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It's nice to be together. 
Paul Golson, to his apologies, 

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he's away preaching somewhere. 
So he's not here tonight. 

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That's where that's where he is.
Not actually, I'm not sure quite

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where he is. 
So I was going to give a little 

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intro and then I thought we 
could work through the content 

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in the in the notebook. 
And for me, this sitting around 

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a table and having food together
is also kind of part of this. 

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I'm reading this book that that 
Duncan's recommended called The 

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Other Half of Church and it's 
talking about how very often we 

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encounter God and we are 
transformed in our behaviour and

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life, not through just absorbing
some academic information, but 

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in through the way that we feel 
love and relate to each other. 

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And and that probably I think 
right side of the brain type 

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experience being such a key part
of our transformation. 

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Say, you know, I think as, as 
we're on this journey together 

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as church, it's, it's something 
that we're doing together, isn't

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it? 
And it's a, and it's a, it's an 

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exploratory journey that we're 
on and so great that we can do 

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it around a table in, in 
closeness and warmth. 

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And I think for my introduction 
now I wanted to say a little bit

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about about the journey and how 
we journey this together as a 

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church and some thoughts that 
I've got. 

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So I've got 4 points that I 
wanted to share. 

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The first one is I was thinking 
just this week, how is the 

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problem with the whole world 
that for everybody, whether 

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they're atheist or whatever 
religion they are or Christian 

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is, is there can every problem 
be rooted back to a twisted or 

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distorted idea of an 
understanding of who God is? 

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That's my kind of thought 
experiment and, and just 

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thinking that, you know, Jesus, 
obviously most explicit 

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revelation of God that we have 
had, I suppose. 

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And and he was constantly 
surprising people, wasn't he 

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about what God was like and 
behaving in ways that challenged

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perceptions and understandings 
and existing mindsets. 

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That was my first thought, 
something I've just been 

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pondering. 
And I was thinking about some 

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friends of mine who is not a 
Christian family and I see some,

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a lot of pain that they're in. 
And I'm wondering they wouldn't 

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say they've got anything to do 
with God in their life and 

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they'd describe themselves as 
atheists. 

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But I wonder how much of the 
pain and stuff that they're 

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experiencing is actually a is, 
is linked to a reaction to how 

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they perceive God to be just 
Again, that's just my thought 

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experiment, really. 
That was my first thing. 

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The second one was that, yeah, I
guess in terms of where I'm at 

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with this, with this journey 
with the Trinitarian faith 

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course, there's bits that I love
and I think are brilliant. 

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And then I said this to Paul the
other day. 

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There are bits of it that I 
don't, I don't really agree 

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with. 
I think there's, I think, I 

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think, I think it's particularly
good for people who've had 

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experiences of evangelical 
Christianity, which is, which 

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has been overly heavy. 
And I guess, you know, that's 

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Baxter's experience, doesn't it?
It's come from an extreme 

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Calvinist experience and, and 
Paul from a more extreme 

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Pentecostal. 
And there's a, there's A, and 

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there's a great, I think 
correction and, or, or 

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rebalancing of some of those, 
those things. 

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I, I, I personally think it 
swings too far in some ways. 

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So, so, and I think, and I was 
saying to Paul the other day, 

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you know, I find that deeply 
uncomfortable that I'm not 

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exactly on the same page with 
you on, on all of these things. 

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I want to be just championing 
you 100% and saying, I'm so for 

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this, I'm so for you. 
I really, I do really like you. 

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Please, can we still be friends 
even if we come to the end of 

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this, you know, and we're not 
like exactly on the same page. 

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He's like, of course, you know, 
but I think that's also a 

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challenge of our time. 
And, you know, the history of 

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the Protestant church is people 
get into their little niche and 

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they're like, oh, can't be 
friends with you, can't be in 

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furnishing with you because you 
don't have my same view on this.

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We'll go and start a new church 
and you get that continuous 

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schism. 
And at the moment we're seeing 

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this horrible polarisation 
around the world, aren't we, of,

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of people clinging to their 
tribe and, and you know, it's 

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just people that think the same 
as me or see the world the same 

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as me. 
And, and I think the beauty of 

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church in its design is that is 
that we should be able to 

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present a a better way, which is
that we love each other first. 

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We love Jesus and and and and 
and, and, and within. 

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And so I don't intend, I don't 
want hope to have a sort of an 

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official hope line on this is 
our doctrinal basis. 

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You need to have to be part of 
hope. 

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Of course, there'll be a culture
and there'll be sort of like the

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theology that Alice and I have 
as leaders will obviously sort 

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of have a significant impact. 
But I don't want us to have to 

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say you've got to sign up to 
this exact world view and 

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mindset in order to feel like a 
home here. 

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And I think that will be a 
prophetic and powerful something

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for the world. 
That was my second point. 

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What was my third one? 
Oh, my third one. 

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I might have shared this before,
actually on a Sunday in a talk 

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maybe a few times. 
And I think again, a bit of 

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personal testimony of I think 
what this teaching has helped me

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in is I used to find on Sunday 
mornings for me, there's always 

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a dynamic of the sovereignty of 
God versus the stewardship that 

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we are called to and entrusted 
with. 

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And, and where does this sort of
boundary lie? 

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And I probably sway a bit too 
closely to it's all on me, the 

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stewardship side. 
That's, that's often my my kind 

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of wrestle. 
And so the dynamic often for me 

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on Sunday mornings was that I 
would actually have quite a lot 

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of diarrhoea on Sunday mornings.
That would be my normal Sunday. 

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I'd feel this real pressure 
because I want people to come to

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hope, have a powerful encounter 
with God. 

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And, and I kind of somehow felt 
that that was on my shoulders. 

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And I mean, there is a measure 
in which it is in terms of I'm 

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involved in leading this church.
And so I do have an influence, 

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but at the same time, I can't 
make that happen. 

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And, and what was wonderful and 
changed my metabolism, I suppose

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my bodily functions was sitting 
in that image of the Trinity and

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sitting in that relationship 
with Father, Son and Holy Spirit

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and, and, and, and just a kind 
of like a minute or so of sort 

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of meditating on that is my 
position and my posture and 

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changed my bodily functions to 
be more graphic than I'm 

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comfortable with being gnarly. 
But I think it shows, it shows 

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an it shows an example of, you 
know, the, the health and life 

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that can come from a healthy, 
more healthy adaptation than 

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understanding of what God's 
like. 

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So that was my Third Point. 
And I think my 4th 1, I think my

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4th, my fourth example was I was
at AI was at an event, church 

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leaders event. 
It was a talk from a kind of big

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cheese speaker maybe a month or 
six weeks ago. 

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And it was an all day thing. 
And I was really inspired by 

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what this guy was saying in the 
morning. 

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I thought it was brilliant, 
really loved it. 

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And one of the things he was 
saying was that he could see 

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he's talking about understanding
the timers that we're in. 

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He was saying that various 
things are being shaken and 

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changed and, and sort of fresh 
perspectives coming and sort of 

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new wineskins coming. 
And, and I and he was, he was, 

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he was, he was, he was being 
explicit on a few things. 

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But then I said to him at the 
lunch break in terms of these 

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things that are being shaken and
sort of reassessed, you know, is

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penal substitution one of those 
things that you, that, that you 

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see, because I, you know, I've, 
I've found a sort of, that's one

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of the things that I found very 
helpful. 

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It's been this sort of 
questioning of that, of that, 

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the nature of that penal 
substitution thing. 

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And I've come to find that quite
liberating and exciting. 

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And he was like, Oh, no, no, I'm
totally fine with penal 

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substitution. 
And that's not one of the areas 

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I'm thinking of. 
And then I've watched in my 

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heart my attitude after lunch in
the afternoon. 

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I just basically didn't really 
have much interest in what he 

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had to say. 
He'd like totally gone down in 

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my estimation. 
And I thought, ah, just spotting

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it in myself, this sort of 
tribalism. 

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And it's like, oh, I see that, 
that thing in my heart, I'm 

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like, oh, you're not, you're 
not, you haven't got the 

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revelation, you know? 
And so I was like, oh, and, and 

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I guess that was my, my kind of 
4th point was this was this, it 

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kind of ties in with the second 
point about tribalism. 

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I, I don't want, I don't want to
be, I don't want us to be a 

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church. 
That's, that's tribal, that it 

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has some people that are in this
camp, some that are in that 

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camp, you know, and we and I, 
you know, so I just want to 

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encourage you, if you see that, 
if you smell that in yourself, 

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I'm, I'm not convinced that's 
the, the way of Jesus and I 

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certainly don't want it in 
myself. 

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So they're, they're my 4 little 
for just reflections on the 

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journey so far or aspects of it 
for me. 

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And I do think it's a privilege 
that we're doing this and that 

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we're asking these questions. 
And I think there's a they say, 

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as we've said, you know, it's 
for some people, it's an 

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unnerving thing to be asking 
these questions and it's a bit 

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and it's a bit destabilising. 
I certainly find it makes me, 

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you know, question lots of stuff
and parts of that are a bit 

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scary. 
I'm like, you know what, how can

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I, I don't know, I don't think I
understand this anymore. 

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And you know, but, but, but I 
think this is the right thing to

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be doing. 
And I do feel they, my 

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perspective is I think there's 
bits of it that are an overswing

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and aren't quite right. 
I do think there's been some, it

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feels like there's a, it's a 
prophetic thing happening within

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the church. 
I feel there's part that within 

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part of this. 
It's partly the maturing of the 

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bride. 
It's it's of Christ as the 

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church there. 
So it's a, we're privileged in 

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being part of understanding and 
sharing God, sharing the world 

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God in a better and more healthy
way. 

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I feel. 
So I feel like we're in a 

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privileged place to be on this 
journey. 

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And yeah, can I pray? 
Can I pray for this evening? 

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Lord, thank you that we get to 
be here. 

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Thank you for the privilege of 
being part of your church. 

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And we, we, we come to you in, 
in humility as much as we can. 

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And we say, will you lead us 
Jesus into, into all truth? 

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Will you reveal Christ to us? 
Will you take away, make us 

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aware of and strip away from us 
lies that we've believed, ways 

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that we're misunderstanding and 
not saying clearly and, and and 

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we're wounding has has distorted
our understanding of you and the

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world and life and lead us into 
joy, freedom, fullness overflow 

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so that we can serve you, love 
you and live life to the full. 

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Live life in all its fullness, 
as you said Jesus, and share 

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that goodness with the world. 
Cool. 

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So the first part of the so 
we're on Chapter 8. 

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Help me. 
It's week 8 and the reflection 

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and exercise at the beginning 
was to look at this. 

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How many points is an 18 point 
list here of the Trinitarian 

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vision? 
And, and then the exercise is, 

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is choose four or five of the 
points above and consider which 

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scriptures speak most directly 
to them. 

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So it might be that you want to 
pick out one or two reading 

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through that What, what which 
something there that stands out 

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to you. 
Oh, yeah, thanks Olivia. 

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I would, I would recommend you 
read through that list of of 18 

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points and just ask God to 
highlight one of them to you and

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then and then to go into that. 
So that's the exercise at the 

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beginning. 
And so we'll do that for about 

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15 minutes. 
Yeah, I think do it individually

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to start with and then talk 
about it as a group. 

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So maybe just share one, choose 
one each.