Podcasts about Duguid

Do you struggle with confidence in your leadership? In this episode features Stephanie DuGuid, an experienced educational leader with over 30 years in K-12 and post-secondary education, discussing the nuances of confident leadership. In this episode we discuss some important issues related to confidence as a leader:Confidence vs. CompetenceBuilding Leadership ConfidenceCreating Psychological SafetyManaging VulnerabilityThe conversation emphasizes the importance of selfless leadership, consistent behavior, and building genuine relationships while maintaining professional boundaries. Stephanie shares practical strategies for developing confidence and creating a supportive environment for staff and students.Learn more about Dr. Stephanie DuGuid HERE. Connect with Barb on Linkedin HERE.Check out Barb's Instagram @BarbFlowersCoaching HERE for more tips and strategies!Sign up HERE for a FREE Consultation and learn more about how I can help you with one-on-one coaching.Tired of second-guessing your decisions as a principal? Download my free course! Access it here.Click HERE to get a Free Checklist for Disconnecting from School

Ancient warfare was fierce. It was close, it was personal, it was dirty, it was aggressive, it was violent, and it was in your face. In preparation for battle, soldiers lined up in tight formation side by side with about three feet separating each soldier so that they could move freely. Every piece of the armor was critically important: The belt kept everything he was wearing in its rightful place, the breastplate protected his vital organs, his shoes were designed so that he could stand his ground and maintain his footing, his shield helped protected him from any weapon that would pierce such as arrows or spears, and his helmet kept his head on his shoulders, protected his mind, line of sight, and neck. The part of his armor that was designed to defend and to harm was his sword. The sword used by Romes soldiers between 3BC and 3AD was a double-edged short sword known as the Gladius. Roman legionaries whose shield defended them from the fiery arrows of the enemy received advanced training in using the Gladius to slash the exposed kneecaps or throat of their enemies while in formation and carried their Gladius sword on their belt, or sometimes on a shoulder strap. It was impossible to forget your belt, breastplate, and shoes when marching into battle because those pieces of the soldiers armor were attached to his person. However, it was possible to leave you shield, helmet, and even your sword back in the camp where it was safe and comfortable, but no skilled and experienced soldier would dare enter battle without those parts of his armor he was required to take up and put on, such as his shield, helmet, and sword. A modern equivalent to just how foolish it would be for a Roman soldier to forget any part of his armor is a Russian soldier who became the 2022 winner of the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards are those awards given to honor Charles Darwin by commemorating those who improve the gene pool by removing themselves from it in the most spectacular way possible. Here is the description of the unnamed Russian soldier who won this award: You are wearing body armor in a warzone. You spot abandoned Macbook. You want Macbook. Where to hide it? With quick reflexes a Russian soldier slid that Macbook into his chest armor pocket, replacing a ballistic plate designed to save his life. He was killed in Irpin, and his body was retrieved, providing a hearty laugh for all of Ukraine. 'Instant Karma' They reportedly found a stolen iPad as well. Wonder where the iPad was hidden? I am no soldier, and although I love my Macbook Pro and have a great deal of respect for the way it is designed, even I know enough that in a warzone it is best to keep the ballistic plate in the chest armor pocket because a Macbook was never designed to stop a bullet. Yet, when it comes to the armor of God, how often do we intentionally or unintentionally replace that which is designed to protect with philosophies, ideologies, feelings, and practices that serve the enemy rather than our own protection? What is the Sword of the Spirit We are told what the Sword of the Spirit is in the very same verse: It is the word of God. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be The Word of the Lord. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we are told: All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness... We are told in the Old Testament book, Deuteronomy: ...man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord (8:3), which is a verse Jesus used against the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness (see Matt. 4:1-11). In the Psalms, we learn of the written word of God: The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes (Ps. 19:7-8). As it relates to the authority of Gods word, we are instructed through the prophet Isaiah: This is what the Lord says: Heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool for My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, so all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But I will look to this one, at one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isa. 66:12). From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be The Word of the Lord. The word of God in written form is contained in the 66 books that make up our Bible. When Paul wrote that all Scripture is inspired by God..., we believe that it is a reference to all of the Old Testament and New Testament books that make up the Bible that were written over a period of hundreds of years with many different contributors who were all guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that what you have before you is a supernatural book unlike any other book, that is without error. It is upon the word of God, both Old Testament (the prophets) and the New Testament (the apostles) that Jesus Church is being built upon (see Eph. 2:19-22). It is the written word of God that has supernatural and transformative power to shape and transform Gods people, for from the imagery of the Roman Gladius the author of Hebrews wrote: For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Regarding the Word of God, Jesus prayed to the Father for His church: I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth (John 17:1417). In just one chapter earlier, Paul said that the way Jesus is purifying and sanctifying His church is, by the washing of the water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless (Eph. 5:26-27). So, we know what the word of God is; the question we must answer is how do we use it as the Sword of the Spirit? How Do We Use the Sword of the Spirit To answer that question, you need to know something about the two words that are used in reference to the word of God, and they are logos and rhēma. Logos is often translated as word or message. Rhēma is often translated word, saying, or statement. In Hebrews 4:12 and Isaiah 66:2 (in the Greek Septuagint) the word logos is used in reference to the Word of God. In Deuteronomy 8:3 (in the Greek Septuagint) and Ephesians 6:17, the word rhēma is used. So, whats the point? Both words are used in reference to the written and spoken word of God and its authority is based on the fact that it has come from God. Listen, every word in the Bible is authoritative because it is the Word of God and is used by the Holy Spirit of God to transform and shape the people of God. When you read or speak out loud the Word of God, as it is given within all 66 books of the Holy Bible, the voice of God is heard through His word. Pauls words in Ephesians 6:17 are calculated and carefully crafted through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; do not miss what is written: Take... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. God always uses the authority of His own words with the power of His Holy Spirit to transform, change, and divinely challenge! So, how does one use the Word of God as the offensive sword of the Spirit? Jesus showed us how to use it as an offensive weapon when he was approached three times by the devil. In Matthew 4:1-17 and Luke 4:1-13 we are given the details of Jesus 40 days of fasting in the same wilderness that Israel wondered for 40 years because of their failure to believe and obey the word of God. Each of the temptations Jesus faced was like one of the temptations Israel faced and failed, by sinning. When Israel was in the wilderness, they complained about their lack of food (see Exod. 16). The devil came to Jesus and tempted Him with these words: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. Jesus answered with the word of God from Deuteronomy 8:3, It is written: Man Shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:3-4). In the wilderness, Israel frequently put God to the test, so with the second temptation Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and said, If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning You; and On their hands they will lift You up, so that You do not strike Your foot against a stone. The devil even quoted and twisted Psalm 91 to try to get Jesus to fall into the same sin Israel fell into in the wilderness. Again, Jesus responded rightly and skillfully with the word of God: You shall not put the Lord Your God to the Test. (Matt. 4:5-7). In the wilderness and throughout Israels history, they were frequently guilty of false worship. In an effort to get Jesus to fall into the same sin, Satan tried to get Jesus to avoid the cross by worshiping him, to which Jesus responded with the sword of the Spirit: You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only (Matt. 4:8-11). Jesus used the sword of the Spirit to counter the Devils temptations. Did you ever notice that two of the three temptations Jesus faced were not inherently evil; it is not wrong to eat when you are hungry nor is it wrong to expect God to save you from harm. However, the scheming of the Devil was to try and get the Son of God to not trust the Fathers plan but to use a different plan that would have avoided the cross. We often counter our temptation to sin with human reason by believing another way is better than Gods way. Think about the way we reason our way out of obedience to God: I know Gods word says sex is a gift to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage, but were in love and were going to get married anyway; or Its only a little lie. Sometimes it is more subtle: I know Gods word says, there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking..., but at least it is not a 4-letter word, its not gossip if it is a prayer request, its just an innocent joke... I know that Gods word says that, sexual immorality or impurity is sinful, but its only a few scenes in the movie. Or... It only happens once a month... What if we learned from the way Jesus responded to temptation by countering our own with the Word of God? Imagine what would have happened if, in the Garden, Adam responded to the serpents temptation with the Word of God? You can take up the word of God as the sword of the Spirit or you can leave it in its sheath. Here is the thing though, just as handling a sword effectively takes some skill that can only come if you take it out of its sheath, to handle the sword of the Spirit with skill you must take it out and use it. To handle the Word of God with skill, you need to use it by reading it, studying it, memorizing it, and immerse yourself into it so that it can do what God designed it to do, which is to change you, mold you, cleanse you, and guide you. Just as you will never improve your shooting skills if you do not get out to a range and shoot, or a martial artist will only be as skilled as his time in the dojo practicing his techniques, so it is true with handling the word of God with skill. Just as there are resources to improve your aim, or your skills as a martial artist, so there are resources that God has provided through pastors, theologians, scholars, and Christian publishers to improve your skills in handling the word of God. In his letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Some think that this verse is only applicable to pastors, but do you know why we know that is not true? How do we know that every Christian needs to strive to be able to accurately handle the word of truth? Because of what Jesus commanded every Christian: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:1920). Conclusion Remember that the schemes belong to the devil, but the armor of God belongs to God! The sword of the Spirit is no exception! The list of Gods armor begins with the belt of truth, and it concludes with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. What we have discovered about the armor of God is that the belt of truth is our identity in Jesus, the breastplate of righteousness is our righteousness in Jesus, the shoes of the gospel of peace is our redemption that Jesus has made possible, the shield of faith is provided through Jesus, the helmet of salvation is the hope of our salvation in Jesus, and the sword of the Spirit is the word of God that points us back to... Jesus! We learn from the Bible that all the promises of God through His word find their yes and Amen in and through Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor. 19-22). In fact, Jesus is not only Gods Yes to all of His promises, Jesus is Gods most perfect revelation of Himself because He is the living Word of God! In the opening verses of the Gospel of John, we learn that as the Word of God, All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.And as the Word of God, He, became flesh, and dwelt among us... (John 1:1-14). Not only is Jesus your belt, not only is He your breastplate, not only is He your peace, not only is He your shield and your helmet... Jesus is your sword! How do you remain strong in the Lord? You must find Him to be your life! In closing, I read something in Iain Duguids little book, titled, The Whole Armor of God, what I am about to read to you is the essence of the Christmas message: As the Word of God, he [Jesus] spoke the world into existence. As the Word of God, he uniquely reveals to us the Father. As the Word of God, he is Gods final communication to this broken and now redeemed world, come to heal the sick, rescue the lost, restore the broken, and lift up the downcast.... The Word of God in its cleansing work serves as a set of shears, a scalpel, and a sword. Ask God to equip you with these three different tools, each one uniquely crafted to help us in the fight against temptation by the world, the flesh, and the devil. All that sanctifying power flows into your life through the work of the Holy Spirit applying his Word. And when you fail and fall, as you often will, the Sword of the Spirit points you back again to the fact that the gospel is still true and Christs power is still sufficient to keep you safe and bring you at last into your heavenly inheritance.[1] [1] Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2019), pp. 101-02.

Ancient warfare was fierce. It was close, it was personal, it was dirty, it was aggressive, it was violent, and it was in your face. In preparation for battle, soldiers lined up in tight formation side by side with about three feet separating each soldier so that they could move freely. Every piece of the armor was critically important: The belt kept everything he was wearing in its rightful place, the breastplate protected his vital organs, his shoes were designed so that he could stand his ground and maintain his footing, his shield helped protected him from any weapon that would pierce such as arrows or spears, and his helmet kept his head on his shoulders, protected his mind, line of sight, and neck. The part of his armor that was designed to defend and to harm was his sword. The sword used by Romes soldiers between 3BC and 3AD was a double-edged short sword known as the Gladius. Roman legionaries whose shield defended them from the fiery arrows of the enemy received advanced training in using the Gladius to slash the exposed kneecaps or throat of their enemies while in formation and carried their Gladius sword on their belt, or sometimes on a shoulder strap. It was impossible to forget your belt, breastplate, and shoes when marching into battle because those pieces of the soldiers armor were attached to his person. However, it was possible to leave you shield, helmet, and even your sword back in the camp where it was safe and comfortable, but no skilled and experienced soldier would dare enter battle without those parts of his armor he was required to take up and put on, such as his shield, helmet, and sword. A modern equivalent to just how foolish it would be for a Roman soldier to forget any part of his armor is a Russian soldier who became the 2022 winner of the Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards are those awards given to honor Charles Darwin by commemorating those who improve the gene pool by removing themselves from it in the most spectacular way possible. Here is the description of the unnamed Russian soldier who won this award: You are wearing body armor in a warzone. You spot abandoned Macbook. You want Macbook. Where to hide it? With quick reflexes a Russian soldier slid that Macbook into his chest armor pocket, replacing a ballistic plate designed to save his life. He was killed in Irpin, and his body was retrieved, providing a hearty laugh for all of Ukraine. 'Instant Karma' They reportedly found a stolen iPad as well. Wonder where the iPad was hidden? I am no soldier, and although I love my Macbook Pro and have a great deal of respect for the way it is designed, even I know enough that in a warzone it is best to keep the ballistic plate in the chest armor pocket because a Macbook was never designed to stop a bullet. Yet, when it comes to the armor of God, how often do we intentionally or unintentionally replace that which is designed to protect with philosophies, ideologies, feelings, and practices that serve the enemy rather than our own protection? What is the Sword of the Spirit We are told what the Sword of the Spirit is in the very same verse: It is the word of God. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be The Word of the Lord. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we are told: All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness... We are told in the Old Testament book, Deuteronomy: ...man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord (8:3), which is a verse Jesus used against the devil when He was being tempted in the wilderness (see Matt. 4:1-11). In the Psalms, we learn of the written word of God: The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes (Ps. 19:7-8). As it relates to the authority of Gods word, we are instructed through the prophet Isaiah: This is what the Lord says: Heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool for My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, so all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But I will look to this one, at one who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My word (Isa. 66:12). From Genesis to Revelation the Bible claims at least 3,000 times to be The Word of the Lord. The word of God in written form is contained in the 66 books that make up our Bible. When Paul wrote that all Scripture is inspired by God..., we believe that it is a reference to all of the Old Testament and New Testament books that make up the Bible that were written over a period of hundreds of years with many different contributors who were all guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that what you have before you is a supernatural book unlike any other book, that is without error. It is upon the word of God, both Old Testament (the prophets) and the New Testament (the apostles) that Jesus Church is being built upon (see Eph. 2:19-22). It is the written word of God that has supernatural and transformative power to shape and transform Gods people, for from the imagery of the Roman Gladius the author of Hebrews wrote: For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Regarding the Word of God, Jesus prayed to the Father for His church: I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth (John 17:1417). In just one chapter earlier, Paul said that the way Jesus is purifying and sanctifying His church is, by the washing of the water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless (Eph. 5:26-27). So, we know what the word of God is; the question we must answer is how do we use it as the Sword of the Spirit? How Do We Use the Sword of the Spirit To answer that question, you need to know something about the two words that are used in reference to the word of God, and they are logos and rhēma. Logos is often translated as word or message. Rhēma is often translated word, saying, or statement. In Hebrews 4:12 and Isaiah 66:2 (in the Greek Septuagint) the word logos is used in reference to the Word of God. In Deuteronomy 8:3 (in the Greek Septuagint) and Ephesians 6:17, the word rhēma is used. So, whats the point? Both words are used in reference to the written and spoken word of God and its authority is based on the fact that it has come from God. Listen, every word in the Bible is authoritative because it is the Word of God and is used by the Holy Spirit of God to transform and shape the people of God. When you read or speak out loud the Word of God, as it is given within all 66 books of the Holy Bible, the voice of God is heard through His word. Pauls words in Ephesians 6:17 are calculated and carefully crafted through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; do not miss what is written: Take... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. God always uses the authority of His own words with the power of His Holy Spirit to transform, change, and divinely challenge! So, how does one use the Word of God as the offensive sword of the Spirit? Jesus showed us how to use it as an offensive weapon when he was approached three times by the devil. In Matthew 4:1-17 and Luke 4:1-13 we are given the details of Jesus 40 days of fasting in the same wilderness that Israel wondered for 40 years because of their failure to believe and obey the word of God. Each of the temptations Jesus faced was like one of the temptations Israel faced and failed, by sinning. When Israel was in the wilderness, they complained about their lack of food (see Exod. 16). The devil came to Jesus and tempted Him with these words: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. Jesus answered with the word of God from Deuteronomy 8:3, It is written: Man Shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:3-4). In the wilderness, Israel frequently put God to the test, so with the second temptation Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and said, If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning You; and On their hands they will lift You up, so that You do not strike Your foot against a stone. The devil even quoted and twisted Psalm 91 to try to get Jesus to fall into the same sin Israel fell into in the wilderness. Again, Jesus responded rightly and skillfully with the word of God: You shall not put the Lord Your God to the Test. (Matt. 4:5-7). In the wilderness and throughout Israels history, they were frequently guilty of false worship. In an effort to get Jesus to fall into the same sin, Satan tried to get Jesus to avoid the cross by worshiping him, to which Jesus responded with the sword of the Spirit: You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only (Matt. 4:8-11). Jesus used the sword of the Spirit to counter the Devils temptations. Did you ever notice that two of the three temptations Jesus faced were not inherently evil; it is not wrong to eat when you are hungry nor is it wrong to expect God to save you from harm. However, the scheming of the Devil was to try and get the Son of God to not trust the Fathers plan but to use a different plan that would have avoided the cross. We often counter our temptation to sin with human reason by believing another way is better than Gods way. Think about the way we reason our way out of obedience to God: I know Gods word says sex is a gift to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage, but were in love and were going to get married anyway; or Its only a little lie. Sometimes it is more subtle: I know Gods word says, there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking..., but at least it is not a 4-letter word, its not gossip if it is a prayer request, its just an innocent joke... I know that Gods word says that, sexual immorality or impurity is sinful, but its only a few scenes in the movie. Or... It only happens once a month... What if we learned from the way Jesus responded to temptation by countering our own with the Word of God? Imagine what would have happened if, in the Garden, Adam responded to the serpents temptation with the Word of God? You can take up the word of God as the sword of the Spirit or you can leave it in its sheath. Here is the thing though, just as handling a sword effectively takes some skill that can only come if you take it out of its sheath, to handle the sword of the Spirit with skill you must take it out and use it. To handle the Word of God with skill, you need to use it by reading it, studying it, memorizing it, and immerse yourself into it so that it can do what God designed it to do, which is to change you, mold you, cleanse you, and guide you. Just as you will never improve your shooting skills if you do not get out to a range and shoot, or a martial artist will only be as skilled as his time in the dojo practicing his techniques, so it is true with handling the word of God with skill. Just as there are resources to improve your aim, or your skills as a martial artist, so there are resources that God has provided through pastors, theologians, scholars, and Christian publishers to improve your skills in handling the word of God. In his letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Some think that this verse is only applicable to pastors, but do you know why we know that is not true? How do we know that every Christian needs to strive to be able to accurately handle the word of truth? Because of what Jesus commanded every Christian: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:1920). Conclusion Remember that the schemes belong to the devil, but the armor of God belongs to God! The sword of the Spirit is no exception! The list of Gods armor begins with the belt of truth, and it concludes with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. What we have discovered about the armor of God is that the belt of truth is our identity in Jesus, the breastplate of righteousness is our righteousness in Jesus, the shoes of the gospel of peace is our redemption that Jesus has made possible, the shield of faith is provided through Jesus, the helmet of salvation is the hope of our salvation in Jesus, and the sword of the Spirit is the word of God that points us back to... Jesus! We learn from the Bible that all the promises of God through His word find their yes and Amen in and through Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor. 19-22). In fact, Jesus is not only Gods Yes to all of His promises, Jesus is Gods most perfect revelation of Himself because He is the living Word of God! In the opening verses of the Gospel of John, we learn that as the Word of God, All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.And as the Word of God, He, became flesh, and dwelt among us... (John 1:1-14). Not only is Jesus your belt, not only is He your breastplate, not only is He your peace, not only is He your shield and your helmet... Jesus is your sword! How do you remain strong in the Lord? You must find Him to be your life! In closing, I read something in Iain Duguids little book, titled, The Whole Armor of God, what I am about to read to you is the essence of the Christmas message: As the Word of God, he [Jesus] spoke the world into existence. As the Word of God, he uniquely reveals to us the Father. As the Word of God, he is Gods final communication to this broken and now redeemed world, come to heal the sick, rescue the lost, restore the broken, and lift up the downcast.... The Word of God in its cleansing work serves as a set of shears, a scalpel, and a sword. Ask God to equip you with these three different tools, each one uniquely crafted to help us in the fight against temptation by the world, the flesh, and the devil. All that sanctifying power flows into your life through the work of the Holy Spirit applying his Word. And when you fail and fall, as you often will, the Sword of the Spirit points you back again to the fact that the gospel is still true and Christs power is still sufficient to keep you safe and bring you at last into your heavenly inheritance.[1] [1] Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2019), pp. 101-02.

It has been a few weeks since we were in Ephesians. The last sermon I preached was on the shoes of the gospel of peace. I have a confession to make, and it is not one to be proud of: I am not very good at creating space for my own rest. One of the symptoms that a break and vacation is needed is when your pastor takes 15-20 minutes to talk about shoes during his sermon introduction! In preparation for this sermon, I have been thinking about the importance of rest as it is related to faith. One of the Ten Commandments is to, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exod. 20:8-11). Here is the irony with the fourth commandment: The first four commandments address our relationship with God and the last six commandments address our relationships with one another. I am of the opinion that a Sabbath rest has less to do with the seventh day of the week and more to do with our need to separate ourselves from the noise of life. Regarding the fourth commandment, Jesus said: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28). The purpose of the Sabbath is that it creates space for you to listen to God for the purpose being strengthened in Him. The reason why the fourth commandment is sandwiched between the first three concerning our vertical relationship with God and the final six concerning our horizontal relationships with your neighbor is because if you ignore a Sabbath rest, both your relationship with God and your relationships with others will suffer. If you ignore the fourth commandment, you will be more prone to develop idols in your heart and become little good to those around you. So, here is what I want you to hear as we move forward: Sabbath rest stabilizes gospel grounded faith. The kind of rest I am talking about must include the kind of rest described in Psalm 46:10, Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth. Now, with Gods command for a Sabbath rest as our backdrop, lets consider again the armor of God: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. (Eph. 6:1013) Remember that the schemes belong to the devil, but the armor we are to put on belongs to God. The belt of truth is our identity in Christ, the breastplate of righteousness is our righteousness in Christ, and the shoes of the gospel of peace enable us to keep our footing in the whole Gospel, that includes our salvation but also the full redemption of all creation. The whole Gospel includes our resurrection, but it also promises us a day when sorrow and sighing will flee away: And the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away (Isa. 51:11). The fourth piece of Gods armor is the shield of faith. The questions we need to answer are what is it really; and how does one use the shield of faith? What is the Shield of Faith? The shield Paul had in mind was not the small round shield you would expect a soldier to have for hand-to-hand combat, for it was light but left most of the body exposed. Instead, the shield Paul envisioned was more like the one a soldier carried to protect his whole body from the enemys arrows shot from a distance. The large shield was called a scutum and was typically used by Roman legionaries. It was designed not only to protect the soldier wielding it from arrows, but was designed especially to protect him from arrows that were dipped in pitch and lit on fire before they were launched. The front of the shield was covered in leather that could be soaked in water; in this way, when the flaming arrows hit the shield, the fire would be quenched. For what purpose did a flaming arrow (aka fire arrow) serve? What is fire known for doing? The enemy would launch flaming arrows to set on fire anything that was flammable such as buildings, materials, and enemy troops. Fire consumes and destroys, and this is exactly what the rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places desire to do to any and all of Gods people. We are told to take up the shield of faith to protect us from such attacks from the enemy, but what is it? Is the shield of faith a self-determined will to hold on to what you believe? Is it something that you would have more of if you simply believed more? Is the shield of faith more about having enough faith in what we read about in the Bible so that you can claim financial, emotional, relational, spiritual, and physical healing and wholeness for yourself? I dont think the shield of faith includes any of that. Remember that Paul did not just come up with the armor of God because of some Roman soldiers around him. Paul received his shield metaphor from the Old Testament. To address Abrahams fear about being without an heir, God promised Him, Do not fear Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great. In Psalm 28:7, David celebrated the God who hears the prayers of His people with these words: Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the sound of my pleading. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart triumphs, and with my song I shall thank Him. However, I think Proverbs 30:5 is the most helpful verse that helps us understand what the shield of faith is: Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. So, which is it? Is God our shield and if so, how can our faith be the shield? On this point Iain Duguid is helpful: Faith is the means by which we flee to God for refuge. It is how we cling to God and find in him comfort and protection in times of difficulty and distress.[1] It is one thing to believe that God exists but is quite another thing to flee to the God you know to be true because of the way He has revealed Himself through His Word. The more you know about God, the more inclined you will be to flee to Him as your refuge and strength, for the Bible says, the people who know their God will be strong and take action (Dan. 11:32b). The way you cling to God and find Him to be your comfort and protection is through His Word! We are told in Ephesians 5:26 that Jesus intends to sanctify and beautify His church through the washing of water with the word. It is the word of God that we use to saturate our shield to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. This is not a New Testament concept; it is a Genesis through Revelation principle for living faithfully before God. Listen to Psalm 119:10-11 and tell me if you cannot hear the same tone that you hear in Ephesians 6:16, With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. I have treasured Your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against You. How do We Use the Shield of Faith? It is all well and good to know what the shield of faith is, but how do you use it? To answer that question, permit me to show you something that I have read dozens of times and missed because I did not read Ephesians 6:14-17 as carefully as I should have. There are six pieces that belong to the armor of God. The first three are all pieces that a soldier puts on and keeps on so long as he is active: ...having belted your waist with truth (v. 14a) ...having put on the breastplate of righteousness (v. 14b) ...having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace (v. 15) Each of these pieces are attached to the Christian as part of his/her identity in Christ. The belt of truth is your new identity in Christ, the breastplate of righteousness is your righteousness in Christ, and the shoes of the gospel of peace are the promise of full redemption that Jesus makes possible. You put on these pieces of armor by standing in the gospel, confidently recognizing that all your righteousness is in Christ, and that your identity is rooted in Christ as truth for all of life! Now notice the final three pieces of the armor of God and how Paul distinguishes them from the first three pieces with the words, in addition to all...: ...taking up the shield of faith (v. 16) ...take the helmet of salvation (v. 17a) ...take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (v. 17b) The soldiers shield, helmet, and sword were all a part of his armor, but they were pieces he could take up and put down at will. The enemy can tempt you to believe that Christ is not enough, but what he already knows is that your righteousness is Christs righteousness; wearing the breastplate of righteousness is simply walking in light of that truth. However, when the enemy attacks with his flaming arrows in the form of temptations, lies, and accusations, you can choose to take up the shield of faith or allow those arrows to pierce you so that their fire can overwhelm, consume, and incapacitate you. If you are a Christian and you have truly been born again, the flaming arrows may not be able to destroy your soul, but they certainly can wound to the point of rendering you immobile and unable to fully engage and participate in Gods mission in the world and purpose for your life. If you are a Christian, the enemy knows that God chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6), that you were fully and completely redeemed by the blood of His Son (1:7-12), and that you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit as Gods inheritance to receive all of His promises (1:13-14, 18-23). In fact, I am convinced that the devil has more of a theological grasp over what it means for you to be a Christian than many Christians, but if he can deceive you, if he can aid in destroying your Christian witness, if he can paralyze you with shame and guilt to keep you from clinging to all that the cross of Christ represents, then he will do all within his ability to do just that! Dear Christian, when those flaming arrows come, you have a shield God has given that you can take up to defend yourself from such attacks! God has given us all that we need, but faith in His promises, a dependance upon Him, and the responsibility to proactively saturate our faith with the word of God is something we must do. Conclusion The enemy will launch his flaming arrows but make no mistake from what we have learned so far from Ephesians, there is also the danger we face from self-inflicted wounds when we fall into temptation. The devil never makes us sin, we do that all on our own! This is why it is important to take on the full armor of God. When we are mindful that Jesus is our identity and not our sin, when we are fully aware that Jesus is our only hope and righteousness, and then stand in the truth of all of Gods redemptive promises, our resolve to resist sin and temptation becomes more determined. But, when the flaming arrows fly you can lower your shield and let them pierce and consume, or you can take up your shield. When the enemy whispers: You sinned and now you are too disgusting for God to love you! You take up your shield saturated with the word of God and say: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me... He will bring me out to the light, and I will look at His righteousness (Micah 7:8, 9). You take up your shield saturated by the word of God and say, God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:8, 10). Dont you think that Mary and Joseph endured many the constant barrage of the enemys flaming arrows the moment they found out about the conception of Jesus while Mary was still a virgin? Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus (Luke 1:30-31). Her only question was: How? since she was a virgin. After the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would make it possible miraculously, her response was simply: Behold, the Lords bond-servant; may it be done to me according to your word (v. 38). Mary could have been overwhelmed by fear over what her mother, father, relatives, and neighbors would think, but instead she raised up her shield of faith in the form of a song saturated with what she knew from the word of God: My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant; For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. And His mercy is to generation after generation Toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, And sent the rich away empty-handed. He has given help to His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, Just as He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever. (Luke 1:4755) Joseph could have walked out on Mary in disbelief, but He took up his shield as well and believed that God was not only big enough to make the conception of Jesus supernaturally possible, but he too believed the word of God: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel (Isa. 7:14; see also Matt. 1:18-25). So, how do you use the shield of faith? How do you take it up to defend yourself? You take up the shield of faith each time you flee to God for refuge through the truth of His word and cling to Him to find your comfort and protection in times of difficulty and distress. [1] Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2019), p. 68.

It has been a few weeks since we were in Ephesians. The last sermon I preached was on the shoes of the gospel of peace. I have a confession to make, and it is not one to be proud of: I am not very good at creating space for my own rest. One of the symptoms that a break and vacation is needed is when your pastor takes 15-20 minutes to talk about shoes during his sermon introduction! In preparation for this sermon, I have been thinking about the importance of rest as it is related to faith. One of the Ten Commandments is to, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exod. 20:8-11). Here is the irony with the fourth commandment: The first four commandments address our relationship with God and the last six commandments address our relationships with one another. I am of the opinion that a Sabbath rest has less to do with the seventh day of the week and more to do with our need to separate ourselves from the noise of life. Regarding the fourth commandment, Jesus said: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28). The purpose of the Sabbath is that it creates space for you to listen to God for the purpose being strengthened in Him. The reason why the fourth commandment is sandwiched between the first three concerning our vertical relationship with God and the final six concerning our horizontal relationships with your neighbor is because if you ignore a Sabbath rest, both your relationship with God and your relationships with others will suffer. If you ignore the fourth commandment, you will be more prone to develop idols in your heart and become little good to those around you. So, here is what I want you to hear as we move forward: Sabbath rest stabilizes gospel grounded faith. The kind of rest I am talking about must include the kind of rest described in Psalm 46:10, Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth. Now, with Gods command for a Sabbath rest as our backdrop, lets consider again the armor of God: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. (Eph. 6:1013) Remember that the schemes belong to the devil, but the armor we are to put on belongs to God. The belt of truth is our identity in Christ, the breastplate of righteousness is our righteousness in Christ, and the shoes of the gospel of peace enable us to keep our footing in the whole Gospel, that includes our salvation but also the full redemption of all creation. The whole Gospel includes our resurrection, but it also promises us a day when sorrow and sighing will flee away: And the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away (Isa. 51:11). The fourth piece of Gods armor is the shield of faith. The questions we need to answer are what is it really; and how does one use the shield of faith? What is the Shield of Faith? The shield Paul had in mind was not the small round shield you would expect a soldier to have for hand-to-hand combat, for it was light but left most of the body exposed. Instead, the shield Paul envisioned was more like the one a soldier carried to protect his whole body from the enemys arrows shot from a distance. The large shield was called a scutum and was typically used by Roman legionaries. It was designed not only to protect the soldier wielding it from arrows, but was designed especially to protect him from arrows that were dipped in pitch and lit on fire before they were launched. The front of the shield was covered in leather that could be soaked in water; in this way, when the flaming arrows hit the shield, the fire would be quenched. For what purpose did a flaming arrow (aka fire arrow) serve? What is fire known for doing? The enemy would launch flaming arrows to set on fire anything that was flammable such as buildings, materials, and enemy troops. Fire consumes and destroys, and this is exactly what the rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places desire to do to any and all of Gods people. We are told to take up the shield of faith to protect us from such attacks from the enemy, but what is it? Is the shield of faith a self-determined will to hold on to what you believe? Is it something that you would have more of if you simply believed more? Is the shield of faith more about having enough faith in what we read about in the Bible so that you can claim financial, emotional, relational, spiritual, and physical healing and wholeness for yourself? I dont think the shield of faith includes any of that. Remember that Paul did not just come up with the armor of God because of some Roman soldiers around him. Paul received his shield metaphor from the Old Testament. To address Abrahams fear about being without an heir, God promised Him, Do not fear Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great. In Psalm 28:7, David celebrated the God who hears the prayers of His people with these words: Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the sound of my pleading. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart triumphs, and with my song I shall thank Him. However, I think Proverbs 30:5 is the most helpful verse that helps us understand what the shield of faith is: Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. So, which is it? Is God our shield and if so, how can our faith be the shield? On this point Iain Duguid is helpful: Faith is the means by which we flee to God for refuge. It is how we cling to God and find in him comfort and protection in times of difficulty and distress.[1] It is one thing to believe that God exists but is quite another thing to flee to the God you know to be true because of the way He has revealed Himself through His Word. The more you know about God, the more inclined you will be to flee to Him as your refuge and strength, for the Bible says, the people who know their God will be strong and take action (Dan. 11:32b). The way you cling to God and find Him to be your comfort and protection is through His Word! We are told in Ephesians 5:26 that Jesus intends to sanctify and beautify His church through the washing of water with the word. It is the word of God that we use to saturate our shield to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. This is not a New Testament concept; it is a Genesis through Revelation principle for living faithfully before God. Listen to Psalm 119:10-11 and tell me if you cannot hear the same tone that you hear in Ephesians 6:16, With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. I have treasured Your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against You. How do We Use the Shield of Faith? It is all well and good to know what the shield of faith is, but how do you use it? To answer that question, permit me to show you something that I have read dozens of times and missed because I did not read Ephesians 6:14-17 as carefully as I should have. There are six pieces that belong to the armor of God. The first three are all pieces that a soldier puts on and keeps on so long as he is active: ...having belted your waist with truth (v. 14a) ...having put on the breastplate of righteousness (v. 14b) ...having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace (v. 15) Each of these pieces are attached to the Christian as part of his/her identity in Christ. The belt of truth is your new identity in Christ, the breastplate of righteousness is your righteousness in Christ, and the shoes of the gospel of peace are the promise of full redemption that Jesus makes possible. You put on these pieces of armor by standing in the gospel, confidently recognizing that all your righteousness is in Christ, and that your identity is rooted in Christ as truth for all of life! Now notice the final three pieces of the armor of God and how Paul distinguishes them from the first three pieces with the words, in addition to all...: ...taking up the shield of faith (v. 16) ...take the helmet of salvation (v. 17a) ...take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (v. 17b) The soldiers shield, helmet, and sword were all a part of his armor, but they were pieces he could take up and put down at will. The enemy can tempt you to believe that Christ is not enough, but what he already knows is that your righteousness is Christs righteousness; wearing the breastplate of righteousness is simply walking in light of that truth. However, when the enemy attacks with his flaming arrows in the form of temptations, lies, and accusations, you can choose to take up the shield of faith or allow those arrows to pierce you so that their fire can overwhelm, consume, and incapacitate you. If you are a Christian and you have truly been born again, the flaming arrows may not be able to destroy your soul, but they certainly can wound to the point of rendering you immobile and unable to fully engage and participate in Gods mission in the world and purpose for your life. If you are a Christian, the enemy knows that God chose you before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6), that you were fully and completely redeemed by the blood of His Son (1:7-12), and that you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit as Gods inheritance to receive all of His promises (1:13-14, 18-23). In fact, I am convinced that the devil has more of a theological grasp over what it means for you to be a Christian than many Christians, but if he can deceive you, if he can aid in destroying your Christian witness, if he can paralyze you with shame and guilt to keep you from clinging to all that the cross of Christ represents, then he will do all within his ability to do just that! Dear Christian, when those flaming arrows come, you have a shield God has given that you can take up to defend yourself from such attacks! God has given us all that we need, but faith in His promises, a dependance upon Him, and the responsibility to proactively saturate our faith with the word of God is something we must do. Conclusion The enemy will launch his flaming arrows but make no mistake from what we have learned so far from Ephesians, there is also the danger we face from self-inflicted wounds when we fall into temptation. The devil never makes us sin, we do that all on our own! This is why it is important to take on the full armor of God. When we are mindful that Jesus is our identity and not our sin, when we are fully aware that Jesus is our only hope and righteousness, and then stand in the truth of all of Gods redemptive promises, our resolve to resist sin and temptation becomes more determined. But, when the flaming arrows fly you can lower your shield and let them pierce and consume, or you can take up your shield. When the enemy whispers: You sinned and now you are too disgusting for God to love you! You take up your shield saturated with the word of God and say: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me... He will bring me out to the light, and I will look at His righteousness (Micah 7:8, 9). You take up your shield saturated by the word of God and say, God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.... For if while we were enemies we were reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom. 5:8, 10). Dont you think that Mary and Joseph endured many the constant barrage of the enemys flaming arrows the moment they found out about the conception of Jesus while Mary was still a virgin? Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus (Luke 1:30-31). Her only question was: How? since she was a virgin. After the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would make it possible miraculously, her response was simply: Behold, the Lords bond-servant; may it be done to me according to your word (v. 38). Mary could have been overwhelmed by fear over what her mother, father, relatives, and neighbors would think, but instead she raised up her shield of faith in the form of a song saturated with what she knew from the word of God: My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant; For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. And His mercy is to generation after generation Toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, And sent the rich away empty-handed. He has given help to His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, Just as He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever. (Luke 1:4755) Joseph could have walked out on Mary in disbelief, but He took up his shield as well and believed that God was not only big enough to make the conception of Jesus supernaturally possible, but he too believed the word of God: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name Him Immanuel (Isa. 7:14; see also Matt. 1:18-25). So, how do you use the shield of faith? How do you take it up to defend yourself? You take up the shield of faith each time you flee to God for refuge through the truth of His word and cling to Him to find your comfort and protection in times of difficulty and distress. [1] Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway; 2019), p. 68.

This is inspirational. David was the Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan for 7 years. Then he suffered a spinal stroke. Incredibly he wasn't allowed to defend his seat in the general election. This is the remarkable story of how he recovered, why he was blocked and how he's remained so positive. FOLLOW David on X: @david_duguid SEE Matt at on tour until March 2025, including his extra dates at The Bloomsbury Theatre: https://www.mattforde.com/live-shows2024 27 November: Chipping Norton Theatre28 November: Leicester, Y Theatre29 November: Eastleigh, The Berry31 November: Faversham, The Alexander Centre6 December: London, Bloomsbury Theatre - EXTRA DATE14 December: London, Bloomsbury Theatre - EXTRA DATE 2025 29 January: Norwich, Playhouse - EXTRA DATE2 February: Salford, Lowry4 February: Leeds, City Varieties5 February: Sheffield, The Leadmill6 February: Chelmsford Theatre7 February: Bedford, The Quarry Theatre12 February: Bath, Komedia13 February: Southend, Palace Theatre16 February: Cambridge, The Junction20 February: Nottingham, Lakeside Arts23 February: Brighton, Komedoa25 February: Cardiff, Glee Club26 February: Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal28 February: Chelmsford Theatre - EXTRA DATE2 March: Bristol, Tobacco Factory4 March: Colchester Arts Centre - EXTRA DATE6 March: Birmingham, Glee Club - EXTRA DATE7 March: Maidenhead, Norden Farm - EXTRA DATE11 March: Aberdeen, Lemon Tree12 March: Glasgow, Glee Club27 March: Oxford, Glee Club - EXTRA DATE28 March: Nottingham, Lakeside Arts Centre - EXTRA DATE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why stop emitting when we can just plant a bunch of trees?BONUS EPISODES available on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/deniersplaybook) SOCIALS & MORE (https://linktr.ee/deniersplaybook) CREDITS Created by: Rollie Williams, Nicole Conlan & Ben BoultHosts: Rollie Williams & Nicole ConlanExecutive Producer: Ben Boult Post-production: Jubilaria Media Researchers: Carly Rizzuto, Canute Haroldson & James Crugnale Art: Jordan Doll Music: Tony Domenick Special thanks: The Civil Liberties Defense Center, Shelley Vinyard & The National Resources Defense Council, Angeline Robertson & Stand.EarthSOURCESMrBeast. (2019). Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever! YouTube.Charmin. (2022, January 31). Protect Grow Restore | Charmin® Loves Trees. YouTube.CNBC Television. (2020, January 21). Watch President Donald Trump's full speech at the Davos World Economic Forum. YouTube.Carrington, D. (2019, July 4). Tree planting “has mind-blowing potential” to tackle climate crisis. 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Plant-For-The-Planet.Plant-for-the-Planet: Growing A Greener Future. (2011, February 7). Children call at the UN for a common fight for their future - Felix Finkbeiner is speaking(en,fr,de). YouTube.Felix Finkbeiner. (2023, December 30). Wikipedia.Rienhardt, J. (2021, April 28). “Plant for the Planet”: Spendengelder versenkt? Zweifel an Stiftung wachsen. Stern.Lang, C. (2021, October 8). A trillion trees: A backstory featuring Felix Finkbeiner and Thomas Crowther. Substack; REDD-Monitor.Popkin, G. (2019, October 24). Catchy findings have propelled this young ecologist to fame—and enraged his critics. Science.Crowther, T. W., Glick, H. B., Covey, K. R., Bettigole, C., Maynard, D. S., Thomas, S. M., Smith, J. R., Hintler, G., Duguid, M. C., Amatulli, G., Tuanmu, M.-N. ., Jetz, W., Salas, C., Stam, C., Piotto, D., Tavani, R., Green, S., Bruce, G., Williams, S. J., & Wiser, S. K. (2015). Mapping tree density at a global scale. Nature, 525(7568), 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14967Bastin, J.-F., Finegold, Y., Garcia, C., Mollicone, D., Rezende, M., Routh, D., Zohner, C. M., & Crowther, T. W. (2019). The global tree restoration potential. Science, 365(6448), 76–79.St. George, Z. (2022, July 13). Can Planting a Trillion New Trees Save the World? The New York Times.Pomeroy, R. (2020, January 22). One trillion trees - uniting the world to save forests and climate. World Economic Forum.Guarino, B. (2020, January 22). The audacious effort to reforest the planet. Washington Post.FAQs. (2024). 1t.org.The Partnership. (n.d.). Trillion Trees.Ballew, M., Carman, J., Rosenthal, S., Verner, M., Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., & Leiserowitz, A. (2023, October 26). Which Republicans are worried about global warming? Yale Program on Climate Change Communication; Yale School of the Environment.Kennedy, B., & Tyson, A. (2024, March 1). How Republicans view climate change and energy issues. Pew Research Center.Roll Call. (2020, March 11). Is the GOP warming to climate action? Trillion trees plan hopes for growth. YouTube.Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (2023, June 29). Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans Fight For American-Made Energy in Columbiana County, Ohio. YouTube.Sen. Mike Braun - Indiana. (2024). Open SecretsRep. Buddy Carter - Georgia (District 01). (2024). Open Secrets.Rep. Kevin McCarthy - California (District 23). (2024). Open Secrets.Rep. Clay Higgins - Louisiana (District 03). (2024). Open Secrets.Rep. Bruce Westerman - Arkansas (District 04). (2024). Open Secrets.Actions - H.R.2639 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Trillion Trees Act. (n.d.). Congress.gov.2023 National ECongress.govnvironmental Scorecard. (2023). League of Conservation Voters.Heal, A. (2023, April 11). The illusion of a trillion trees. The Financial Times Limited.Veldman, J. W., Aleman, J. C., Alvarado, S. T., Anderson, T. M., Archibald, S., Bond, W. J., Boutton, T. W., Buchmann, N., Buisson, E., Canadell, J. G., Dechoum, M. de S., Diaz-Toribio, M. H., Durigan, G., Ewel, J. J., Fernandes, G. W., Fidelis, A., Fleischman, F., Good, S. P., Griffith, D. M., & Hermann, J.-M. (2019). Comment on “The global tree restoration potential.” Science, 366(6463). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay7976.Erratum for the Report: “The global tree restoration potential” by J.-F. Bastin, Y. Finegold, C. Garcia, D. Mollicone, M. Rezende, D. Routh, C. M. Zohner, T. W. Crowther and for the Technical Response “Response to Comments on ‘The global tree restoration potential'” by J.-F. Bastin, Y. Finegold, C. Garcia, N. Gellie, A. Lowe, D. Mollicone, M. Rezende, D. Routh, M. Sacande, B. Sparrow, C. M. Zohner, T. W. Crowther. (2020). Science, 368(6494). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc8905Anderson, T. R., Hawkins, E., & Jones, P. D. (2016). CO2, the greenhouse effect and global warming: from the pioneering work of Arrhenius and Callendar to today's Earth System Models. Endeavour, 40(3), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.002Hasler, N., Williams, C. A., Vanessa Carrasco Denney, Ellis, P. W., Shrestha, S., Terasaki, D. E., Wolff, N. H., Yeo, S., Crowther, T. W., Werden, L. K., & Cook-Patton, S. C. (2024). Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration. Nature Communications, 15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46577-1Viani, R. A. G., Bracale, H., & Taffarello, D. (2019). Lessons Learned from the Water Producer Project in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Forests, 10(11), 1031. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10111031Vadell, E., de-Miguel, S., & Pemán, J. (2016). Large-scale reforestation and afforestation policy in Spain: A historical review of its underlying ecological, socioeconomic and political dynamics. Land Use Policy, 55, 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.03.017TED-Ed. (2023, December 19). Does planting trees actually cool the planet? - Carolyn Beans. YouTube.Howard, S. Q.-I., Emma, & Howard, E. (2022, December 12). “How are we going to live?” Families dispossessed of their land to make way for Total's Congo offsetting project. Unearthed.Garside, R., & Wyn, I. (2021, August 6). Tree-planting: Why are large investment firms buying Welsh farms? BBC News.Gabbatiss, J., & Viisainen, V. (2024, June 26). Analysis: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the “size of Birmingham.” Carbon Brief.Buller, A. (2022). The Value of a Whale. Manchester University Press.Alexander, S. (2024, May 3). A Billionaire Wanted to Save 1 Trillion Trees by 2030. It's Not Going Great. Bloomberg.No Watermark Clips. (2019, May 21). King of the Hill on Carbon Offsets. YouTube.Choi-Schagrin, W. (2021, August 23). Wildfires are ravaging forests set aside to soak up greenhouse gases. The New York Times.Hodgson, C. (2021, August 4). US Forest Fires Threaten Carbon Offsets as Company-Linked Trees Burn. Inside Climate News.What's the potential of a trillion trees? (2020). Crowther Lab.Luhn, A. (2023, December 13). Stop Planting Trees, Says Guy Who Inspired World to Plant a Trillion Trees. Wired.TED Audio Collective. (2022, July 3). Can planting trees really stop climate change? | Thomas Crowther | The TED Interview. YouTube.Fleischman, F., Basant, S., Chhatre, A., Coleman, E. A., Fischer, H. W., Gupta, D., Güneralp, B., Kashwan, P., Khatri, D., Muscarella, R., Powers, J. S., Ramprasad, V., Rana, P., Solorzano, C. R., & Veldman, J. W. (2020). Pitfalls of Tree Planting Show Why We Need People-Centered Natural Climate Solutions. BioScience, 70(11). https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa094Oglesby, C. (2021, Feb 9). Republicans want to plant 1 trillion trees — and then log them. GristCORRECTIONSFelix Finkbeiner was 13 years old when he spoke at the United Nations, not 12.The industry that has currently contributed the most to Rep. Bruce Westerman's career campaigns for federal congress is the Forestry & Forest Products industry, as reported by Open Secrets. The Oil & Gas industry is listed as #2.DISCLAIMER: Some media clips have been edited for length and clarity.[For sponsorship inquiries, please contact climatetown@no-logo.co]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stacey Duguid has worked for brands including Giorgio Armani, Prada and ELLE, but today she opens up about her late ADHD diagnosis, and the vital lessons she's learnt along the way. Chapters:00:00 Trailer01:56 ADHD Item reveal02:49 An opening tradition on this podcast: What is your earliest memory of feeling different?06:41 What's your earliest memory of being told that you're different by someone else?08:48 How did feeling different manifest itself in your earlier years as a child and then as a teenager?13:42 Why do you think it took so long for you to be diagnosed with ADHD?21:25 What was your family's response to your diagnosis?22:45 Is it hard to explain ADHD to other people, do you find people take it seriously as a diagnosis?25:47 After you were diagnosed did you feel like you presented yourself in a different way socially, professional or in your relationships? Did you approach people with a renewed sense of confidence?30:56 Do you think you have any autistic traits?35:29 have you struggled with addiction and if so, just how bad did it get and how have you overcome this?40:34 What was (and is) dating like for you as someone with ADHD?47:16 Do you find what you're looking for in a partner has changed pre and post ADHD diagnosis?51:07 Your ADHD item (red wine)54:07 How did you meet your ex-husband?55:13 You were married for 10 years? And this was pre-diagnosis...what was managing a committed relationship like with ADHD and no diagnosis?58:26 Is ADHD your friend or your enemy?01:00:57 How did ADHD play its part in your marriage failing?01:03:56 What does divorce do to one's self-esteem taking into consideration an ADHDer's RSD?01:10:23 How have your ADHD traits played a part in your incredible success within your respective careers?01:17:27 Why was it important for you to come on this podcast?01:22:14 The Washing Machine of Woes01:24:38 Letter from previous guest Follow Stacey on Instagram

In this one we get chatting to Hamish (a lectuer in biomedical Science at Glasgow) and Lauren,(a graduate teaching assisstent in Anatomy at Glasgow) to discuss the launch of a new MOOC on the considerations and applications of generative AI in educational settings. This has been a project led by Dr Ourania Varsou, who has been on the podcast prevsiously to discuss generative AI in higher education. We chat about why such a course is desirable, who it is for, and what it covers. Check it out!

In this episode Ed catches up with author Iain Duguid who has written a book on how to deal with rude people. Let's Not Be A Dick Today (Pardon the language) is a comprehensive, but in no way complete guide to handle some of the different types of dicks that surround us. Enjoy a laugh and a how to read on dealing with rudeness. Ed For Breakfast 6-9am weekdays on Triple M Gippsland  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to episode 171 of the Leader of Learning Podcast. In this episode, we have the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Stephanie Duguid, a renowned expert in educational leadership and the founder of Do Good Leadership. Dr. Stephanie shared her insights on empowering women in leadership roles, overcoming impostor syndrome, and the importance of effective communication. She highlighted the power of recognizing one's achievements to combat self-doubt and discussed her approach to leadership training.Guest Information:Dr. Stephanie Duguid is a renowned expert in Educational Leadership and an International Best-Selling Author. She is the founder of Do Good Leadership, a recognized leader among professional women. With over 100 conference invitations and numerous appearances at colleges and universities nationwide, Dr. Stephanie is a sought-after speaker known for her expertise in positive educational leadership and effective communication.Drawing from decades of experience in K-12 and Higher Education, she is a strategist and connector, empowering clients to achieve exceptional outcomes. Dr. Stephanie's insights have been featured in notable outlets, and she is also the creator and host of the "Empowering Women in Educational Leadership" radio show, podcast, and blog. In her highly acclaimed keynote, “Exponentially Elevate Your Impact as an Educational Leader,” she inspires audiences to define their purpose and vision in educational leadership, addressing topics like Positive Leadership, Mindset, Optimism, and Conflict Management with Grace.Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Stephanie is actively involved in leadership roles within educational organizations and is dedicated to supporting students through community college scholarships in memory of her mother.Episode Resources:Stephanie's WebsiteDo Good Leadership on Facebook**************************************************************TAKE MY NEW LEADERSHIP STYLES QUIZ!https://dankreiness.com/quiz**************************************************************ACCESS MY INSPIRING RESOURCES:SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNELSign up for my email newsletter50 AI Prompts for Instructional Leaders to Revolutionize Your SchoolThe Teacher's Guide to Becoming a School Leader“Lead to Inspire Growth” eBookFREE “Unlock Your Leadership Potential” course**************************************************************CONSIDER BECOMING AN OFFICIAL SHOW SPONSOR!I can help promote your product or service - Email me at dan@leaderoflearning.comMedia Kit - https://dankreiness.com/mediaTalk Studio is my recording platform of choice for video, audio, and even live streaming. For more information about Talk Studio and to receive 20% off your first billing cycle on ANY paid plan you sign up for, visit https://dankreiness.com/talkFollow Dr. Dan Kreiness on Social Media:Youtube ChannelTwitter/XInstagramLinkedInFacebookTikTokThe Leader Of Learning Podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast Network. For more information and to find other great podcasts, visit https://teachbetterpodcastnetwork.comMusic credits: https://www.purple-planet.com

In today's episode we talked with Dr. Stephanie Duguid (Do Good) about the empowerment of women in leadership opportunities and positions. The three biggest challenges women face in leadership are: 1)Confidence 2) Courage 3) Imposter Syndrome. Dr. Stephanie always shared how to end competition among women in leadership. She shared that “empowered women, empower women.” The heart of competition in the workplace is jealousy so get to know your coworkers. It's hard to hate and be jealous of others when you know them personally. Dr. Stephanie's Freebies: Confidence Booster Worksheet: https://drstephanieduguid.systeme.io/confidencebooster The Confident Leader: https://drstephanieduguid.systeme.io/5confidentleader Be sure to follow her on social media. Website: www.drstephanieduguid.com Facebook Personal: https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.rectorduguid Facebook Group (for women in education): https://www.facebook.com/DoGoodLeadership Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-duguid/ eMail: stephanie@DrStephanieDuguid.com *** Are you ready to transform your life and leadership? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3! Go to https://www.leadershipontherocks.com/ Choose your growth plan On-Demand Survival Guide Course Personalized Coaching Corporate Training Begin to thrive in and create harmony between your professional and personal life. Not quite ready for the jump into transformation? That's ok, Click here to get your FREE Leadership Checklist I've put together a leadership checklist that I use to help you have the tools you need to focus on & take critical action in the most essential areas of leadership. CONTACT US: Visit our website at https://www.leadershipontherocks.com/ Follow us online at: Facebook: Leadership on the Rocks Instagram: @leadershipontherocks Linked In: Bethany Rees Twitter: @Leadontherocks Email us at contact@bressentialservices.com

Send us a Text Message.Do you like playing around with electronics?  Have you ever fixed your computer, built a small robot, or programmed a control system?  Have you noticed that we are surrounded by electronics in our day-to-day lives?In this episode we sit down with Dave Duguid to learn about Electronic Systems Engineering.  For the past 37 years, he has taught the electronic laboratories at the University of Regina.  In our conversation he highlights the importance of hands-on laboratories in an engineering education, and he gives examples of the types of careers students can have when they graduate from this program.

Get this week's full So Into That newsletter here! https://whattocook.substack.com/p/carly-duguid-on-building-the-brandCarly Phillips Duguid is my former college classmate, a What to Cook subscriber, and… oh yeah, the co-founder of the sports agency Evolve, along with her husband and 4-time grand slam winner Naomi Osaka.Today, Carly shares how she's “embracing the pure chaos” of parenting a 4-year-old and a 4-month-old while serving as Naomi's right hand woman – from helping design her Nike apparel, to laying the groundwork for a post-tennis career in fashion, to crafting the look of Naomi's recent historic baby formula commercial.We also get into:- How Carly's second kid changed her mind about work-from-home “interruptions”- The story of meeting her husband, Stu (it's romance novel material)- What Naomi's like off the court and how that's changed since she became a mom- How Carly structures her day and her childcare setup - What she cooks when she doesn't feel like cookingLinks: - Evolve - https://www.instagram.com/thisisevolve/?hl=en- Carly's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/carlsterthebalster/- Silver Spring hot pilates - https://silverspringsla.com/- Naomi's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/carlsterthebalster/- Naomi's Bobbie Formula commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jkCrOea3aA- Her Nike apparel line - https://www.nike.com/w/naomi-osaka-tennis-clothing-4an2mz6ymx6zed1q- mango peanut chicken salad recipe - https://whattocook.substack.com/p/mango-peanut-chicken-salad-635 Get full access to What To Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking at whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Iain Duguid is professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary. In this interview, we talk about big questions surrounding the Book of Judges. More Information About Dr. Duguid: https://faculty.wts.edu/faculty/duguid/ Big Questions in EVERY Book of the Bible: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj8S949x_pmR9brHqG0K9CyK5ovdI_X9V -------------------------------- GIVING -------------------------------- Please consider becoming a Patron! Patreon (Thanks!): https://www.patreon.com/AdherentApologetics YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO8jj_CQwrRRwwwXBndo6nQ/join

In this month's episode we are speaking with Lt(N) Wendy Duguid, a Regular Force Military Chaplain.Wendy has been serving at Garrison Petawawa since 2019.   She was previously the Chaplain for the medical units, and is currently supporting the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) and 2 Signal Squadron.In this conversation we chat with Wendy about:the day-to-day life of a Military Chaplain and the supports they provide;what it was like to join the Reg Force as a second career;the importance of self-care; andhow families can be more resilient in challenging times.Contact us: We would love to hear from you.  If you are a Military Family Member that wants to share your experiences and lessons learned, email us at Podcast.Feedback@PetawawaMFRC.com 

Stacey Duguid speaks her mind. And we love it. She's a wise and welcome voice in the notoriously fickle world of fashion. Here, she shares her feelings on everything from parenting to Instagram oversteps. In 2004, Stacey joined British ELLE as Fashion Editor and during this time, she wrote the award-winning column, Mademoiselle, Confessions of an ELLE girl. Featuring on the back cover of ELLE for half a decade, the column was a fictionalised version of her life as a single woman living in London. She was the Fashion Editor of British ELLE magazine for 10 years. Stacey is regularly commissioned to write for the Sunday Times Style, where she trials fashion trends with her signature humour. Stacey's debut book, In Pursuit of Happiness, is an honest and often humorous journey of divorce and dating, or, of mating, motherhood, marriage, money and mayhem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stacey Duguid has my heart after this conversation. We have many mutual friends but this was our first proper chat and, as you'll hear, it's exactly that - a searingly honest get-to-you-know-you conversation that just so happened to be committed to audio. I love an open guest who isn't afraid to tell it how it is and that's exactly what Stacey is.From navigating infidelity, divorce, unhappy relationships, mental and emotional breakdowns, going back to bed, losing friends on the way, the discomfort of mid-life and what it really means to be neurodivergent in the world... This is a wide-ranging conversation and I sincerely hope you love it!To join the Facebook group for the podcast click here >> The Emma Guns Show Forum.To follow me on social media >> Twitter | Instagram.Watch clips from the podcast >> Youtube | The Emma Guns ShowSign up for my newsletter here >> Newsletter.Subscribe now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On January 16th Ben Rothenberg and I hosted a full house at the best coffee shop in Melbourne for a live podcast/book signing. The Osaka book was available for purchase and Ben signed books, and Naomi's agent Stu Duguid joined us . We talked in length about the Osaka comeback, the book, and then we hit the hot button topics of the day including gambling in tennis and the Zverev situation. It was an awesome Australian Open kickoff. The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast is Powered By DiadoraRecorded 1.16 Released 1.19 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pastor Nathan Hobert concludes our sermon series on the life of Jacob and considers Jacob's final words on having God as your shepherd. Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid. "Meaning of Grace" Sermon, Tim Keller.

Pastor Nathan Hobert concludes our sermon series on the life of Jacob and considers Jacob's final words on having God as your shepherd. Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid. "Meaning of Grace" Sermon, Tim Keller.

Pastor Nathan Hobert continues a sermon series we started in the summer through the life of Jacob. Resources: Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid. "Back to Bethel" Sermon, Bryan Gregory.

Pastor Nathan Hobert continues a sermon series we started in the summer through the life of Jacob. Resources: Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid. "Back to Bethel" Sermon, Bryan Gregory.

Pastor Nathan Hobert continues a sermon series we started in the summer through the life of Jacob. Resources: Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid. Relationships, a Mess Worth Making, Lane, Tripp. "Reconciliation Between Brothers" Sermon, Bryan Gregory.

Pastor Nathan Hobert continues a sermon series we started in the summer through the life of Jacob. Resources: Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid. Relationships, a Mess Worth Making, Lane, Tripp. "Reconciliation Between Brothers" Sermon, Bryan Gregory.

Through a reading of the Bible and an understanding of human history, you will discover that there exists a major fault line that divides those who are a part of Gods true family and those who are not. The fault line divides those who honor God and those who do not honor Him, the righteous and the wicked, and those have been reconciled to Him and those who remain alienated from Him. From the beginning we are introduced to Cain and Abel. We are told that both men participated in the worship of Yahweh, but it was Abels worship that was accepted by God and because Cain was jealous of Abel relationship with God, Cain murdered his brother. Noah had three sons who experienced the miraculous salvation of their family by God through the Ark, yet it was Noahs youngest son, Ham, who did not walk in the ways of his father (Gen. 9:18-29). Isaac and Rebekah had twins who grew up in the same household under the same roof, yet it was Jacob who became the son of promise and Esau who followed the appetites of his own flesh and was rejected by God. The thing that set Abel apart from Cain, Noahs sons Shem and Japheth from Ham, and Jacob from Esau was fear. There are three types of fear used throughout the Old Testament. There is the kind of fear (pḥd) which means to dread (e.g. Isa. 33:14). A second type of fear used in the Old Testament is the kind of fear (mrāʾ) where one experiences terror (e.g. Isa. 8:12). The third type of fear (yareʾ) is a type of fear that includes reverence and respect; it is the kind of fear the people of God are called to in Proverbs 3:7, Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. The same Hebrew word for fear is used for the word fear in Proverbs 9:10, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Everything we have read in Malachi regarding the people has been negative so far. What have we learned of the Priests and the people to whom the book of Malachi is addressed? They questioned the love of God (1:2) They gave the poorest and cheapest of offerings to God (1:6-2:9) They were covenant breakers with their spouses, neighbors, and with God (2:10-16). They were stingy in their giving (3:8-9) They questioned Gods character (3:13-15) Finally, we learn of another group of people in verse 16 that look very different than the unfaithful priests and people addressed previously. We see the same fault line that exists between those who truly belong to Yahweh and those who do not especially when you see verse 16 in contrast to verses 13-15. Notice the stark difference between these two groups of people: Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, How have we spoken against you? You have said, It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape. (Malachi 3:1315) Now, notice the contrast between the above verses with verse 16, Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.(Malachi 3:16) What I find interesting about those described in Malachi 3:13-15 is that they assumed they belonged to God while questioning the value in serving God, obeying the Word of God, or what reward there was in walking as in mourning before the Lord (denying the pleasures of the world and sin). Their conclusion about life and the worship of God was very different than those who are described in Malachi 3:16. Those Who Feared the Lord Belong to the Lord Those who feared God, spoke with one another. Out of a reverent awe of God, these people spoke with one another about God do not miss this point! We are not told what they said to one another, but what we can assume is that their language was shaped by a genuine love of who God is. My guess is that those who feared the Lord, most likely testified about the goodness of God, believed that His infinite goodness was enough to stand on when things were difficult, and understood that He was not only worthy to be treasured but sufficient to be trusted. Unlike those words that have been hard against God (v. 13), those who feared the Lord did not look at their relationship with God in the same way Cain or Enoch did before them. Those whose words were hard against God, viewed their religion as a transaction, and if you could put their attitude into a phrase, it would go something like this: You scratch my back, and I will scratch your back. One commentator describes those who had hard words against God as religious people who viewed their worship as something God needed from them: They gave something to Godsacrifices, offerings, and a variety of religious activitiesand they expected a return on their investment: the blessings of prosperity and welfare. As a result, if their religious efforts didnt materially benefit them in measurable ways, it meant that the Lord had not kept his end of the bargain. God owed them something in return for their obedience.[1] Those described in verse 16 understood their worship of God as relational. They not only feared God, but they honored Him as their heavenly Father, and they trusted Him as being totally sovereign over their lives even when things did not go the way that they had hoped. They understood themselves to be children of the God Almighty instead of his customers.Because those who feared God, had a relationship with Him, we learn that Yahweh, paid attention and heard them. Those who fear Yahweh experience Him very differently than those described in Malachi 2:13 who, cover the Lords altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from their hand. There are two things that need to be noted here: The first thing I have already stated, and that is that those who truly fear God love to talk to others about God. The second thing to be noted is that those who fear God live for God. This is why there is a book of remembrance written of those who, feared the Lord and esteemed his name. As one commentator wrote: The fear of God affects both their attitude toward Him and their actions before Him.[2] The book of remembrance is different than the Book of Life that lists all those who have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus as the Lamb of God (see Rev. 13:8), it is also unlike the Book of the Lord that records the judgment of God against the nations (Isa. 34:16), nor is the book of remembrance the same as the books that will be opened on the Day of judgment (Rev. 20:12). The book of remembrance is only for those who fear (yareʾ) God because they truly belong to Him; it is a book that records the righteous words, motives, and deeds of those who are treasured by God because they belong to Him as a son or daughter belongs to a father. For those who do not fear Yahweh in verses 13-15, they see no value in serving God, no point in rejecting worldly pleasures in light of eternity, or the benefit in obeying the Word of Yahweh because they do not think He is able to see. However, those who fear Yahweh, know better! God sees, they know it, and they sing it: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there (Ps. 139:78, NASB). God sees you Christian! He sees when you turn from sin out of a desire to please Him. In his commentary on Malachi, Robby Gallaty makes the following observation: Every time a woman respects her body and rejects intimacy with another man before marriage, God sees and honors that decision. Every time a husband refuses to engage in immoral talk at work or to be seduced into looking at pornography, God recognizes it. Every time you avert gossip, every time you bear the burden of an injustice and refuse to lash out, God sees that. Every time a family opens their home to be a Christian witness to the world, God sees that. Every time you share the gospel with a lost family member or friend, God sees that, whether or not anyone else does.[3] Not only does our God see, but for those who fear Him, this is what He says about such people: They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him (v. 17). Those who belong to God are not only seen by God, but are treasured by Him! Why are they treasured by Him? Not because of their deeds, but because of Him who spares out of mercy (v. 17b). Dont forget what was already promised in Malachi 3:1-4. A messenger would come to prepare the way for Yahweh, and He will come to His temple as a refiners fire to purify the sons of Levi by suffering the fire of Gods justice for our sins. The same mercy that will purify Levi, is the same mercy spoken of in verse 17. Jesus, as the Fathers refiners fire, will purify a people, and if you are a Christian, you are that people! We learn from 1 Peter 2:9-10 that all those whose have been reconciled to God through His Son belong to God as His treasured possession: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are Gods people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Pet. 2:910). This is what sets the righteous apart from the wicked, look at the next verse in Malachi: Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him (v. 18). Those Who Belong to the Lord Will Enjoy the Salvation of the Lord In Malachi 2:17, those who did not fear the Lord said of Him: Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in those who does evil. This is why the same people claimed that it was, pointless to serve God. Their view of God and lack of reverence for Him is the reason why they could have the audacity to show up for worship while asking: what benefit is it for us that we have done what He required? (v. 14). Gods answer to the ridiculous accusations of those who claimed to worship Yahweh is found in Malachi 4:1, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. You wonder where is the justice of God? Do you think that because you have not seen His justice yet that you can live the way you want to live? Do not mistake His mercy for indifference! Consider what the apostle Paul wrote to those who had similar questions related to sin and the justice of God: Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:45, NASB 2020). Gods kindness, restraint, and patience is meant to lead you to repentance! But, if you take for granted His kindness, restraint, and patience so that you can continue in your sin, then the refiners fire will fall upon you and you will be consumed by it, but in the way the prophet Isaiah and Jesus described: For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh (Isa. 66:24b). There is good news though! It is good news for those who fear the Lord and it is good news for those who do not presently fear the Lord: But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall (4:2). This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the Lord our Righteousness and the righteous Branch of David (Jer. 23:5-6). This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the Son of God who is also the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the resurrection and the life who is making all things new (John 11:25; Rev. 21:5). This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the One who, loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father (Rev. 1:5-6). I am not sure who wrote this, but what this person wrote in light of Malachi 4:2 is too good not to share with you: As the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over the earth for the growth and maturity of the plants and living creatures, so will the sun of righteousness bring the healing of all hurts and wounds which the power of darkness has inflicted upon the righteous. Then they will go forth from the holes and caves, into which they had withdrawn during the night of suffering and where they had kept themselves concealed, and skip like stalled calves which are driven from the stall to the pasture. Malachi 4:2 is good news for those of us who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus out of a right fear for God. When the sun of righteousness appears, we will experience the promise of Revelation 21:4, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Rev. 21:4). Listen, for the one who does not yet fear God because you do not know Him, this promise is available to you through the same Jesus who experienced the wrath of God for sinners like you. You only need to come to Him in faith to receive the forgiveness of your sins. So, of the two groups of people described in Malachi, who are you? Are you religious in words and empty deeds? Is your relationship with God merely commercial in that worship of God is no more than a transaction to you? When it comes to your worship, do you despise Gods name with your actions? Can you hear the Spirit of God ask you this question: A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? (1:6)? Oh, wont you come to the sun of righteousness who invites all sinners to lay down their sin and pride to find their rest in Him: Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28, NASB 2020). If you are the person described in Malachi 3:16, then you belong to God. With the cry, It is finished! from our Savior upon the cross, can be heard through the echo: They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him (Mal. 3:17). Amen. [1] Duguid, I. M., Harmon, M. P. (2018). Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, D. M. Doriani, Eds.; p. 176). PR Publishing. [2] Fries, M., Rummage, S., Gallaty, R. (2015). Exalting jesus in zephaniah, haggai, zechariah, and malachi (D. Platt, D. L. Akin, T. Merida, Eds.; p. 264). Holman Reference. [3] Ibid.

Through a reading of the Bible and an understanding of human history, you will discover that there exists a major fault line that divides those who are a part of Gods true family and those who are not. The fault line divides those who honor God and those who do not honor Him, the righteous and the wicked, and those have been reconciled to Him and those who remain alienated from Him. From the beginning we are introduced to Cain and Abel. We are told that both men participated in the worship of Yahweh, but it was Abels worship that was accepted by God and because Cain was jealous of Abel relationship with God, Cain murdered his brother. Noah had three sons who experienced the miraculous salvation of their family by God through the Ark, yet it was Noahs youngest son, Ham, who did not walk in the ways of his father (Gen. 9:18-29). Isaac and Rebekah had twins who grew up in the same household under the same roof, yet it was Jacob who became the son of promise and Esau who followed the appetites of his own flesh and was rejected by God. The thing that set Abel apart from Cain, Noahs sons Shem and Japheth from Ham, and Jacob from Esau was fear. There are three types of fear used throughout the Old Testament. There is the kind of fear (pḥd) which means to dread (e.g. Isa. 33:14). A second type of fear used in the Old Testament is the kind of fear (mrāʾ) where one experiences terror (e.g. Isa. 8:12). The third type of fear (yareʾ) is a type of fear that includes reverence and respect; it is the kind of fear the people of God are called to in Proverbs 3:7, Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. The same Hebrew word for fear is used for the word fear in Proverbs 9:10, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Everything we have read in Malachi regarding the people has been negative so far. What have we learned of the Priests and the people to whom the book of Malachi is addressed? They questioned the love of God (1:2) They gave the poorest and cheapest of offerings to God (1:6-2:9) They were covenant breakers with their spouses, neighbors, and with God (2:10-16). They were stingy in their giving (3:8-9) They questioned Gods character (3:13-15) Finally, we learn of another group of people in verse 16 that look very different than the unfaithful priests and people addressed previously. We see the same fault line that exists between those who truly belong to Yahweh and those who do not especially when you see verse 16 in contrast to verses 13-15. Notice the stark difference between these two groups of people: Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, How have we spoken against you? You have said, It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape. (Malachi 3:1315) Now, notice the contrast between the above verses with verse 16, Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.(Malachi 3:16) What I find interesting about those described in Malachi 3:13-15 is that they assumed they belonged to God while questioning the value in serving God, obeying the Word of God, or what reward there was in walking as in mourning before the Lord (denying the pleasures of the world and sin). Their conclusion about life and the worship of God was very different than those who are described in Malachi 3:16. Those Who Feared the Lord Belong to the Lord Those who feared God, spoke with one another. Out of a reverent awe of God, these people spoke with one another about God do not miss this point! We are not told what they said to one another, but what we can assume is that their language was shaped by a genuine love of who God is. My guess is that those who feared the Lord, most likely testified about the goodness of God, believed that His infinite goodness was enough to stand on when things were difficult, and understood that He was not only worthy to be treasured but sufficient to be trusted. Unlike those words that have been hard against God (v. 13), those who feared the Lord did not look at their relationship with God in the same way Cain or Enoch did before them. Those whose words were hard against God, viewed their religion as a transaction, and if you could put their attitude into a phrase, it would go something like this: You scratch my back, and I will scratch your back. One commentator describes those who had hard words against God as religious people who viewed their worship as something God needed from them: They gave something to Godsacrifices, offerings, and a variety of religious activitiesand they expected a return on their investment: the blessings of prosperity and welfare. As a result, if their religious efforts didnt materially benefit them in measurable ways, it meant that the Lord had not kept his end of the bargain. God owed them something in return for their obedience.[1] Those described in verse 16 understood their worship of God as relational. They not only feared God, but they honored Him as their heavenly Father, and they trusted Him as being totally sovereign over their lives even when things did not go the way that they had hoped. They understood themselves to be children of the God Almighty instead of his customers.Because those who feared God, had a relationship with Him, we learn that Yahweh, paid attention and heard them. Those who fear Yahweh experience Him very differently than those described in Malachi 2:13 who, cover the Lords altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from their hand. There are two things that need to be noted here: The first thing I have already stated, and that is that those who truly fear God love to talk to others about God. The second thing to be noted is that those who fear God live for God. This is why there is a book of remembrance written of those who, feared the Lord and esteemed his name. As one commentator wrote: The fear of God affects both their attitude toward Him and their actions before Him.[2] The book of remembrance is different than the Book of Life that lists all those who have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus as the Lamb of God (see Rev. 13:8), it is also unlike the Book of the Lord that records the judgment of God against the nations (Isa. 34:16), nor is the book of remembrance the same as the books that will be opened on the Day of judgment (Rev. 20:12). The book of remembrance is only for those who fear (yareʾ) God because they truly belong to Him; it is a book that records the righteous words, motives, and deeds of those who are treasured by God because they belong to Him as a son or daughter belongs to a father. For those who do not fear Yahweh in verses 13-15, they see no value in serving God, no point in rejecting worldly pleasures in light of eternity, or the benefit in obeying the Word of Yahweh because they do not think He is able to see. However, those who fear Yahweh, know better! God sees, they know it, and they sing it: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there (Ps. 139:78, NASB). God sees you Christian! He sees when you turn from sin out of a desire to please Him. In his commentary on Malachi, Robby Gallaty makes the following observation: Every time a woman respects her body and rejects intimacy with another man before marriage, God sees and honors that decision. Every time a husband refuses to engage in immoral talk at work or to be seduced into looking at pornography, God recognizes it. Every time you avert gossip, every time you bear the burden of an injustice and refuse to lash out, God sees that. Every time a family opens their home to be a Christian witness to the world, God sees that. Every time you share the gospel with a lost family member or friend, God sees that, whether or not anyone else does.[3] Not only does our God see, but for those who fear Him, this is what He says about such people: They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him (v. 17). Those who belong to God are not only seen by God, but are treasured by Him! Why are they treasured by Him? Not because of their deeds, but because of Him who spares out of mercy (v. 17b). Dont forget what was already promised in Malachi 3:1-4. A messenger would come to prepare the way for Yahweh, and He will come to His temple as a refiners fire to purify the sons of Levi by suffering the fire of Gods justice for our sins. The same mercy that will purify Levi, is the same mercy spoken of in verse 17. Jesus, as the Fathers refiners fire, will purify a people, and if you are a Christian, you are that people! We learn from 1 Peter 2:9-10 that all those whose have been reconciled to God through His Son belong to God as His treasured possession: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are Gods people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Pet. 2:910). This is what sets the righteous apart from the wicked, look at the next verse in Malachi: Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him (v. 18). Those Who Belong to the Lord Will Enjoy the Salvation of the Lord In Malachi 2:17, those who did not fear the Lord said of Him: Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in those who does evil. This is why the same people claimed that it was, pointless to serve God. Their view of God and lack of reverence for Him is the reason why they could have the audacity to show up for worship while asking: what benefit is it for us that we have done what He required? (v. 14). Gods answer to the ridiculous accusations of those who claimed to worship Yahweh is found in Malachi 4:1, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. You wonder where is the justice of God? Do you think that because you have not seen His justice yet that you can live the way you want to live? Do not mistake His mercy for indifference! Consider what the apostle Paul wrote to those who had similar questions related to sin and the justice of God: Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:45, NASB 2020). Gods kindness, restraint, and patience is meant to lead you to repentance! But, if you take for granted His kindness, restraint, and patience so that you can continue in your sin, then the refiners fire will fall upon you and you will be consumed by it, but in the way the prophet Isaiah and Jesus described: For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh (Isa. 66:24b). There is good news though! It is good news for those who fear the Lord and it is good news for those who do not presently fear the Lord: But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall (4:2). This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the Lord our Righteousness and the righteous Branch of David (Jer. 23:5-6). This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the Son of God who is also the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the resurrection and the life who is making all things new (John 11:25; Rev. 21:5). This is good news because the sun of righteousness is the One who, loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father (Rev. 1:5-6). I am not sure who wrote this, but what this person wrote in light of Malachi 4:2 is too good not to share with you: As the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over the earth for the growth and maturity of the plants and living creatures, so will the sun of righteousness bring the healing of all hurts and wounds which the power of darkness has inflicted upon the righteous. Then they will go forth from the holes and caves, into which they had withdrawn during the night of suffering and where they had kept themselves concealed, and skip like stalled calves which are driven from the stall to the pasture. Malachi 4:2 is good news for those of us who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus out of a right fear for God. When the sun of righteousness appears, we will experience the promise of Revelation 21:4, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Rev. 21:4). Listen, for the one who does not yet fear God because you do not know Him, this promise is available to you through the same Jesus who experienced the wrath of God for sinners like you. You only need to come to Him in faith to receive the forgiveness of your sins. So, of the two groups of people described in Malachi, who are you? Are you religious in words and empty deeds? Is your relationship with God merely commercial in that worship of God is no more than a transaction to you? When it comes to your worship, do you despise Gods name with your actions? Can you hear the Spirit of God ask you this question: A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? (1:6)? Oh, wont you come to the sun of righteousness who invites all sinners to lay down their sin and pride to find their rest in Him: Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28, NASB 2020). If you are the person described in Malachi 3:16, then you belong to God. With the cry, It is finished! from our Savior upon the cross, can be heard through the echo: They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him (Mal. 3:17). Amen. [1] Duguid, I. M., Harmon, M. P. (2018). Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, D. M. Doriani, Eds.; p. 176). PR Publishing. [2] Fries, M., Rummage, S., Gallaty, R. (2015). Exalting jesus in zephaniah, haggai, zechariah, and malachi (D. Platt, D. L. Akin, T. Merida, Eds.; p. 264). Holman Reference. [3] Ibid.

In this episode, Lisa and Stephanie discuss:Reasons your student might consider community college instead of or before transitioning to a 4-year university. Advantages of a community college and reasons your student should invest time in a visit to the campus. Differences between community colleges, regional campuses, and technical colleges. The correct verbiage you need to ask the right questions of the colleges and universities your student is looking into.Key Takeaways: Community colleges are not lesser colleges. They are, however, tailored to the community that the school is in. Community colleges are 2-year colleges, and the credits earned transfer to 4-year colleges. Your student will want research to ensure the community college will support their desired career path, as it may not be the case for all future majors.  Career and technical degrees are not lesser degrees. Your student would be learning their livelihood in 2 years and can make a great living in those jobs. There are many organizations your student can engage with at community colleges. Regardless of the size of the school, there are engagement and scholarship opportunities that are often overlooked.  “You are welcome on the community college campus. There are people there waiting to answer your questions. Don't be shy, don't be scared - step on campus, find an office, and they will direct you to the right place to get your questions answered. It might change your life.” – Stephanie DuguidAbout Stephanie Duguid: As the founder of Do Good Leadership, Dr. Stephanie Duguid is a motivational speaker, educational consultant, leadership & success coach, radio show host, and author who strives to help individuals become intentional in developing goals, purposeful in reaching their full potential and helps to solve challenges. Her primary focus is helping Women in Education develop leadership skills and confidence in 90 days to enter their ideal leadership role (current or future).   Episode References:Episodes About How to Prepare Teens to Thrive in College:#020 Teaching Your Teen “How to College”: https://www.flourishcoachingco.com/podcast/20-teaching-your-teen-how-to-college/#088 Executive Function Skills for College Success with Lauran Kerr-Heraly: https://www.flourishcoachingco.com/podcast/088-executive-function-skills-for-college-success-with-lauran-kerr-heraly/ #068 How to Get the Most Out Of College with Elliot Felix: https://www.flourishcoachingco.com/podcast/068-how-to-get-the-most-out-of-college-with-elliot-felix/ Get Lisa's complimentary on-demand video: How-to guide for your teen to choose the right major, college, & career...(without painting themselves into a corner, missing crucial deadlines, or risking choices you both regret). https://flourishcoachingco.com/video Connect with Lisa:Website: https://www.flourishcoachingco.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flourishcoachingcoInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/flourishcoachingco/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flourish-coaching-co

Before I got to know today's guest, Stacey Duguid, I thought she was a bit scary TBH. Fierce in all the ways. And then I got to know her - when I was editor of Red and she worked on Elle - and discovered she wasn't. At all.Because Stacey, like so many of us, is just exceptionally good at putting on a front. And that front served her well, until it didn't. She was 45 when everything collapsed. Or, more accurately, she put a grenade under it. The thing she'd been trained to want ever since she was tiny: the house, the husband, the children, the career, the happy ever after. All blown to smithereens. Now 49, a single mum and a successful journalist, very much back from the brink, Stacey has written In Pursuit of Happiness, the most brilliant book about a midlife collapse and ultimately recovery. I know you are going to love it.As candid in person as she is in print, Stacey talks frankly about the pain of divorce, searching for a self you've never met, self-blame, “hotness syndrome”, perimenopause mayhem (and I mean MAYHEM), making peace with her mother, rediscovering her creativity, midlife sexuality and… toyboywarehouse.com.If you enjoyed this episode, you might like my conversations with Rosie Green and Natalie Lee. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org, including In Pursuit of Happiness by Stacey Duguid, and the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me.* And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com• The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls @ Pineapple Audio Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever had someone offer an explanation for why they would not come to a church service with the following indictment: The Church is full of hypocrites.? I have always bristled at that statement not because I am a pastor and want the church that I serve to be full on Sunday, but because I know my own story and my own failures of the past and present. I am very aware that I will continue to fall short of a standard I believe I should meet when it comes to worshiping a God who is holy. Now, before I go any further, there are three things you need to know about the Old Testament system of worship. Israels worship included all of the things that you would expect such as the teaching of Gods word, the singing of songs and psalms, and gathering together to celebrate feasts and festivals where God was the center of it all. Included in their worship was a sacrificial system unlike the kind of sacrificial systems other people groups had. Israels sacrificial system was not based on paying God back for his grace and mercy, but served three primary purposes: 1. There were the sin offerings. The shedding of blood through the sacrifice of an animal without defect for the atonement of ones sins, which ultimately pointed to the sacrifice Jesus would make in our place upon a cross (see Lev. 4; Heb. 9:22). 2. There was a Thank offering. There was also the type of sacrifice that acknowledged the goodness of God in ones life, which is known in the Old Testament as a Thank Offering. The Thank Offering could come in all forms, shapes, and sizes (see Lev. 7:11-34; Psalm 107:21-22). 3. There was a Tithe offering. The third type of sacrifice given in the Old Testament was the tithe offering which served as a way to acknowledge that all a person had was provided by God. Giving back a portion or tithe was and continues to be a way of acknowledging the goodness of God (see Lev. 27:30; Num. 18:2528; Deut. 14:2224; 2 Chron. 31:56). To be a priest, one had to belong to the tribe of Levi by birth and their primary responsibility would be to mediate the worship between all of Israel and God. According to the Law, their survival would be through what was brought to the tabernacle (when Israel was transient) and the temple (after they had inherited the Canaan). What was left from the offering, the priests were permitted to eat (see Lev. 6:14-26). When it came to the lifestyle of those serving as priests, they were to meet a standard of moral character and holiness (see Lev. 21-22). There were even certain physical requirements of the Priest to ensure that he was able to fulfill his responsibilities which included defective eyesight (Lev. 21:18-20). Of the priest, God commanded: They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lords food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. 8You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy (Lev. 22:6, 8). And, as for the sacrifices that were allowed: Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the Lord, if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. (Lev. 22:18-20) God takes the worship of people seriously. When Aarons two sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire on the alter where the sacrifice was, they died (see Num. 6:23). When Uzzah touched the Ark when God commanded no one to touch it, because he assumed his hand was cleaner than the dirt, he died (see 1 Chron. 13:5-14). As you are aware, the nation of Israel was divided into two nations as a result of King Solomons sins and disregard for the holiness of God, which eventually led to the exile of the northern kingdom and then the southern kingdom due to the disregard of who Yahweh is and the type of people they were called to be: You shall be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16). If there were ever a scripture passage in the Bible that serves as a warning to how one ought to approach Almighty God, it is Malachi 1:6-14. The One Worshiped Malachi begins with Gods reminder to His people: I love you. God even calls the people by the name given to them out of a promise to bless them and by doing so, he would bless the nations through them. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians only understood the Hebrew people as exiles, but God knew them as Israel. Their response was to question His love for them, which was unfounded. The evidence of His love for Israel is seen from their birth, their growth, their faithlessness, through his discipline of them as a people, and his promise to keep His word to them. In verse five, God even assured them: Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel! Before the worship of the former exiles is even addressed, God reminds the priests and people who it is that they say they worship: A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, How have we despised your name? (Mal. 1:6). In this one verse, God reminds Israel of who He is: He is their Father, He is their Adonai (master), and He is Yahweh. God is Yahweh of Hosts To feel the weight of what is being said here, lets consider each name briefly beginning with Yahweh. It is not only the name Yahweh that we must consider, but also what is associated with His name. The God of Israel is Yahweh-Sebaoth, which literally means, Yahweh of Armies. It is a name used of God seven times in Malachi 1:6-14 and 25 times throughout the little book of Malachi, which means that it is really important that Israel understand who it is that they are so indifferent towards. Quite literally, He is the all-powerful God of whom and to whom no god or person can compare. Listen to the way Isaiah describes just how awesome our God really is! This is what the Lord says, He who is your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb: I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth alone, Causing the omens of diviners to fail, Making fools of fortune-tellers; Causing wise men to turn back And making their knowledge ridiculous, Confirming the word of His servant And carrying out the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited! And of the cities of Judah, They shall be built. And I will raise her ruins again. (Isa. 44:2426, NASB 2020) Who is like Yahweh-Sebaoth? The answer: NO ONE! He is the maker of all things! He stretched out the heavens all on His own! How established the galaxies? Who spoke into existence that which did not exist? When the earth was formless and desolate emptiness, who shaped the earth? Who separated the water from land? Who decked the night with billions of stars? Who separated light from darkness? Who blanketed the dirt with grass, flowers, and trees? Who created mankind in His image? To whom belongs all the credit for all these things? Here is the answer: The earth is the Lords, and all it contains, the world, and those who live in it (Psalm 24:1, NASB 2020). Yet, the response of the Priests, who should have known better, felt that offering the best on the alter in worship of Yahweh was too costly and not worth the trouble: But you say, What a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord (v. 13). God is Adonai Adonai simply means master or lord. It simply means that Yahweh is the Sovereign One. The prophet Isaiah says of our Sovereign God: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god (Isa. 44:6). In Deuteronomy, Moses shows just how unlike God is to anything else: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe (Deut. 10:17). Literally, Yahweh your Elohim is Elohim of elohims and Adonai of adonais. What is the point? The point is that God does not exist for us, we exist because of Him and for Him! What sets the God who is Yahweh of Hosts and Adonai apart from any other god is that He needs nothing. In fact, when it came to the sacrificial system, from the most expensive of sacrifices to the least, it is God who said: I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:9-10). The point of worship is not that God needs His ego stroked or that he lacks something that only we can give, for if He is Adonai, then He already owns it all! How is it that you got up this morning? Who is it that is sustaining your life this very moment? It is the One who is, the first and the last of whom there is no comparison! This is why Gods response to the lackadaisical worship of the priests in verse 8 is appropriate: When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. The reason why the priests of Malachis day offered the blind, lame, and sick on the alter before a Holy God is because they did not fear Him even though they were fully aware of what was written many generations before them in holy Scripture: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord (Deut. 10:12-13). Because neither the priests nor the people approached their worship with reverent fear, God said the thing we have heard others say, but he said it in His own way. When people say, The church is full of hypocrites, they demonstrate their own hypocrisy by not recognizing that they are no better. However, when God says it, He does so as one who is perfectly holy and justified to say what He said in verse 10, Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. God is a Father I want you to think about something that I believe will help the weight of Malachi 1:6 settle upon your heart. It is in Yahwehs description as a Father that sets Him apart from any other god or gods that other people worship. Gods identity as a Father is infinity linked as an attribute that we like to run to for good reason. The attribute I refer to is love. There are two passages I want you to see, the first is from the New Testament and the second is from the Old Testament; both are stating the same thing about the love of God: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16). Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations God is love. God is also just, gracious, merciful, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, and holy. Here is what I want to show you: There is a reason why we believe from the Bible that Yahweh is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who eternally exists as three distinct Persons as one God. This is why the God of the Bible and the one we worship at Meadowbrooke is not nor ever could be the same god that is worshiped in Islam, by Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, or any other group that denies that Yahweh is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the concept and doctrine of it is everywhere in the Bible. Now I am going to give you an example that will serve to encourage you through Malachi 1:6-14. If God is not Triune as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before anything was ever created, how could he be a God of love without the ability to demonstrate His love? If God is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then in order for Him to be a God of love he would have needed to create all things include humans out of a need to love. For God to be God, He must be infinitely sufficient. For God to be Yahweh of Hosts and Adonai, he cannot be a God who has needs. Thankfully the God of the Bible is a God who does not have needs because as One God in three eternally and distinct Persons the God who is love was able to express His love within the fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here is what this means: Creation did not come into being because for God to be a God of love He needed creatures to love. God did not call Abraham out of Ur because He needed a people to love. Israel did not exist as a nation because He needed a nation to love, and Jesus was not born of a virgin because He needed a Son to love. The Father loved the Son for all eternity within the fellowship of a God who has always existed as three person Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Love was shared between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit before time ever existed! This is why Jesus prayed before He went to the cross for our sins: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:24-26) What the priests failed to realize was that their worship was intended to be an expression of their love for a Father who did not need them in order to be a God of love, but redeemed Israel because He always has been and always will be a God who is love! God does not need to be buttered up by His creatures because He is Adonai! So, when we come to verse 9, and read these words: And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? The favor of God is not something to be bartered because He does not need anything from you! Conclusion Malachi 1:6-14 is a stinging indictment brought upon the lackadaisical worship of an indifferent people and their priests. The question we are left with this morning is whether or not the same could be said about us? Granted, the sacrificial system is no longer needed to be forgiven of our sins or to enter into the Lords presence because of a greater sacrifice that was made on our behalf. After all, we are recipients and benefactors of all that the Law, the Prophets, the Hebrew feasts, and the sacrificial system pointed tonamely Jesus Christ! Can the same be said of us that was said to Malachis contemporaries those of us who claim to look, to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:2)? If you are a true Christian, you have experienced the reality of what we read in John 3:16 that states: For God so love the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Can it be said of you and I, that our worship is cold and halfhearted because we are indifferent to the One who loved us that He gave His Son to redeem us? We may not say with our lips in the way the priests said it in Malachi 1:13, but if we are honest, our posture and our actions has echoed the words of the priests: What a weariness this is. I want to read for you something Matthew Harmon wrote that I really do not believe I can improve upon, so I will let him say it for me: How can this be, though? How can God accept cold, halfhearted, easily distracted, and rebellious worshipers like me, whose first thought in times of trouble is to question the reality of Gods love and whose second thought is usually to defend our own inadequate worship as perfectly fine? He did this by sending a true worshiper in our place, a genuinely submissive Son who gave his all as an act of wholehearted worship and love for his glorious Father, a Suffering Servant who obediently offered up his life for us and for our salvation. Supremely, of course, Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice, laying down his life patiently, for the joy that was set before himthe joy of ultimately being surrounded by a multitude of brothers and sisters from all nations in the worship of the Father. On the cross, the Father turned his face away from the Son, as if the Son were one of the inadequate, halfhearted worshipers of Malachis dayas if the Son were us! For the first time in all eternity, the Father slammed the door of his presence in the face of his own beloved child, as if it were Jesus who had dishonored him and served him insincerely. Yet the Son still submissively committed his Spirit to his Father in death, trusting that the Father would bless and use that perfect gift to accomplish his perfect goals. This is what enables us now to approach God joyfully, Sunday by Sunday, and gives us hope as weak worshipers. When we come to church, we dont ascend the mountain to a building in Jerusalem but rather come to the true heavenly Mount Zion, into the powerful presence of the living God, who is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:2224, 29). Yet we may come into his glorious presence unafraid, for what the Father sees when he looks at us is not the failures in our worship that flow from our angry and rebellious hearts, but the Sons perfect worship in our place that flowed from his submissive reverence. Christs perfect worship makes our weak and failing worship acceptable in the Fathers sight so that he welcomes us joyfully into his glorious presence.[1] There is good news for us, because we have a Father who does not love out of need but because He is a God of love, a love demonstrated and proven through the Son. The reason why God states in verse 11 that His plan to redeem the nations will happen regardless of whether or not Malachis contemporaries worship Him appropriately is because: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. What is the appropriate response from those of us who have been redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son? As we look to the Cross of Christ, we can say: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God (1 John 3:1). Discussion Questions: As a group, take turns reading through Malachi 1:6-14. In Malachi 1:6, there are three names for God that are listed: Father, Adonai (master, Lord), and Yahweh (Gods most intimate and covenantal name). When it comes to our worship of God, how does knowing that He is Yahweh, Adonai, and your Heavenly Father affect the way you worship Him? LORD of hosts from Hebrew is literally Yahweh of Armies, which is a name that assures us of the absolute and infinite power of God. Malachi repeats this name 25 times in four short chapters; why do you think this name for God is heavily repeated? Have members of your LIFE Group read Leviticus 21:6-8; 22:22; Deuteronomy 15:19-21. How were the Priests and the rest of Israel to approach their worship of God? What kind of worship was Israel accused of in Malachi 1:6-14? According to verse 8, it seems that Israel had more respect for their governor (most likely a Persian appointee) than they did of the LORD of hosts. What are some ways that we may demonstrate more respect for things, events, or persons more than the LORD of hosts? Based on what you have learned so far from the sermon series in Malachi, how did God treat Israel as a Father of his children? What are some ways Israel failed to treat God as a father? Read Matthew 22:15-22; have someone in your group volunteer to lend any coin to pass to each person in your group. If the image on the coin reflects our government and the image we bear reflects our Creator, what does it mean to render to God what belongs to God? Have three members in your group read each of the following passages: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, and Romans 12:1-2. In your opinion, what should worship look like for the Christian? In what ways can casual worship resemble Israels defective worship? How does such worship despise the name of God? Ask members of your LIFE Group volunteer to read the following scripture passages: Malachi 1:11; Revelation 15:3-4; Isaiah 45:5-6, 22-23; Philippians 2:9-11. How do these passages from the Bible encourage you even in full awareness of your failures? In light of Matthew 28:19-20, how will God accomplish Malachi 1:11? How do the passages listed in question #10, and the Matthew 28:19-20 passage empower your worship? [1] Duguid, I. M., Harmon, M. P. (2018). Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, D. M. Doriani, Eds.; pp. 118119). PR Publishing.

Have you ever had someone offer an explanation for why they would not come to a church service with the following indictment: The Church is full of hypocrites.? I have always bristled at that statement not because I am a pastor and want the church that I serve to be full on Sunday, but because I know my own story and my own failures of the past and present. I am very aware that I will continue to fall short of a standard I believe I should meet when it comes to worshiping a God who is holy. Now, before I go any further, there are three things you need to know about the Old Testament system of worship. Israels worship included all of the things that you would expect such as the teaching of Gods word, the singing of songs and psalms, and gathering together to celebrate feasts and festivals where God was the center of it all. Included in their worship was a sacrificial system unlike the kind of sacrificial systems other people groups had. Israels sacrificial system was not based on paying God back for his grace and mercy, but served three primary purposes: 1. There were the sin offerings. The shedding of blood through the sacrifice of an animal without defect for the atonement of ones sins, which ultimately pointed to the sacrifice Jesus would make in our place upon a cross (see Lev. 4; Heb. 9:22). 2. There was a Thank offering. There was also the type of sacrifice that acknowledged the goodness of God in ones life, which is known in the Old Testament as a Thank Offering. The Thank Offering could come in all forms, shapes, and sizes (see Lev. 7:11-34; Psalm 107:21-22). 3. There was a Tithe offering. The third type of sacrifice given in the Old Testament was the tithe offering which served as a way to acknowledge that all a person had was provided by God. Giving back a portion or tithe was and continues to be a way of acknowledging the goodness of God (see Lev. 27:30; Num. 18:2528; Deut. 14:2224; 2 Chron. 31:56). To be a priest, one had to belong to the tribe of Levi by birth and their primary responsibility would be to mediate the worship between all of Israel and God. According to the Law, their survival would be through what was brought to the tabernacle (when Israel was transient) and the temple (after they had inherited the Canaan). What was left from the offering, the priests were permitted to eat (see Lev. 6:14-26). When it came to the lifestyle of those serving as priests, they were to meet a standard of moral character and holiness (see Lev. 21-22). There were even certain physical requirements of the Priest to ensure that he was able to fulfill his responsibilities which included defective eyesight (Lev. 21:18-20). Of the priest, God commanded: They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lords food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. 8You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy (Lev. 22:6, 8). And, as for the sacrifices that were allowed: Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the Lord, if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. (Lev. 22:18-20) God takes the worship of people seriously. When Aarons two sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire on the alter where the sacrifice was, they died (see Num. 6:23). When Uzzah touched the Ark when God commanded no one to touch it, because he assumed his hand was cleaner than the dirt, he died (see 1 Chron. 13:5-14). As you are aware, the nation of Israel was divided into two nations as a result of King Solomons sins and disregard for the holiness of God, which eventually led to the exile of the northern kingdom and then the southern kingdom due to the disregard of who Yahweh is and the type of people they were called to be: You shall be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16). If there were ever a scripture passage in the Bible that serves as a warning to how one ought to approach Almighty God, it is Malachi 1:6-14. The One Worshiped Malachi begins with Gods reminder to His people: I love you. God even calls the people by the name given to them out of a promise to bless them and by doing so, he would bless the nations through them. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians only understood the Hebrew people as exiles, but God knew them as Israel. Their response was to question His love for them, which was unfounded. The evidence of His love for Israel is seen from their birth, their growth, their faithlessness, through his discipline of them as a people, and his promise to keep His word to them. In verse five, God even assured them: Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel! Before the worship of the former exiles is even addressed, God reminds the priests and people who it is that they say they worship: A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, How have we despised your name? (Mal. 1:6). In this one verse, God reminds Israel of who He is: He is their Father, He is their Adonai (master), and He is Yahweh. God is Yahweh of Hosts To feel the weight of what is being said here, lets consider each name briefly beginning with Yahweh. It is not only the name Yahweh that we must consider, but also what is associated with His name. The God of Israel is Yahweh-Sebaoth, which literally means, Yahweh of Armies. It is a name used of God seven times in Malachi 1:6-14 and 25 times throughout the little book of Malachi, which means that it is really important that Israel understand who it is that they are so indifferent towards. Quite literally, He is the all-powerful God of whom and to whom no god or person can compare. Listen to the way Isaiah describes just how awesome our God really is! This is what the Lord says, He who is your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb: I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth alone, Causing the omens of diviners to fail, Making fools of fortune-tellers; Causing wise men to turn back And making their knowledge ridiculous, Confirming the word of His servant And carrying out the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited! And of the cities of Judah, They shall be built. And I will raise her ruins again. (Isa. 44:2426, NASB 2020) Who is like Yahweh-Sebaoth? The answer: NO ONE! He is the maker of all things! He stretched out the heavens all on His own! How established the galaxies? Who spoke into existence that which did not exist? When the earth was formless and desolate emptiness, who shaped the earth? Who separated the water from land? Who decked the night with billions of stars? Who separated light from darkness? Who blanketed the dirt with grass, flowers, and trees? Who created mankind in His image? To whom belongs all the credit for all these things? Here is the answer: The earth is the Lords, and all it contains, the world, and those who live in it (Psalm 24:1, NASB 2020). Yet, the response of the Priests, who should have known better, felt that offering the best on the alter in worship of Yahweh was too costly and not worth the trouble: But you say, What a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord (v. 13). God is Adonai Adonai simply means master or lord. It simply means that Yahweh is the Sovereign One. The prophet Isaiah says of our Sovereign God: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god (Isa. 44:6). In Deuteronomy, Moses shows just how unlike God is to anything else: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe (Deut. 10:17). Literally, Yahweh your Elohim is Elohim of elohims and Adonai of adonais. What is the point? The point is that God does not exist for us, we exist because of Him and for Him! What sets the God who is Yahweh of Hosts and Adonai apart from any other god is that He needs nothing. In fact, when it came to the sacrificial system, from the most expensive of sacrifices to the least, it is God who said: I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:9-10). The point of worship is not that God needs His ego stroked or that he lacks something that only we can give, for if He is Adonai, then He already owns it all! How is it that you got up this morning? Who is it that is sustaining your life this very moment? It is the One who is, the first and the last of whom there is no comparison! This is why Gods response to the lackadaisical worship of the priests in verse 8 is appropriate: When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. The reason why the priests of Malachis day offered the blind, lame, and sick on the alter before a Holy God is because they did not fear Him even though they were fully aware of what was written many generations before them in holy Scripture: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord (Deut. 10:12-13). Because neither the priests nor the people approached their worship with reverent fear, God said the thing we have heard others say, but he said it in His own way. When people say, The church is full of hypocrites, they demonstrate their own hypocrisy by not recognizing that they are no better. However, when God says it, He does so as one who is perfectly holy and justified to say what He said in verse 10, Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. God is a Father I want you to think about something that I believe will help the weight of Malachi 1:6 settle upon your heart. It is in Yahwehs description as a Father that sets Him apart from any other god or gods that other people worship. Gods identity as a Father is infinity linked as an attribute that we like to run to for good reason. The attribute I refer to is love. There are two passages I want you to see, the first is from the New Testament and the second is from the Old Testament; both are stating the same thing about the love of God: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16). Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations God is love. God is also just, gracious, merciful, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, and holy. Here is what I want to show you: There is a reason why we believe from the Bible that Yahweh is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who eternally exists as three distinct Persons as one God. This is why the God of the Bible and the one we worship at Meadowbrooke is not nor ever could be the same god that is worshiped in Islam, by Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, or any other group that denies that Yahweh is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the concept and doctrine of it is everywhere in the Bible. Now I am going to give you an example that will serve to encourage you through Malachi 1:6-14. If God is not Triune as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before anything was ever created, how could he be a God of love without the ability to demonstrate His love? If God is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then in order for Him to be a God of love he would have needed to create all things include humans out of a need to love. For God to be God, He must be infinitely sufficient. For God to be Yahweh of Hosts and Adonai, he cannot be a God who has needs. Thankfully the God of the Bible is a God who does not have needs because as One God in three eternally and distinct Persons the God who is love was able to express His love within the fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here is what this means: Creation did not come into being because for God to be a God of love He needed creatures to love. God did not call Abraham out of Ur because He needed a people to love. Israel did not exist as a nation because He needed a nation to love, and Jesus was not born of a virgin because He needed a Son to love. The Father loved the Son for all eternity within the fellowship of a God who has always existed as three person Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Love was shared between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit before time ever existed! This is why Jesus prayed before He went to the cross for our sins: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:24-26) What the priests failed to realize was that their worship was intended to be an expression of their love for a Father who did not need them in order to be a God of love, but redeemed Israel because He always has been and always will be a God who is love! God does not need to be buttered up by His creatures because He is Adonai! So, when we come to verse 9, and read these words: And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? The favor of God is not something to be bartered because He does not need anything from you! Conclusion Malachi 1:6-14 is a stinging indictment brought upon the lackadaisical worship of an indifferent people and their priests. The question we are left with this morning is whether or not the same could be said about us? Granted, the sacrificial system is no longer needed to be forgiven of our sins or to enter into the Lords presence because of a greater sacrifice that was made on our behalf. After all, we are recipients and benefactors of all that the Law, the Prophets, the Hebrew feasts, and the sacrificial system pointed tonamely Jesus Christ! Can the same be said of us that was said to Malachis contemporaries those of us who claim to look, to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:2)? If you are a true Christian, you have experienced the reality of what we read in John 3:16 that states: For God so love the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Can it be said of you and I, that our worship is cold and halfhearted because we are indifferent to the One who loved us that He gave His Son to redeem us? We may not say with our lips in the way the priests said it in Malachi 1:13, but if we are honest, our posture and our actions has echoed the words of the priests: What a weariness this is. I want to read for you something Matthew Harmon wrote that I really do not believe I can improve upon, so I will let him say it for me: How can this be, though? How can God accept cold, halfhearted, easily distracted, and rebellious worshipers like me, whose first thought in times of trouble is to question the reality of Gods love and whose second thought is usually to defend our own inadequate worship as perfectly fine? He did this by sending a true worshiper in our place, a genuinely submissive Son who gave his all as an act of wholehearted worship and love for his glorious Father, a Suffering Servant who obediently offered up his life for us and for our salvation. Supremely, of course, Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice, laying down his life patiently, for the joy that was set before himthe joy of ultimately being surrounded by a multitude of brothers and sisters from all nations in the worship of the Father. On the cross, the Father turned his face away from the Son, as if the Son were one of the inadequate, halfhearted worshipers of Malachis dayas if the Son were us! For the first time in all eternity, the Father slammed the door of his presence in the face of his own beloved child, as if it were Jesus who had dishonored him and served him insincerely. Yet the Son still submissively committed his Spirit to his Father in death, trusting that the Father would bless and use that perfect gift to accomplish his perfect goals. This is what enables us now to approach God joyfully, Sunday by Sunday, and gives us hope as weak worshipers. When we come to church, we dont ascend the mountain to a building in Jerusalem but rather come to the true heavenly Mount Zion, into the powerful presence of the living God, who is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:2224, 29). Yet we may come into his glorious presence unafraid, for what the Father sees when he looks at us is not the failures in our worship that flow from our angry and rebellious hearts, but the Sons perfect worship in our place that flowed from his submissive reverence. Christs perfect worship makes our weak and failing worship acceptable in the Fathers sight so that he welcomes us joyfully into his glorious presence.[1] There is good news for us, because we have a Father who does not love out of need but because He is a God of love, a love demonstrated and proven through the Son. The reason why God states in verse 11 that His plan to redeem the nations will happen regardless of whether or not Malachis contemporaries worship Him appropriately is because: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. What is the appropriate response from those of us who have been redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son? As we look to the Cross of Christ, we can say: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God (1 John 3:1). Discussion Questions: As a group, take turns reading through Malachi 1:6-14. In Malachi 1:6, there are three names for God that are listed: Father, Adonai (master, Lord), and Yahweh (Gods most intimate and covenantal name). When it comes to our worship of God, how does knowing that He is Yahweh, Adonai, and your Heavenly Father affect the way you worship Him? LORD of hosts from Hebrew is literally Yahweh of Armies, which is a name that assures us of the absolute and infinite power of God. Malachi repeats this name 25 times in four short chapters; why do you think this name for God is heavily repeated? Have members of your LIFE Group read Leviticus 21:6-8; 22:22; Deuteronomy 15:19-21. How were the Priests and the rest of Israel to approach their worship of God? What kind of worship was Israel accused of in Malachi 1:6-14? According to verse 8, it seems that Israel had more respect for their governor (most likely a Persian appointee) than they did of the LORD of hosts. What are some ways that we may demonstrate more respect for things, events, or persons more than the LORD of hosts? Based on what you have learned so far from the sermon series in Malachi, how did God treat Israel as a Father of his children? What are some ways Israel failed to treat God as a father? Read Matthew 22:15-22; have someone in your group volunteer to lend any coin to pass to each person in your group. If the image on the coin reflects our government and the image we bear reflects our Creator, what does it mean to render to God what belongs to God? Have three members in your group read each of the following passages: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, and Romans 12:1-2. In your opinion, what should worship look like for the Christian? In what ways can casual worship resemble Israels defective worship? How does such worship despise the name of God? Ask members of your LIFE Group volunteer to read the following scripture passages: Malachi 1:11; Revelation 15:3-4; Isaiah 45:5-6, 22-23; Philippians 2:9-11. How do these passages from the Bible encourage you even in full awareness of your failures? In light of Matthew 28:19-20, how will God accomplish Malachi 1:11? How do the passages listed in question #10, and the Matthew 28:19-20 passage empower your worship? [1] Duguid, I. M., Harmon, M. P. (2018). Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, D. M. Doriani, Eds.; pp. 118119). PR Publishing.

The word worship literally means: To attribute worth to something. The etymology of the word is literally: worth-ship. The book of Malachi is a book about worship and is appropriately placed at the end of the Old Testament and just before the New Testament. The prophet Malachi was one of the last prophets called to speak for God and serves as a fitting conclusion between 450-430 years before the birth of Jesus. His name literally means, My messenger. Whether or not the prophets birth name was Malachi or a word identifying his role as the last voice to speak on behalf of God before the 400 years that would separate the Old Testament period and the New Testament period, marked with the birth of Jesus the Christ, the prophet was the last voice to be heard before God would speak through the birth of His Son. In our Bible you have 27 books in the New Testament grouped in the following way: The Gospels and Acts, the Epistles (Romans Jude), and the book of Revelation. In the Old Testament, there are 39 books organized by books of history (Genesis Esther) that cover creation to 400 B.C., books of poetry (Job Song of Solomon) that were written between 1400 300s B.C., and books of prophecy (Isaiah Malachi). The books of prophesy are categorized into two groups based on the size of those books known as the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets; both sets are equally the inspired Word of God. The prophetic books were written somewhere between 850 400 B.C. The Old Testament points to Jesus Christ while the New Testament reflects back upon Jesus Christ; however, all of the 66 books in your Bible are the Word of God. The great theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ as the promised redeemer who was born of a virgin, lived a life we could not live in perfect obedience to the Law of God, died a death we all deserved under the wrath of God the Father for our sin, and validated all that the Bible said of him and all that he claimed by rising from the grave. This is why the opening paragraph of Hebrews states: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:14) Isaiah, as the first book grouped in the prophetic books, appropriately begins: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its masters crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. (Isa. 1:2-4) Malachi, as the last of the prophetic books in the Old Testament, concludes with the great hope of a coming redeemer: For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall (Malachi 4:12). The Timing of Malachi After God lead Israel out of Egypt through Moses leadership, He gave them a code of ethics known as the Law. At Mount Sinai, God entered into a covenant relationship with Israel. He spoke to Israel through Moses, and said to them, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:46). While Moses served the Hebrew people as a shepherd, God promised that he would bless Israel as a nation if they obeyed his commandments. However, He also promised they would experience his discipline in the form of curses if they turned from worshiping him (see Deut. 30:15-18). One of the curses Israel would experience as a form of parental discipline would be through exile. God warned that the discipline His people would experience would be the forceful removal from the land promised to their forefathers: The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away (Deuteronomy 28:3637). After David died, his son Solomon became king of Israel. Solomon wrote most of the Proverbs, many scholars believe he also wrote Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. Solomon built the Temple which became the center of worship in Jerusalem. However, Solomons life did not end well. In 1 Kings 11, we learn that Solomon, who had been known for his godly wisdom and the building of the Temple, loved many foreign women. We learn that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines he was the Hugh Hefner of his day. The thing is, that Solomon knew his Bible well, he knew what Exodus 34:16 said, You shall not enter into marriage with foreign women, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. The Bible says that Solomon clung to foreign women in love. So, what happened? Listen to what the Bible says about Solomons ending legacy: So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD. Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. (1 Kings 11:6-8) The worship of the gods (idols) Solomon set up involved orgies and child sacrifice. The arms of the image of Molech would be heated up, a child would be killed, and then placed in the red-hot arms of a demonic idol. Solomon set the stage for Israel as a kingdom to be divided into the Northern and Southern kingdoms (930 B.C.). The nation set apart to be a Kingdom of Priests never recovered from the idolatry that Solomon ushered into the nation he pledged to lead and protect. By the time we come to Malachi, Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, God used the Assyrian Kingdom to conquer the Northern Kingdom and carry into exile many from the North into other nations (724 B.C.); then years later, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar besieged and overtook the Southern Kingdom and destroyed its capital, Jerusalem, leveled the treasured temple Solomon built and the Hebrews treasured, and then carried off many of the people in Babylon into exile. There were four empires that reigned and ruled over the Hebrew people for generations: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then Rome. During the Persian Empire, a small group of Hebrews were permitted to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (Ezra), the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah), and eventually the city. Malachi was a contemporary of Nehemiah who built the walls of Jerusalem, and when he arrived, the temple was already rebuilt through the leadership and oversight of Ezra, who also served as a scribe and priest to the Hebrew people (see Ezra 7:11-26). Because the temple was fully functioning by the time Malachi arrived at Jerusalem, you would think that the people who lived in the city would have been excited about the ways God miraculously brought them back into the land promised to their forefathers. Although the priests and the people participated in worship together with the construction of the temple, many were guilty of adultery, divorce, deception, sorcery, and injustice (see Mal. 3:5-7); they showed up to church with their best-looking church clothes, but the priests and people were spiritually apathetic and bankrupt. You would think that all the years in exile under Babylon and Persia with Gods repeated word spoken through prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel that Israel would have learned and repented from their sins, but they did not. The Need for Malachi About a decade before the first verses in Malachi were spoken to the Hebrew people, with the completion of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem under the leadership and reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people took an oath, here are the words they spoke: We will walk in Gods Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes (Neh. 10:29). Just three short chapters later in Nehemiah, the people violated their oath with God by doing just about everything they swore they would not do. The priests swore that they would represent God and serve the people, but they served themselves instead. The people said they would tithe only the best to honor God, but they brought the cheapest and worst of their flocks to offer in worship. The men promised to marry women who loved and worshiped Yahweh by marrying Hebrew women instead of the women of the other nations, but they not only intermarried they also cheapened the covenant of marriage through divorce. And, as you listen to Malachi, there is a series of five statements that serve to gauge just how far the hearts of Israel were from Yahweh; we will look at each of these throughout our sermon series together, but for now, I only want you to see them: I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacobs brother? declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. (1:23) A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, How have we despised your name? By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, How have we polluted you? By saying that the Lords table may be despised. (1:67) You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, How have we wearied him? By saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, Where is the God of justice? (2:17) From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. (3:78) Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, How have we spoken against you? You have said, It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? (3:1314) How Should We Receive Malachi? There are two things I want you to see before we conclude this first sermon from Malachi. It is so easy to miss if you are not paying attention. The recipients of the oracle of the word of the Lord are identified as Israel; do not miss the significance of this! Israel was the new name God gave to Jacob whose twelve sons fathered the twelve tribes that made up the nation of Israel. By the time Malachi was sent to speak on behalf of God, the Northern Kingdom that was home to 10 of the tribes had been conquered, scattered, and assimilated by Assyria. Nearly 200 years later, the southern kingdom was conquered and deported to Babylon where the majority of the people belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Those who were allowed back into Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiahs leadership were minimal, and most likely did not include a representation of the majority of the tribes, yet God calls the beat-up and used-up ragtag group of Hebrews by the name given to Jacob to symbolize the covenantal faithfulness of God in spite of the faithlessness of his people. The Assyrians raped the Hebrew women and forced the Hebrew exiles to intermarry with other people groups in an effort to dilute their national identity so badly that they would no longer know who they were. The Babylonian empire sought to assimilate the tribes of Judah and Benjamin into the Babylonian culture and religion by changing their names, diet, and who they worshiped. Yet, what mattered was not what the Babylonians or the Assyrians decreed, because God spoke, and those to whom He spoke, He addressed as Israel! What you need to know is that God called the Hebrews who were formerly exiles, Israel because they were the heirs of all the promises he made to his people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob promises God intended to keep. The next thing I want you to see is what God stated at the beginning before any form of rebuke that follows. What was needed to be said before anything else: I have loved you. In spite of Israels unfaithfulness, the first thing God wanted His people to know and to be reminded of was that he still loved them. There is mercy in Gods words: I have loved you. In light of Israels checkered past, what they deserved was not love, but wrath, not the blessing of Gods promises, but the curse of His rejection. The oracle they deserved was: Woe to you, for you have strayed from me! Destruction to you, for you have rebelled against me (Hosea 7:13)! Instead, what they heard was, Oh Israel, I have loved you. What was Israels response to Gods affirmation of love? Objection in the form of a question: How have you loved us? After telling my wife that I love her before I leave the house, it is reasonable to expect her to respond: I love you too. Even after a disagreement or an argument, we both have a history of responding to the other with the affirmation, I love you too. If at any moment, my wife responded to me with the words: How have you loved me? it would indicate that something was seriously wrong with our relationship. Yet, this is the response God received from his people; the people doubted and disputed Gods word to the point that their immediate response to his claim to love them was Show us the evidence! How have you loved us?[1] What evidence does God give? What is the answer He gives to Israels question? Here it is: Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. What does it mean for God to love Jacob and hate Esau? The kind of love and hate that is described in these verses is similar to the love and hate Jesus referred to In Luke 14:26, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. The love God had for Jacob over Esau was one of preference. Conclusion There are three ways that God loves people in the Bible: There is Gods love of beneficence, Gods love of benevolence, and Gods love of complacency. The beneficent love of God is expressed in His pouring out his benefits upon people such as the sun, rain, and the life you enjoy. Gods benevolent love is His goodwill exercised to creation and all people; the word benevolent literally means good will. The opposite of benevolent is malevolent (evil will). Both Jacob and Esau experienced both the beneficent and benevolent love of God. Both men benefited from Gods gift of life and both men enjoyed a level of benevolence that resulted in prosperity. What Esau did not receive that Jacob did receive was the complacent love of God. The original meaning of the word complacent literally meant: To take great pleasure in, or to be greatly pleased. To be complacent is to "pleased with oneself or self-satisfied. This is very different than our modern understanding of the word. To label a person complacent today, is to say that that person is indifferent or relaxed with a smug satisfaction in his present state. In the case of the complacent love of God, He takes great pleasure in the relationship he establishes with his redeemed people. Jacob experienced the complacent love of God in that God took great delight and pleasure in His relationship with Jacob (more on this next week). Gods answer to Israels objection was that the way that He loved Israel not only included a love that benefited them or a will for their lives that was the result of His infinite goodness, but also a love that was expressed through His great delight in Israel as His people regardless of their faithfulness towards Him. The problem with Israel, was that they as a people were indifferent, which is a danger the Church faces today. One of the reasons why God took great delight in Jacob over Esau was because there was a promise made long ago to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that a redeemer would be come through their linage. That redeemer is Jesus, and it is through Him that we received a better Word than the one Malachi brought to indifferent Israel. That better Word is Jesus: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:14) I will say more about this next week, but if you are a Christian, not only have you received a better Word, but you also are the recipient of Gods complacent love in a much more tangible way, so if you are ever tempted to ask God: How have you love me? Gods answer is and always will be: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). What is the appropriate response to being on the receiving end of Gods pleasure and delight as it is expressed through his love for you? The apostle John provides us with the answer: See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and in fact we are (1 John 3:1). Study Questions: According to Malachi 1:1, God speaks. It is through His speaking that He has revealed His will for our lives. Read Isaiah 66:1-2 and discuss why hearing Gods word is not enough. In light of what we learn from Malachi what kind of worship do you believe Israel participated in? Do you think it was mundane or vibrant? What are some ways that it is easy to go through the motions when it comes to worship. How have you or someone you know been tempted to conclude that God does not love you or that someone you know? Read Genesis 25:19-26 as a group. Who were Jacob and Esau and why is their story important to understanding the kind of love God had for Israel? As a parent, how would you respond to a child who doubted your love or asked, How have you loved me? Ask volunteers in your group to read the following scripture passages: Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Romans 9:6-13; John 15:12-17; Malachi 1:2-3. In light of these verses, what does it mean to be chosen by God? Why is Jacob and Esaus story important in affirming Gods love for us? According to Hebrews 12:3-11, how do you explain the relationship between the love and discipline of God as a Father? In what ways does Malachi 1:1-5 encourage you? How does the realization that God loves you affect your worship of Him? A great description of Gods love of complacency is found in Zephaniah 3:17 (have someone read this verse). How does Gods delighting and rejoicing over you encourage you? [1] Iain M. Duguid; Matthew P. Harmon. Reformed Expository Commentary: Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (Phillipsburg, PA: 2018), p. 100.

The word worship literally means: To attribute worth to something. The etymology of the word is literally: worth-ship. The book of Malachi is a book about worship and is appropriately placed at the end of the Old Testament and just before the New Testament. The prophet Malachi was one of the last prophets called to speak for God and serves as a fitting conclusion between 450-430 years before the birth of Jesus. His name literally means, My messenger. Whether or not the prophets birth name was Malachi or a word identifying his role as the last voice to speak on behalf of God before the 400 years that would separate the Old Testament period and the New Testament period, marked with the birth of Jesus the Christ, the prophet was the last voice to be heard before God would speak through the birth of His Son. In our Bible you have 27 books in the New Testament grouped in the following way: The Gospels and Acts, the Epistles (Romans Jude), and the book of Revelation. In the Old Testament, there are 39 books organized by books of history (Genesis Esther) that cover creation to 400 B.C., books of poetry (Job Song of Solomon) that were written between 1400 300s B.C., and books of prophecy (Isaiah Malachi). The books of prophesy are categorized into two groups based on the size of those books known as the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets; both sets are equally the inspired Word of God. The prophetic books were written somewhere between 850 400 B.C. The Old Testament points to Jesus Christ while the New Testament reflects back upon Jesus Christ; however, all of the 66 books in your Bible are the Word of God. The great theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ as the promised redeemer who was born of a virgin, lived a life we could not live in perfect obedience to the Law of God, died a death we all deserved under the wrath of God the Father for our sin, and validated all that the Bible said of him and all that he claimed by rising from the grave. This is why the opening paragraph of Hebrews states: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:14) Isaiah, as the first book grouped in the prophetic books, appropriately begins: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its masters crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. (Isa. 1:2-4) Malachi, as the last of the prophetic books in the Old Testament, concludes with the great hope of a coming redeemer: For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall (Malachi 4:12). The Timing of Malachi After God lead Israel out of Egypt through Moses leadership, He gave them a code of ethics known as the Law. At Mount Sinai, God entered into a covenant relationship with Israel. He spoke to Israel through Moses, and said to them, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:46). While Moses served the Hebrew people as a shepherd, God promised that he would bless Israel as a nation if they obeyed his commandments. However, He also promised they would experience his discipline in the form of curses if they turned from worshiping him (see Deut. 30:15-18). One of the curses Israel would experience as a form of parental discipline would be through exile. God warned that the discipline His people would experience would be the forceful removal from the land promised to their forefathers: The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away (Deuteronomy 28:3637). After David died, his son Solomon became king of Israel. Solomon wrote most of the Proverbs, many scholars believe he also wrote Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. Solomon built the Temple which became the center of worship in Jerusalem. However, Solomons life did not end well. In 1 Kings 11, we learn that Solomon, who had been known for his godly wisdom and the building of the Temple, loved many foreign women. We learn that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines he was the Hugh Hefner of his day. The thing is, that Solomon knew his Bible well, he knew what Exodus 34:16 said, You shall not enter into marriage with foreign women, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. The Bible says that Solomon clung to foreign women in love. So, what happened? Listen to what the Bible says about Solomons ending legacy: So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD. Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. (1 Kings 11:6-8) The worship of the gods (idols) Solomon set up involved orgies and child sacrifice. The arms of the image of Molech would be heated up, a child would be killed, and then placed in the red-hot arms of a demonic idol. Solomon set the stage for Israel as a kingdom to be divided into the Northern and Southern kingdoms (930 B.C.). The nation set apart to be a Kingdom of Priests never recovered from the idolatry that Solomon ushered into the nation he pledged to lead and protect. By the time we come to Malachi, Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, God used the Assyrian Kingdom to conquer the Northern Kingdom and carry into exile many from the North into other nations (724 B.C.); then years later, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar besieged and overtook the Southern Kingdom and destroyed its capital, Jerusalem, leveled the treasured temple Solomon built and the Hebrews treasured, and then carried off many of the people in Babylon into exile. There were four empires that reigned and ruled over the Hebrew people for generations: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then Rome. During the Persian Empire, a small group of Hebrews were permitted to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (Ezra), the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah), and eventually the city. Malachi was a contemporary of Nehemiah who built the walls of Jerusalem, and when he arrived, the temple was already rebuilt through the leadership and oversight of Ezra, who also served as a scribe and priest to the Hebrew people (see Ezra 7:11-26). Because the temple was fully functioning by the time Malachi arrived at Jerusalem, you would think that the people who lived in the city would have been excited about the ways God miraculously brought them back into the land promised to their forefathers. Although the priests and the people participated in worship together with the construction of the temple, many were guilty of adultery, divorce, deception, sorcery, and injustice (see Mal. 3:5-7); they showed up to church with their best-looking church clothes, but the priests and people were spiritually apathetic and bankrupt. You would think that all the years in exile under Babylon and Persia with Gods repeated word spoken through prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel that Israel would have learned and repented from their sins, but they did not. The Need for Malachi About a decade before the first verses in Malachi were spoken to the Hebrew people, with the completion of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem under the leadership and reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people took an oath, here are the words they spoke: We will walk in Gods Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes (Neh. 10:29). Just three short chapters later in Nehemiah, the people violated their oath with God by doing just about everything they swore they would not do. The priests swore that they would represent God and serve the people, but they served themselves instead. The people said they would tithe only the best to honor God, but they brought the cheapest and worst of their flocks to offer in worship. The men promised to marry women who loved and worshiped Yahweh by marrying Hebrew women instead of the women of the other nations, but they not only intermarried they also cheapened the covenant of marriage through divorce. And, as you listen to Malachi, there is a series of five statements that serve to gauge just how far the hearts of Israel were from Yahweh; we will look at each of these throughout our sermon series together, but for now, I only want you to see them: I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacobs brother? declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. (1:23) A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, How have we despised your name? By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, How have we polluted you? By saying that the Lords table may be despised. (1:67) You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, How have we wearied him? By saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, Where is the God of justice? (2:17) From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. (3:78) Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, How have we spoken against you? You have said, It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? (3:1314) How Should We Receive Malachi? There are two things I want you to see before we conclude this first sermon from Malachi. It is so easy to miss if you are not paying attention. The recipients of the oracle of the word of the Lord are identified as Israel; do not miss the significance of this! Israel was the new name God gave to Jacob whose twelve sons fathered the twelve tribes that made up the nation of Israel. By the time Malachi was sent to speak on behalf of God, the Northern Kingdom that was home to 10 of the tribes had been conquered, scattered, and assimilated by Assyria. Nearly 200 years later, the southern kingdom was conquered and deported to Babylon where the majority of the people belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Those who were allowed back into Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiahs leadership were minimal, and most likely did not include a representation of the majority of the tribes, yet God calls the beat-up and used-up ragtag group of Hebrews by the name given to Jacob to symbolize the covenantal faithfulness of God in spite of the faithlessness of his people. The Assyrians raped the Hebrew women and forced the Hebrew exiles to intermarry with other people groups in an effort to dilute their national identity so badly that they would no longer know who they were. The Babylonian empire sought to assimilate the tribes of Judah and Benjamin into the Babylonian culture and religion by changing their names, diet, and who they worshiped. Yet, what mattered was not what the Babylonians or the Assyrians decreed, because God spoke, and those to whom He spoke, He addressed as Israel! What you need to know is that God called the Hebrews who were formerly exiles, Israel because they were the heirs of all the promises he made to his people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob promises God intended to keep. The next thing I want you to see is what God stated at the beginning before any form of rebuke that follows. What was needed to be said before anything else: I have loved you. In spite of Israels unfaithfulness, the first thing God wanted His people to know and to be reminded of was that he still loved them. There is mercy in Gods words: I have loved you. In light of Israels checkered past, what they deserved was not love, but wrath, not the blessing of Gods promises, but the curse of His rejection. The oracle they deserved was: Woe to you, for you have strayed from me! Destruction to you, for you have rebelled against me (Hosea 7:13)! Instead, what they heard was, Oh Israel, I have loved you. What was Israels response to Gods affirmation of love? Objection in the form of a question: How have you loved us? After telling my wife that I love her before I leave the house, it is reasonable to expect her to respond: I love you too. Even after a disagreement or an argument, we both have a history of responding to the other with the affirmation, I love you too. If at any moment, my wife responded to me with the words: How have you loved me? it would indicate that something was seriously wrong with our relationship. Yet, this is the response God received from his people; the people doubted and disputed Gods word to the point that their immediate response to his claim to love them was Show us the evidence! How have you loved us?[1] What evidence does God give? What is the answer He gives to Israels question? Here it is: Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. What does it mean for God to love Jacob and hate Esau? The kind of love and hate that is described in these verses is similar to the love and hate Jesus referred to In Luke 14:26, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. The love God had for Jacob over Esau was one of preference. Conclusion There are three ways that God loves people in the Bible: There is Gods love of beneficence, Gods love of benevolence, and Gods love of complacency. The beneficent love of God is expressed in His pouring out his benefits upon people such as the sun, rain, and the life you enjoy. Gods benevolent love is His goodwill exercised to creation and all people; the word benevolent literally means good will. The opposite of benevolent is malevolent (evil will). Both Jacob and Esau experienced both the beneficent and benevolent love of God. Both men benefited from Gods gift of life and both men enjoyed a level of benevolence that resulted in prosperity. What Esau did not receive that Jacob did receive was the complacent love of God. The original meaning of the word complacent literally meant: To take great pleasure in, or to be greatly pleased. To be complacent is to "pleased with oneself or self-satisfied. This is very different than our modern understanding of the word. To label a person complacent today, is to say that that person is indifferent or relaxed with a smug satisfaction in his present state. In the case of the complacent love of God, He takes great pleasure in the relationship he establishes with his redeemed people. Jacob experienced the complacent love of God in that God took great delight and pleasure in His relationship with Jacob (more on this next week). Gods answer to Israels objection was that the way that He loved Israel not only included a love that benefited them or a will for their lives that was the result of His infinite goodness, but also a love that was expressed through His great delight in Israel as His people regardless of their faithfulness towards Him. The problem with Israel, was that they as a people were indifferent, which is a danger the Church faces today. One of the reasons why God took great delight in Jacob over Esau was because there was a promise made long ago to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that a redeemer would be come through their linage. That redeemer is Jesus, and it is through Him that we received a better Word than the one Malachi brought to indifferent Israel. That better Word is Jesus: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:14) I will say more about this next week, but if you are a Christian, not only have you received a better Word, but you also are the recipient of Gods complacent love in a much more tangible way, so if you are ever tempted to ask God: How have you love me? Gods answer is and always will be: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). What is the appropriate response to being on the receiving end of Gods pleasure and delight as it is expressed through his love for you? The apostle John provides us with the answer: See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and in fact we are (1 John 3:1). Study Questions: According to Malachi 1:1, God speaks. It is through His speaking that He has revealed His will for our lives. Read Isaiah 66:1-2 and discuss why hearing Gods word is not enough. In light of what we learn from Malachi what kind of worship do you believe Israel participated in? Do you think it was mundane or vibrant? What are some ways that it is easy to go through the motions when it comes to worship. How have you or someone you know been tempted to conclude that God does not love you or that someone you know? Read Genesis 25:19-26 as a group. Who were Jacob and Esau and why is their story important to understanding the kind of love God had for Israel? As a parent, how would you respond to a child who doubted your love or asked, How have you loved me? Ask volunteers in your group to read the following scripture passages: Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Romans 9:6-13; John 15:12-17; Malachi 1:2-3. In light of these verses, what does it mean to be chosen by God? Why is Jacob and Esaus story important in affirming Gods love for us? According to Hebrews 12:3-11, how do you explain the relationship between the love and discipline of God as a Father? In what ways does Malachi 1:1-5 encourage you? How does the realization that God loves you affect your worship of Him? A great description of Gods love of complacency is found in Zephaniah 3:17 (have someone read this verse). How does Gods delighting and rejoicing over you encourage you? [1] Iain M. Duguid; Matthew P. Harmon. Reformed Expository Commentary: Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi (Phillipsburg, PA: 2018), p. 100.

Pastor Nathan Hobert continues our series in the life of Jacob. Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid, "The Swindler Gets Swindled" Sermon, Bryan Gregory.

Greatness in His kingdom is a gift God gives to the humble, not a prize to be grasped by the proud. Duguid, Amos 6&7, Romans 4:16-5:11, Pslams 86:11-17 The Marshalls. 

- "San Diego-Area Man CONVICTED of Social Security Fraud After IMPERSONATING HIS DEAD MOTHER ONLINE for OVER 30 YEARS" - IAIN DUGUID: Ezra and Nehemiah: Rebuilding What's Ruined, Study Guide with Leader's Notes (The Gospel-Centered Life in the Bible) - "These New California Laws Went into Effect 1 July. How Will They Impact YOU and YOUR FAMILY?" - REV. SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ: Your Mess, God's Miracle

In this inspiring episode, we dive into the transformative journey of Stacey, an individual who triumphed in both relationships and parenting through the power of reinvention. Join us as we explore Stacey's personal growth, her experiences in navigating relationships, and the joys and challenges of being a parent.Stacey Duguid's Instagramwww.saradavison.com

Pastor Nathan Hobert begins a new series in the life of Jacob looking at how God's grace changes us. Resources: Genesis Commentary, Waltke, Living in Relentless Grace, Duguid, Limping with God, Bird. "Grasping the Birthright" Gregory, Sermon.

The two books Vince recommended on prayer:Water of the Word by Andrew Case (and his other books)Prone to Wander by Duguid and Houk

My guest this week is fashion editor and author Stacey Duguid, who speaks with heart-breaking candour about the loneliness we can feel while in a relationship. Her dream marriage imploded, leaving her - as she puts it – ‘floored by total chaos'. But she brings hope. Stacey has had to rebuild her life since finding the courage to walk away from her ex, and offers nuggets of eloquent wisdom to others going through the same thing. She encourages and inspires – while also providing plenty of laughs along the way with her dry wit. The perfect tonic to end to the first season.

This week we talk about where to begin with doing Ambitious Science Teaching and how there are no silver bullets to making a change in practice. We talk about how difficult and slow changes in practice are, but that we need to think deeply about the models that are the foundation of learning to be able to know how to change. Episode 44: All the Hammers (https://scienceinbetween.fireside.fm/41) - Discussion of Brown, Collins, andn Duguid (1989) (https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/24125/1/1006006.pdf#page=313) Zork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork) Things that bring us joy this week: Dark Matter (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833670-dark-matter) by Blake Crouch Lifeline+ (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lifeline/id982354972) for iPhone (Sorry Scott called it Afterlife in the episode) Intro/Outro Music: Notice of Eviction by Legally Blind (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Legally_Blind)

- "Memphis Police Officer PRAISED for Helping to Talk a Teenage Dad OUT of Attempting Suicide" - DR IAIN DUGUID: "A New 21-Day Devotional Focuses on How POPULAR COUNTRY MUSIC SONGS Actually Help Us BETTER UNDERSTAND OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH" - "Christian Couple Opens a New Café to Help People Struggling with Food Addiction" - ARLENE PELLICANE: "Good News for Married Couples - and How to Appreciate 'THE VALUE OF DATE NIGHTS'"

Wowow! Around an arts and crampy table in an anonymous but lively third space in the Southern Loop of Chicago, some of our top minds and movers convene to chat about past, present and futures of Chicago DIY/DIT artist-organizing. Jesse, Duncan and eventually Ryan — slouches in their own rights — lead by following a disparate flow. A champagne bottle to share with 300 people! Leave a masterpiece, take a masterpiece! Should everything become a library? These notions and more are offered up in a freewheeling conversation that's not to be missed.   

- "A New Study Suggests that RELIGION is Having a POSITIVE IMPACT on Teens Struggling with Mental Health" - IAIN DUGUID: "Rebuilding What's Been Ruined, Strengthening What Remains: A Study in Nehemiah and Ezra" - "Thanks to YOUR Generosity, Bottom Line Listeners have Donated a NEW ULTRASOUND MACHINE to a PRBEBORN Pregnancy Health Center!" - "The Most Popular Restaurant Among Teenagers is . . . CHIK-FIL-A. So Why is THAT Fact So Important to Christian PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS?" - PASTOR OF THE WEEK WINNER IS . . . .

Naomi Duguid is a James Beard winning food writer and author. Her new book, “The Miracle of Salt: Recipes and Techniques to Preserve, Ferment, and Transform your Food,” is available today, published by Artisan. In addition to her research and writing, Duguid leads small-group food-immersive trips to the Republic of Georgia and elsewhere. She is a Trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and is a frequent guest speaker and presenter at food conferences. This interview was recorded on September 8, 2022 at a Culinary Arts @ SPAC event.

Scotsman Stuart Duguid joined me late last week to discuss the business of tennis, in particular the business of his clients Naomi Osaka and Nick Kygrios. We talked in length about the split from IMG and the creation of the EVOLVE AGENCY, and what's in store for the future. This is an interesting look at the world of tennis from an agent's lens. Recorded June 10th, before Naomi pulled out of Wimbledon, released on June 21. The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast is powered by Sergio Tacchini See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join Nancy Guthrie as she talks with pastor, professor, and author Iain Duguid about how we can understand Revelation in new ways when we read it as a letter, as a promise, and as apocalyptic prophecy. Nancy Guthrie is the author of Blessed: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Revelation.

Although the decision narrowed the technology covered by the TCPA's automatic telephone dialing system definition, the TCPA continues to be very dangerous. We first discuss the plaintiff bar's case strategy in response to the decision and the decision's implications for defendants' case strategy. We then look at the increasing volume of cases alleging violations of the TCPA provisions on calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice and do-not-call, identify the most significant remaining TCPA risks companies face, and offer thoughts on steps companies can take to reduce TCPA risk. Dan McKenna, Co-Chair of Ballard Spahr's Consumer Financial Services Group, moderates the conversation, joined by Matt Morr, a partner in the Group.

“I gave myself permission to be a wreck” - Stacey Duguid Samantha Baines talks to journalist and Telegraph Columnist Stacey Duguid about being in the midst of her divorce. Stacey speaks honestly and openly about how she is finding the process, the help she's getting to manage her way through the legal jargon, and how to avoid some of the mounting costs. Stacey discusses her recent diagnosis of ADHD, which has changed the way she views her past marriage and future dating plans. We also hear about the support Stacey received on social media when she opened up about her break-up and mental health.This episode was recorded during a landmark week for divorce law, as the UK welcomed 'No-Fault Divorce' - meaning that no one has to take the blame on divorce proceedings. The two discuss whether this is a universally positive change and the impact it may have on proceedings. Samantha and Stacey also touch on what this means from their own experiences. Follow us on twitter and instagram: @divorcepod & @samanthabainesEmail: thedivorcesocial@gmail.comSupport Samantha on Patreon - patreon.com/samanthabaines See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.