Sabbath

Is the Sabbath relevant to a Christian?

No.  It belongs to the Mosaic Law which no longer applies to a Christian (Acts 15).

There is a principle established in the creation week that on the seventh day of a week you should rest.  It is also a day to focus on God and family.  This day will probably be determined by your employment.

This precedes The Law and still applies but in reality every day is a day we should focus on God and our family.  It is just on the day of rest we can spend more time doing things wth them and worshipping God as a family.

Sacrificial giving, see “giving, sacrificial”

Consecration and Sanctification

Webster's 1828 defines these terms as follows:

Consecration

1. The act or ceremony of separating form a common to a sacred use, or of devoting and dedicating a person or thing to the service and worship of God, by certain rites or solemnities. Consecration does not make a person or thing really holy, but declares it to be sacred, that is, devoted to God or to divine service; as the consecration of the priests among the Israelites; the consecration of the vessels used in the temple; the consecration of a bishop.

Sanctification

1. The act of making holy. In an evangelical sense, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God.

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2 Th 2. 1 Pet 1.

2. The act of consecrating or of setting apart for a sacred purpose; consecration.

God only sanctifies The Spirit of man.  The creation is defiled and cannot be sanctified as Jesus did not redeem it.  It will be destroyed by fire and recreated.

So any person that says something is made holy by consecration, is in error.  Either God has already sanctified the person being consecrated and all they are doing is physically declaring this.  Or the object is from the defiled creation and can never be made holy.

So if a person states they are making an object holy through consecration then they do not understand holiness and sanctification.  They are only declaring it is set apart for the purposes of God and can do no more than that.

Only God sanctifies and that is only in respect of our spirit and results from our salvation and redemption.  Something the creation can never have.

Satan

Some people do not believe in Satan or do not believe he harms Christians.  The New Testament speaks a lot of Satan and his desire to destroy Christians.

He is real because Jesus said he is (Matthew 4).  Jesus also said the purpose of Satan was to destroy you.

People are not taught their delegated authority over him or how to defeat him so he has free reign in most denominations and churches and reduces their effectiveness and at times even helps run them which is why they make such non–Biblical decisions.

Only as you demonstrate the superiority of The Kingdom of God over the kingdom of Satan will you advance The Kingdom of God and destroy his works.

Note! I said The Kingdom of God and not denomination or church.

Remember that Satan is Subtle.

He does not have a denomination have a belief that openly contradicts The Bible or God’s Grace and often uses a zealous person to promote a practice or belief that is incorrect because they do not know The Bible as they should.

Satan cannot hurt Christians after Calvary

This ignores the fact that Jesus only cast demons out of people (or people under their authority or unable to make a decision to be free from demons) who voluntarily called Him Lord and thus were His followers.

It also ignores that Satan’s objective is to destroy everyone’s salvation.  He does not need to do this to non-Christians as they already are his.

It also ignores the fact that Jesus sad we are at war with Satan so to ignore this war is to lose it before it starts.

It also ignores the freedom that people have once demons are removed from oppressing them.

It ignores the fact that Jesus said we are to storm the gates of hell and free people from Satan’s control as well as to destroy the works of Satan.

And it also ignores the early church and its war on Satan and his effect on people!

Scripture

This is another name for The Bible.  The writings that God gave us.  These are inspired by God (Job 32:8, 2 Tim 3:16) and are complete (Heb 1:1-2), being preserved by Him for all time (Ps 12:6-7).

To say God has not preserved His scripture for all time leads to a God who evolves or changes His mind as to what it to be done in obedience to Him and that people at different times have different rules to obey.  This makes God a capricious God who does not know what people need to do but seems to work it out as He goes along according to whim or what is happening.

This is not the God of The Bible and anyone who says we need to rediscover what God said does not believe The God of The Bible as His scripture is complete and its principles are consistent all the way through even though they may be expressed in different ways such as before, during and after the period of The Mosaic Law.

Scriptures after 101 AD

Any person not completely following The Bible will have doctrinal error and may end up worshiping a different god to that of The Bible and a different Jesus to that of the Bible who cannot save them.  By default this different god can only be Satan.  You either follow the God (all of The Bible) or Satan.  There are no other choices.

Any books written after the New Testament period that do not agree completely with the Bible cannot be of God but must be about another ‘god’ or ‘Jesus’.  These can only have been inspired in whole or part by Satan.

Anything that these books add which is not dealt with in the Bible must then be examined using the second of the tests and cannot be doctrine.

Regardless of how they fare in these two tests these extra biblical additions cannot be used as a basis for doctrine or practice and are only of use to direct people to Jesus as Lord or to give him praise, glory, honour or worship or to set up practices for the denominations that accepts these books.

To use them for any other purpose is idolatry.

Self, denying see ‘Denying self’

Separate from The world

This does not mean to live like a hermit and not embrace 20th Century technology.  The technology is inanimate and has no life of itself to be evil or good.  It is what you make of it that matters and the world system that you are to separate from is that of Satan and his values and not that of technology.

If the technology brings into the family house values that are not of God then it needs to be controlled or removed and not blindly watched or listened too.  Remember that Satan controls most of the media and use it to promote his world ad its values.

You have been given a brain to use and knowledge of what is wrong as well as The Holy Spirit to guide you and are required by God to use your brain to remove (through an act of your will) all that which is not of His Kingdom.

This is what you are to separate yourself from and not the technology God has allowed you to have.

You are also required to be a good steward of what God has given you and that also includes technology and its use so that you need to not waste things like water and electricity and should try to have these provided in the most economical and inexpensive way you can (within the guidelines of The Kingdom of God).

God does not mind you having running water, sewerage, car or electricity if you use it properly or having a television or radio if they are used to learn of  His things, relax in His way with Godly things and not blindly listen to anything, most of which is inspired by Satan’s demons.

So take to Jesus all you see or do and let Him guide you into what is to be watched, listened to or how a thing is to done in the way He desires it to be done.

Service

We serve Jesus as our King and He has delegated to no one His authority to rule over us. He directs us to who to serve, where to serve them as well as how to serve them.

We do not serve

Popes

Patriarchs

Ministers

Anyone else

He may ask us to serve them Though on His behalf.

To serve anyone, because they are supposed to have spiritual authority over you is incorrect

However, you may be in a denomination where for the purposes of man they may have a type of legal authority over you, But it can never be spiritual authority because Jesus alone has that (1 Pet 2:25).

Shame – see Guilt

Signs that follow a Christian

Jesus said that certain activities would be illustrated by those who believed He was God and Saviour and who tried their best to obey Him (Mark 16:17–18).  They would be used by God to:

Cast out demons

Heal the sick (amongst other things)

If you are not doing these things then you had better find out why.  Jesus said you would do these signs if you were His Follower and it is to Him you will answer for not doing them.

Sin

Sin is the deliberate rejecting of a requirement God has made of you.  You must know it is wrong for it to be sin (James 4:17).  It is also an abuse of a stewardship God has given to you as well as a failing to keep God’s law of Love.

Jas 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin

It is no longer disobeying a set of laws like The Mosaic Law but disobeying God’s command to love people and His things with the same quality of Love He Loves you with.

Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Gal 5:14  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The only commandment that is broken now is The Law of Love (Jn 13:34-35) as that is the only one still current.  Sin, then, is deliberately not showing God's quality of Love to another.

If you love others as God loves them then anything done from this pure motive is not sin as you are not trying to harm another.  If you try to harm another or gain an ungodly advantage over them in something then you are showing a lack of love and sin in the eyes of God.

It must be deliberately showing a lack of love to another and not accidentally showing a lack of love to another.  So love others with the same quality of love God loves you with and you will not sin.

You may wholeheartedly try to show God's love to all and fall short of this requirement but you do not sin as you tried to show it and failed.  But you may cause offence to another and this needs to be dealt with once you realise it has happened.

If you deliberately do not deal with it for any reason then you break God's Law of Love and then you sin as it is only a lack of love that will stop you reconciling to another when you know you need too.

You must wholeheartedly attempt to reconcile to another otherwise you do not love them in the way God desires you too and are breaking His Law of Love.  If you wholeheartedly try and reconcile then you have done what God required regardless of whether they reconcile to you or not.

You may need deliverance to remove any hurts or wrong attitudes that stop you doing this reconciliation or loving others as God requires you too.

Sin, Mortal and Venial

 James 2:10-11 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.  For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Sin is only a problem if you are still under the Law in which case all sin is equal as they all break The Law and all have the same punishment so in effect, there is no such thing as mortal or venial sin.  For the purpose of The Law there is only sin.

However, people who wholeheartedly follow Jesus as Lord are under Grace and to them God accounts no sin When He looks at us He sees no sin in us as they are all on Jesus so we do not have to confess a sin He considers we do not have any sins to confess.  Admit your weaknesses so you can be helped with them to repent as is necessary to deal with these weaknesses but the spiritual consequences of your sins are no longer there to be concerned about.

Singing

The people in the church sing: “I will do this for Jesus”, then go away and do not do it.

They enjoy the emotion behind what they sing but do not do what they say will do when they sing.  This is hypocrisy and a hypocrite will not be allowed to approach God.

It is better not to sing than to sing and be a hypocrite.

God cannot joy in their praises of Him as they are not His followers because they sing and do not do what they sing they will do.

Do not sing unless you mean it or else it is hollow, empty, is not praise and worship and belongs to the sort of thing the followers of Satan do.

Slander

This is the deliberate broadcasting of the sins and weakness (real or imagined) of another to bring them into disrepute to destroy, in some way, either them, their character or ministry.

It breaks The Law of Love and if not repented of will lose you your salvation (Rev 3:5).

If you try to repent and cannot then perhaps you need deliverance.

Speech

There is no such things as a white lie.

Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Mat 12:36-37  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.   For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

As you can see what you say will condemn you when you face Jesus.

Our speech should reflect God type of love in all we say

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Submission

Spiritual Submission is to Jesus alone and He has not delegated the right to rule over another to any one else

Legal submission is to legal entities in laws of:

Land

Federal

State

Local

Denomination

Church

Employer etc.

Domestic submission is in a family situation. A wife Submits to a husband domstically and not spiritually because Jesus asks her to do it for Him or else the man would not have any authority over her as in himself he has no right to ask a woman to submit to him domestically.  But then husband and wife are to submit (serve) to each other because they love each other and the character of Christian love (which is greater than any earthly love) is to serve!

If both spouses are led by The Holy Spirit then submission is not a problem as Jesus is the head of the marriage in reality and not just figuratively.  It will be submission by both of them to His Will and not just the wife.  This should happen anyway but in regards to headship usually Jesus is consulted second after the pastor or counsellor.

Success

When serving God you should thank Him for any success you have.  This is because:

God prepared you for it

God prepared the event for you

God gave you all you need to serve Him in the event

God keeps you alive to do it

God will reward you for it in some way, here or in eternity.

Your part is to be a faithful servant and to do His Will.

Hence His praise for you when you face Him after death:

“Well done thou good and faithful servant!”

Suffering

People think that suffering is a punishment from God!

God is Love and does not cause suffering. He only does what is good for us!

We suffer for two reasons

As a consequence of our own actions (Gal 617-8)

Because God is wanting to mature and prepare us for our next level of service.

Jesus would not be a God of Love if He allowed us to suffer for any other reason.

Superstition

A superstition is a non-Biblical belief.  It is a belief that doing something will either prevent harm to you or cause you good fortune or earn you favour with God.  They are a form of ritual and ignore the fact that nothing happens without God allowing it and that we are rewarded according to our actions and cannot manipulate the result of our actions in any way.

Satan uses superstitions to his advantage and controls people through them, drawing them away from faith (trust) in God and His control over their life.  In a sense, superstitions are idols as they draw you away for The Lordship of Jesus in your life in the belief you can control things and manipulate His plans and rewards.

There is nothing wrong with superstition if it is not idolatrous or leads to idolatry.  No one can criticise or condemn you for it.  However to force another to accept it contravenes the Law of Love and is a 'sin'.

If the superstition causes another to sin then it is a sin to continue it as it is not a command from God and is causing your brother to sin.

If the superstition causes you to trust someone living or dead  in a spiritually matter apart from God or to rely on something apart from God then it is a lack of trust in God and is a 'sin'.

Superstitions are dangerous and evil as they draw you away from God’s Love, Control, Purposes or Plans and should not be indulged in for any reason.

Swear words (see also Blasphemy)

Words in them self have no morality. It is people who give the words  meaning as well as the morality associated with these words.  The problem with swear words is not so much the words themselves but the attitude behind them and it is this attitude that is sin at times.

This is why words that are swear words to some are innocent to others so do not judge a person by what they say but by what They mean.

Symbols, see also Icons

A symbol in itself has no oreality.  It just represents someting.  The danger occurs when the symbol itself is worhipped and/or whawt it represents is also worshipped.

An example is the ‘host’ ised in Catholic worship.  It is a symbol and in itself is of no morality (neither good or evil) but when it is worshipped it then becomes an idol as youare worshipping a symbol instead of Jesus as He is not in the host.  However if it helps you to worship Jesus then it is in itself neither good or evil and the worship would be acceptible as its focus is Jesus and not something that is suppose to contain Him.

Terminology

The problems with words is that you can rationalise a different meaning to that which was originally meant by it, especially if the word was first used over 1,000 years ago.  This results in people talking about something but having completely different perceptions of what they are talking about.

One of the problems when dealing with The Roman Catholic Church and other long existent churches is that their terminology dates back over a period of 1100 years and was formed when society was different so that what was correct terminology in their day or was understood by all then now comes across differently so that a wrong understanding of a term occurs.

This means you need to understand how The Roman Catholic Church actually defines a term so that you can correctly comment on it.

The word ‘priest’ is an example.  The Bible says we are all priests and kings so we take offence at a person saying they are a priest and laity cannot be priests as it appears to contradict scripture.  Yet we ignore this problem with Anglicans and others that use that term.  So you need to understand exactly why there is this division, not just in the Catholic Church but in other denominations before you criticise the Catholic Church and their hierarchical system or any other denominations for any practices they have that go back centuries.

Until you understand how they define terms you cannot criticise their use by any church. So before you comment negatively on a practice or methodology in any church, make certain you understand exactly how they define the term, what they mean by it and/or their attitude to is as well as what they use it for.

The Tribulation see Tribulation, the

Time

God will always give you enough time to do what He desires you to do.

Satan will never give you enough time To do what he desires you to do and will try to have you self-destruct through unnecessary activity.

If you never have enough time to do what you should be doing then determine what Satan has you doing that you should not be doing.

Too many ministers are doing what they believe they should be doing and are not doing what God desires them to do and they wear themselves out. They do what the denomination says should be done which is usually not what God wants them to do for His Body.

You will always have enough Time and resources to do properly what God wants you to do for Him and His Body.  But you will never have enough time or resources to do things He does not want you to do

Tradition in the Western Church

Tradition is present in the western church but not to the degree the old denominations like the Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic type denominations have.

Tradition permeates the Western church when it relies on old hymns or prayers that are not correct because understanding of doctrine was not as accurately expressed.  Poetic licence and earthly imagery intruded into the words and became the basis, at times, for incorrect theology which people happily sung and which ended up as the basis for their having an incorrect theology in some areas.

Things like asking for forgiveness of sins.  After God remitted our sins He does not see us having any so we should not ask for something He cannot do because He has already done it.  God cannot forgive what He does not see us have.

Things like singing “all to Jesus I surrender”.  The assumption is you have already done that or you should not call yourself a Christian.  This is different to rededicating yourself after a major sin.   Usually these type of hymns are gospel hymns calling people to repentance for Salvation purposes so what are they doing sung in a service where this type of hymn is wrong usually as it is not an evangelistic service and is not necessary for a Christian to sing.

Usually it is one line or phrase that is wrong so it is missed by most as they merrily sing a lovely melody to words that are wrong and Biblically incorrect.

The use of ‘I will do this’ is incorrect as hymns are there to praise God and not what we will do.  Placing yourself in a hymn first before what God is going to do makes you important unless it is an act of declaring you will serve The Lord in some way or worship Him

We sing to feel good rather than meditate as we sing so songs are sung with words that are non–scriptural but feel right so they are kept on as favorites.

The song writer takes licence with scripture and is allowed to, as after all it is a hymn and the scriptural content is ‘improved’ by what they do, so scripture is modified and sung that way and people are misled by what they sing.  Satan has subtly attacked The Bible and gotten away with it.  Poetic licence is demonic as it corrodes The Bible as is placing self as being important in an action sung about as that corrodes The Lordship and Empowerment of Jesus.

Tribulation, The

This is a time of trauma as God carries out his judgment on Satan, his followers and his world system.  God punishes:

Lukewarm Christian

The followers of Satan

Demons

Satan

His World system

As is detailed in the book of Revelation.

God’s people are removed at some stage before all this climaxes as the punishment is not of them and they are there to preach the gospel to those being punished.

God uses the tribulation to remove Satan and his infrastructure in preparation for the Millennial rule of Jesus.

Trinity

The Bible does not use this word. Man uses it  to refer to the fact that The Bible says there is one God and that there are three people in this one God:

The Father

The Son (The Lord Jesus Christ)

The Holy Spirit.

The main statement of this is in 1 Jn 5:7 where each person is mentioned as being God (The witnesses in heaven)

This is also a major proof of the divinity of Jesus.

If you do not believe in the Trinity you are saying God is a liar which means you cannot believe in the Bible He wrote.

Modern versions imply this verse (1 Jn 5:7)is an error or leave it out. Why do they leave out such an important verse? This makes these Bible versions incorrect and makes you wonder where else they have major errors like this in them and whether they believe Jesus is divine leaving out a major proof of His Divinity.

Unforgiveness – see Offence

Mat 6:14-15  If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you.  But if you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

If you do not forgive others their sins against you then do not get to heaven.

Vision

Pro 29:18  Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

What vision are we to have?  This proverb implies it has something to do with obeying God!

The only vision you can really have is one that lines up with the Purposes and Will of God.  Any other vision is not His Will and may lead you to sin.

So what does God desire for us?

Eph 4:11-13  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

He desires us to mature into His Character and to intimately know Jesus and The Father.

It is most important to have a relationship with The Father and Jesus as that is the basis of all He does for us in our Christian life.  Everything else is of secondary importance to the maintaining of the salvation relationship that we have through loving obedience to Jesus and The Father as guided by The Holy Spirit.

Mar 8:34-37  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.  8:36  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

So if you seek things to satisfy your life or find purposes outside of those of God desires you to do you lose all the things God has planned for you with all of its rewards and may even lose your salvation.

So what does God tell you to do to keep the relationship you have with The Father, Jesus and The Holy Spirit so that you will keep His vision for you?

Focus each day on what God desires you to do as this is how you maintain the relationship you have with Him.  As you continuously focus on God He will develop the relationship He has with you and you will be used by Him for the purposes of His Kingdom (Matt 6:33).

You do not need to be concerned about the future if you seek each day to do what He desires you to do.  The important thing is to wholeheartedly try not necessarily to succeed in the task as God looks at the heart and not the result.  God promises to provide all you need if you wholeheartedly seek God and His Will.

Love God and others with the same quality of Love with which God loves you (Jn 13:34-35).  This was the only commandment Jesus gave and needs to be obeyed.  All else Jesus commanded is an expression of this one commandment.

We should desire what God desires (Col 3:1-3)

We should seek to serve Him no matter what the cost is to us Rom 12:1-2).

We need to take all our thoughts to Jesus to see if it is His Will or what to do about them (2 Cor 10:5).  Remember, Satan can place thoughts in our mind as well as The Holy Spirit and our self.

You must believe it is worth the effort to obey Him and that you will be rewarded for your obedience (1 Cor 15:58, Heb 11:6).

Our obedience and service should be motivated by Love (Jn14:15).  If it is not you better find out why as you may need deliverance in an area of your life so you can love God and others as you should.

God promises to tell you all you need to know to live for Him through The Holy Spirit living in you (Jn 16:13).  You will know it is from God as you will have peace (Is 26:3), and it will Glorify Jesus  (Jn 15:26).

You must endure to the end of the trial even if it means you lose your life for Jesus (Mat 10:22, Rev 12:11).

If your objective or vision is denominational or church orientated then you have missed the vision of Jesus (unless they have the same vision as Jesus has for them.

His vision is for each of you to be a useful part of The Body so He can use it and not be limited by the constraints of denominationalism or churches.

So your vision needs to align with that of Jesus for you and for His Kingdom or else it will not be of His Purposes for you or for His Kingdom.

Something is either of eternal significance or it is not.  If it is not of eternal significance it is wasted effort.

Everything you do must draw you closer to Jesus or promotes The Kingdom in some way or it is not worth doing as it is not what God wants and will not be best for you or The Kingdom.  Jesus will not help you in it so it will fail in the spiritual but may succeed in the Physical.  The danger is that Satan will help you as it will further His Kingdom.

So keep your focus on Jesus, be led by The Holy Spirit and take all you think to Jesus and you will maintain the salvation relationship you have with Jesus and The Father, obtain rewards in heaven and be a useful member of The Body and The Kingdom.

Where there is no vision the people perish. Keep your eyes on Jesus out of Love for Him and you will have the vision He desires you to have for Him.

Wealth – see Possessions

Witnessing to Jesus

1Pe 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

Every Christian is required to be able to tell others:

Why they are a Christian

How to become a Christian

The Gospel is actually very simple so no one should have any problem doing this.  The gospel can be divided into five steps as follows:

1.   You have disobeyed God so are separated from Him and are going to hell.  The place all who disobey God end up in.

2.   You cannot bridge this gap between God and you, as it is infinite, so you cannot restore the relationship you had with God before you rebelled.

3.   God has seen your problem and sent Jesus to teach you what God required of you and then die to remove all that stood between God and you to make it possible for you to relate to God once more.

4.   By believing who Jesus is:

Son of God
Man, born of a virgin
Died on a cross
Rose from the dead
Now rules all from heaven
And voluntarily obeying Him in all you do.

God restores the relationship you previously lost with Him, now on earth and then after death in heaven.

5.   You are required to maintain your part in this relationship with God through voluntarily obeying Him in all He asks you to do.

The demonstration of The Kingdom of God (Mark 16:17-18) will come naturally as you mature in your faith through faithful obedience to God’s requirements of you

Worship Songs

The focus on worship is God: who He is, What He has done, His Greatness and His Love.

The moment you sing 'I will'" or 'We will', the focus is no longer on God but on you.  This is not worship for if it was it would be a form of idolatry.  Why do you sing 'I will' or 'we will' to say you will do something when God expects you to be doing it already.

One must be careful of what they sing as many songs these days are not theologically as sound as they should be.

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