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You're listening to KFI AM six forty
on demand. If you look around,

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it's interesting how in life some things
change you see change all the time,

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and some things don't seem to ever
change no matter how long it's been.

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Certain things seem to stay the same. In my day two thousand years ago,

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the term tax collector was a pejorative
of sorts, almost a dirty word,

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synonymous with sinner. I bet if
you went around and asked today what

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people thought about the tax collector,
they'd probably still think that the word or

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the term tax collector is synonymous with
sinner. As tax day approaches, I'm

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sure you're not pleased or thinking how
thoughts about tax collectors. You're not pleased

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about the thought of handing your hard
earned money over to the government. But

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how do you think God feels about
that? How do you think God feels

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about taxes? You may think God
opposes you paying taxes because you read verses

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like Matthew eighteen fifteen through seventeen that
says, if your brother sins against you,

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go and tell him his fault between
you and him alone. If he

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listens to you, you have gained
your brother. But if he does not

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listen, take one or two others
along with you, that every charge may

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be established by the evidence of two
or three witnesses. If he refuses to

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listen to them, tell it to
the church. And if he refuses to

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listen to even the church, let
him be to you as a gentile and

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tax collector. How could you could
you not think of tax collectors as outcasts

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when you read a verse like that, That's one of many. You can

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read many in scripture where it seems
that tax collectors. Even I was mocked

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by some, but by saying that
I ate with tax collectors, that I

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broke bread with them, somehow automatically
made me bad. However, in scripture,

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tax collectors weren't told to stop collecting
taxes. When the opportunity arose to

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be able to teach them something,
they were told to do it in a

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particular way. And you can read
this in scripture. While John the Baptist

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was speaking to the crowds, he
was approached by a tax collector who wished

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to be baptized. Many people of
different walks of life would come up to

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John the Baptist to be baptized.
Luke three twelve and thirteen says this tax

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collectors also came to be baptized and
said to him, speaking to John teacher,

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what shall we do? And John
replied to them, collect no more

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than you are authorized to do.
Collect no more than you are authorized to

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do. That is what John the
Baptist taught. If taxes were somehow inherently

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sinful, or they were a sin
just by the very nature of being taxes,

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then the advice that John the Baptist
gave in this case would not be

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godly at all. This would have
been a perfect time for John to condemn

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what the tax collector was doing,
but he didn't. All he said was

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collect no more than you're authorized to
do. Be fair about it, be

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balanced about it. Don't use it
as an opportunity to swindle somebody or to

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squeeze more than you should. But
just because you despise paying taxes of any

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kind, whether it's federal, state, property, or sales tax, doesn't

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mean that they aren't important, or
that they're somehow not in line with the

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will of God. There's a place
for them. God knows that there's a

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place where taxes are needed. The
more you delve into scripture, the more

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you'll see God is not against you. Paying honest taxes. As a matter

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of fact, God commands you to
pay honest taxes to the government. Romans

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thirteen to one through seven says,
let everyone be subject to the governing authorities.

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For there's no authority except that which
God has established. The authorities that

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exist have been established by God.
Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is

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rebelling against what God has instituted,
and those who do so will bring judgments

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onto themselves. For rulers hold no
terror of those who do right, but

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for those who do wrong. Do
you want to be free from fear of

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the one in authority, then do
what is right and you will not be

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condemned. You will be commended,
for the one in authority is God's servant

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for your good. But if you
do wrong, be afraid, for the

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rulers do not bear the sword for
no reason. They are God's servants,

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agents of wrath to bring punishment on
the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary

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to submit to the authorities, not
only because of possible punishment, but also

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so as a matter of conscience.
This this is why you pay taxes,

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For the authorities are God's servants who
give their full time to governing Give to

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everyone what you owe them, And
this is important. Listen to this last

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part of verse seven, give to
everyone what you owe them. If you

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owe taxes, pay taxes. If
revenue, then revenue, If respect,

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then respect, If honor, then
honor. And it's very important there that

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it says, if you're resisting governing
authorities, you in fact are resisting God

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because God instituted them, and you
will be judged for it. And even

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when Ponscious Pilot and I were talking
at my arrest prior to being crucified,

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he was trying to get me just
to give it all up and just just

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say these words, do this,
jump through these hoops, and we'll let

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you go. It'll be fine.
And when I would respond in the negative,

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he looked at me and said,
don't you know that I could crucify

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you right now? And my response
was, what don't you know that that

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authority comes to you from the Father. Even misused authority is still from God.

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The key is for all parties,
whether you're a tax collector taxpayer,

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to act appropriately and honestly according to
the laws when it comes to collecting,

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when it comes to paying, the
key is to do it righteously and honestly.

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And does that mean that you are
to take a deep gulp and give

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every cent up. No, because
the laws are there in your favor as

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well. The laws are there for
you to take honest deductions to find where

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the balance is in all things.
You're perfectly within your right legally, spiritually

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to take advantage of tax deductions that
are legal, tax breaks, tax shelters,

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as long as they're honest and they're
legally allowed. But it's the balance

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of all these things that are important. You may be frustrated with the government

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at times. That's okay, and
that's normal, but there are many things

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that you see. Maybe not every
pothole is filled. Maybe you're not happy

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with some of the systems, whether
it be the schools or the libraries or

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what have you. And hopefully you
use your voice to make change or to

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raise concerns. But being a part
of a community, being a part of

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a system that works, means sometimes
paying into it and being a part of

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it that way, So you can
take the time, hire somebody and learn

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as much as you can about the
tax system to find out how it can

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work in your benefit as well.
But if you try and look spiritually to

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scripture. If you're trying to find
that loophole in scripture that says it's okay

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not to pay taxes or somehow to
lie or do any of these things,

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you're not going to find it.
You can look high and low if you

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wish, and try and find that
one loophole that will get you out of

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this time, which I know is
not a fun time. But you won't

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ever find a place where God says
that it's okay to not be a part

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of the society this way, or
to somehow reject the governing bodies. I

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realize, with tax date approaching early
next week, that it's not fun to

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think about taxes. That it's very
easy to get upset and want to raise

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your fist and say I'm sick of
paying taxes. I don't want to pay

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for anything anymore. I feel like
I'm being bled dry. But God does

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tell you in scripture that taxes are
important. God does tell you in scripture

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that it's important for you to pay
taxes. God says that if in Romans

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thirteen one through seven, that if
you're not paying taxes, you're not doing

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the right thing. You're rebelling against
the very authorities that God put there,

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and that you should give to everyone
what you owe them, whether it's taxes

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or revenue, or respect or honor, that you should pass those things along.

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Taxes have always been a hot button
issue, and there have been many

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that tried to use it to their
own political or even spiritual gain. In

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my day, the Pharisees tried to
trap me by asking me how I felt

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about taxes. Of course, they
were trying to get me in a position

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where I would offend somebody or the
other. See if they asked me how

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I felt about taxes, their whole
hope was how am I going to answer.

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If I answer one way, that
it's going to offend the Roman government.

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If I answer in a different way, then I might offend the people.

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Matthew twenty two fifteen through twenty two
talks about this and the Pharisees coming

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out with their their plans to trap
me. They sent their disciples to me.

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It came and they said, teacher, we know you are a man

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of integrity, that you teach the
way of God in accordance with the truth.

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You aren't swayed by others because you
pay no attention to who they are

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listen to the way they they sweet
talk the situation and try and set me

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up. Tell us, then,
verse seventeen, what is your opinion?

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Is it right to pay the imperial
tax to Caesar or not? Verse eighteen

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goes on to say that I knew
that their intent was not pure. I

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knew that their intent was trying to
set me up. So I said,

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you hypocrites, why are you trying
to trap me? Show me the coin

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you use for paying taxes. And
they brought me the coin, and then

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I asked them whose image is this
and whose inscription? Caesar? They replied.

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Then I said to them, so
give back to Caesar what is Caesar's

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and give to God what is God's. When they heard this, they were

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amazed, and they left me and
they went away. So with tax season

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here as it rolls around every year, and I know that it can be

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upsetting because of what you have to
pay out. Remember Matthew seventeen twenty four

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through twenty seven. After Jesus and
his desciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors

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of the two dragma temple tax came
to Peter and asked, doesn't your teacher

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pay the temple tax? And you
know what, he replied, Yes,

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he does. Mike, Welcome to
the Jesus Christ Show. Good morning,

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Lamb of God, Good morning.
I love your show. I've been a

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follower since the very early days,
and I've had the luck to make one

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call before. So I'll get right
to the question. I don't have any

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doubts about really who you are and
what you did. I have a small

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identity question. Your full true identity
has always been something I've questioned, and

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not in a bad way, but
only as as we were advised to do

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sek wisdom, as if digging for
buried treasure, you know. And I've

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dug a lot of holes happily in
the quest for whatever I need to have

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satisfied in my heart. And there's
always just been some questions raised by I've

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had Jehovah's witnesses in my family that
I've grow loved and respect deeply, and

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I think you know the key difference
they always hold and with the mainstream Christian

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thought, And you know, some
of the ideas have just gotten to me.

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And one thing that's got to me
most recently was and it's not new,

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I'm not a unique but are you
fully in line with the Father with

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the powers meaning omniscience and those things
you know, And I think of your

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journey in the desert for forty days, when I think of your meditation and

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your deep prayer, and I think
of you know, it's been referred to

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before as the moment of doubt and
pain on the cross, when you stream

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out to the Father. I just
have this deep feeling that you know,

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your full humanness maybe is places some
sort of limits on your godliness. I

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just wonder if you could please comment
on that a little bit and help me

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out. Well, yes and no, I mean, the power is there

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Matthew twenty eight eighteen, And Jesus
came and spoke to them, saying,

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all power is given unto me in
heaven and in Earth. There's no limitations

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in power. What there is is
submission, and being in submission to the

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Father well on earth absolutely takes place. It has to because of the limitations

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of flesh, not the limitations of
the spirit. So when you're dealing with

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the big fancy theological term, the
hyposthetic union between the flesh and the humanity

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and the deity that's unique to me, you're battling with two things. You

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have to ask every question twice.
In the spirit you're going to get one

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answer, and in the flesh you're
going to get another answer, not because

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the limitation of the spirit, but
the limitation of the body. You understand.

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I'll put it this way, Umm, can you ride a bicycle?

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Yeah? Okay? Can you drive
a car? Yeah? Can you ride

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a bicycle while you're driving a car? Okay? But you wouldn't say because

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if I asked you, can you
ride a bicycle and you're in a car,

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you wouldn't say no. Say well, when I'm not in a car,

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I can ride the bicycle, but
in a car, I can't ride

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the bicycle. So likewise, in
the flesh there are things that can't be

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done because of the flesh. It's
not a limitation of the spirit. So

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that Jehovah's witnesses would want to limit
the spirit and not the flesh, And

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that's where they're wrong. The limitation
is not in the spirit, which is

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identical to the Father in that sense, in the power in all the Omni

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attributes, but it is in the
flesh that while in the flesh, the

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limitation is in the flesh, not
the deity. So they they would say,

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well, you can't ride a bicycle
ever, because you're in you know,

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you said that you couldn't will you're
in the car. But the differential

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is that, well, in the
flesh, the flesh is limited and limits

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certain those things can't be everywhere at
once. But in the spirit absolutely can

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be everywhere it once. And that's
where the confusion strikes, is that union

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between the two. So yes,
in the flesh, there's limitations in the

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flesh, never limitations in the spirit
or the deity of Christ. Ever,

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Laura, Welcome to the Jesus Christ
Show. Hi, Hello Jesus. Well,

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hello, how can I help you? Hi, I'll have a question

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for you that involves my boyfriend.
Okay, he's not a believer and he

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was raised in a basically a family
that has no religious face background at all.

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So I was raised in a Christian
home and I've been trying to like

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bring him to church and talk to
him about God, and his questions are

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always, well, if God is
real, then why does he show himself

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to me? And I guess I've
asked him to, like, you know,

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ask God for something, but then
it's kind of ludicrous because then he

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asked God for like, Okay,
if God's real, then let him put

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a hundred bucks in my hand right
now, and then it doesn't happen,

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and he's like, see, God's
not real. So I guess the question

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that I'm asking is how would you
approach someone who basically has no framework for

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understanding or for a faith in Christ
or oh boy, you're barking up a

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strange tree. This is not how
you have started a relationship. You don't

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start it backwards. And I'm telling
you this, and I know that it

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stinks to hear, but Scripture when
it talks about this concept of being unequally

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yoked in tewod Corinthians six fourteen,
it's talking about how you guys aren't going

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to ever have anything in common for
the most part. I mean, the

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very core of who you are is
going to be different from one another.

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So I want you to know that
if you're going to get into a relationship

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with him, take him as is, don't ever ever assume that he's going

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to become a Christian right and know
that there will be problems, and probably

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prefer that you don't have children,
because if you bring children into it,

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even though if he says he doesn't
care, all it will be is mommy

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saying one thing to the child,
and then Daddy's saying something else. So

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keep these things in mind. I
know it's hard when you're in love and

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you're feeling all those wonderful feelings,
but when life becomes practical and isn't as

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flowery, it gets incredibly difficult.
So just know what you're signing up for.

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Having said that, there's not going
to be anything that you can give

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to him. You're not his teacher. It just won't fall down that way.

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He doesn't see you in that role. He doesn't respect your beliefs.

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Why would he respect your teaching.
So it's very difficult. The whole concept

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of tempting your Lord God is ludicrous. To sit there and go, well,

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put this in my hand. There's
a lot of things that he doesn't

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see that he believes in. You
can't put wind into a Petrie dish to

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study it. You don't see wind. You see the reaction to wind,

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which is the leafs rustling, or
these types of things are the grass blowing.

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So if you really want to ask
him something profound, I suppose you

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could ask him how he knows he
loves you. Because love, you can't

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see it. Doesn't exist. There's
some scientists that will say, yes,

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certain parts of your brain react chemically
to somebody, but that's not really love.

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That's a physiological response to something,
whether it be touch or excitement or

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any sort of contact or stimulation.
So love can't be studied or understood or

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put in a Petrie dish either.
It's really nonsensical the concept of love.

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It's easier just to divide biologically if
you were created in such a way.

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And because of the time, I'm
going to ask you to hold on real

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tight because I want to talk to
you some more. Is that okay,

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Laura, that's fine. Okay,
let's hold on for just a second.

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When we come back, I want
to give you a couple more ideas that

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might help you as you go down
a path. It's a little sketchy to

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begin with. We were talking with
Laura. Laura, you're still there.

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Yeah, thank you, Thanks for
holding on. Okay. So it's a

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difficult situation and I really need you
to know that. Actually, can I

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ask you one more question that has
to do with this? Sure? You

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know. Here's this is the whole
crux of the matter for me. Is

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is there any hope for people that
aren't raised in Christian homes, because now

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I'm beginning to wonder if how well
how do people in general come to faith

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in Christ when there is no background
for it. On the Road of Damascus,

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like I always, always Laura,
always hope. That's not what I

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want you to see. What I
want you to see in the frustration that

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comes in relationships is the assumption that
it's going to come through you. What

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what what you do need? My
producer, Neil wo who loves me and

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has his own issues, that's for
sure, but he he's married to an

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atheist now, yet he serves this
program and serves me in many different ways.

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And you know, some people might
think it was a really bad choice.

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He would probably agree, although they
they work through it. They have

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a system that works for them now. So there's always hope in all situations.

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Just God's standard is always going to
be what's best. And if you

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go into this with eyes kind of
half closed, there's gonna be problems.

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If you go into it thinking that
there's gonna be a happy ending, there

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may not be if you go into
it thinking that there you know that He's

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gonna love. When you go to
church on Sunday. That's that's not gonna

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be the way it is. He
may be fine at first, but sooner

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or later he's going to go,
you know what, I miss having breakfast

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with you on Sundays, or I
miss this, and it's going to become

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very difficult for you to have even
your own faith. So that's why I

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focus on that now. As far
as is he capable, of course he

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is. Sometimes it seems that the
atheist or somebody who's raised in a humanist

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home is easier to show about the
truth of salvation than it is somebody who's

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raised in a counter belief system a
religion, because the atheist almost isn't holding

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on to something, their hands almost
open if you visualize it, rather than

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closed around something, and it's a
little easier to explain. But that's not

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always the case, but there always
is hope. Your goal and kind of

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position and role in all of this
is to be Laura, is to serve

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God as Laura, to love God
and be unwavering the minute you waver This

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is also it makes it quite difficult
is that you don't have a partner that

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understands when you backslide or when you're
in doubt they capitalize on it, and

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so your strength is different. It's
you don't have the community. Plus if

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for a woman, it makes it
even more difficult because the leader of the

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house, as far as the faith
goes in scripture, is the man.

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So if the man's not leading that
that spiritual is if if he's not being

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you guys are partners in the household. But if he's not being that spiritual

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leader in the household, it's difficult. And so these things start to battle

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a little bit. But as far
as it coming from somewhere else, yeah,

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he'll probably see something, know something, come to you and ask questions

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at times, or maybe not.
Sometimes men can believe it or not get

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stubborn and and don't want to hear
it from anyone. There's all kinds of

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variables. It's just a matter of, you know, how far if he

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really if he's just asking silly questions
like how come God doesn't make a hundred

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dollars pop into my hand? That's
ridiculous, then he really doesn't care and

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really doesn't want to know. He
wants to play with your faith, wants

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00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:15.160
to make you feel stupid about your
faith. But if he's really asking intelligent

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questions and wanting to know how things
happen or why they happen, or any

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of this. Then he's going to
legitimately be searching, and therefore he will

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legitimately find an answer. Do you
think he'll I think he'd ever be so

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bold as to call up here.
Yeah, definitely have him call up,

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Okay, get him to call up
and if he has real questions, we'll

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give him real answers. All right, well, I will have him do

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that, Okay, But always have
hope and always have faith, Laura.

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It's it's not a lost cause.
I just don't want to see you to

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get into something that's built on a
fantasy of love rather than responsible you know,

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balance and love. H So just
be strong. I appreciate your perspective,

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and it's it's been tough. I
mean we've been together for about five

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years now, so yeah, it's
you know, there's some things that we

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degrede at and then there's other things
that we don't, So you know,

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I guess it's a matter of priorities
for me. So yeah, it's just

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if you could imagine if you were
both contractors and one of you had a

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00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:29.160
ruler with measurements on it, and
the other one didn't. How difficult it

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00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:32.920
would be to constantly try and build
something because you're going, no, this

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00:26:33.079 --> 00:26:34.920
is a standard, and this is
the standard by which you used to build

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00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:37.440
this, and he's going, I'm
just gonna eye it and kind of guess,

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00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:44.640
and there's there's no there's no structure
between the two. He may say

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it's science for him, but that's
not true. Science is observational, you

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00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:52.359
know. I find though, that
he has like more base Christian values than

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I do in certain ways, like
for example, honesty and like truth telling.

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00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:00.680
He's very like I've struggled with that
more than I think he has.

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And that's something that I don't know. I find just characteristics in him that

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are stronger and sometimes than what I
see in my Christian friends. Absolutely,

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you've put your finger on it too. And this is something that's confusing to

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the Christian community and also to the
non believing or humanist community, because humanists

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are wonderful, Incredibly, the majority
of them are wonderful people with great ethos

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and structure to why they believe what
they believe. It's just it's the practice

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00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:37.119
of it. It comes from nombwhere
nowhere, so it's they practice it because

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00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:41.839
it's culturally right, and that will
only take you so far, you know,

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because culturally right in you know,
Nazi Germany was different than culturally right

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00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:53.640
today. So there's differences that where
it will break down. But absolutely there

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00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:59.160
are wonderful humanists out there that do
great things, and our humanitarians and all

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of these things. It's not about
that. There is more to the truth

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than just the application of it,
you know, kind of as a shell

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or the outside shell. They don't
necessarily know where that comes from or what

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the purpose is. And as we've
said on the show many times before,

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00:28:17.839 --> 00:28:21.480
the purpose of the law is more
important than the law itself, because the

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00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:25.480
purpose of the law is what you're
protecting. If there's something to be protected,

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then that's more important than what you're
doing to protect it. And people

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get confused with those things, and
it's a long path and it's not one

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00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:37.720
that I recommend, and I asked
that you go into it with a strong

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00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:42.680
head and being reasonable and not just
caught up in the fantasy. But ultimately,

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00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:47.720
the truth is you don't respect his
beliefs and he doesn't respect yours.

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00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:52.839
That's what it comes down to,
and you both both might see each other

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00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:55.960
as being attractive, and you both
might see each other as being fun,

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00:28:56.079 --> 00:29:00.720
but really that's going to you know, fall apart at some point, and

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00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:03.400
you're gonna have to trust each other's
beliefs and you don't. You're gonna have

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00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:07.440
to trust, you know, each
other's faith. And he has a faith

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in the unknown on one sense of
things, and you have a faith in

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00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:18.319
the unknown and another sense of things. And it can get very, very

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cumbersome. So just keep those things
in mind. And if he's bold enough

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to call up, if he really
has questions, please have them call up

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and reference our conversation. Kf I
AM six forty on demand