Getting to Know your Bible

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Getting to Know Your Bible, a program dedicated
to the proclaiming of the good News of Jesus Christ.
Here's Billy Lambert.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, I'm Billy Lambert. I am the regular speaker on
Getting to Know Your Bible, and I want to welcome
you today. This may be the very first time that
you have seen this telecast. I want you to know
that the thing that we emphasize on getting to Know
your Bible is a word of God. The Bible is

(00:46):
the greatest book that has ever been written. Many years ago,
there were those that wrote books that thought they would
replace the Bible. That's what Thomas Paine thought when he
wrote The Age of Reason. But the Bible continues to
live after century. Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my Word shall not pass away. So on getting

(01:07):
to Know your Bible, we're teaching from the timeless Word
of God. The Bible is God's book, the greatest book
that has ever been written. And today we're going to
be opening up the pages of the Word of God
and delivering a message to you from God's book. Today
we're going to be seeing a one of our classics

(01:29):
that is a production of one of our telecasts from
time in the past, and we want you to stay tuned.
We're going to be offering a free Bible Correspondence course
today and we will see information on the screen as
to how you can receive that course. And so we
want to pause at.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
This time to help you in your study of the Bible.
We want to send you this Bible Correspondence course. This
course is non denominational, it's based on the Bible, it's
conducted by mail, and it's free to receive this course.
Right to Getting to Know your Bible. Po Box three
one four, Summerdale, Alabama three six five eight zero or

(02:09):
call toll free one eight seven seven seven one one
five two one four.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm going to be reading out of the Book of
Psalms at this time, from the thirty seventh chapter. And
listen carefully as I read, beginning in verse number one.
Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of
the workers of iniquity. Well, they shall soon be cut
down like the grass and wither as the green herb.

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Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the
land and feed on her faithfulness. Delight yourself also in
the Lord. He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him,
and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring
forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as

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the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Why is it that the righteous often suffer and then

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you turn around and a person who is wicked seems
to prosper. Why does that happen? And that's a concern
to a lot of people. I'm trying to do right,
and yet I seem to have a harder time than
a person who's doing wrong, and yet they seem to

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be getting along better than I do. Well, this is
addressed in this sum and that is how we come
out on top in a world that seems to be
turned upside down. Some people are alarmed by the fact
that they are trying to live a righteous life, a
good life, and yet they're struggling. And then there are

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others who aren't trying to live a good life, and
they seem to be getting by, getting by financially so
much better than them, and they prospering. Well, listen to
verse one again, do not fret because of evildoers, nor
be envious of the workers of iniquity. Well, they shall
soon be cut down like the grass, and wither's the

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green herb. And listen to verse number thirteen. The Lord
laughs at him, for he sees his day is coming.
Now there's your answer. You see, payday comes someday for
all people. But now, how we're going to come out
on top in a world that seems to be topsy turvy,
a world that seems to be turned upside down, a

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world where vague have changed so much. I want to
suggest that there's some things in this chapter and in
this reading that will help us and be a guideline
to us in how to live in our world today.
First of all, you need to trust in the Lord.
You read that in verse three as well as in
verse five. Trust in the Lord and do good. Trust

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also in him. He shall bring it to pass. So
number one, you learn to trust in the Lord. Now, unfortunately,
there are some other things that men trust other than
the Lord. Some have put all of their trust in riches,
and that's what their trusting is. There's a warning in

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verse Timothy chapter six, in verse number seventeen, about those
that trust in uncertain riches. And we ought not to
put our trust in those things that are uncertain. We
ought to put them in things that are Certain. People
are putting their trust in military strength. Some trust in
charots and some in horses. The Psalmist rode in Psalms

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twenty and verse seven. But we will trust the Lord,
our God. That's where I'm going to put my trust,
not in military power, but in God. Some trust themselves
trust in the Lord with all your heart. Proverbs chapter three,
verse five. Don't put your trust in yourself. And so

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blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord, whose
hope the Lord is Jeremiah chapter seventeen and verse number seven.
And so we need to put our trust in the
Lord and not in other things. Where is your trust today?
Why should we trust God? Because God makes no shallow promises.

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He fulfills all the promises it is ever made. Have
you ever had someone to promise you something and you
knew that when they were making that promise, in all
problems ability, that weren't going to do it, And sure
enough later on you find out they did not intend
to do it. I couldn't tell you how many times
I visit in people's homes and encourage them to come
back to worship, and as I would be leaving a

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brother Labord, I'll be there Sunday. I'll see you Sunday.
And then Sunday comes around and I begin to look
for them, and they're not there. It was just a
shallow promise. And I concluded, after doing that a number
of times with that same family that they never intended
to come when they told me that they were, just
there was a nice way of seeing me out the door.

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But you see, God's not that a way at all.
We can trust God because God keeps the promises that
he makes. He is a promise keeping God. It Lamentations three,
verse twenty three says this about God. Great is your faithfulness.
Great is your faithfulness, And indeed God is a great God.

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You he think about God's power, and they think about
the power that it took God to create this old
world by faith. Well, understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that the things that
are seen were not made of things that do appear
Hebrews eleven, in verse three, God made this world. He

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spoke it into existence. God said, let there be light,
And there was light, and God spoke and everything was
created by his power, by the power of his word.
What a great god he is. And you can trust
to God like that. You can trust to God who
can make a universe that can create the solar system.

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They can create the sun and the moon and the
stars and all of the planets. Folks, you can trust
to God like that because he's a God of power.
And you can trust him because he always has been,
he always will be. He's eternal in nature. You know,
people are not that way at all. Are They may

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be here today, gone tomorrow. But God is here today
and he will be here tomorrow because He is from
everlasting to everlasting Psalms, Chapter ninety and verse two. Now
what happens when you trust God? Well, first of all,
it's going to bring some peace of mind to you.

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I may be speaking to someone right now doesn't have
peace of mind. You're going through something in your life
that's that's brought termoil to your heart. And you know,
all kinds of things can create that condition and that
situation in our lives. Well, what is it that can

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can bring some peace to your life well, listen to
Isaiah chapter twenty six and verse three. That will keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee
because he trusteth in thee. If you just put your
trust in God Almighty, it would bring some peace of

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mind to you. And when you trust God, You're going
to have strength in your moment of weakness. Our God
is a God who gives strength. He is strength. In
Philippians four thirteen, Paul wrote, I can do all things
through Christ, who strengthens me. The strength that I received

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from Christ keeps me going. Paul had a thorn in
the flesh. I don't know what it was, nor do you,
but he prayed three times for its removal, and three
times that the thorn was not removed. But finally this
was the answer to the prayer. Grace is sufficient for you.

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My strength is made perfect in weakness. God's strength was
manifested in the life of Paul, and it was through
God's strength that Paul would be able to go home.
Isaiah chapter forty and verse thirty one says they that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, that they
shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run

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and not be where they shall walk in not thing.
You see, when we put our trust in God, then
we have the strength that we need. It may be
that you feel so helpless right now, that you feel hollow,
that you feel without hope. But it's God who can

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change all of that and make a difference in your life.
You see, you may feel that you don't know what
to do or where to go. It is by trusting
God that we have direction. Trusting the Lord with all
of your heart, lean not on your own understanding and
all of your ways. Acknowledge Him, and he shall direct

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your paths. If we just trust God, we'll know what
to do. Now. If you trust man, you may wind
up in the ditch. Proverbs fourteen and twelve says, there's
a way that seems right to a man, but the
ends thereof the ways of death. But when you trust
God and you follow the leadership of God, then you're

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going to be so much better off. You say, well,
how do you follow the leadership of God? Follow his directions?
You say, well, how do you follow his directions? By
study and reading his word? This is God's inspired written
revelation to mankind. It's yours, it's mind, it belongs to

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the whole world. So trust God. That's the first thing
we see in this chapter that we need to do
to come out on top in a world that seems
to be so whirling and changing so much. Trusting the Lord.
You know, on our money, on the coins and on

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the paper money that we carry, there's the inscription in
God we trust, and we need to live so that. Indeed,
we do trust in God. And we're not trusting in
our own strength, our own power, our own mind, our
own ingenuity, but we're trusting God. And that requires humility

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on my part. You see, if I don't trust God,
that means I'm trusting myself. And when I get to
the point I'm trusting myself, it creates and breeds an
attitude of self sufficiency and pride. So trust in the Lord.

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Trust in the Lord, and do good. Now, the second
suggestion that is made in this chapter that will help
us come out on top of the upside down world
is that we ought to delight in the Lord. That's
in verse four. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and
he'll give you the desires of your heart in what

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do you delight? You say, well, what does that mean
to delight in something? Well? When I think about delighting
in something, I think about enjoying something. What brings you
great joy in your life? What is it that brightens
your life? Of what is it that puts a smile
on your face and puts a song in your heart?

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Do you really delight in the Lord? Are you just
going through the motions of serving him? And is it
sort of boredom to you to even think about God?
Delight yourself in him? You know in the first Psalm,
the psalm that says blessed is the man that walketh

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not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stands in
the way of the sinnered, that sits in the seat
of the scornful. But his delight, his delight, his in
the law of the Lord. And in his law doth
he meditate day and night. You see, we need to
have a delight in the law of the Lord. Well,
enjoy studying the Bible, you say, brother, but I enjoy

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studying the Bible. Well, you're on your way to coming
out on top in an upside down world. We ought
to delight in the word of God. And when we
delight in God's word, that shows that we have an
attitude of love toward him, because this is the love
of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments

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are not grievous. Delight yourself in Him. Now here's a
third suggestion, and this is in verse number five. Commit
your way to the Lord. Trust also in him. Commit
your way. What does it mean to be committed to something?
Or to what are we to be committed? What about

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my life should be committed to the Lord? I suggests
my past ought to be committed, the present ought to
be committed, and the future ought to be committed. Have
you committed your past to the Lord? That is, have
you obeyed the gospel by believing on Jesus and repenting
of your sins, confessing your faith in Jesus Christ, and
been baptizing to Jesus Christ for the remission of your

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sins and let the Lord wash away all of the
sins of your past. And you've committed the past of
the Lord. Have you done that? And then what about
the present? Well? What about the present in your life?
Is the present committed to the Lord? Are you living
as though everything depends upon God? Are you depending upon

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Him for the present? Listen to the apostle Paul in
second Timothy chapter one and verse twelve. I know in
whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him.
Against that day, Paul had committed his all to the

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Lord and he was depending on him to see him
through to the end. Paul said, I have committed it
to him, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
what I've committed to him. Well, Paul, what did you
commit to I committed my soul to him. We need
to live every day with that passage of scripture in mind.

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Every day of our life. We need to think about
that in principle at least that I have committed my
life to the Lord. He will see me to the end.
We ought to commit the future, and when we commit
the future to the Lord, we, like the David, will
be able to say, gave thou walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

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for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff
they comfort me. You see you commit the future to
the Lord? Are you truly committed to the Lord? Well,
somebody says, what does it mean to be committed to
the Lord? Well, that means he's first in your life.
Something is something's first in your life, so is the

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Lord should be first in your life. Jesus said, seek
you first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all of these things shall be added unto you. You see,
we need to have the Lord as number one in
our life. Everything about my life ought to revolve around
the Lord Jesus Christ and what he wants me to do,

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how he wants me to act, how he would have
me to live my life based upon the teaching of
his divine will. The Lord ought to be that important
to me. You see, my life revolves and sinners around him.
Does your life revolve around Jesus or do you just

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try to live your life like you want to do it?
You see, when we live like we want to we've
not made a commitment. Have you made a commitment to
the Lord Jesus Christ? And when Jesus is number one?
When I'm committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, that means
that I'm not going to let anyone or anything come

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between me and serving the Lord. In Luke chapter fourteen
and verse thirty three, Jesus said, whosoever he be of you,
that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.
There's a certain person that cannot be his disciple, and
it's that person who's not willing to pay the cost
of following Jesus. You see, have to be willing to

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pay the Christ. And Jesus needs to be the lord
of my life. Is he the lord of your life?
Can you call him lord and really mean it? Jesus said,
not everyone that says unto me, Lord Lord shall enter
the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will
of my Father, which is in heaven. And then in

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Luke sixteen forty six, he said, why do you call
me lord? Lord? Do not the things that I say?
Lordship and obedience are coupled together. A person who is
a disobedient person to the will of God cannot really
call Jesus Lord. Lordship of Jesus Christ and obedience to

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the Lord Jesus Christ go together. You cannot separate them.
It's kind of like what Jesus said in Matthew chapter nineteen,
what God had joined together, let not man put asunder.
And he's joined together the lordship of Christ and obedience
to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is Lord. Somebody, someone,

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something is the lord of your life? Is it Jesus?
Is Jesus your lord? Have you committed your way to him?
When we make that commitment. There are certain things that
are eliminated out of our life. Well, when I make
a commitment to Jesus, I eliminated a eliminate a divided allegiance.

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You see, sometimes people have a divided allegiance. It will
get you into trouble. That there was a man reported
during the Civil War who was found wearing a Northern
jacket and a pair of Southern trousers. And there was
a Northern bullet in those Southern trousers, and there was
a Southern bullet in the Northern jacket. He tried to

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trashtraddle the fence and have the best of both worlds.
He didn't want to offend anyone. He didn't want to
fight for anyone, and it cost him. And when you
straddle the fence with the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a
price to pay. You have to be willing to commit
your awe to him. Jesus said, no man can serve
two masters. Either he will hate the one loved the other.
Hold of one and despise other. You cannot serve God

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and mammon. You cannot straddle the fence. You have to
make a choice and decision and commit your way to
the Lord. And so when we're really committed, it eliminates
that divided attitude, that divided heart attitude. It also eliminates
a religion of mediocrity, a religion of the minimum. You know,

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some people want to do just as little as they
can get away with it. They want to attend just
as few services as they can and save their conscience.
They want to give just as little as they can
and get away with it. They're trying to do just
as little as possible. But when a man is committed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, he becomes a second mileer.

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Jesus said, if a man compelled you to go with
him one mile, you go with him too. Don't just
be content with going one mile, you go the second mile.
In those days, a person could be ordered by a
soldier to carry the soldier's pack for a mile, and
at the end of that mile market you could put
it down. He could command somebody else to take it.

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He said, if you're told to carry it for a mile,
you just call them for the second mile? Are you
a second miler? Are you just satisfied with doing just
as little as possible the minimum? You see, when you're
truly committed to the Lord, it does away with that attitude,
I'm going to do just as little as I can,
sort of save my conscience. No, No, your attitude is

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how much can I do? What else can I do
to serve the Lord? And then it does away with
the defeated st attitude. Have you ever noticed some people
have a defeated stattitude that they seem to go around
with a cloud over their heads, that they seem to
feel defeated all of the time. Well if they If

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you've ever read the eighth chapter of Romans and you
come away and you still have that defeatit attitude, then
I just don't know whether there's any help for you
or not. There's not a more positive chapter in the
Bible that will build you up and show you what
God has given to you as a child of God,
any more than they chapter of Romans. While listen, there's

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just a few of the verses. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ. Jesus who
walt not according to the flesh, but of according of
the spirit. So there's no condemnation. Listen down in verse
twenty eight, for we know that all things work together
for good to them that love the Lord, to them
that are the called according to His purpose. Listen to
verse thirty one. If God be force, who can be

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against us? As one of the greatest chapters there is
in the New Testament, I think it's the Mountain Peace
in God's Divine Revelation because it contains the message of
victory in Jesus, Have you committed your way to the Lord.
Now here's one other suggestion, and this is in verse seven,
and that's rest in the Lord. Rest in the Lord

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and wait patiently for him. Man needs to rest sometime
from the physical labors of this life. But perhaps we
need to look at this passage and see what it
really means, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

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Perhaps when he says rest in the Lord, he's suggesting
that we need to have patience with the Lord, you know,
And we do need to have some patience in this
age in which we live, and we need to have
rest in the Lord. We live in an age of
so much stress so many people are stressed out today.
We live in an age of depression. We live in

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an age where people have so many problems in their
personal lives. We just need to stop sometime and be
still and rest in the Lord. And folks, the only
place you're ever going to find rest is in the Lord.
There's just not any other place. Jesus said, come unto me,

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all you that labor in the heavy laden, and I
will do what I give you. That's in Matthew eleven,
verse twenty eight. That's the only place you're ever going
to find rest. And if we live our lives for Christ,
at the end of the way, there will be eternal rest.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Yay,

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henceforth saith the Spirit that they may do what they
may rest from their labors. In that a beautiful thought
that when we get to the end, there is rest, rest,
sweet rest, blessed rest, eternal rest for the weary soul.
How do we come out on top in an upside

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down world? I believe Psalms thirty seven has some mighty
powerful passages for us today. I want to thank you
for watching getting to know your Bible today, and I
also want to give you a personal invitation to visit
the Church of Christ in your community. And please right
now pick up the telephoning call for the free Bible

(27:01):
Correspondence course. You can take it online if you prefer well.
Please please take this Bible course. And I want to
thank you for watching Getting to Know Your Bible today
and until we meet again. May the Lord bless you
and may the Lord keep you is my.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Prayer to help you in your study of the Bible.
We want to send you this Bible Correspondence course. This
course is non denominational, it's based on the Bible, it's
conducted by mail, and it's free. To receive this course,
write to Getting to Know Your Bible p O Box
three one four, Summerdale, Alabama three six five eight zero,

(27:39):
or call toll free one eight seven seven seven one
one five two one four. Getting to Know Your Bible
has been presented by Churches of Christ. If you have
a question about the church, or if you would like
the location of a Church of Christ near you, or
to receive the free Bible course right too Getting to
Know Your Bible p O Box three one one four, Summerdale, Alabama,

(28:01):
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seven seven one one five two one four. Join us
next time forgetting to know your Bible.