Today Author and Entrusted Ministries Founder Betsy Corning and I talk about another tool with our Bible study method, Get the Word Out. What's so great is that each of these tools help you think about the Word of God and understand it in a different way! Today, we're talking about chapter summary statements and chapter summaries because recently in my parenting, there was a situation with my son where he was struggling to honor an authority figure in his life. I wanted to guide him with the Word of God, and I was so thankful that I knew to pull out 1 Peter chapter 2 to display Jesus' submission to authority and tell my son what God's expectations of him were. I know I could have Googled it or pulled out my phone, but I think it would've completely distracted us from our conversation. We know you are so busy, but this might be a simple tool that you could enact to help you disciple your children well. We'll keep this episode nice and brief because we wanna equip you and help you get back to all the things!

Interested in reading about Get the Word Out? Or you can listen!

Learn more about our color-coding system here.

And don't forget our favorite parenting study: Entrusted with a Child's Heart!

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

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nutritionist and dietician Emily Schuman?

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She spoke balance, peace, and

joy, and restored God's intention

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in an area that He has always

intended to be a blessing to us.

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Right now, often with our pursuit

of wisdom and knowledge, I think

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a lot of that joy is being robbed.

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I really appreciated the mental

reset Emily inspired in me.

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And speaking of clarity and peace

and joy, today Betsy and I are going

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to talk about another tool with our

Bible study method, Get the Word Out.

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What's so great is that each of these

tools helps you think about the Word of

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God and understand it in a different way.

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Today, we're talking about chapter

summary statements and chapter summaries

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because recently in my parenting,

there was a situation with my son

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where he was struggling to honor

an authority figure in his life.

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I wanted to guide him with the Word of

God, and I was so thankful that I knew

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to pull out 1 Peter chapter 2 to display

Jesus' submission to authority and tell my

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son what God's expectations of him were.

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I know I could have Googled it

or pulled out my phone, but I

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think it would've completely

distracted us from our conversation.

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We know you are so busy, but this might

be a simple tool that you could enact

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to help you disciple your children well.

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We'll keep this episode nice and

brief because we wanna equip you and

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help you get back to all the things.

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And if it inspires you that you really

wanna dig into the Word of God more,

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I'll link in our show notes to Get the

Word Out, and you can look more into

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how this system can help you develop

your own personal devotional lifestyle.

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also link to an episode about

my favorite tool, color-coding,

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because that's always a favorite.

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

consistent in reading the Word of God and

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you just don't know how to do it because

you are constantly needed, we get it, and

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we created The Dwelling Place podcast so

that every day you can hear the Word of

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God, know what God is calling you to, and

you and your kids will be prayed over.

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With all the messages you're receiving

on a daily basis from culture We

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want to counteract it with the

truth of God's Word because that's

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what will stand the test of time

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Steph: We've talked about a lot of

different tools for Get the Word Out, but

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there's one that I know that you really

want us to be faithful in, and I think

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it helps us to think about scripture in

a way that perhaps we haven't trained our

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brains to do, because often we're looking

for what is the encouragement that I need.

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But how can we help to have a working

knowledge of the Bible and understand

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where we could go back and find things?

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What tool would help us with that?

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Betsy: So this next tool is

called, uh, chapter summaries

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and chapter summary statements.

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And with each book of the Bible

that you read, you're gonna

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be writing chapter summaries.

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Let's say you're doing Genesis 20.

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So you're gonna read your

chapter, and you're gonna write...

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maybe you're doing this for

the very first time, and your

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chapter summary is very short.

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Maybe

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

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They, they can be brave, right?

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Yeah.

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Betsy: Don't be scared.

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

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

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If you were doing it long, eventually

you'd be paraphrasing the whole Bible.

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And, uh, anyway, so it

doesn't have to be long.

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But what you're gonna do at the end of

each chapter, you're gonna go to the

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back of that chapter that's in your book.

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so I wrote for my chapter summary

statement of Genesis 1, "The world

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is spoken into being by the Trinity."

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It's the chapter of creation.

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Now, the second one I wrote, "Creation

of male and female in God's image, and

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marriage, the institution of marriage."

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So I am taking that whole chapter and

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

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consolidating it into the key point.

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What I do sometimes is I'll make

an even abbreviated one, And

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there's, there's value in this,

where I will just say, " Creation."

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Male and female marriage.

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The fall.

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Cain and Abel," number four.

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So I have my chapter s- summaries.

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Then I have a fuller statement,

which could be a sentence or two.

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Then I have a simple phrase.

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So this is the entire book of Genesis.

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In just a simple phrase.

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And you can see how I had a hard time

keeping it to a simple phrase on the back.

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That's just me.

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Uh, anybody who knows me knows that.

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Um, anyway, but when I want

to say, "Well, where was, uh,

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Melchizedek in the, in Genesis?"

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Well, right there, 14.

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I can find it so quickly.

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Where were the Ten Commandments given?

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Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5.

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I mean, it is so easy when you have a

list like this that you've made yourself.

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Now, you can get a list that somebody

else has made, but it's not gonna

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do you any good because you have to

pick the words, you have to think

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the thoughts, you have to write the

words, and so that it all connects in

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your brain and you retain it, and then

you put it together in your thing.

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So this is really helping you

where you might think, "Well, that

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seems like a lot of busy work."

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No, this is really helping you

fine-tune from a big thought to

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a smaller thought to a condensed

thought and where it is in your Bible.

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You're really learning

your Bible by doing this.

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And, when I was in school,

sometimes they would say, Where

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is the qualifications for a king?"

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You know, Deuteronomy 17.

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You had to know all these things.

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And, uh, certain churches, I

know John MacArthur's church

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does this when they have elders.

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They have to know what chapters of

the Bible speak to certain issues.

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And why shouldn't we, um, be

doing these same sort of things?

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It's for our benefit, right?

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So, uh, very helpful to be, to

be learning things this way.

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Okay,

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Steph: It's kind of like you're

creating your own personal

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table of contents to scripture.

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And as we said, this doesn't just equip

you for your own personal study, it can

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equip you to disciple, to teach, and,

you might be having a conversation and

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someone saying, "Well, why is it so

important that Jesus rose from the dead?"

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

look at 1 Corinthians 15, the most

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extensive passage on why the resurrection

matters," and you can see why.

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And so when you have this working

knowledge of scripture, you're not

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just going to man's opinion, you're

not just googling it and getting

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something that might be warped by AI.

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You're going straight to the

word of God and giving the

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right answers that God says.

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Betsy: you're not floundering around

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

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Steph: Mm-hmm.

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Betsy: it really helps you,

be, straight to the point.

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Steph: Right.

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Let's say there's someone that's

really overwhelmed and , they're

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wanting to do this, and they haven't

read through scripture before.

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Do you think it would be okay to just

do the chapter summary statements

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this time around and to try to do a

concise, version of it, and then maybe

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next time to develop the summary more?

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Betsy: Yes.

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

what the four main things are that

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you really need to do every time.

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But the chapter summary summaries,

aren't something that you have to

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do the first time you go through it.

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But to write a statement is, because

you do wanna get this working knowledge

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of where things are found in the

Bible, so that would be important.

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Steph: Sure.

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we're wanting all of this

knowledge to transform us.

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It-- this isn't just for head

knowledge it really can equip

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us for ministry, as we said.

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I heard someone say that they read the

Bible i-in 90 days recently because

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they said you see the redemptive story

so clearly when you read it like that.

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We're so used to going

through a little bit slower.

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And, when I heard that, I

was like: How do you do that?

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I think it was about an hour a day,

I don't think that's as long as

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you would expect for it to take.

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But I think that these chapter summary

statements can also give you that

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overarching, you know, what is really

the storyline that's happening here?

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Betsy: A number of years ago, my

son Lee he was between jobs, and he

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had a couple weeks, and he listened

auditorily to the Bible in a week.

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I mean, however you do it, it

is life-changing because it's

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the word of God that has power.

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But, um, and there are

so many ways to do it.

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But we're giving tools because

we really want people to do it.

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And when you get together a group,

whether maybe it's just your husband

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or your best friend or a group of, you

know, eight people or whatever it might

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

these three tools," but stick with it.

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Right now this year I'm doing

it with three different groups.

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And just absolutely love each group

distinctly and differently for where we

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are and what we're studying and how they

challenge me, and, it's really a blessing

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Steph: People often say that when they

read scripture, This could probably

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be applied to anything that we read,

but often we can get distracted

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and say, " what did I just read?"

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If you're doing these, you're

certainly never going to say that.

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You're gonna, be looking for what are

the key events that happened here, why

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is it important to the overall narrative.

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there are actually several tools

that I would say that about Get the

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Word Out, but I've never Been done

with my Bible reading and thought,

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"Oh, what did I just look at?"

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Because these really help train you to

be looking for key themes or, key ideas.

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Betsy: Well, the Word of God is gonna

naturally provoke your thinking, and

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you're gonna meditate on certain things.

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So you're gonna meditate on the things

that the Holy Spirit is challenging

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you with or convicting you of or,

um, showing you and revealing to you.

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And so it's just a wonderful thing.

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So immerse yourself in God's Word and then

watch how the Lord, works in your life.

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It's just, a joy.

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We just don't wanna be

missing out on that.

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We want other people to join

us in getting the word out.

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Speaker 3: We know you're busy,

mama, so we are truly grateful you

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joined us for this episode of Again.

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If you're looking for more information

about building your home on the

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foundation of Jesus Christ, head

to www.entrustedministries.com

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to learn more about our study for

moms, Entrusted With a Child's Heart.

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This scripture-saturated study

has blessed families around the

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world, and we want it for you too.

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Before you go, I want to pray

this benediction over you

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from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12.

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We're rooting for you.

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"To this end we always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of His

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calling, and may fulfill every resolve

for good and every work of faith by

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His power, so that the name of our

Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,

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and you in Him, according to the grace

of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

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Amen.

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Until we meet

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again.