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Grace be unto you and peace

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from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Darkness

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covers the earth

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thick darkness is over the people.

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You figure these

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hard words from Isaiah fit our age our era our day as well.

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Given the events that happened on Wednesday, how can you deny?

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And the darkness

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of that event is likely to last for a good long period

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past the next inauguration thankfully and it's not our sermon for this

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day.

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But it does illustrate

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the reality of darkness.

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Darkness

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foreboding

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unsettling

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immobilizing

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I recall two events in my own life where I met up with darkness at

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this level. Thick heavy 

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darkness.

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One came

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at the Meramec

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Caverns just down the road from here.

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Big caverns, big and they have tours there and I was on one of those

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tours. And at one point in that tour the leader kind of drew us a

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little bit closer to himself and he said now don't want you to freak

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out.

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But I'm going to turn the light off.

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To let you have a sense of what life is like down here.

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And he flipped the switch

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and darkness came down like a ton of bad

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stuff. Heavy thick so much that you could almost feel it you could not find

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a place where you could get out of it.

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Thankfully he turned the light back on again before too long.

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Although it sure seemed like it took a long time and I tell you there

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were some pretty heavy gasps from both male and female voices in that

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tour.

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Darkness

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the other experience game when my family and I were returning from

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Taiwan on furlough first furlough and we took a ship back. Not to say

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there were no airplanes

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then. We took a ship back.

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It was back in 1970.

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And the first few days where you're kind of the ship was kind of moving

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here and there in Asia picking up people and dropping off some freight

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and so on. And then eventually we started the move from Asia to San

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Diego a two-week tour out on the big water.

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And I remember the first night on the big water when there were no

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lights from the land.

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And we were out there and we got ready for bed turned off the light

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and that same oppressive darkness that I felt in Meramec Caverns.

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And we sort of panicked. Happily

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there was a switch right there that we turned off and that's when the

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problem came so he couldn't find it again and turn it back on. And find

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our flashlights so that well if the kids wake up and have no clue

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where they are.

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And in fact that we may need to help ourselves simply getting to the

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bathroom.

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Darkness

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covers the earth

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and thick darkness

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is over the people.

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What verbs

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do you think fit darkness?

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I suppose you're quite a few actually among those that occurred to me

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darkness hides, of course.

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Darkness hides.

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Hides but lurks.

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Hides but stalks.

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Hides, what's slithers around?

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Darkness.

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Darkness

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smothers.

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It smothers the ease of walking anywhere.

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It smother's the ease of the heart.

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It smother's the ease of life.

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Darkness

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seeps.

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Seeps into places even when it's daylight.

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It finds.

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It finds the pockets the hidden places.

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And it is there.

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I think that may be kind of what Isaiah is referring to for the in

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terms of the diaspora

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of his day. Namely those people who are removed from everything that is

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sacred to them.

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They're home, their family,

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the house of God.

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That kind of darkness

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seems to me

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is there in the hospitals.

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Where people are laboring heavily simply to catch their breath,

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until eventually they can't.

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Darkness is the kind of thing that wakes people up at 4:30 in the

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morning to get in their car and go get in line

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for food

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to feed their families.

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And then the next weekend, they do it again and again and again and

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again and again, darkness

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Besides that there are lines to go get tests their lines now for the

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vaccine.

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Darkness.

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Can you sense the darkness in yourselves?

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It lurks there.

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I think that word hides will pull adverb back again, darkness.

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The thing is with darkness hides is not only the scary things what

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darkness hides is itself in those secret places that we have in our

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lives that we're not proud of. That

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we I certainly don't share with people.

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Pride,

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lust,

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greed,

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envy,

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rage,

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depression.

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The kind of things

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that we sort of inherited from our ancestors.

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Who tried hiding from God

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and found only darkness.

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Darkness.

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It's striking therefore

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that it's into the darkness that the angel came,

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for Joseph.

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There was an angel came to Mary but scripture doesn't put her in the

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darkness there but poor Joseph came to him in the darkness and at the

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darkest point of his life.

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Arise, shine your light has come the babe,

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that babe is not a mistake.

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And it's not a lapse.

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This

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Savior.

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Joseph, Mary marry

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and have a family and spend 30 years living with your savior.

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It's into the darkness.

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That another angel or maybe the same one came along with a horde of

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angels frightening the life out of those poor Shepherds arise, shine

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there's light there.

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Go

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seek

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find

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worship

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Christ the Lord

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your Lord.

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The light

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came as a star to pierce the darkness of the Wiseman, the darkness

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that they were somewhat comfortable with physical darkness for sure

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because that was their expertise, but this was special into the darkness

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came the star.

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Arise, shine

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follow

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and find and worship the king.

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Into the darkness of death that our Lord reached out

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and took the lifeless hand of a young girl.

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And said rise.

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Qal kooming

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That's

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Hebrew for arise the very word that Isaiah uses and it comes right

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into the word of the voice of our Lord himself koomie and

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live and

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 go get a bite to eat by the way.

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It is into the darkness of Saul's blindness

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that the light came

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arise,

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shine. Your light has come which is also the light for all peoples

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which are under the darkness.

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It was about the sixth hour.

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And darkness covered the whole land.

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And the Savior the light of the world stepped into the darkness.

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Into death.

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Into the grave

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to redeem to rescue to renew

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all of those whom darkness head entangled and had suffocated.

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The Lord Isaiah says has risen upon you.

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The Lord has risen for you.

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And calls you

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to arise. Calls you to his light and in fact names you light his light

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in you, you are the light of the world.

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There's actually in Isaiah's words

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there's a bit of verve to all of this to if you look closely Isaiah

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says arise, shine.

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He says be radiant.

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Let your heart rrrr within

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and swell with joy like happened to Mary like happened to Joseph like

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happened to the Shepherds and the wise men and Talitha.

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And Paul and the great company of those before us who in fact the

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light of the Lord on us.

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Arise,

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shine,

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radiate,

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permeate,

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illuminate.

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A couple of last words.

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Let's make perfectly clear

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however that the context for the shining is the darkness.

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In us

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and around us.

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The second though

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is the context of being part of that great company of people from

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every tribe, every people, every nation, every language all of those

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huddled around the throne praising the Lord all of those who no longer

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live in darkness.

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Brothers and sisters arise, shine,

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radiate the light has come.

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You're light

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that lives in you.

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The peace of God that passes all understanding keep you and your

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hearts and Minds in Christ Jesus

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forever. Amen.