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This podcast may use AI-generated content and voices.
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For more information, check out our disclosure page on our website, Bible-bytes.
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com/slash disclosures.
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Welcome to Bible Bites, your virtual Sunday school, inspiring faith one bite at a time.
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Each episode brings
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Breaks down the timeless wisdom of the Bible into digestible insights, perfect for those unable to attend services in person.
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Whether you're seeking spiritual growth or encouragement, Bible Bites offers fresh, engaging perspectives that fit in.
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into your busy schedule.
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Here is your host, Randy Black.
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In Matthew chapter 9, verses 27 to 31, we witness the powerful healing ministry of Jesus.
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as he restores the sight of two blind men.
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This passage emphasizes the importance of faith in Christ and his ability to bring physical and spiritual healing
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The blind man's persistent faith and their acknowledgement of Jesus as the Son of David are central to this miracle.
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As we explore this piece of scripture, we're going to reflect on the significance of faith, the mercy of Christ.
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And how his power to heal transcends physical ailments, reaching the depths of our spiritual needs.
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As we do each week, let's open up our scripture study with a prayer.
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Heavenly Father, we come before you in gratitude for your word and the teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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We ask for your guidance as we dive into these passages
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Open our hearts to understand the importance of faith and trust in you.
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Help us to learn from the persistence and belief of the blind men.
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And may we grow in our faith, knowing that you are the source of all healing.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Matthew 9 verses 27 through 31.
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As Jesus went on from there, two men who were blind followed him, crying out,
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Have mercy on us, son of David.
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And after he entered the house, the men who were blind came up to him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this?
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They said to him, Yes, Lord.
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Then he touched their eyes, saying,
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Saying, It shall be done for you according to your faith.
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And their eyes were opened, and Jesus sternly warned them, saying, See that no one knows about this.
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But they went out and spread the news about him throughout the land.
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In this passage of scripture, two blind men, recognizing their need for help, persistently follow Jesus, calling out to him for mercy.
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Their cry, thou son of David, is significant, for it acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, the promised descendant of David
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This title not only reflects their understanding of Jesus and who he is, but also indicates their faith in his divine authority to heal
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By calling him Son of David, the blind men are placing their trust in the long-awaited Savior who could restore not just their sight, but their lives.
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Jesus does not immediately respond to their pleas, but allows them to follow him inside the house.
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Once there, he asks them a direct question.
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Do you believe that I am able to do this?
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This question is crucial as it reveals that faith is a necessary element for experiencing the power of God.
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Jesus could have healed them instantly, but he wanted them to declare their belief in his ability to heal.
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Their response, yes, Lord, demonstrates their unwavering faith in his power.
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The miracle occurs when Jesus touches their eyes and says to them, It shall be done for you according to your faith
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This healing is directly tied to their faith, showing that Jesus responds to sincere belief.
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This interaction reminds us that while Jesus has the power to heal, he often waits for us to place our trust in him.
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Faith opens the door for God's work in our lives, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.
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After the healing, Jesus instructs the men to remain silent about the miracle, but in their joy, they spread the news of his power throughout the region.
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Their inability to contain the good news highlights the transformative nature of their encounter with Jesus
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Despite his request for discretion, the miracle of their healing becomes a testimony to all who hear it.
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This scripture teaches us about the relationship between faith and healing.
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Jesus calls us to believe in his ability to heal our brokenness.
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And when we approach him with faith, he responds.
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The physical healing of the blind men serves as a symbol of the spiritual healing Christ offers to all who believe in him.
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We have five key takeaways from this passage of scripture.
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The first is that faith is essential in receiving God's healing and blessings.
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Throughout Scripture, we see that God often responds to faith.
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In this scripture, the blind men's healing is directly tied to their belief in Jesus' power
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Faith is not about acknowledging God's existence.
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That's not the only item we need, but it's about trusting in his ability to intervene in our lives
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Without faith it's difficult to receive the fullness of what God wants to give us.
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Our faith invites God to work in ways that must that go go far beyond what we can see or what we can understand.
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Our second takeaway is that we must recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of David, and it is key to understanding his authority and his power
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The blind men's cry of Son of David shows their recognition of Jesus as the promised Savior.
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This title acknowledges that he is not just a teacher or a prophet.
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But he is the one with divine authority to heal and to restore.
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Understanding Jesus' true identity shapes how we approach him in prayer and in faith.
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When we know who Jesus truly is, we are more likely to trust in his ability to meet our needs
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Recognizing Jesus as the Messiah unlocks the power of his promises in our lives.
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Our third takeaway is that Jesus responds to sincere and persistent faith.
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The blind men
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did not just call out once, but followed Jesus persistently until he responded
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Their persistence was a demonstration of their faith.
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Even when it seemed Jesus was not immediately answering
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Jesus honors those who continue to seek him with faith, even in the face of delays or challenges.
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Our persistence shows God that we trust Him regardless of circumstances.
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This scripture
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Passage encourages us to never give up in our pursuit of Christ's help and intervention.
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Our fourth takeaway is that healing often comes in response to our faith
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But in God's timing and God's way.
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Jesus could have healed the blind men as soon as they were called out
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But he waited until they entered the house and affirmed their belief.
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This reminds us that God's timing and responding to our faith
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May not always align with our expectations.
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Sometimes our faith is tested through waiting, which strengthens our reliance on God
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Healing can take many forms, physical, emotional, or spiritual, and may come in ways when we don't anticipate it
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Yet, when we trust God's plan, we can be assured that his response will always be for our good.
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And our last takeaway is that the testimonies of God's work in our lives naturally overflow even when we are instructed to remain silent.
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After being healed, these men couldn't contain their joy and shared the news of Jesus with everyone, despite his instructions to stay quiet.
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This reflects the power of personal testimony.
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When we experience God's grace, it's natural to want to tell others
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Testimonies of healing and of transformation can inspire others to seek Jesus for themselves, even when circumstances call for discretion.
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The impact of God's work in our lives often speaks for itself.
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Sharing what God has done encourages faith in others and brings glory to his name.
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The healing of the blind man is a powerful example of what faith in Christ can accomplish
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These men, despite their physical blindness, saw clearly what Jesus was.
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Their understanding of Jesus as the Messiah is an important lesson for us today.
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Often we may have a perfect physical vision.
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Like these men didn't.
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Yet.
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We fail to see who Christ truly is in our lives.
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Like the blind man, we must call to Jesus
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Acknowledging our need for His mercy and His healing power.
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Faith is not just a passive belief, but an active pursuit of Christ.
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Much like how the blind men followed him and persisted in their pleas.
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This persistence in faith challenges us to examine our own level of trust in Jesus
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Are we willing to pursue him even when answers seem delayed?
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Do we continue to believe in his power to heal and to restore when situations look bleak?
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Moreover, the fact that Jesus touched the blind men and healed them according to their faith is a reminder that God responds to genuine belief.
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Faith does not guarantee that we will always get what we want, but it opens the door for God to work in our lives in powerful ways.
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The healing may come in forms that we don't expect, but it is always for our good and most importantly, his glory.
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Lastly, the response of the blind men to spread the news of their healing reflects the joy of encountering Christ.
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When God works in our lives, it's hard to keep silent.
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Our natural response is to share the good news of his power and grace with others.
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Like the blind men.
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Our testimony of Jesus' work can inspire others to seek him for their own healing and most importantly, their own salvation
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As we do each week as we finish our scripture study, let's close it with a prayer.
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Lord Jesus, we thank you.
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for the lesson in faith from the healing of the two blind men.
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Strengthen our faith, that we may trust in your power to heal us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
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Help us to recognize you as the Messiah, our Savior, and to pursue you persistently, no matter the circumstances that are in front of us.
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May our faith grow as our life and our lives continue to be a testimony of your grace and your mercy.
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Let us share the good news of your healing power with others, leading them to the same faith we have in you.
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In your holy name we pray.
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Amen.
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We hope that we are providing value to you through our research and preparing and recording of the podcast.
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And that you would then in turn provide value back to us.
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And that can be in three different categories, three different forms.
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We refer to those as time, as talent, and as treasure
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Time is is something as simple as you listen to the show.
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Or after listening to the show, you take it and you share it with someone else.
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Talent would be offering to help us with the show in some way, be it to create cover art for us for each episode, to provide us scriptures and ideas.
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for lessons to to look at on the show or even to step up and volunteer to record for the show.
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And lastly would be treasure, and treasure would obviously by its name refer to something that is
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financial uh in nature of its value.
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Uh you can provide financial support to us by streaming SATs in a modern podcast app, and a sat is a one hundred millionth of a bitcoin, very small amounts.
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Or you can head to our website where we have a page there, a link there you can use to donate to support us by providing value to us through PayPal.
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If you want to learn more about the value for value model and how it is that we use it and apply it to this show, you can head over to our website and read up on it.
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You can get there by going to Bible-bytes, B-Y-T-E-S.
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dot com slash the letter V, the number four, the letter V.
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Bible dash bytes dot com slash V for V
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If you have a prayer request, we would pray and hope that you would reach out to us that we can via the contact that is on our website, contact form there.
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that we can share that with the audience so that we can all work together to lift that up to the Lord in prayer.
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Have some prayer requests to go through this week before we close out in prayer
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Again, continue to remember the gentleman that I mentioned last week, Russell Harrer from the Proadcasting 2.
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0 community.
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He's returned to the hospital again and had the same issue.
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Return and come back.
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We want to lift him up in prayer that God can touch him and heal him.
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My father uh will prepare his treatment uh plan very soon
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He has to go and have some procedures done before the treatment starts.
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Those have now been scheduled.
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Uh so continue to remember him as we work through this treatment of of the cancer that is in his body.
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Uh and also that
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the the Lord can touch him and help him to return back to service with the Lord by by attending services and things again.
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We have a family, uh two family friends uh that we want to lift up and remember.
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The first is a gentleman named Rick.
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Uh Rick worked for my father and for my grandfather for a number of years.
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And um
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actually played guitar in a you know for a quartet that my grandfather was a member of at one point.
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Uh Rick uh suffered a s a stroke this week and
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is uh improving, but still has a ways to go.
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Um so we want to lift him up, Rick Mullins, remember him in prayer uh this week as uh
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as you pray to the Lord with the different requests that you have.
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The other is the Nance family, family friend, his mother.
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has some issues and some health things and she's been in the hospital but has now returned back to the care home she lives in.
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Uh but they still have a lot of things to work through and
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and deal with on that.
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So remember the Nance family.
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Uh still continue to remember those folks who are recovering from the storms from Helene and
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and from uh Milton as they hit areas in the southeast U.
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S.
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that those people can continue to recover and he uh their lives be healed and most importantly if they haven't accepted Jesus
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That they do so.
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So in a situation like this, they have that that peace and that reassurance that comes from having that faith in Jesus and in God.
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And again, continue to remember me.
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We're still working through things with my diagnoses that have happened recently.
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But I ask that you continue to pray for me that
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I can I can work my way through those and get better and continue in my daily work, what I do with my job, as well as what I'm doing with my podcast, uh, that I can uh do what's best and what I feel is right for the Lord, especially in this show.
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So, as we do each week, let's close out with one more prayer.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for the time to
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Come together and dive into your word and learn the lessons that it has for us in our lives each day.
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Remember these prayer requests that have been put forward.
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Remember Russell Harrower.
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Remember my father
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Uh remember Mr.
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Mr.
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Rick Mullins and the Nance family, those people who are recovering from the storms, and myself.
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Remember those, Lord, help us all.
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to see the healing or the will you have for us in our lives uh to to best answer those requests.
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We know there are members of our audience who have requests that they have been unspoken and they have not shared with us.
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But we we want you to remember those requests because you know them.
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You know what the needs are of these people
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of our audience and that you can answer those prayers because we trust you.
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We trust your wisdom.
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You will answer those requests with whatever is in your will
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It's in your name each week we come together through the research and the preparation, the recording, that we strive to share you with the world through this podcast.
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That one day someone may hear this show, may hear this podcast who's unsaved, and they accept your son Jesus as their savior.
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So they can then spend eternity in heaven with you and with Jesus and all of us who are saved.
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It's in your Son's name that we pray.
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Amen
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Join us on the next episode of Bible Bites, where we're going to look at Jesus healing a man who is unable to speak.
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And that's immediately in this same chapter.
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We're going to check that out next week.
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That's in Matthew chapter 9, verses 32 through 34.
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Thank you for joining us for Bible Bytes, your virtual Sunday school.
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Please head over to our website at Bible-bytes.
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com to learn how to follow, support, or share the show.
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show with others.
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Be sure to listen in next week for more of Bible Bites, inspiring faith one bite at a time.
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This podcast was produced by Johns Creek Studios, a full-service podcast production, planning, and management provider based in Milton, West Virginia.
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To learn more.
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Head over to Johns Creek Studios.
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com.
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Johns Creek Studios, where podcast dreams come to life.