG" width="212" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Gospel of Thomas and other "gnostic" or non-canonical proclamations of Jesus:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">do not narrate the story of Jesus.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">do not proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">do not recount the death and resurrection of Jesus.</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: #f4f7e7; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Besides not recounting the core message of the ministry of Jesus we see in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, here are 21 highly problematic verses in this Gospel of Thomas</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7 Jesus said, “Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11 Jesus said, “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12 The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">14 Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15 Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">19 Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">27 "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father."—-I agree with this, because to not observe the Sabbath is breaking the fourth commandment. But, the vast majority of modern Christianity wouldn’t be “edified” by this; they would see it as bondage and legalism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30 Jesus said, "Where there are three deities, they are divine. Where there are two or one, I am with that one."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">37 His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?" Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">42 Jesus said, "Be passersby."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 Jesus said, "If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?’ say to them, ‘We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.’ If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the evidence of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is motion and rest.’"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">51 His disciples said to him, "When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to them, "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don’t know it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">53 His disciples said to him, "is circumcision useful or not?" He said to them, "If it were useful, their father would produce children already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every respect."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">77 Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">84 Jesus said, "When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">98 Jesus said, The Father’s kingdom is like a person who wanted to kill someone powerful. While still at home he drew his sword and thrust it into the wall to find out whether his hand would go in. Then he killed the powerful one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">105 Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">107 Jesus said, The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety- nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, ‘I love you more than the ninety- nine.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">113 His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don’t see it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">114 Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don’t deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."</span></div>
<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-316796764622335582013-02-09T12:42:00.002-08:002013-02-09T12:42:51.166-08:00Considering the Apostle Thomas in Chennai<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t3I8McBhUGY/UROwU2LY9CI/AAAAAAAABuI/3GNwvVUue7g/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t3I8McBhUGY/UROwU2LY9CI/AAAAAAAABuI/3GNwvVUue7g/s200/pfc-logo.png" width="195" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With our PFC missions trip less than ten days away, I am praying for what and who we will see and the great things the Lord will do all around us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will be traveling with Greg Von Tobel, Don </span><span style="color: #1c2a47; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Szolomayer, and Scott Minter on February 16-March 1 to Lucknow and Chennai, India. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c2a47; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">This short-term global encounter will focus heavily on conferences to pastors and new prison volunteers. We are also planning on visiting three prisons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lucknow, population 4.6 million, is known as a seat of Shi'ism and the epitome of Shia culture in India. It is famous for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muharram" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Muharram">Muharram</a> and associated <i>azadari movement</i>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chennai, population 8 million, is predominantly Brahmin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21.328125px;">Most sites recognize a Christian presence across India of 2 to 3% facing multiple levels of persecution as Hindus and other sects seek to win back those who were converted to Christ.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C0nhukGYIRA/URautIXlmGI/AAAAAAAABw4/-qZA__lndZk/s1600/Thomas+Basilica+in+Chennia.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C0nhukGYIRA/URautIXlmGI/AAAAAAAABw4/-qZA__lndZk/s320/Thomas+Basilica+in+Chennia.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basilica of St. Thomas in Chennai</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 21.328125px;">The Apostles Thomas and Bartholomew appear to have carried out a missionary outreach together around southern India, near Chennai. We are planning to visit the Basilica of St. Thomas where he is buried. I am not sure how we will see it or what my reaction will be.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 21.328125px;">How seriously did the apostles take Christ's command to "make disciples of all nations," from Matthew 28:19-20?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #231f20; line-height: 21.328125px;">"</span><span style="color: #231f20; line-height: 21.328125px;">But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ~Acts 1:8</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21.328125px;">In my prior studies on the apostles, I focused on their martyrdom experiences. They took the Great Commission very seriously. They obeyed. By the power of the Holy Spirit, they made disciples of all nations.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #231f20;"><span style="line-height: 21.328125px;">Historians<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></span></span>Hippolytus and Eusebius record that Thomas was an active missionary, and that he met his fate in India. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He preached to the <b>Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Margians</b>, and</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">was thrust through in the four members of his body with a pine spear</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">at Calamene, (Chennai) India, and was buried there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The power of the Spirit to get beyond ourselves</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of us are complex, and may be similar to Thomas. He had dark, doubting side. He also had a faith-declaring, and disciple-making sides. The Holy Spirit rested on him and filled him. The Lord used him as a missionary to reach a part of the international stage for the Kingdom God. He obeyed the Great Commission, despite whatever weaknesses he possessed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are so many reasons to stay home to keep what we believe private. Some struggle to share saving truth with a neighbor or co-worker. Even if a friend asks, you and I might wilt under dark moments of pessimism. Like Thomas, the power of God changes everything. The Lord let him get up close and touch Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thomas had a dark side</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In John 11, Thomas showed a dark side to Jesus after He prepared to to go Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus wanted to build their faith. Mary and Martha told them about the death of Lazarus. The disciples warned Jesus about the Jews who tried to stone Him before. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then Jesus therefore said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">~</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">John 11:14-16 ESV</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas was fearful really bad things would happen if they went back to Judea. If Jesus was stoned to death, this time, he and all the disciples might die, as well. They were all about to see one of the greatest miracles in the entire Bible. Christ was taking action to deepen their faith. Fear gripped the heart of Thomas. He saw the hard, worst side of his journey with Christ. His pessimism showed itself again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thomas had a doubting side</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">We remember the account of Christ's post-resurrection appearances in John's gospel. When Jesus first appeared to the disciples, Thomas was not present. Jesus knew what Thomas had said and He set out to build his faith for the work he would do.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47QgYuKFK7U/URVJO_oI05I/AAAAAAAABvg/7GUyCjPl45U/s1600/Thomas+touching+Christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="184" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47QgYuKFK7U/URVJO_oI05I/AAAAAAAABvg/7GUyCjPl45U/s200/Thomas+touching+Christ.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Lord and my God!</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i>"Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.</i></b> Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thomas had a declaring side</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i>Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”</i></b> Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”" </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">~John 20:19-29 ESV</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span>Thomas had a disciple-making side</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Acts 1 and 2, we find Thomas remained with the apostles after the ascension of Christ as they awaited for the promised work of the Holy Spirit. He was together with the apostles when the Holy Spirit rested and filled them. Those present reported the apostles declared in their own tongues the mighty works of God, Acts 2:1-12.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas walks off the New Testament stage but historians report he was an obedient worker to take the message of eternal life around the world. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A version of the gospel not in the Canon of Scripture is attributed to him, as well.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As noted in several sites, Thomas is traditionally believed to have sailed to India in 52 AD to spread the Christian faith among the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Jews">Jews</a>, the Jewish diaspora present in Kerala at the time. He is supposed to have landed at the ancient port of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muziris" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Muziris">Muziris</a> (which became extinct in 1341 AD due to a massive flood which realigned the coasts) near <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodungalloor" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Kodungalloor">Kodungalloor</a>. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X0vkVvJDLXk/UROwHJdt-MI/AAAAAAAABuA/nztGCgBWtNE/s1600/Tomb+of+Thomas+in+Chennai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X0vkVvJDLXk/UROwHJdt-MI/AAAAAAAABuA/nztGCgBWtNE/s320/Tomb+of+Thomas+in+Chennai.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basilica burial site of Thomas in Chennai</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He traveled to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palayoor" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Palayoor">Palayoor</a> (near present-day <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guruvayoor" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Guruvayoor">Guruvayoor</a>), a Hindu priestly community. He left <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palayoor" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Palayoor">Palayoor</a> in AD 52 for the southern part of what is now <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Kerala">Kerala</a> State, where he established the <i>Ezharappallikal</i>, or "Seven and Half Churches". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These churches are at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodungallur" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Kodungallur">Kodungallur</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kollam" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Kollam">Kollam</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niranam" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Niranam">Niranam</a> (Niranam Jerusalem Marthoma Church), Nilackal (<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayal" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Chayal">Chayal</a>), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokkamangalam" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Kokkamangalam">Kokkamangalam</a>, Kottakkayal (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Paravur" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="North Paravur">Paravoor</a>), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palayoor" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Palayoor">Palayoor</a> (Chattukulangara) and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvithancode" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Thiruvithancode">Thiruvithancode</a> Arappally – the half church.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from November 2012">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>"It was to a land of dark people he was sent, to clothe them by Baptism in white robes. His grateful dawn dispelled India's painful darkness. It was his mission to espouse India to the One-Begotten. The merchant is blessed for having so great a treasure. <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edessa,_Mesopotamia" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Edessa, Mesopotamia">Edessa</a>thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl India could yield. Thomas works miracles in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="India">India</a>, and at Edessa Thomas is destined to baptize peoples perverse and steeped in darkness, and that in the land of India."</i> – Hymns of St. Ephraem, edited by Lamy (Ephr. Hymni et Sermones, IV).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, how serious are you and I about obeying the Great Commission? Are you a Thomas? You might have a pessimistic, dark, and doubting side. A personal encounter with Jesus can change everything. The filling of the Spirit can change everything. Our obedience and heart to be changed could get us beyond ourselves to be used for His Kingdom in astounding ways. The Lord may choose to use you in your neighbor, on your job, or somehow across the world.</span></div>
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Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-74835147369360750682013-01-26T17:05:00.003-08:002013-01-26T17:12:57.364-08:00Forays into self-control<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNnja36zhn8/UQFm9hPo9xI/AAAAAAAABnI/5luXyE5djO4/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNnja36zhn8/UQFm9hPo9xI/AAAAAAAABnI/5luXyE5djO4/s200/pfc-logo.png" width="195" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was embarrassed over my defensive reaction and loss of self-control. What just happened? I was stunned by my reaction. Taking a personal time-out after being disrupted over very little with a co-worker in Christ, I retreated into a nearby restroom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It appeared like I stormed off. In solitude, I took a moment to breathe and pray and then... didn't want to return to the group I abandoned moments before. I became aware the Lord was walking with me through </span>another journey into personal holiness with His emphasis on self-control.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Preparing for Lucknow and Chennai</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A-sXbwp3Rus/UQRLkyruw1I/AAAAAAAABrQ/Qw4X4XsmsuY/s1600/Lucknow+and+Chennai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A-sXbwp3Rus/UQRLkyruw1I/AAAAAAAABrQ/Qw4X4XsmsuY/s320/Lucknow+and+Chennai.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucknow noted and Chennai on the SE coast</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God's university in self-control and holiness will be taken to another level with a Prisoners for Christ team from February 16-March 1 to Lucknow and Chennai, India short-term global encounter missions trip. My financial support is nearly all in and I am making preparations for the trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will be overseeing the finances using Excel for the trip shadowed by President Greg Von Tobel, as part of my servant-leadership team training. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Greg also asked me to encourage one of our team in his support-raising. I am taking steps toward increasing my own ongoing monthly support-raising. Lessons I deliver for my global encounter India co-worker directly apply to my self-control to be active in these things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Relearning self-control </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I was a middle school teacher, we often talked about helping students work through failures in impulse control. These lessons needed reteaching because previous teaching needed improvement or the learners were not mastering the concepts. The teaching and learning connection lights were not on.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1BWCVxS7D1Y/UQQxeapIi1I/AAAAAAAABog/e67OJPeQ03g/s1600/slough+of+depond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="145" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1BWCVxS7D1Y/UQQxeapIi1I/AAAAAAAABog/e67OJPeQ03g/s320/slough+of+depond.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helped out of a slough of weak self-control</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my ongoing journey, how am I pursuing holiness on a daily basis? Is real holiness or even progress in holiness possible? Do I get discouraged by my fores into John Bunyan's "slough of desponds," so I functionally give up? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sloughs are hard places of discouragement involving traipsing through mucky stuff often involving folks we care a lot about. Getting back to the Lord's right path may be just feet and moments away. It feels like I can't get where I am supposed to be without help from others.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1hrCldP3yuc/UQR4qCRZ0CI/AAAAAAAABso/FP_hH7f4nUg/s1600/Returning+to+holiness+by+Greg+Frizzell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1hrCldP3yuc/UQR4qCRZ0CI/AAAAAAAABso/FP_hH7f4nUg/s320/Returning+to+holiness+by+Greg+Frizzell.jpg" width="204" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The basis for an ongoing foray in victory is our assured position in Jesus Christ. As believers, we are "in Christ." In Gregory Frizzell's powerful book, "Returning to holiness--a personal and church-wide journey to revival," he writes on this vital understanding. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are saved by Christ not just to take us to heaven but to indwell and empower His children in His Kingdom here on earth, in our daily journey. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same God that spoke John 3:16 also spoke Romans 6--</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." ~John 3:16 ESV</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>~</b></span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><b>Romans 6:6 ESV</b></b></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." ~</b></span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Romans 6:14 ESV</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"In fact, these verses can become your personal declaration of independence over the power and dominion of sin. When Christ died for your sins, He not only removed the penalty of sin but also the power. By the Holy Spirit, this same risen Christ now indwells every saved person.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The Christian life is not you trying to grit your teeth and somehow live for Him, it's learning to let Him live through you! We do this through a moment by moment faith in His indwelling life and power," the author concluded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gaining self-control in the Spirit</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my disruption, I experienced a breakdown in <i><b>self-control</b></i>. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was an impulse control struggle and recovery. Thank Him for recoveries and gracious people. The Lord gave me peace to go right back to my team and carry-on. Later, I sought forgiveness from the one I sinned against.</span><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gz1tfPcED7I/UQQ5xY0E2QI/AAAAAAAABp4/yi6YYZZ7qGU/s1600/fruit+of+self-control.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gz1tfPcED7I/UQQ5xY0E2QI/AAAAAAAABp4/yi6YYZZ7qGU/s200/fruit+of+self-control.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Paul preached to Felix and his wife Drusilla, openly living together in an adulterous relationship, in Acts 24:25 "on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come." Felix was guilty and didn't want to hear it. Paul also listed self-control as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Peter encourages adding self-control to knowledge in 2 Peter 1:6. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Self-control is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a God-given strength over my flesh and attacks of the adversary. I don't do what my body tells me to do if it negatively impacts the reputation of our Lord, others around us, and us. My flesh is not in control, reigning, or a master over us in Christ. We are not powerless over the flesh because we are in Christ Jesus and His Spirit indwells us. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: navy; text-align: justify;">T</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">he Greek word for self-control maintains </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">getting a grip on one's self and one's passions. In the Spirit, I protect myself with His power.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: justify;">In Proverbs, Solomon pictured </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">self-control:</span></span><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit." </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; text-align: justify;">~Proverbs 25-28</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: justify;">City states were walled for protection from marauders. No wall meant no protection. No <b>self control </b>by analogy means one is wide open to attack from marauders in the flesh, world, and the devil.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: justify;"> People lacking self-control are easy victims when attacked by strong desires and impulses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: justify;">Here are some awesome quotes on self-control to close:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">It is impossible to be a follower of Jesus without giving diligent attention in our lives to the grace of self-control. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">There is a form of self-control that says 'yes' to what we should do as well as that which says 'no' to what we shouldn't do. <b>~Jerry Bridges</b></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">The beginning of self-mastery is to be mastered by Christ, to yield to his lordship. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">True spiritual self-discipline holds believers in bounds but never in bonds; its effect is to enlarge, expand and liberate. ~<b>D. G. Kehl</b></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial;">The man who disciplines himself stands out and has the mark of greatness upon him. <b>~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones</b></span></li>
</ul>
<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-45247085235428876962012-11-16T07:53:00.002-08:002012-11-16T08:52:24.610-08:00Semper Gumby<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uIYtZoLPfcA/UJnweNPfq5I/AAAAAAAABko/V5JG9DXddOA/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uIYtZoLPfcA/UJnweNPfq5I/AAAAAAAABko/V5JG9DXddOA/s200/pfc-logo.png" width="195" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flexibility on our short-term missions trips is increasingly required as we travel and serve. I am in the middle of a trip to New Dehli and Dehradun, India and Kathmandu, Nepal from October 31 to November 13.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are seeking to provide evangelism services in various prisons and to present conferences on building up prison ministries among nationals. I am appreciating every member of our team and our PFC hosting missionaries and pastors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our PFC team is Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel, Jamie Neault, Steve Lamken, and me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Always flexible</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are adopting a Marine Corps slogan, "Semper Gumby," which means <i>always flexible</i>. While guests in another culture, we must genuinely honor and respect their ways. The first thing we deal with is how nationals deal with time commitments. We try to be on-time. Other cultures not so much. There were numerous flex challenges.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AUxOSQO9iwM/UJnxYNLg4GI/AAAAAAAABkw/cprDdpLhkZA/s1600/semper-gumby.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AUxOSQO9iwM/UJnxYNLg4GI/AAAAAAAABkw/cprDdpLhkZA/s200/semper-gumby.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We faced restrictions entering prisons to provide worship services. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Dehradun, our team met with the superintendent in his office. From the outset, he multi-tasked on steroids and deflected our requests to enter inside the facility--we were not getting inside. Eventually, he allowed a shortened service for 30 inmates and staff. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Monday, our area representative even arranged to have a select group of politicians and respected officials participate with us attempting to persuade the superintendent. When we arrived, the officer informed us he had orders to not allow us even past the gate. When the officials arrived, they were ushered in an met for close to an hour with the superintendent. They tried but the result was the same. The American foreigner missionaries did not go in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In both occasions, our nationals were allowed in and presented services for 225 inmates and staff with positive </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">results. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Massive population</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You should see the wall-to-wall people in India, approximately 1.24 billion. China has 1.43 billion... New Dehli has 18 million, 9 million id abject poverty...</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dehradun (pronounced "doon") has 10 million, doubled in 10 years. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">In contrast....</span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Metro Seattle is 616 thousand</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everett-Olympia I-5 corridor is 3.5 million</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">New York is 8.24 million</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Los Angeles is 3.8 million </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">US is 313 million</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The people walk, mostly ride on motorcycles, honk, take bigger taxis, honk to tell you where they are and what they are doing, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and forever cutting in front of one another.</span> There are cars for some. Did I mention they honk more? They drive on the left, all this </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in warp speed everywhere. The roads are good but woefully inadequate for the still-growing population.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The physical atmosphere is
smokey because they burn trash or let it sit in piles along the road. We witnessed some trash pick-up service. The god-like cows and roaming dogs eat the trash. In the cities, the dogs do not appear dangerous but are not taken care of. There are a few pet
dogs and fewer cats. Occasionally, we saw monkeys and pigs roaming.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Stages of closed</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">India appears to be developing into a closed and intolerant atmosphere even in policies and laws toward Christian missions. There are consistent stories of physical persecution during open air preaching. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The religious culture is at least 80% Hindu, then Buddhist, and Muslim. Nationals report the Christian presence is greater than the 3% documented but is in pockets with huge areas unreached. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
culture is polar rich and in staggering poverty. </span></div>
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<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-52502965071292475752012-10-25T15:00:00.001-07:002012-10-25T15:54:40.115-07:00Field exaggerations<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CSugWca-nVM/UImAjKZD8qI/AAAAAAAABhw/vAYiJvKqmyE/s1600/India+and+Napal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CSugWca-nVM/UImAjKZD8qI/AAAAAAAABhw/vAYiJvKqmyE/s320/India+and+Napal.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In one week, I am headed for India and Nepal with four others as part of Prisoners for Christ on a two-week missions trip. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We've had several team meetings, rereading the orientation manual, and recalling my last trip to Rwanda and Burundi.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now, it's "go-time." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We leave on October 31 and return on November 13 with ten days of active ministry on the ground. </span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Our theme theme is <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>"The great light shines in deep darkness,"</i></span> from Isaiah 9:2.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The actual locations for this
trip are New Dehli and Dehra Dun, northern India and Kathmandu, Nepal.
From those headquarters, we will be traveling daily to various prisons
and conference settings. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I remain amazed at God's just incredible favor as my support finances for this short-term missions trip are fully in. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Everybody will
laugh as one of the rules is bald guys like me wear baseball hats.
Since that's my normal way, I just make a pick from my collection.</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Everything is exaggerated on the field </span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The one lesson the Lord continues to remind me of from my past trip is <b>dying to myself</b> around selfishness and unmet expectations. Well, I had that under control, I thought. I am mature, I told myself.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I didn't<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: small;">have</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">my unmet expectations under control</span></span>. </span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Emotions, fears, stresses, and multiple other anxieties came right to the surface on my last trip. It was a big struggle as I got tired and started talking. A couple of times, it got really uncomfortable. I complained openly about conditions, the roads, and the food when I got tired. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I was entrenched, during those unguarded and raw moments, in a sense of entitlement within our team. Things were not going like we had outlined. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Others heard very clearly my </span>gossip and complaints about the group leader through paper-thin walls. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Five "TIBET" purposes</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>T</b>rain and equip the national saints who are currently involved doing prison prison ministry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I</b>ntroduce the PFC umbrella and possibly raise up a PFC missionary partner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>B</b>less the national saints with encouragement and resources, and provide aid and assistance to the prisons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>E</b>vangelize by conducting evangelistic church services inside the national prisons.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>T</b>each the church how to recruit additional volunteers and to assist them in presenting the concept to other churches.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Conference instruction topics</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EInSZfB7YS8/UImtLlMlWpI/AAAAAAAABjM/PtTIHhsmeqw/s1600/India+and+Nepal+flags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EInSZfB7YS8/UImtLlMlWpI/AAAAAAAABjM/PtTIHhsmeqw/s200/India+and+Nepal+flags.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In conference settings, I am scheduled to present sessions on working with the staff at the institution, the PFC code of conduct, and working with local churches to recruit volunteers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In <b>working with the staff</b> at the institutions, I will focus on the key to the longevity of the ministry, each staff member is our mission field, the staff are keepers of the front door, and bad attitudes toward staff is a poor witness and lead to damaging problems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The PFC <b>code of conduct </b>establishes excellent reputations. We need to be aware if we don't respect the institutional rules, we will be kicked out and no one will hear the gospel. We maintain genuine integrity and respect the designated rules. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">No contraband items are to be given or taken from inmates unless approved by the hosting chaplain prior to admittance. Violation of contraband policy is punishable by fine and imprisonment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our clearly defined mission must remain to share Jesus Christ so we guard against inmates playing on our sympathy to manipulate and control. We guard against inquiries about reasons for the inmate's incarceration. We keep our word and know the limits of our ministry so we do not promise what we are unable to follow through on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In working with local churches to <b>recruit volunteers</b>, I focus on our service as non-denominational so we work with Protestant churches. Growing the ministry involves inviting others. Multiple church participation outgrows any one church and encourages others to join in.</span>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-465350971409136012012-08-27T08:22:00.001-07:002012-08-27T08:28:05.942-07:00Illusions of control <div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A-13DuyiJlE/UDZOMu4pNlI/AAAAAAAABfU/AD0FOqn7T4o/s1600/pfc-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A-13DuyiJlE/UDZOMu4pNlI/AAAAAAAABfU/AD0FOqn7T4o/s200/pfc-logo.png" width="195" /></a>Controlling people are often being controlled by others. Then, they control other people more. They all become entangled in victim lifestyle. Chronic victims do not choose to take steps toward healing.</div>
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Control and being controlled is not about others. You and I are in some ways controlled and controlling others. It may not be dysfunctional, however.<br />
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We could be in dangerous places in relationships that matter a great deal to others and us.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Do I find myself controlling my need to feel hurt with draining behaviors and emotions? Victims relish disorder and discomfort so they never believe they are safe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let me get more personal, here. Do you and I somehow get energy from our illusion of control?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Unmanageable places in my experience</b></span></div>
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The first foundational block in 12-step recovery program journeys toward healing is recognizing details of unmanageable cycles that are entirely too big for me to fix. <br />
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I can't make whatever "this" unmanageable and overwhelming mountain go away. I can't control this.</div>
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Addicted people play manipulation games with those close to them in tangled webs of selfishness. It's a twisted and warped reality. In this game world, personal responsibility is virtually lost. The victim does not choose to free themselves from these games that don't care for the welfare of others. Everything is about them and their need to be in control.</div>
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One way prideful and controlling behaviors surface is in conversations in my own experience. That is, for myself. Recently in a conversation with several others in a long trip, I was very uncomfortable what I saw the others doing. I was wiggling in my seat. Wow, they are bad.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> My need to be in control</b></span><br />
Then, with both barrels, I recognized I am every bit and more of a controlling person. I was still wiggling but it was about me. I clearly realized these habitual behaviors:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDJT91OtHaE/UDZRnJPcvGI/AAAAAAAABgg/ZGq9j-lD_zo/s1600/need+to+be+right.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDJT91OtHaE/UDZRnJPcvGI/AAAAAAAABgg/ZGq9j-lD_zo/s320/need+to+be+right.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>First, I need to have the last word.</b></div>
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<b>Second, I need to be right.</b></div>
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<b>Third, I need to win the argument.</b></div>
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<b>Fourth, I am not a caring listener.</b></div>
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<b>Fifth, I am not respecting the other person's ideas and feelings. </b></div>
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<b> <span style="font-size: large;"> Breaking through illusions </span></b><br />
Because I must apparently feel superior to others, I work at gaining an illusion of control. This is a very real need to feel respected for my knowledge.<br />
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<i>"I am experienced," I say. "I know about this. I read books and went to great classes, lots of them." </i></div>
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<b>Paul wrote: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." ~Ephesians 4:29 </b></div>
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<b>Paul again, "...And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness..." ~2 Timothy 2:23-25 </b></div>
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<b> Jesus stated</b><b>, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." ~Matthew 7:1-5 </b><br />
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I am a very empathetic listener. I know that. It is real. There are times when my guard is down and I am simply not listening. It just might not be in my head, at all. When I am in this "need to be right" mentality, I am interrupting. I am rude.<br />
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I know these "need to be right" experiences are more than I am remembering.<br />
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The controlling person that needs the most transforming is me. That is
the Lord's chosen business for me. I need to take care of my own
business, here. <b> </b><br />
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<b> </b>How about you?</div>
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<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-57316825401003543702012-08-09T17:15:00.001-07:002012-08-09T17:40:46.452-07:00Killing sin in God's love<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span></b><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yG7_US0POuI/UCRYPr5QjaI/AAAAAAAABeI/GLBI-NwxGDc/s1600/PFC+letterhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="63" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yG7_US0POuI/UCRYPr5QjaI/AAAAAAAABeI/GLBI-NwxGDc/s320/PFC+letterhead.jpg" width="320" /></a>"Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling,
disquieting, but if let along" Puritan John Owen wrote, "if not continually mortified, it will
bring forth <b>great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins</b>.<i>..It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2
Cor. 7:1); to be “growing in grace” every day (1 Peter 2:2, 2 Peter
3:18); to be “renewing out inward man day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).</i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Owen</td></tr>
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"Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness." Owen said, "who
does not <b><i>walk over the bellies of his lusts</i></b>. He who does not kill sin in
this way takes no steps towards his journey’s end.<br />
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"He who finds no
opposition from it, and who does not set himself in every particular to its
mortification is at peace with <i>and is</i> not dying to it. Be killing sin or it will be killing you," Owen concluded.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> God's love in forgiveness</b></span><br />
In every step our striving, God loves us through and through. He stands with us and empowers us to kill sin. Larry actively battles consequences of a complex web of sins as an inmate at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. We meet twice a week, usually Monday and Friday. Occasionally, he is cast down in depression. Thankfully, he doesn't stay there. We looked at Psalm 130.<br />
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<b>Psalm 130</b><b><span class="verse-num inline" id="v19130003-1"> </span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="verse-num inline" id="v19130003-1">3 </span>If you, O <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?</b></span></h3>
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<b><span class="verse-num inline" id="v19130004-1">4 </span>But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.</b></div>
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<b><span class="verse-num inline" id="v19130007-1">7 </span>O Israel, hope in the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>! For with the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> there is steadfast love,</b></div>
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<b>and with him is plentiful redemption.</b></div>
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<b><span class="verse-num inline" id="v19130008-1">8 </span>And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.</b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qFAvaNt8Cqk/UCPYNfPWqzI/AAAAAAAABcc/wKBwbXX90WE/s1600/hesed+diagram.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qFAvaNt8Cqk/UCPYNfPWqzI/AAAAAAAABcc/wKBwbXX90WE/s320/hesed+diagram.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Larry and I meditated together on God's faithful forgiving love. This song of ascents affirms if the LORD charges us with our rebellious iniquities against him, none could stand before Him. He is forgiving. As a result, we bow down in awed worship, in reverence because of His astounding covenant mercy.<br />
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God's character is marked by steadfast love and plentiful, or abundant forgiveness. In the original Hebrew, this <b>hesed</b> is steadfast love combining His forever faithful grace, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Twisted accusations</b></span> <br />
Larry's thoughts play like an active DVD as he sits in his cell and lives day-to-day in his unit since December of 2011. With his legal process in motion, he held his hand six inches from his face, sharing a sense of an accusing lion staring "in his face."<br />
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Together, we called out the lion. What are you hearing? See those accusations for what they are. They are accusations based on what he doesn't know and driven by fear. Separate fact from deceiving accusatory attacks at your very soul. Who is leveling these attacks? What is the Lord saying? Consider the source of what is being said very carefully, with godly discernment.<br />
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Here are the accusations: <br />
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<b>"First, my life will never be the same. </b> I lost my church ministries, friends, and jobs I loved so much. I was serving in awesome places I loved. All that is gone. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzPk_hZZHjE/UCJ1PYds09I/AAAAAAAABbQ/TqaKkco7p14/s1600/roaring+lion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzPk_hZZHjE/UCJ1PYds09I/AAAAAAAABbQ/TqaKkco7p14/s200/roaring+lion.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>Second, my friends deserted me.</b> We spent time together. It was so good. Since I entered jail, the church pastoral staff never even contacted me. There have been no visits from them. To them, it is like I don't exist.<br />
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<b>Third, my path is really hard. </b> When I am released, I will go to work, attend required meetings, and go back home. That is it. I have my family and that is wonderful. For the next five years, I am locked into this life. <br />
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<b>Fourth, my guilt is overwhelming.</b> I feel great remorse and guilt for what I did. I know God has forgiven me. I repented. I dug a deep hole. I feel like I am in a dark place I will never get out of. I feel dirty. I know I am clean in Jesus and that he forgives me."<br />
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He won't go back to the places and other circumstances where he engaged in very destructive things while, yes, he was serving in places he really enjoyed. Critical parts of his life were a disheveled mess. He can choose to not go back there. He trusts his lawyer. He trusts God, prays, and reads and studies the Scriptures. His different life will be a good thing.<br />
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A few people outside his family visited him, two he did not expect who were tremendous encouragements. A few from the church he attended write letters but clearly are guarded, at least for now. Pastoral staff have not contacted him.<br />
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There are two very strong mentors he calls regularly and who are standing with him through the entire ordeal. His family visits him weekly and he calls them. Many inmates get no visits while they are incarcerated. <br />
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His journey will be restricted. Many fail in the way assigned to him. Until he is engaged in the new path, he doesn't know what the "hard path" looks like. It will be hard. God is providing a very strong support system. Some things will be harder than he knows, now.<br />
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The consequences of a litany of charges are real. Jail is real. In context, now, God's love and forgiveness shines brightly. He requires solid counseling and support around whatever the next phase of his life is. We looked at several critical passages--Zechariah 3:1-9 and Revelation 12:9-14<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Brands plucked from the fire </span></b><br />
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<b>Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. </b></div>
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<b>And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” </b></div>
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<b>Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. </b></div>
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<b>And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” </b></div>
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<b>And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” </b></div>
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<b>And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” </b></div>
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<b>So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. ~Zechariah 3:1-5 </b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Larry's lion accuser is Satan, here. Joshua the high priest here</span> represents you and me who are in Christ Jesus standing before this angel. This taking off very real sin and putting on new vestments and even a turban on our heads is the work of God for every believer. </div>
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Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. Sin isn't make believe. Joshua, Larry, you and me are filthy dirty before God. The removal of these garments represent the taking away of iniquities. Joshua didn't put on these clean garments. Those standing before the angel, presumably other angels, put them on him. This is Larry, for sure. Believers are "brands plucked from the fire." Glory to God. Larry, you and me, are "plucked from the fire" of destruction and the eternal wages of sin which is separation from God. </div>
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Joshua was also given a clean turban representing renewed and transformed thinking. Our very thinking is changed through the working of God. Why do we have new garments and a clean turban? Because the Lord Jesus ordered it for us. Our sins are forever removed and we are changed by the authority of Jesus Christ.</div>
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<b>And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” ~Revelation 12:10-12 </b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Miraculous great exchange </span></b><b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qlPC5PvKjBc/UCPbblFONNI/AAAAAAAABcs/Gfgo2xpQ35Q/s1600/Great+exchange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qlPC5PvKjBc/UCPbblFONNI/AAAAAAAABcs/Gfgo2xpQ35Q/s320/Great+exchange.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Larry's accuser is again our arch-enemy, Satan. So, we are battling sometimes waves of daily sin and the evil attacks and accusations of the devil. </span><span style="font-size: small;">We conquer by the blood of the Lamb, the once for all, finished work of Christ--died, buried, risen, and ascended, and now seated at the right hand of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is referred to as "the great exchange." Christ died and took our sins upon Himself on the cross. All our sins, forever, past, present, and future are placed on Jesus on the cross. In return, He covered and clothed us with His righteousness. When the Father looks at us, now, He doesn't see our guilt and filthy garments but miraculously He dwells on the righteousness of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We also conquer by the word of our testimony, the Good News Gospel of salvation. Satan exercises great wrath against all these things because, we are told, he knows his time is short. </span></div>
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<b><span id="goog_1547656987"></span><span id="goog_1547656988"></span></b></div>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-24723278090465647252012-08-04T09:38:00.000-07:002012-08-04T09:57:26.334-07:00Dangers in "let go and let God"<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bcT2j7ra3dE/UB1MxfAyJBI/AAAAAAAABWA/Pndv9C5g0Ds/s1600/PFC+letterhead+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="63" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bcT2j7ra3dE/UB1MxfAyJBI/AAAAAAAABWA/Pndv9C5g0Ds/s320/PFC+letterhead+logo.jpg" width="320" /></a>What is “let-go-and-let-God” theology? It’s called <b>Keswick theology</b>,
and it’s one of the most significant strands of <u><i>second-blessing</i></u>
theology. It assumes that Christians experience two “blessings.”</div>
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The
first, noted <a href="http://www.ligonier.org/learn/teachers/andrew-naselli/" rel="author">Dr. Andrew Naselli</a>, is getting “saved,” and the second is "getting serious."<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> He is research manager for <span class="caps">D.A.</span> Carson, administrator of <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/publications/about-themelios/">Themelios</a>, and an adjunct faculty member at several schools. He is author of <i><a href="http://www.logos.com/product/6490/let-go-and-let-god-a-survey-and-analysis-of-keswick-theology">Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology</a></i>.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> Naselli notes the change taught by "let go and let God"
is dramatic:</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1u88eu1Z30w/UB1R0F3ZgTI/AAAAAAAABXc/N7hPEa4hG30/s1600/Let+Go+and+Let+God.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1u88eu1Z30w/UB1R0F3ZgTI/AAAAAAAABXc/N7hPEa4hG30/s200/Let+Go+and+Let+God.JPG" width="144" /></a>
<li>from a defeated to a victorious </li>
<li>from a lower to a higher </li>
<li>from a shallow to a deeper </li>
<li>from a
fruitless to a more abundant </li>
<li>from being “carnal” to being
“spiritual”</li>
<li>from merely having Jesus as your Savior to making Jesus
your Master</li>
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Sounds really useful, doesn't it? This line of theology emphasizes people experience this second blessing through surrender
and faith, so, “Let go and let God, very appealing because Christians struggle with sin and want
to be victorious in that struggle now.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Historical perspective</span></b><br />
Keswick theology offers a quick
fix, and its shortcut to instant victory appeals to genuine longings
for holiness. Keswick (pronounced <span class="caps">KE</span>
H-zick) is a small town in the scenic Lake District of northwest
England. Since 1875, it has hosted a week-long meeting in July for the
Keswick Convention. The movement’s first generation (about 1875– 1920)
epitomized what we still call “Keswick theology” today.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AOObDd0cjvg/UB1Okfm_GZI/AAAAAAAABWQ/Y19mV4pf6-8/s1600/My+utmost+for+His+highest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>People who influenced Keswick theology include <b>John Wesley</b>, <b>Charles
Finney,</b> and Hannah Whitall Smith. Significant proponents of Keswick
theology include Evan H. Hopkins (Keswick’s formative theologian), H.
Moule (Keswick’s scholar and best theologian), <b><span class="caps">F. B.</span>
Meyer</b> (Keswick’s international ambassador), <b>Andrew Murray</b> (Keswick’s
foremost devotional author), <b>J. Hudson Taylor</b> and <b>Amy Carmichael</b>
(Keswick’s foremost missionaries), <b>Frances Havergal </b>(Keswick’s hymnist),
and <span class="caps">W. H.</span> Griffith Thomas, and Robert C.
McQuilkin (leaders of the victorious life movement).<br />
<br />
People who were
influenced by Keswick theology include leaders of the <b>Christian and
Missionary Alliance </b>(<span class="caps">A. B.</span> Simpson), <b>Moody Bible Institute</b> (<span class="caps">D. L.</span> Moody and <span class="caps">R. A.</span> Torrey), and <b>Dallas Seminary</b> (Lewis Chafer and Charles Ryrie).<br />
<br />
Beginning in the 1920s, the Keswick Convention’s view of
sanctification began to shift from the view promoted by the leaders of
the early convention. <b>William Scroggie</b> (1877– 1958) led that
transformation to a view of sanctification closer to the Reformed view.
The official Keswick Convention that now hosts the annual Keswick
conferences holds a Reformed view of sanctification and invites speakers
who are confessionally reformed.<br />
<br />
Perhaps, its most famous proponent of "let go and let God" is <b>Oswald Chambers</b>. In "My utmost for His highest," a devotional I have greatly enjoyed over the years, wrote:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kBRAK3FZqL0/UB1OP61MCqI/AAAAAAAABWI/gNvfGaXtg7U/s1600/Oswald+Chambers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kBRAK3FZqL0/UB1OP61MCqI/AAAAAAAABWI/gNvfGaXtg7U/s200/Oswald+Chambers.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oswald Chambers</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><i>"God
does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The
strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are
you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? </i></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><i>"God never gives
strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of
the minute The temptation is to face difficulties from a common-sense
standpoint. The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties
because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God." <b> </b></i></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<div style="color: black;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>"'I
have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth
you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have
overcome the world.'" ~John 16:33</b></i></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>So, what is the big problem? How should we respond? </b></i></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Not biblically sound </b></span><br />
"Let go and let God" Keswick theology, however, is not biblically sound. If that is so, then there are big problems worth considering carefully. Here are tendencies:<br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<b>1. Creates two categories of Christians--fundamental, linchpin issue.</b><br />
<b>2. Portrays a shallow and incomplete view of sin in the Christian life.</b><br />
<b>3. Promotes</b><b> passivity, not activity.</b><br />
<b>4. Views the Christian’s free will as autonomously starting and stopping sanctification.</b><br />
<b>5. Establishes superficial formulas for instantaneous sanctification.</b><br />
<b>6.</b><b> Develops</b><b> disillusionment and frustration for the “have-nots.”</b><br />
<b>7. Misinterprets personal experiences.</b></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You can tell that Keswick theology has influenced people when you
hear a Christian “testimony” like this: <b>“I was saved when I was eight
years old, and I surrendered to Christ when I was seventeen.</b>” </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">They infer, "I was saved...and now, really saved and surrendered. I've really got it, now."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are two tiers or levels of genuine Christianity, according to "let go and let God."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EmExhtMj9uE/UB1L7xtNkGI/AAAAAAAABV4/fMRf46rqx7M/s1600/tiers.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EmExhtMj9uE/UB1L7xtNkGI/AAAAAAAABV4/fMRf46rqx7M/s1600/tiers.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">levels of Christians</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>First tier</b></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">“Saved,”so Jesus became their Savior and they
became a Christian. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Second tier </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">By “surrendered,” so they gave full
control of their lives to Jesus as their Master, yielded to do whatever
He wanted them to do, and “dedicated” themselves through surrender and
faith. </span><br />
<br />
"We shouldn’t determine our view of sanctification by counting up who
we perceive to be the most holy Christians and seeing which view has the
most. Scripture, and Scripture alone, must determine our view
of sanctification," Naselli reminds us.</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2 style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/07/10/how-let-go-and-let-go-almost-ruined-j-i-packers-spiritual-life/"></a></h2>
<hr class="clear" />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">J.I. Packer recounts his walk into "let go and let God</span>"</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"I was converted – that is, I came to the Lord Jesus Christ in a decisive
commitment, needing and seeking God’s pardon and acceptance, conscious
of Christ’s redeeming love for me and his personal call to me – in my
first university term, a little more than half a century ago. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The group
nurturing me was heavily pietistic in style, and left me in no doubt
that the most important thing for me as a Christian was the <b>quality of
my walk with God</b>: in which, of course, they were entirely right. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span>Elitist spirituality</span></b></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/07/10/how-let-go-and-let-go-almost-ruined-j-i-packers-spiritual-life/ji/" rel="attachment wp-att-22635" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22635" height="200" src="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/files/2012/07/JI-300x367.jpg" title="JI" width="163" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J.I. Packer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">They
were also, however, somewhat <b>elitist in spirit</b>, holding that only
Bible-believing evangelicals could say anything worth hearing about the
Christian life, and the leaders encouraged the rest of us to assume that
anyone thought sound enough to address the group on this theme was sure
to be good. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I listened with great expectation and excitement to the
preachers and teachers whom the group brought in week by week, not
doubting that they were the top devotional instructors in Britain,
perhaps in the world. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And I came a "cropper." <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(</span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">a person who cultivates or harvests) </span>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Whether what I thought I heard was what was really being said may be
left an open question, but it seemed to me that what I was being told
was this: </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>There are two sorts of Christians, first-class and
second-class, <b>‘spiritual’</b> and <b>‘carnal’</b> (a distinction drawn from the
King James rendering of <a class="lbsBibleRef lbsBibleRef" data-reference="1 Cor. 3.1-3" data-version="ESV" href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/1%20Cor.%203.1-3" target="_blank">1 Cor. 3:1-3</a>). </i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>The former know sustained peace and joy, constant inner confidence, and
regular victory over temptation and sin, in a way that the latter do
not. Those who hope to be of use to God must become ‘spiritual’ in the
stated sense. </i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<i>As a lonely, nervy, adolescent introvert whose new-found
assurance had not changed his temperament overnight, I had to conclude
that I was not ‘spiritual’ yet. But I wanted to be useful to God. </i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Supposed deeper spirituality</span></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
So
what was I to do?<b> ‘Let go, and let God’</b> There is a secret, I was told, of rising from carnality to spirituality,
a secret mirrored in the maxim: Let go, and let God. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>I vividly recall a
radiant clergyman in an Oxford pulpit enforcing this. The secret had to
do with being Spirit-filled. The Spirit-filled person, it was said, is
taken out of the second half of Romans 7, understood (misunderstood, I
would now maintain) as an analysis of constant moral defeat through
self-reliance, into Romans 8, where he walks confidently in the Spirit
and is not so defeated. </b><br />
<br />
The way to be Spirit-filled, so I gathered, was
as follows:</div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">First, one must <i>deny self</i>. </span><br />
<br />
Did not Jesus require self-denial from his disciples as in Luke 9:23?<br />
<br />
Yes, but clearly what he meant was the negating of carnal self — that
is to say self-will, self-assertion, self-centeredness and self-worship,
the Adamic syndrome in human nature, the egocentric behavior pattern,
rooted in anti-God aspirations and attitudes, for which the common name
is original sin. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
What I seemed to be hearing, however, was a call to
deny <i>personal</i> self, so that I could be taken over by Jesus
Christ in such a way that my present experience of thinking and willing
would become something different, an experience of Christ himself living
in me, animating me, and doing the thinking and willing for me. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Put
like that, it sounds more like the formula of demon-possession than the
ministry of the indwelling Christ according to the New Testament. But in
those days I knew nothing about demon-possession,and what I have just
put into words seemed to be the plain meaning of ‘I live; yet not I, but
Christ lives in me’ from Galatians 2:20 as expounded by the approved speakers. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
We used to sing this chorus:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<b>O to be saved from myself, dear Lord,<br />
O to be lost in Thee;<br />
O that it may be no more I<br />
But Christ who lives in me!</b></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Whatever its author may have meant, I sang it wholeheartedly in the
sense spelled out above.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The rest of the secret was bound up in the double-barreled phrase "consecration and faith." </span><br />
<br />
Consecration meant total
self-surrender, laying one’s all on the altar, handing over every part
of one’s life to the lordship of Jesus. Through consecration one would
be emptied of self, and the empty vessel would then automatically be
filled with the Spirit so that Christ’s power within one would be ready
for use. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
With consecration was to go faith, which was explained as
looking to the indwelling Christ moment by moment, not only to do one’s
thinking and choosing in and for one, but also to do one’s fighting and
resisting of temptation. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Rather then meet temptation directly (which
would be fighting in one’s own strength), one should hand it over to
Christ to deal with, and look to him to banish it. Such was the
consecration-and-faith technique as I understood it – heap powerful
magic, as I took it to be, the precious secret of what was called
victorious living.</div>
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Scraped for complete consecration</span></span></b><br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b>I scraped my inside, figuratively speaking, to
ensure that my consecration was complete, and labored to ‘let go and
let God’ when temptation made its presence felt. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1mpHrjqi03g/UBlNNizxPYI/AAAAAAAABRo/xLCoNFG1ec8/s1600/Henry+Ironside.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1mpHrjqi03g/UBlNNizxPYI/AAAAAAAABRo/xLCoNFG1ec8/s1600/Henry+Ironside.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Ironside</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>At that time I did not
know that <b>Harry Ironside, sometime pastor of Moody Memorial Church,
Chicago,</b> once drove himself into a full-scale mental breakdown through
trying to get into the higher life as I was trying to get into it; and I
would not have dared to conclude, as I have concluded since, that this
higher life as described is a will-o’-the-wisp, <b>an unreality that no one
has ever laid hold of at all, and that those who testify to their
experience in these terms really, if unwittingly, distort what has
happened to them.</b> </i><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Technique was not working </span></span></b><i><br /></i><br />
<i>All I knew was that the expected experience was not
coming. </i></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
The technique was not working. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Why not? Well, since the teaching
declared that everything depends on consecration being total, the fault
had to lie in me. So I must scrape my inside again to find whatever
maggots of unconsecrated self-hood still lurked there. I became fairly
frantic.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
And then (thank God) the group was given an old clergyman’s library,
and in it was an uncut set of Owen, and I cut the pages of volume VI
more or less at random, and read Owen on mortification – and God used
what the old Puritan had written three centuries before to sort me out."<br />
~<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">J. I. Packer, in his </span><a href="http://www.christianfocus.com/samples/9781857921076_Sample.pdf" rel="external nofollow" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" title="">introduction</a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> to John Owen’s </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Mortification of Sin</i></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, what do we do with all this? </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">How to I respond to my real sin?</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Be killing sin...or sin will be killing you! </span></i></b></span><br />
<b><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></i></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if <i>by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live</i>. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> ~</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Romans 8:12-17 ESV)</span></span></b><b><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></i></b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AGTOxEcVbEI/UB1H5VvUTqI/AAAAAAAABUA/59qYMd1d81A/s1600/Dane+Ortlund.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AGTOxEcVbEI/UB1H5VvUTqI/AAAAAAAABUA/59qYMd1d81A/s1600/Dane+Ortlund.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dane Ortlund</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"I am a sinner. I sin," Dane Ortlund said. "Not just in the past but in the present. But in
Christ I’m not a sinner but cleansed, whole. And as I step out into my
day in soul-calm because of that free gift of cleansing, I find that
actually, strangely, startlingly—I begin to live out practically what I
already am positionally.<br />
<br />
"I delight to love others. It takes effort and
requires the sobering of suffering. But love cannot help but be kindled
by gospel rest.<br />
<br />
How can you possibly stiff-arm this? Repent of your small thoughts of
God’s love, your resistance to swallowing Christ’s atoning work whole.
Repent and let Him love you."<br />
<b><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></b></div>Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-87556206934718745492012-07-28T17:26:00.004-07:002012-07-29T11:36:01.602-07:00Detaching with love<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Db1GeFCoLm4/UBQf6LARWcI/AAAAAAAABLU/WTS-hwSNNnc/s1600/PFC+letterhead+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="39" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Db1GeFCoLm4/UBQf6LARWcI/AAAAAAAABLU/WTS-hwSNNnc/s200/PFC+letterhead+logo.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Get me that other Bible. Bring it to us," Jon demanded, "Jason told us to get as many Bible versions as we can." Jon is an inmate at a unit table at the Maleng Regional Justice Center detention facility in Kent. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He was in full speed ahead, high gear, manipulation and control mode to get me to jump at his demands. I was feeling his pressure and getting pulled in. Others in the unit surrounding our interchange were listening and watching closely. </span><br />
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Manipulation and control strategies</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SVqGv82PPgw/UBQiLwfS49I/AAAAAAAABLc/x_lcskGuB6k/s1600/New+King+James+Study+Bible+with+Radmacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SVqGv82PPgw/UBQiLwfS49I/AAAAAAAABLc/x_lcskGuB6k/s320/New+King+James+Study+Bible+with+Radmacher.jpg" width="225" /></a>Addiction-based behaviors actively manipulate and control others around them. Addictive behaviors abuse both the user and people closest to them. Manipulation and control are ingredients of the addiction recipe-- insidious sins that suck others into diseased sin. </div>
<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<b>Defined, </b><i><u><b>insidious</b></u> plans <span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">to intentionally</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword"></span><span id="hotword" name="hotword">entrap</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">beguile. It</span></span><span id="hotword" name="hotword"></span><span id="hotword" name="hotword"></span><span class="dnindex"><span id="hotword"></span></span><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;"></span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;"></span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">proceeds</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">in</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">an</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">inconspicuous</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">seemingly</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">harmless</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">way</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">but</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">actually</span> intends<span id="hotword" name="hotword"></span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">grave</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">effects.</span></span></i></div>
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Jon didn't stop, even with that. I had already provided a beautiful Nelson New King James Study Bible, the very Bible I use myself while serving as a PFC chaplain--a really quality Bible. I exhorted those with Jon to dig into the resource they already have freely available to them. </div>
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As I stepped away from Jon's table, he demanded, nearly yelling, I get people in his church to visit him--one more shot. I am aware his community group and church leaders know exactly where Jon is. </div>
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Jon was not about digging into another Study Bible. He made it out that it was completely on me to give him what he wanted...and right now. I was to feel compelled to jump so he could show others he is in control. </div>
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I was getting taken in by his strategy. He was getting very briefly what he wanted to gain control over me. Inmates know they have no power in jail so they do many things as a strategy to control people around them.<br />
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As soon as I became aware, I chose to take care of myself by detaching from this craziness. I needed to apply biblical truth from the tremendous input I am receiving around <b>Celebrate Recovery </b>on Thursday nights at Kent Covenant Church.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Detaching with love </b></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L74hPh4_QTU/UBQnCmTtfqI/AAAAAAAABMo/AzmK6bDO4YY/s1600/Hope+for+today--Al-anon.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L74hPh4_QTU/UBQnCmTtfqI/AAAAAAAABMo/AzmK6bDO4YY/s200/Hope+for+today--Al-anon.jpeg" width="130" /></a>I am exploring detaching with love around addictive inmates and others I am sharing with. We stay healthy by choosing to stay away from the craziness that can escalate to insanity.<br />
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I am applying Scripture on <i>detachment with love</i> using an Al-anon text called,<b> "Hope for today,"</b> one of many resources providing thoughtful meditations for family members and friends coping with addiction and abuse all around us.</div>
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As we work through detaching, an intense awareness builds up around an awkward upswing of anxiety. The increased stress is structured around idols--people and things which we allow ourselves, now not just other addicted ones, to reign over and control us.<br />
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I make choices allowing these things to cause me pain, so I have to make a decision to consider the source and actively let these things go with the power of the Holy Spirit. I need to be very much aware where and who this pain is coming from.</div>
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Living in God's love is required to exercise detachment. It is in the very character of godly Christ-likeness. <i>Detaching with love</i>, then, requires actively engaging in God's definition of love--</div>
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<b>Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. </b></div>
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<b>~1 Corinthians 13:4-8 </b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Choosing boundaries</span></span></b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kBNbKRBSVOo/UBQ-aMjAX7I/AAAAAAAABPA/tw1Fz9_XegM/s1600/boundaries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kBNbKRBSVOo/UBQ-aMjAX7I/AAAAAAAABPA/tw1Fz9_XegM/s200/boundaries.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AlzMBx2V6WU/UBQ5Ut6qE3I/AAAAAAAABN0/fR8eMmnCXvk/s1600/hoola+hoops.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AlzMBx2V6WU/UBQ5Ut6qE3I/AAAAAAAABN0/fR8eMmnCXvk/s200/hoola+hoops.jpg" width="158" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A useful word picture for letting go or putting off the craziness</span> away from us is establishing and maintaining our boundaries. I live inside my hula hoop by minding my own business and taking care of myself.<br />
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I learned to mentally construct a safe picket fence or rock wall. We can see and hear each other but we stay right where we are. Staying inside my hula hoop personal space, I may excuse myself from the crazy-making coming in many forms from addictive personalities. Setting safe boundaries is both loving and caring.</div>
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At the MRJC unit, I needed to leave the table and maybe not with complete calm to regain my right, godly purposes. This is not selfish but shows more love and care although they didn't see it that way.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Separate from crazy-making</b></span></div>
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Here, I stay inside my hula hoop or on my side of the fence. I am minding my own business and taking care of myself. I need to leave the world alone especially if they are not asking for my help. Those tangled in addiction are most often not asking for help. They want to make us crazy with them so we are diseased, too.<br />
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I have learned to not give answers to questions others are not asking.</div>
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Things to detach from, or let go, in love:</div>
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<li>disappointment</li>
<li>hurt</li>
<li>accusations </li>
<li>sadness</li>
<li>taking offense</li>
<li>fear</li>
<li>judging others</li>
<li>bitterness</li>
<li>resentment </li>
<li>anger</li>
<li>stress</li>
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The Bible speaks directly about anxiety or, old-fashioned worry--things causing you and me to get swallowed up by manipulation and control. Make no mistake--those who are engaged in addiction and abuse are active and again, insidious, manipulators and controllers.</div>
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David said--</div>
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<b>Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. ~Psalm 37:4-5</b></div>
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<b>Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. ~Psalm 55:22 </b></div>
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Jesus said--</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ~Matthew 6:25 </span></b></div>
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<b>Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ~John 14:1</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Paul said-- </span><b></b></div>
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<b>do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ~Philippians 4:6 </b></div>
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Peter said--</div>
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<b>Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ~1 Peter 5:6-8 </b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As I am listening to others trying to suck me into their habits of addictions and abuse, then, in detaching with love, I choose again to not be the teacher, their guru, or answer guy. David, Jesus, Paul, and Peter even command us to roll our anxieties over to the Lord and "let it go" in Christ-like love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We may say...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"I hear what you are saying. <i>I'm sure you will find
a creative solution</i>. I will listen." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"What choices are available?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">"How are you going to move ahead?"</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">create a peaceful place</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Their answers </span>come from them. In setting solid boundaries, I regain my godly purpose to love them still more by not giving into them with supposed answers they probably won't take on anyway because it is our solutions, not their own. They have no stake in the answer if it is not their own. Continuing to listen is an option but you and I may need to create a peaceful place or...</div>
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<b>leave the room, </b></div>
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<b> take a walk, </b></div>
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<b> hit some golf balls, </b></div>
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<b> watch children play at a nearby park, </b></div>
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<b> go away to get a cup of coffee...</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pray. Regain your balance. Take a deep breath. Pray. </span></span></b></div>
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When we detach in love, God's people are messengers of His hope and recovery as we point them directly to Jesus We provide genuine love and forgiveness that Jesus offers. We are not the answer. That is not for us to give. He will set them, and us, free. </div>
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<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342223003799282272.post-309379342614759962012-07-22T06:29:00.000-07:002012-07-22T09:40:00.539-07:00Jesus saves the filthiest addict<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8XJyQ1JJn30/UAvdILtR_fI/AAAAAAAABKk/_1LrVFVPCTs/s1600/pfc+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8XJyQ1JJn30/UAvdILtR_fI/AAAAAAAABKk/_1LrVFVPCTs/s200/pfc+logo.png" width="195" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"I am not religious," Kevin started right out, "but I've seen seven of my friends die because of drugs, like me. I'm afraid I might die. I have a pocket New Testament but I need a Bible. I am addicted to heroine... I am afraid. I could have died. Can you help me?"</span><br />
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Kevin is 31 and is an inmate at the Regional justice Center in Kent. Starting with marijuana around 15, he progressed to painkillers, oxycontin, and heroine. Oxycontin and heroine kept getting mentioned as he unfolded an ongoing 16 year trail of addiction and substance abuse. </div>
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He admitted he was tired and his eyes kept rolling back through most of our time together. How much he was able to pay attention? I thought I was losing him several times but, no, he was intent on hearing from Jesus and the message of eternal life. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"> God loves and wants to save addicted sinners</span></b></div>
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I had about 40 minutes for this first session right at the end of the day before dinner for the men. I am sobered by this kind of meeting because I may not get a second hearing. From the unit bookshelf, I located a Gideon New King James Bible. Holding the Bible, I emphasized it is merely another book if I don't recognize it is God's incredible message to us about His love and His way to deliver us from the messes we find ourselves in, even heroine addictions like his. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZR9ww6k0TQ4/UAv6xIe8t_I/AAAAAAAABKw/NpqKKEAt2Jg/s1600/pondering+addiction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZR9ww6k0TQ4/UAv6xIe8t_I/AAAAAAAABKw/NpqKKEAt2Jg/s320/pondering+addiction.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kevin may have attended church some as an early teen but there is no lasting understanding. He has not been around a church nor read a Bible for a long time. This man needed to hear God loves and wants to save addicted sinners like him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">God wants to save this heroine addict. He can live... and doesn't have to die without Jesus. Neither he nor I are guaranteed to make it out of the room we were sitting in. That isn't to traumatize him but God may bring death at any time. Kevin is not a healthy man. As a actively prayed silently and with Kevin to begin with, I led him to Jesus and Nicodemus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> Go right to Jesus </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wanted him to hear Jesus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, <b>“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”</b> Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, <b>“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.</b> That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, <b>‘You must be born again.’</b> The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. <b>So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit</b>. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">~John 3:1-8 </span><br />
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So, what are these statements about being born again? The Lord Jesus is very direct. He said, <b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"You must be born again."</b> How do we understand, <b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot see nor enter the Kingdom of God"</span></b>? Being born again means we are saved and enter the Kingdom of God through the supernatural work of God. </div>
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Being saved is wholly, completely, thoroughly the work of God. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Here, Jesus focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Water and the Spirit </span></b></div>
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Jesus asserts Nicodemus should know what he meant when he referenced, "...born of the water and the Spirit..." In verse 1, John introduces Jesus as a Pharisee. Jesus knew he was a "teacher of Israel," in verse 10. D.A. Carson notes "teachers of Israel" would have memorized the Old Testament so he should have known what being born of water and Spirit means. </div>
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Jesus referred to Ezekiel 36. Here it is--</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I will sprinkle you clean...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b> I will sprinkle clean water</b> on you, and you shall be <b>clean</b> from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols <b>I will cleanse you</b>. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. <b>And I will put my Spirit within you</b>, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">~Ezekiel 36:25-27 </span><br />
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Nicodemus should have known about the cleansing water and the Father's work to "put My Holy Spirit within you." Nicodemus didn't argue with Jesus; he remembered. Kevin brought out the clear reference to the forgiveness of sin. </div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Substance abuse and every other sin--gossip, overeating, etc.--leaves the addicted filthy before God.</span></i></div>
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Jesus is talking about a physical birth in the flesh and a second spiritual birth, wholly the work of God. Lost sinners don't make themselves born again. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Born again</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Again, Jesus teaches being born again is the work of the Holy Spirit. The wind blows and we hear it. The Holy Spirit works and we are forever, miraculously, supernaturally saved. We see things change. We don't know where it comes from. The saving work of God makes changes in our lives on an ongoing basis for the rest of our lives. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2x5uD8QCmuY/UAv77Vmjj1I/AAAAAAAABK4/ptH1grh1-OA/s1600/born+again.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2x5uD8QCmuY/UAv77Vmjj1I/AAAAAAAABK4/ptH1grh1-OA/s200/born+again.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The lost sinner is forever changed. I shared with Kevin this isn't primarily emotional, although emotions are engaged. God forever and really changes us. We sense a change. Multiple men may experience it differently but each one recognizes radical change over time. For some, it is very dramatic and for others it may be more quiet. </span>We moved on to the next sections of John 3--</div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. </b>For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. <b>Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.</b> And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and <b>people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.</b> For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But <b>whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.</b>”</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">~John 3:16-21 </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>I asked if we could get real personal. This wasn't "play time," at all. Kevin's eyes still rolled back and he regained focus...Did he want soft and sweet or clear and straight? He chose clear and straight. </b></span><br />
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The Father loved Kevin, Kevin so much He sent God the Son, Jesus, to die so Kevin might not spend eternity separated from the love of God but Kevin might possess eternal life from God. </div>
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The person without Christ is condemned, right now. They are the living dead and face an eternity sentenced to remain under the wrath of God. Jesus says this is hell, Kevin understood, and is a place of destruction where people are weeping and gnashing their teeth. They are aware this hell is a very bad, horrible beyond description, place. </div>
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Eternity rests on every person's believing response to the name of the only Son of God. It is about leaning everything we are forever, our eternal destiny, on who Jesus is and what He has and continues to do to save us for all eternity. </div>
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Kevin could do that, right now. He could have eternal life in Jesus Christ. He said that was what he wanted. </div>
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In the text, <b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"does what is true"</b> and<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"his works"</span> </b>contains the greatest news anyone could ever hear. These are references to believing, the one who <b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"comes to the light,"</span></b> this one leans everything they are on the once-for-all, finished work of Jesus Christ. This one is saved by God, the act of believing is <b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"clearly seen...clearly seen...</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">as being</span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> carried out in God."</span></b></div>
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I assured Kevin he could have all these things related to eternal life and believing. He wanted to pray. I asked him to pray whatever was on his heart. God hears and knows. If God saves, how we pray isn't important. It is not about the sinner's prayer to bring salvation.</div>
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<b><i>We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!<br />
Spread the tidings all around: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!<br />
Bear the news to every land, climb the mountains, cross the waves;<br />
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command; Jesus saves! Jesus saves!</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Glory to God, Kevin prayed. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I left him with a worksheet from Romans and verses about the assurance of salvation to be found in Jesus. We could talk Monday.</span><b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<br />Chaplain Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755132068493986861noreply@blogger.com0