The New Enlightenment Pt.2

Verse 1:
If you just grasp your mind,
then you ought to be able to speak it with your mouth,
it's yours, it's yours...
Verse 2:
If you can just meditate on it,
and then you've got to focus and concentrate on it.
And then you've got to wait on it,
you've got to wait...
Clark Sisters Name It Claim It ~1982

This was one of the most popular songs during the 80’s. I remember many days listening to it, playing the music and hearing it sung in many congregations. Although I understand the aim of the song, to encourage believers to pursue God and all the he has for you; little did I know that the method was unbiblical. The thoughts proliferated through this song would lay the foundation for many churches that would go on to call themselves Word Of Faith and would also inadvertently open many doors for those who taught "Get what you want and need from the Lord by any means necessary"

Now I want to stop for a minute and reaffirm that I LOVE the Clark Sisters and the body of work that they have traditionally produced and do not intend to make them the poster child(ren) for this sort of practice. I only point out how easily these techniques have infiltrated the camp of the righteous and saturated the children of God with the wrong message, inclinations and even practices.

Unfortunately, many have forgotten the spiritual mandate to seek, focus and concentrate on God and HIS Word and nothing else:

• Mt. 6:33 ~ "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
• Lk. 12:30-31 ~ "For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."

The new consciousness has duped many believers into the practice of focusing in on what you want in an occultic, religious fervor. I have heard preached messages saying,

• "God can’t give you what you want if you don’t define it, or have a picture of it."

Still others have preached,

• "If you want a man, not just any man will do. Tell God the height, color, skin tone…let God know what you want."

Many of you have heard similar, and have heard what you thought were scriptural admonitions to follow and pursue your hearts desires. This is the danger of the new consciousness. It is based on self, and selfish desires (no matter how noble) The new enlightenment encourages individuals to find

• "your truth" and "your God consciousness."

In the new consciousness self desires and personal pursuits replace the pursuit of God and the primacy of HIS will. God is turned to be a force, presence, or enlightenment found "inside of you". Personal achievements somehow are validations of the approval of God. Therefore, the more members, material, and recognition one can amass, the more approval that God has set on an individual, church or even community. In essence, materialism and both human and individual accomplishment becomes the standard whereby others know you’ve arrived or been successful.

Connectedness and ecumenism ultimately means acceptance of all truth and integration of what is Holy with that which is unholy. The object is to confuse, distort and subjectivize truth, and to create a "my truth/your truth" mentality. The result is a dangerous and intoxicating mixture of self-will, erroneous dogma, blind passion and illegible and indiscernible boundaries in which consciousness, feelings and emotives become god, master and director of individual purpose and place.

As stated previously the new enlightenment specifically implores religious eclecticism which tends to use methods of any or all religious systems and beliefs in order to achieve the overarching goal or goals set forth. Primarily rooted in Eastern mysticism, teachers of the new consciousness use thoughts and philosophies that are based on self cognition, identifiable religious and humanistic philosophies such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zoroastrians, and various mind cult philosophies. There is a further potpourri of resurrected metaphysical constructs and demonic world mythologies that God has long since rejected over the course of human history that drive the new consciousness.

One of the most startling elements of this cauldron of damnation, is it’s current validation through institutions of higher educational and corporate venues seeking to enhance the diversity of the educational curriculum and productivity of the workforce. Not to paint a broad brush, but one needs only look at many college curriculums called transcendental meditation, metaphysics and advanced mind science to see the blossoming and burgeoning field of mysticism and mind dynamics in operation within the system of higher education. Simultaneously, one only need look at many of the top Fortune 500 companies to see programs such as Imagine 21, Lifespring and other mind occult and metaphysical philosophies in action with sometimes full endorsement of corporate leadership.

This murky mixture of religion and secularism has nurtured the new consciousness and given rise to a resurgence of "repackaged bondage" suitable to subdue the 21st Century mind. This bondage promotes many methods to achieve the higher consciousness, but there is one method in particular that is consistent to a varying degree in many of these teachings and encouragement in both secular, new age and religious efforts. That is the concept of visualization or meditation as a method to achieve human or spiritual potential, goals or success.

As noted in the Clark Sister’s Song:

Verse 1:

If you just grasp your mind,

then you ought to be able to speak it with your mouth,

it's yours, it's yours...

"Grasp it in your mind"..."speak it with your mouth". These are elements of visualization, meditation and pronunciation, which are common metaphysical techniques and which are often used in tandem and combination to produce the desired physical and metaphysical effects.

Verse 2:

If you can just meditate on it,

and then you've got to focus and concentrate on it.

And then you've got to wait on it,

you've got to wait...

Meditation, "focus" and "concentration" or "visualization", then waiting for a manifestation are the encouragements. Once again these techniques are straight of the mysticism handbook and (hypothetically) can open doors spiritually that individuals are not instructed or ready to open.

• John 10:7-10 ~ "Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Pastor Burnett, doesn’t the bible encourage us to meditate? How can you say that I’ve somehow yielded to mysticism? This is what I’ve been taught ever since I’ve been saved.

I will close this segment by saying YES the bible clearly teaches meditation in the following manner:

• Meditation was to be on good things: Phil. 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." "Think" here is a Greek word logizomai which literally means to consider, take into account or meditate on. The key here is that meditation was to be on "thing’ in relatinship to God, not man or self-desires.
• Meditation was to be on The righteousness of God in relationship to you: Mt. 6:33-34 ~ "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." "Thought" here is a Greek word "merimnao" which literally means concern to promote one’s interest.
• Meditation was to be upon the Lord himself : Ps. 63:6 ~ "When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches."
• Meditation was to be upon HIS Word or HIS Law: Ps. 1:2 ~ "But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."
  Joshua 1:8 ~ "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

As we note the bible version of "meditate on it" does not include meditation on self, self will, fleshly desires and or material things.

Many have conversely asked, how can God give you anything that you haven’t defined in your mind?

I want to suggest that defining things or knowing what you want is not the issue. The issue is a preoccupation or a spiritual manipulation of reality or natural circumstances. Once again, those are metaphysical practices. To pray, visualize and receive in your subconscious until you can physically almost touch, feel and smell it is an ungodly practice and exactly what the new enlightenment teaches.

Pastor Burnett, the bible teaches us that we should have a "vision". How can we have a vision without visualization?

The bible teaches in Prov. 29:18 – "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

But let’s take a more introspect look at this verse. First of all in context "vision" or "chazown" deals with having a divine revelation or direction towards the Will Of God. The word "perish" simply means to be made naked or exposed.

Putting this all together, we see that the "vision" we are supposed to obtain is one of and from God himself as he has provided direction by his word into HIS will and has nothing to do with "visualization" or focus on what we desire.

In Part 3, I will discuss this and the fallacies of Eckhart Tolle, one of the nations leading "new enlightenment" teachers who teaches that you (the individual) are God and the concept of sin is misunderstood and must be retaught to the world. Mr. Tolle in conjunction with (My Princess) Oprah Winfrey has managed to receive over 27 Million downloads of his teachings on the web. His books are also at the TOP of the New York Times Best Sellers lists and there is seemingly a greater fascination with his convoluted and demonic teachings than anything we’ve witnessed in modern times.

For the average reader this may be challenging, but a challenge that could revolutionize your life.

Deut. 18:9-14 – "When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do."

Blessed!

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The New Enlightenment Pt. 1

There is an emergence of a new enlightenment or new consciousness evangelizing both secular and religious society and seeking to alter and or remove the message of Jesus in particular from every fact of daily life. At the very least this new enlightenment seeks to place all religions on equal level by borrowing bits and pieces from each one, creating a new spirituality that supposedly transcends thoughts, material and being. Further, this enlightenment has no boundaries and will use every means possible to promote itself and proliferate its message.

Often called the New Age movement by many within Christian circles, these teachings are eclectic (inclusive of many brands of religious and secular thought) and humanistic in nature. The adherents are unrestrained by current religious and doctrinal teachings and are especially rejecting of Christian truths which are often criticized as divisive, weak and ineffective dogma’s.


This new consciousness appeals to the masses and is marketed through corporate productivity and personal improvement seminars, popular books and book clubs, (Alas, my dear beautiful Oprah Winfrey-Ooh how forsaken I feel!) and for credibility’s sake, implores the use of educational terms such as cognitive science (CS) or cognitive science religion (CSR), modern psychology and scientific psychological mapping.

The goals of this new consciousness are noteworthy:

To help humanity achieve it’s potential
To help individuals reach their goals
To help individuals live a better life
To help individuals create more meaningful relationships
To create better workplace environments
To accentuate and focus on the positives and positive thoughts
To help unite humanity in a common cause against hunger, poverty, illiteracy and civil and social injustices.

The problem is not so much the goal, but the method used and encouraged to achieve the end. I am afraid that if we are not careful, our desire to relieve the burdens of the world will only lead to a greater and deeper frustration and ultimately judgement from God.

In order to achieve success new age apostles whether knowingly or unknowingly are generally following the orders of Paul Kurtz and the Humanist Manifesto 2000 in one form or another. As I stated in "The Legacy Of Atheism’s Queen" The objectives and mission statement of the Council For Secular Humanism are as follows:

"…The wider platform for human progress as part of a New Enlightenment needs, I submit, to advocate secularism in the above three senses:
(1) the separation of religion from the state;
(2) the humanization of values that satisfy the deeper interests and needs of human beings; and
(3) the decline of religious practice, entailing the growth of the Human City in place of the City of God."

As you may note, the emphasis is on values, education and the removal of God or religion in general from society. There are several ways that this is being achieved.

• Remove God and any inference to religion from our schools (X)
• Removed God and any inference to him from our courts (X) *
• Remove God and any inference to him from our currency (X)
• Replace all values with humanistic values (X)
• Eliminate biblical morality (X)
• Establish a new morality based on human reasoning, understanding and benefits (X)
• Redefine family values and civil rights by promoting homosexuals and lesbian marriages (X)
• Retrain the mind to believe that all spiritual inclinations are only an extension of biological functions (X)
• Remove God, specifically Jesus, from our hearts (__)
  * = excludes humanistic religion
  I left # 7 blank on purpose, because you may be the last part of the plan still yet standing.

Rev. 13:18 ~ "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

God has been removed from the schools as an uninvited guest, now we have rampant behavioral problems, guns, violence and gross underperformance in far too many places. "In God We Trust" is now being imprinted on the side of currency in effort to move any reference to HIS being. It is obvious, we are witnessing the effort to remove God from society in general. We must admit that the secularists have been successful and that the popular tide is against God.

This is regardless of how many hurricanes we experience, earthquakes we witness, uncontrollable fires that occur and droughts that we experience. Unfortunately, terrorist attacks and wars are short-lived inconveniences that cause us to pause and reflect on ourselves and God briefly and then recommit to strengthen the goals of humanity and double our sins.


Rev. 16:8-11 ~ "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds."

In all of this there is one thing that we must note. Man, being the spiritual vessel that he is, has a desire to replace what is lost after asking God to exit. Cognitive science religion (CSR) has declared that man’s brain is "hard-wired and psychologically prepared to believe in God" and further "pass on religious ideas to others in the form of religions and rituals" (The Christian Research Journal Vol 31 No. 2, "Does Religion Originate In The Brain" pg.36 Paul Copan) Whether or not this is true, The whole subject is a bain of conflict for the humanist and materialist.

As stated, lofty goals can be set, but there must be a vehicle in place to help one achieve. So although the humanist believes that he/she is in total control of their futures and destiny, according to their own approved brand of current studies, there must be a path or pattern whereby one can compensate for any perceived spiritual deficiencies and also achieve their goals and supposedly take back control of their own lives.

If this sounds like it’s above your head, don’t be intimidated AT ALL. One thing we are sure of is that it’s nothing new:

Eccl. 1:9 ~ "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

From the late night security guard to the televangelist, everyone is talking about laws, keys, and steps to success and personal fulfillment. From Russell Simmons "Do You" outlining 12 Laws to success to












Rhonda Byrne’s "The Secret" explaining and promoting the understanding of the overarching Universal Law Of Attraction to











Eckhart Tolle’s "A New Earth" and "The Power Of Now", which is repackaged Hinduism and mysticism for a western audience, there is a preoccupation and obsession with laws and principles to help you achieve your success.








To keep up with the trend, there is currently a whole host of "Christian potential" books on the market. Some of the titles are

"Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits" by my man Bishop T.D Jakes,











"Birthing Your Dreams" 2004 Paula White,














"Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential" 2004 and "Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day" 2007 along with the study guide to help you "Live At Your Full Potential" by Pastor Joel Osteen











Then there was Bishop Thomas Weeks III,"Even As Your Soul Prospers: Realize Your Purpose Release Your Blessings."2004,

and his former spouse Juanita Bynum’s "Matters Of The Heart: Stop Trying To Fix The Old. Let God Give You Something New." 2002











Last but certainly not least, there’s Dollar Creflo’s "Total Life Prosperity: 14 Practical Steps To Receiving God’s Full Blessing" 1999 and my all time personal favorite title "8 Steps To Create The Life You Want" 2008,






Amazingly most of these writings are designed to do one or all of the following:

• To help raise higher thoughts and conscious awareness
• To help increase spiritual focus
• To help clear the focus on actual desires
• To help eliminate the "noise" of life or center ones self
• To help increase your God given or natural abilities and potentials
• To help bring you out of fear and into faith
• To help increase you personal and material wealth
• To help improve you physical health and wellbeing

Although various authors implore various methods the goals are generally the same or very similar as those I’ve outlined. To be specific, what we are experiencing is a resurgence of religious eclecticism, Eastern mysticism and metaphysical thought systems.

For the Christian the message has become about appealing to the masses and seeker sensitivity. This is to our utter shame. The reason that mysticism and the new enlightenment have become so appealing is due to the church's lack of consistency of both message and living. The message of sin and repentance has now become a message of "brokeness" and "psychological and spiritual healing". The encouragement to free ourselves from negative thoughts is requires that we relieve ourselves of critical thinking capacities toward leadership and replacing good stewardship and accountability with degrees of personality, sensationalism, association and assimilation.

Our desire to not offend and to win mass appeal, has led to the dysfunctionalisms that we observe in many of our churches and experience through many of our ministries. During a recent battle for the culture of our school system CLICK HERE, I exposed a particular evasive teaching that "stirred up" many individuals in our city.

During the heat of the battle I was contacted by a "spaghetti-backed" pastor telling me that he didn't want to be "professionally associated" with me because of my stance against allowing occultism in the schools system was overbearing. After pondering the issue and checking as to what may have been this persons motivation, there were quite a few discoveries made. One of the most significant ones was that he (the pastor) about a year prior, had lost a church because he had an affair with the secretary... CHURCH secretary!

Now, that's beyond belief...A defrocked, adulterous Pastor didn't want to be "professionally associated" with me because he thought I might make "him look bad" or " taint his image"....Shockingly, he was right...His image was certainly not the image of God and I would have adequately tainted his image of flesh with righteousness and holiness.

Little does the average apostate know that the reason the new enlightenment is tricking and attracting so many is because of what we live, not so much as what we say, but what we live or in all too many cases DON'T live.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Blessed!

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Is This An Angel Of The Lords Presence?

Lights In The Sky Over China ~ Could This Be An Angel Of The Lord?

For as many as 30 minutes before the tragic and horrific earthquake in Sichuan, China; what is known as "Earthquake Lights" appeared in the sky. The video shows the notable discolorations in the sky at about the 10 minute mark before the quake. It has also been confirmed that similar lights have been observed before earthquakes in Peru and Japan over the years. Scientists liken the phenomeon to the Aurora Borealis or some form of electromagnetic or radio wave interference, or maybe some sort of "Earth Plasma" discharged just in advance of a quake into the atmosphere.

The question I pose is simple...Is this an angel of the Lord's presence? Is there any scriptural support for or against the notion that the Spirit of the Lord appears visably before tragedy of any sort? I'll be posting some pretty heavy material on my more regular subjects in future posts but I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this one and other issues regarding the judgement of the Lord. For those of you that are hard pressed to believe in miracles you may want to read my study on Antisupernaturalism, Historical Critical Methodology & Miracles before you answer.

Blessed!

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The Emergence Of The Homosexual Rite

Happy Mother’s Day with much peace and love to all of the women that make life and everyday special for all of us who depend upon your love and stability in the midst of this raging tempest and storm we call life. May the blessings of the Lord be upon you!

New-New-New! Antisupernaturalism, Historical Critical Method & Miracles Pt. 1 & 2 is now at Dunamis2. This is a must read for the Bible student looking for the foundation of most new age and humanist philosophical beliefs.

Let no mother think that when she gave birth to a baby boy that somehow she gave birth to a girl or that when she gave birth to a baby girl that somehow she gave birth to a boy. Even in the day of hermaphrodite and cross-gender sensationalism, that has not happened.

Psalms 58:3 ~ "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."

These are the days of mind twisters, gender benders and ridiculous and absurd propositions that have gripped our postmodern culture complete with a resurgence of far eastern mysticism, philosophical practice and metaphysical thought.

As time has progressed our culture has been bombarded with assertions, presuppositions, and anti-Christ dogma that has created a chasm between traditional and historic interpretations of Biblical texts and modern day psychological, social, and new age agendas. It would seem that there is an increased desire to boldly, shamelessly and euphorically confess sins and in many cases even blaspheme and condemn God with complete forethought or premeditation.

One such example is the recent confession and supposed "enlightenment" of a former Episcopal Priest, Bob Semes, who proudly says that he "escaped from religion". Mr. Seems formed the Jefferson Center, a secular humanist/ atheist organization, in 2004 after publicly denying his faith and confessing his homosexuality. Although the Episcopal Church has openly embraced homosexuality this former priest went on to deny Christianity in general as a delusional pursuit of the mind:

"Most of my adult life has been spent following an illusion, and now I firmly believe I have managed to shake off most of those formative forces that have shaped so much of my life," he said. "I have come to slowly understand and to believe that the idea of the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition has been and is manufactured by human beings in their own image existing only to enable their daily life to be bearable."

I believe this was a shock to them who were married, buried and baptized by this guy over his 25 to 30 years of ministerial service. (well, except the ones buried…I suppose at the time, they couldn’t be shocked. Y’u-know what I mean) What about those who were counciled by him…by the way I failed to mention that at least on one occasion, one of his members tried to kill him after a counciling session…that could have been a sign that something was wrong…of course he blamed that on the failed system of Christianity to transform lives…

So get this, the SODOMITE becomes intoxicated with his sins, lives a secret life and in some cases a life of denial, gets disillusioned, leaves God and the church, blames God and tacks on (because they live such a raggedy personal life) that there is no God. So, in short, it's all the peoples fault for making him/her believe in God in the first place, and making their lives uncomfortable and miserable???? What Is That?

Have you noticed how personal and individual responsibility is totally out of the picture? There is no assessment of self, self-will, flesh or sin at all…the reasons for either "being" or "not being" are on the shoulders of everyone else.

This sort of worldview gives strength to and helps bolster an underlying belief that the homosexual's human genome was homosexual as opposed to heterosexual. (i.e.: I was born this way!) The question I ask all of the anti-God thinkers, and homosexuals, "Is homosexuality a defect or is it the norm? Is the homosexual genome sequence (if there is such a thing) a product of natural selection or a mutation?"

Since most homosexuals want us to believe that homosexuality is normal and just another diversity of mankind, like skin color, eyes and hair etc., I suppose the next step is that when scientific knowledge allows us to "grow" and manufacture 100% of our children outside of the womb (like in The Matrix), natural selection will finally deliver both heterosexual and homosexual genes so that our species can survive without any social or psychological problems stemming from sexuality or sexual morality….Then, what about the child molestation genome? Wouldn’t we have to make an allowance for that too…Then what about the sexual pervert and rapist genome??? And on, and on, and on…THIS IS ABSURD!

Prov. 14:12 ~ "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Equally disturbing is an anonymous, currently practicing, homosexual, Catholic Priest in his 50s who said this in response to questions about the Bible and homosexuality,

"This is a complex questions, and certainly not simplistic as some fundamentalists would try to have us believe. One such preacher quoted the gospel to a gay young man, "If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off." The New Testament also tells women to be quiet in church and to cover their heads! Ridiculous to literally apply what was said in a totally different culture 2000 years ago to the modern world. What is said is against abusive or manipulative or demeaning others. Certainly the Bible speaks against "unnatural" acts. Spilling of a man’s "seed" was seen as unnatural – of course this was well before the human ovum was discovered. Didn’t science once believe that masturbation could send you blind?! The value behind what is in the Bible remains true – our sexuality is for others, not just for our own hedonistic pleasure. There is more to life than hedonistic pleasure – more to life than being doped out and dancing with a chair or treating another person as a sexual object. Homosexuality is not yet understood by the sciences. The Bible must be read in that light, trying to see the values that lie beneath it – values that are worthwhile"

As you can see, this currently practicing Priest (Somewhere in the US) who has also been excommunicated by the Pope (when he does decide to reveal himself) has twisted all the issues; combining the sin of homosexuality with the polemic of order in the Corinthian Church. He also notes that "our sexuality is not "just" for our hedonistic pleasure" Whether he believes that homosexuality is hedonistic pleasure or not he doesn’t address. He just goes on to make a value statement depending upon future science and not God for the final answer. In other words his god becomes science and the philosophies of men. His god becomes silent and no greater than material and what we can see with our eyes.

What Does the Bible Really Teach Regarding The Issue Of Homosexuality?

I Cor. 6:9 ~ "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,"

Please Go to Homosexuality & The New Testament at our Dunamis2 site for the rest of this story. You don't want to miss this.

Blessed!

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