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Have you heard this story?

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It's the story of a man who was poor and yet possess the kingdom of

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God.

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It's a story of people who were hungry and yet we're satisfied.

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A story of weeping turned to laughter.

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A story of a man hated and excluded and reviled on account of Jesus

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Christ.

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And yet it is a cause for rejoicing in God's promises revealed and

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fulfilled.

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I have never met Roberts Feldmanis but I heard about him from those who had

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and those who knew him Roberts story or rather the story of what God

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did through him

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and for him has been an inspiration to many people.

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In 1950 Roberts Feldmanis has was sent to the gulag in Siberia.

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Now

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it was no big deal to 

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go to Gulag in 1950.

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It seemed that everyone was doing it.

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This was the way things went in Stalin's

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Soviet Union.

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What was unusual about Roberts Feldmanis

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as far as it goes was that he went to the gulag and actually came back

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again.

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He was Latvian and a Lutheran pastor and most Latvian Lutheran pastors

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never made it out of the gulag alive.

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Feldmanis had been sent to Siberia for a special study program

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the Soviets called it. To be re-educated out of Christianity into

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communism

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and for the hatred of God.

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But God was merciful to Feldmanis - and the re-education didn't take and

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Stalin died.

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And after four years Feldmanis as was released.

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But when he came back to Soviet Latvia, things were not going well.

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The church there was being destroyed. The government confiscated

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Church buildings, and turned them into factories and warehouses and

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machine shops.

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And only those churches that were falling into ruins were left

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undisturbed.

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Officially as an institution, the church no longer existed, but there

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were still Christians in Latvia at least a few and Pastor Feldmanis

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continued to serve them.

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And for the next 25 years, he served three tiny congregations, and in

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Riga, and in the countryside, The church buildings had been looted and

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were completely empty with only the four walls remaining.

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They had no money to buy anything.

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And yet Feldmanis has always maintained that these congregations were in

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his words, richly blessed.

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But over time, Pastor Feldmanis stories seemed increasingly to be a

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tale of sorrows. During the 1960s and 70s

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there was hardly anyone in his churches.

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They were empty.

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No one came except for a few old people.

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He was preaching to a dying congregation.

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He called people to come to Jesus to hear of his salvation and the

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promises of God's Kingdom.

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And yet people on the outside mocked him and asked him.

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Why are you wasting your time?

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Well, he replied that we are here to preach the gospel and we will

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stand our ground.

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And years went by and then finally, something changed.

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During the early 1980s 10 years before the collapse of the Soviet

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Union people started coming back to church.

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And gradually Feldmanis churches filled with people again, especially

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the young people.

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Feldmanis reported that among the first to come to the churches,

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where the sick the social outcasts and the down and out.

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And yet the congregation's grew, they flourished.

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The impact was dramatic.

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Hundreds of people were baptized and became Christians and over a

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15-year period.

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The congregation's served by Pastor Roberts Feldmanis produced more

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than 50 pastors for the churches in Latvia.

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The Lord richly blessed, his people. Feldmanis actively served the

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church in Latvia for more than 65 years

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before his death in 2002, at the age of 92.

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He was a Lutheran before the Soviet Union was founded, and he was a

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Lutheran after it collapsed.

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He didn't do anything

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sophisticated or complicated.

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He preached, the simple

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clear Gospel of Jesus

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and the promises of the kingdom of God.

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Well, we hear Jesus promises of the kingdom of God in our Gospel

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reading for this morning.

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Crowds of people from far and wide came to see Jesus and touch him.

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There were people sick with diseases, those tormented by unclean

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spirits.

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There were people, poor and hungry, weeping and mourning.

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They were the despised, the outcasts, the vilified

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and Jesus received them, and healed them all.

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And then turning to his disciples Jesus spoke to them with blessings

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and promises. Here

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again, Jesus words to his disciples. Blessed

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are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed

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are you who are hungry now for you shall be satisfied.

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Blessed

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are you who weep now for you

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shall laugh.

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Blessed

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are you when people hate you and when they

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exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the

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son of man, rejoice in that day, and leap for joy.

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For behold, your reward is great in heaven.

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For so, their fathers did to the prophets.

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What kind of blessing and promising is this? Who is blessed

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because of being poor? Who is blessed for their hunger, and their

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weeping? Who is blessed, because they're despised and insulted and cast

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out?

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Who are these?

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Whom do you think of?

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Someone, you know.

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Do you think of those who have gone before us in the faith?

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You see someone like Roberts Feldmanis and his Latvian Lutheran's.

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Do you see yourself now?

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But isn't this where we have a problem? Doesn't it seem too often that

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the blessedness and the promises are suppressed by the sheer weight of

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the sorrows? Things aren't going very well.

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Look, around in the world. Look around, maybe in your own life, the

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disappointment and frustration and futility.

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Sometimes it seems that they never end.

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It's not supposed to be like this.

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Aren't we tempted to doubt God

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when everything around us seems to be a contradiction of God, a

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refutation of him.

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A victory by the enemy.

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A victory and triumph of lies.

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Are we tempted to think that God is not keeping his promises to us.

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Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, the weeping, the

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rejects, and outcasts.

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Who wants to be in a kingdom

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that congratulates what the world despises?

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A kingdom that rejects what the world celebrates.

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When we recognize, when we admit to ourselves the true nature of our

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problem, a seriousness of our situation, we see things differently.

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Like the crowds in Luke chapter 6 who are sick and need healing from

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their diseases.

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Who are troubled because the devil has a hold of them.

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The only thing that we can do

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is come to Jesus. And coming to see Jesus and hearing him coming to

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Jesus, to be touched and healed, by him, involves following him

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on his way.

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And on the way with Jesus, we recognize that we are poor.

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That we have nothing of our own to rely on.

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Our only hope is trusting in Jesus.

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This way, enters the kingdom of God

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now.

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The people of God, know hunger

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now. We feel the pangs of deprivation now, and even in this, we

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believe that Jesus promised that we shall be satisfied. As the people

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of God, of the kingdom of God

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we weep now because we know of the evil in the world.

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We see how the world rejects

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God, hates

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God. Rebels against him and we understand how everyone in the

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world suffers because of this evil.

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And yet, we believe Jesus promised that our weeping will one day turn

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to laughter.

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The only one that can fulfill these promises.

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The only one that can reverse and turn around and undo every sorrow,

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every suffering, every evil thing.

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The only one that can do this.

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Is the one that has the power to heal the sick and to drive out the

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unclean spirits.

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The only one who can do this, is the one who has power over sin and

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death, the one who rises from death to life again.

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And life Everlasting.

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Jesus was poor for us.

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He was hungry in the wilderness.

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He entered the way to Jerusalem weeping.

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He was hated, and excluded, and reviled, exiled to the Cross as evil.

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On account of us for us.

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He went the way of the Cross, bearing our sins.

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He went to his death to offer himself for us. Our sins,

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our sufferings became his own.

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And in our place

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He went into death and for us He rose to life again

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so that we may have his blessedness.

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His new life.

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His Joy. His laughter. All his kingdom promises fulfilled.

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Great is our reward in heaven because of Jesus.

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Our reward is great in Jesus

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now.

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The prophets and the people of God in the past

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haven't they always been treated like this?

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As people of the kingdom of God, we go the way with Jesus.

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We do suffer on account of him.

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We are hated and persecuted

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and in this way, we are blessed.

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Jesus promised for us and we rejoice, and leap for Joy.

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This is the way with Jesus in his kingdom.

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This is the way with Jesus and his people in the Kingdom who are

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richly blessed

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according to his saving promises.

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Blessed, are you

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in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.