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Day 299, or October the 26th. Spreading the Good

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News. Our thoughts today are rooted in John chapter

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4, verse 39. Many of the Samaritans from that

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town believed in him, because of the woman's

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testimony, he told me everything I ever did.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse.

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having reminded us that even religious good living

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people like Nicodemus need to be saved john goes

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on to make the case for low life like the hated

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Samaritans and remarkably shows that they can

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be saved too what's more it even works with their

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women animosity between the Samaritans and the

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Jews goes back seven hundred years right back

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to the Assyrian invasion which scattered the

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northern tribes and mixed the jews with other

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conquered people who were gentiles this produced

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a mixed -race nation which the jews hated because

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they had once been jewish but now had intermarried

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with pagans and were no longer part of the chosen

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people of God This hatred continued on until

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the fall of Jerusalem in A .D. 70. Now that's

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a long time for any feud to last. Almost a thousand

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years. And now today's action step. A major part

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of the ministry to the Samaritans was the witness

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of an unknown woman of bad reputation. Some years

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ago, I was teaching in a women's prison when,

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without warning, my accompanying warder told

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me that he would have to leave for a while to

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attend to an incident. He showed me where the

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panic button was and told me to push it if necessary.

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I ignored the sudden change of atmosphere and

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continued teaching the life of Jesus to about

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twenty women. When I got to the account of the

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woman at the well, the tense atmosphere dissolved

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and they were all smiling in astonishment that

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this must mean God loved them too. I confirmed

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that they were right and the Bible proved it.

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You don't need to go into a prison to find people

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who are convinced that God rejects them because

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of past sins. Keep an eye open and enjoy disillusioning

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them from the pages of Scripture.