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one month later.
(this chapter very much means a lot to me and is a wholeeeeeee lotta foreshadowing, so pay attention.)
"NEHEMIAH 8:10 reads, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." I don't think y'all heard me, Nehemiah 8:10 reads, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Can I get a amen?!"
"Amen!" I said along with the congregation.
"Can I get a amen?!" my Papa, Pastor Joseph, shouted.
"Amen!" we said louder.
"Hebrews 12:11, when you have it say amen." he said and I grabbed my bible, flipping through it until I got to the page.
"Amen!" the congregation shouted.
"This beautiful morning I would like to talk to you from the subject there's nothing as powerful as a changed mind. I'll say that again, there is nothing as powerful as a changed mind." he said and I nodded. "You can change your friends, you can change your wardrobe, you can change your hair, your address, but if you do not change your mind, the same experience will perpetuate itself over and over again because everything outwardly changed but nothing inwardly changed. There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind."
"Preach pastor!" somebody from the congregation shouted making the rest rise in an uproar.
"Hebrews 12:11, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, with no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any rooted bitterness springing up trouble you, thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."
"You may be seated in the present of the lord we gon have a lil bible study, is that alright?" he asked as we all sat down.
"Yes." we said together making him smile.
"That's good, that's good. The writer of Hebrews is telling us that we're being parented, being parented by a God who doesn't believe in time out." he chuckled and so did a few people in the congregation. "There are things that when you are his, that if you do them, there are repercussions..."
•
"Papa you was preaching today." I said as he scooped rice onto my plate.
"Sure was, had me nearly in tears." Mocha said nodding her head. "Especially when you hit us with that, 2 Corinthians 5:7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. I felt that."
