Bible Studies

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61. The Mindset of the Spirit by Jon von Ernst  
    When we have the mind-set of the flesh, we are unable to please God, because we see things according to the ability of the flesh and not according to the ability of God in the Spirit. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. When we have the mind-set of the flesh, we do not think in terms of faith and the Spirit, but rather in terms of the flesh.
    
    Also, there are many times when the mind-set of the flesh causes us to see the spiritual life of the believer in a very convoluted way. It may cause us to think that we are spiritual only when we are doing or saying ?spiritual? things. Perhaps it will cause us to think, that in order to be spiritual, we must be reading the Scriptures, preaching the gospel, or working full-time as a pastor or an evangelist. You can do all of these things and still not have the mind-set of the Spirit.
    
    On the other hand, we can be doing the most mundane activities of life, and have the mind-set of the Spirit. We can be cleaning the house, baking bread, disciplining our children, mowing the grass, or just working at our job, whatever it may be, and do so with the mind-set of the Spirit.
    
    The Lord does not empower us by the indwelling Spirit just to do ?spiritual? things. He empowers us by the indwelling of the Spirit to enable us to live the ordinary life in this flesh in a holy manner. He enables us to be over-comers as we endure all of the struggles and trials of everyday life.
    
    He empowers us by the indwelling Spirit to love the brothers, to provide for our family, to work to produce excess so we can provide for the needs of others, to provide hospitality, to visit the sick, to give food to the hungry and to give clothing to the naked. God is glorified when we live our routine daily lives in the glory of His presence. To do this, we need to know Him, and the tremendous blessings He has freely given us by His Spirit indwelling our spirit.
    
    
62. A God of Order by Jon von Ernst  
    The Scriptures make it very clear that we will all be held accountable for the things we do. We will all have to give an account of ourselves to God (Romans 14:12). It is important that each of us understands this fact. If we do understand it, that understanding will have a tremendous impact on how we live our lives, both in relation to the world around us, and in relation to God and His church.
    
    It is also essential that we understand that the God who will judge each of us is a God of order. God has established a very clear system of authority for all of creation. This order, especially as it pertains to the Christian believer, is clearly set forth in 1 Corinthians 11:3. Here Paul writes: ?But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ? (HCSB).
    Children are to submit to their parents. Employees are to submit to their employers. Everyone is to submit to the governing authorities. Wives are to submit to their own husbands. Men are to submit to Christ. God is a God of order. He has established a specific structure of authority for everyone. There is not a person in this world that is not required to submit respectfully to the authority that God has established over him. There are no exceptions.
    
    
63. Everything You Need by Jon von Ernst  
    At the coming judgment, many will try to give excuses for why we did not submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and live in obedience to Him. What excuse will you use?
    God requires that we love one another. This is God?s one basic requirement for every believer. There are no exceptions.
    If you are not fulfilling this basic requirement, it does not matter what else you might do for God, it is all meaningless and of no value. It is only when we have fulfilled God?s command to love one another, that we will have boldness to stand before Him, and will not have to make any excuses.
    So the real test is, how do I treat this person that God has placed right here next to me? How do I treat my spouse? I say I love God, but do I love this brother or sister that God has placed right here next to me? If not, then I cannot love God.
    
    
64. VERSES THAT CRUSH LEGALISTIC PERSPECTIVES by linzy bruno  
    "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled." (Titus 1:15)
    
    
65. Assurance of Salvation by Jon von Ernst  
    Anyone who preaches ?another gospel? or that assures another of their salvation is an enemy of the gospel. If a requirement of salvation is that we believe in our heart, how can we assure anyone of what is in their heart?
    Only God knows a person?s heart, and only God can give anyone an assurance of salvation. He does this by the witness of His Holy Spirit that He causes to dwell within the believer.
    This Spirit dwelling in the believer teaches him about Christ and spreads the love of God abroad in the believer?s heart. It is also by this love, the love that God gives the believer for the Christian brothers, that the person can be assured that they are saved.
    God wants believers to have an assurance that they are born again, that they are truly His children. However, God insists on being the only one His children look to for that assurance.
    
    Scripture sets forth only one gospel that we are to preach, the same gospel the apostles preached, the gospel of the kingdom. This gospel presents Jesus as having been given all authority by virtue of His having been raised from the dead by the power of God, and the necessity of our submitting wholeheartedly to that authority in all obedience.
    Anyone that preaches ?another gospel? or assures another that they are saved is an enemy of the gospel. Are you an enemy of the gospel? If you are, or have been, I urge you to repent and return to the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel found in the Bible. Return to proclaiming salvation through faith in Jesus and His resurrection from the dead and submission to His authority, confessing Him as Lord. In doing this, you will become a fellow laborer with the apostles, building up the kingdom of God.
    
    
    
66. Full Salvation by Jon von Ernst  
    If God quickened us, made us alive, by placing the Spirit of Christ within our spirit, then we have been saved. This is the salvation of our spirit.
    We find that Christ, by the power of His life within us, has also set us free from the control and dominance of sin in our lives.
    We no longer need to obey sin and be held in bondage to it. Christ has given us full salvation from sin by the power of His Holy Spirit indwelling our human spirit.
    We understand that our spirit was made alive when we were saved, by being born again. But now, much more than that, we shall be saved, by the power of His life working within us to transform our soul, to conform us to His very image. This is yet another aspect of salvation, the salvation of our soul.
    We begin to experience, more and more, that the love, joy, and peace in the Spirit is now gradually spreading out from our spirit into our very soul by the power of His indestructible life working within us. As we walk by the Spirit, in joyful submission to Jesus as our Lord, we continue to experience the gradual process of our soul being transformed into the image of Christ, as our mind is being renewed day by day. This is the salvation of our soul.
    As believers, we were saved when we were born again, when the Spirit of Christ made our spirit alive. We are being saved day by day as the life of Christ within us transforms our soul into His image. We will be saved when our body is transfigured at the last trumpet sound, when in a twinkling of an eye we are changed. We see yet another aspect of salvation. This refers to the salvation of our bodies.
    Our spirit has been saved, our soul is being saved, and our body will be saved. This is truly a full salvation.
    
    
67. Receiving the Promises by Jon von Ernst  
    When God begins to reveal to us who Jesus is, He commands us to believe on Him, to allow ourselves to be persuaded by the evidence of who Jesus is. As we yield ourselves to His speaking, and begin to believe in Jesus, we find ourselves starting to think differently about Jesus and about how we have been living. We begin to repent.
    
    As we repent, we begin to confess what we have come to realize in our heart about Jesus, that He truly is Lord of all. As we repent, and believe, and confess Jesus as Lord, we begin to realize something amazing is happening. It is like we are being born all over again, only this time we are not being born into a physical material world, but into a spiritual one. We begin the incredible experience of realizing that we have been transferred from death into life, from darkness into light. We begin to experience all the fear that we have lived with for our entire lives vanishing away, being washed away by floods of love, and joy, and peace, peace that surpasses all understanding.
    
    We begin to realize how much Christ suffered, how much He endured so that we would be able to be restored to fellowship with Him and with His Father in heaven. We just begin to scratch the surface of the depths of the love that God has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Simply obeying His command to believe resulted in the indescribable blessing of being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit into our spirit, making our spirit alive and restoring us to fellowship with God who is spirit. How much more does He have in store for us if we would continue to listen to His speaking and continue to obey Him?
    
    
68. Obedience to the Gospel by Jon von Ernst  
    When the people asked what they must do, Peter did not tell them, ?Everything has been done. Jesus did it all. There is nothing left for you to do.? No, rather, Peter said: ?Repent, and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.?
    
    Yes, Jesus did it all. He paid the full price required by God. He completed the work of atonement and redemption. During His life, and in His death on the cross, Jesus fulfilled every righteous requirement of God for our justification. However, Peter, realizing that even though Jesus had finished His work, there remained something that those who heard the gospel message still had to do to be saved.
    
    Peter gave them specific instructions as to what was expected of them, of what they had to do to be saved. Those that obeyed were added to the church that day. Those that accepted his message did works of obedience that, added to their faith, resulted in justification and the promise of eternal life.
    
    
69. The Gospel of the Kingdom by Jon von Ernst  
    This is the good news, the gospel, of the kingdom! By His Love for us, God has opened the way for anyone, no matter who you are or what you have done, to turn back to God and to be reconciled to Him, by trusting in and submitting to Jesus as your Lord and King. Only by complete submission to God?s King can anyone enter the Kingdom of God.
    This is the gospel of the kingdom as presented in the Bible. When we share the gospel of the kingdom, our message must focus on the person of Jesus, raised from the dead and made by God to be both Lord and Christ. We are to preach Jesus, and the kingdom of God just as the apostles did in the book of Acts.
    When we preach this gospel, declaring that Jesus is Lord and that all authority has been given unto Him, those that hear this message will be challenged. If they believe our message, they will be compelled to obey by submitting to the authority of Jesus as Lord. If they do not obey the gospel, they are condemned already and the wrath of God abides on them.
    Having now heard this gospel of the kingdom, they have the opportunity to decide whether they will believe it and receive Jesus as your Lord and Master, or whether they will reject this gospel, reject the Lordship of Jesus in your life, and continue to serve Satan.
    
    
70. Inheriting the Promises by Jon von Ernst  
    Believers now have the full promises of God restored to them. They now have the opportunity, through faithful obedience, to receive all of God?s promises, including eternal life. The believer is back to a situation very similar to that of Adam in the garden of Eden. Adam had two sources of life that he could choose to live by. Adam could choose to live by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or he could choose to live by the fruit of the tree of life.
    One, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where God is disrespected and disobeyed, where man is enabled to live in whatever way seems right to him, the end of which is death. The other, the tree of life, where God is believed and trusted as one that is good and wants the best for man, the end of which is eternal life.
    The born-again believer has now a similar situation. He has two natures, two different sources according to which he can choose to live. He can choose to live according to the flesh, or he can choose to live according to the Spirit.
    He is no longer a slave to sin, under sin?s control and domination. He can however choose to disrespect God and disobey God and live according to the lustful desires of the flesh, which leads to death. Or he can choose to believe God, trusting and honoring God as one that is good and desires and promises to provide only the best for man. The believer does this by living a life in humble obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit, resulting in sanctification, the end of which is eternal life (Romans 6:22) .
    
    
    
71. The Kindness and Severity of God by Jon von Ernst  
    Many Christians have the idea that once you are born again, your destiny is assured, and when you die or when the Lord returns, you will go to heaven and spend eternity in the Lord?s presence in the kingdom of God. Many seem to think that what they do between being born again and when they go to meet the Lord is not really that important. But what do the Scriptures say?
    
    In Romans 11, Paul writes to the believers in Rome warning them not to be conceited, or arrogant. He reminds them of how some of the natural olive branches, the children of Israel, were broken off from the natural olive tree because of their unbelief. These natural branches were broken off that we, the Gentiles, the wild olive branches, might be grafted in.
    
    He warned that we need to fear that if God broke off the natural branches because of their unbelief, He will break us off if we fail to continue steadfast in the faith. To those that continue to stand firm in their faith, God reveals His kindness. To those that fall into unbelief and disobedience, God reveals His severity. If God did not spare the natural branches, you can be sure He will not spare us if we are disobedient and unfaithful.
    
    
72. Called and Chosen and Faithful by Jon von Ernst  
    As Christians, we must understand that we will be judged by how we live this life, whether walking according to the Spirit, or walking according to the lusts of the flesh. Are we abiding in Christ, walking as He walked (1John 2:6)? Are we holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16)? The Spirit is given to born-again believers to enable them to live holy lives and to walk as Jesus walked, in full obedience to the Father.
    Our eternal destiny will depend on whether we walk in faithful obedience to the Lord and endure all hardship for His sake and for His glory. If we continue steadfast in the faith, we will receive that crown of righteousness. If we endure trials joyfully as an opportunity to learn obedience and to grow unto maturity in Christ, remaining faithful unto the end, we will receive that crown of righteousness.
    However, if we are unfaithful, we will suffer great loss. If we allow persecution and affliction to discourage us from walking in obedience to the Lord, we will be considered wicked, lazy and unfaithful servants. If we allow the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth to choke off the word that has been entrusted to us, we will be considered wicked, lazy and unfaithful servants. We will be as the unfruitful slave that was cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
    
    
    
73. The Elect by Jon von Ernst  
    Jesus told His disciples that the days of the great tribulation would be cut short for the sake of the elect. Matthew 24:20-22 says, ?Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.?
    
    Who are these ?elect,? and why would the Lord give them special consideration so as to even cut short the days of the great tribulation?
    
    
74. Suffering for Christ by Jon von Ernst  
    Paul is encouraging us about the importance of suffering with Christ. We suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him. He also reminds us that the sufferings in this life are so small and insignificant that they are not worthy to be compared with the unspeakably incredible glory that is to be revealed to us at Christ?s return; if we are faithful to suffer with Him.
    Philippians 1:29 tells us that God?s love for us and His desire for us to grow to maturity in Christ is such that He not only granted it to us to believe, but also to suffer for His sake. God allows us to go through times of hardship, affliction, and persecution because He loves us and He knows that these times are necessary for us to learn obedience, to learn to depend on Him and to bring us on to maturity, to complete sanctification in Christ.
    It is a blessing to suffer for Christ that we might be counted worthy of the kingdom. As our sufferings for Christ are abundant, so also is His grace toward us.
    Paul reminds us that Christ comforts us through our afflictions. He comforts us so that we may comfort others by the same comfort that we received in Christ.
    
    
75. The Day of the Lord by Jon von Ernst  
    
    
    To those that have believed and taught a pretribulation rapture, I would only ask, ?What if you are wrong?? What impact will it have on your faith and the faith of those you have taught if you should wake up and find that the great tribulation is taking place and all of us Christians are still here?
    
    I fear that most believers have been taught that Christians will not have to go through such a time of suffering, and therefore, are not prepared for it. We need to be those that encourage believers to be prepared to suffer for the Lord that they may be brought to maturity in Christ.
    
    We must not let fear keep us from trusting that God will give us grace sufficient to endure whatever trial we may encounter. He uses suffering in the life of His people to bring them to maturity, to perfect them.
    
    May we consider it a great joy whenever we experience various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance, knowing that God is working it for our good (James 1:2).
    
    
    
    
76. Spiritual Gifts by Jon von Ernst  
    The natural conclusion of the teaching that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased and that which is perfect is the completion of the Scriptures, is that people serving as pastors, teachers, evangelists are not the result of the Spirit?s gifting, but of the training received in Bible colleges and seminaries. The teaching that results is that there are no apostles or prophets today. They were only needed for the establishment and foundation of the church, but now that we have the completed Scriptures, they are no longer needed.
    However, if we examine the context of this passage of Ephesians, we will notice that it tells us clearly how long these gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers will continue.
    It is clear that the gifts of the Spirit have not ceased. They are desperately needed today for the building up of the church. These false teachings have produced a heart of unbelief in some churches, especially as regards the operation of the gifts of the Spirit. Instead of trusting the Holy Spirit?s gifting of the members of the body of Christ for the building up of the church, we have come to trust the teachings of man and the training of man by the institutions of man.
    
    
77. Being Built Up Together by Jon von Ernst  
    We need to be able to gather together with brothers of widely different backgrounds and discuss our beliefs and go to the Scriptures and examine rationally the basis for each perspective. We need to be able to do this, not to prove that we are right, but together, to reach a deeper, more scriptural understanding of God and of His ways. We each need to be humble enough to be taught by the Spirit and to be willing to give up any teaching of man that we may have adopted when we find it to be contrary to Scripture.
    We need to trust God that His Spirit within us is able, by the love of God that has been poured abroad in our hearts, to empower us to love brothers with whom we do not agree on every issue. We need to be willing to fellowship together, disagreeing at times on various issues, and yet embracing each other as brothers in Christ, as members of the one body, being built up together as a spiritual habitation of God in the Spirit.
    
    
    
78. Building the Church by Jon von Ernst  
    To many people, the idea of building a church means to build up and strengthen the organization in which their church exists. This organization is composed of bylaws, a constitution, a governing board, and the staff they direct and the facilities and programs that they operate and maintain. So, it is only natural that they are concerned with all of the items mentioned above that are often the focus of their discussions on how to build their church.
    However, in this brief study, I am not going to focus on how to build up a modern church organization, but rather on how to build up the church as set forth in the Scriptures. This church in the New Testament is not an organization. It is an organism, a living body. It is the body of the resurrected Christ.
    
    
    
79. The Head of the Church by Jon von Ernst  
    Throughout His time on earth, Jesus continually taught His disciples. One lesson He stressed to them repeatedly was that of His unique place as head of the assembly, the church. He stressed that no one should exalt themselves over any other person in the church.
    Not only did Jesus stress this matter repeatedly to His disciples, He also confronted the religious leaders of His day concerning their arrogant ungodly behavior.
    This is why these Christians, assembling together as the true church, tolerate no person usurping the headship that is reserved only for the Lord, Jesus the Christ.
    
    
80. One New Man, The Church by Jon von Ernst  
    This is something that every believer, Jew and Gentile alike, needs to be keenly aware of. Jesus accomplished God?s eternal purpose on the cross by making the two groups into one new man in Himself. God?s eternal purpose is to have one body, prepared as a bride, without spot or wrinkle. It is for this bride that Christ is returning. God?s eternal purpose is that of a loving father longing to have a spotless bride to present to His son. This is the ultimate expression of God?s love.
    
    
81. The Blessedness of Giving by Jon von Ernst  
    One of the great things about giving directly to the poor is that it requires us to look to the Lord for direction about who to give to and how much and when and how to give. When someone tithes to their church, it is easy. It does not require any relationship with the Lord. Basically, they are just paying someone else to seek the Lord and decide where and how their money should be distributed.
    When someone desiring to keep the law tithes to their church, they may feel that they have done their legally required religious duty. They may feel they have paid their share, and they might expect that the poor will be taken care of and that they themselves will receive a well-prepared and well-delivered sermon, as well as a well-maintained facility. Tithing can give a false sense of righteousness without any real relationship with the Lord.
    However, all are greatly benefited when each looks in faith to the Lord. Some will be greatly blessed as they look to the Lord for the provision of their needs. Others will be greatly blessed when they look to the Lord for where, when and how much to give. Living by faith and giving by faith are very important aspects of growing in Christ.
    
    
    
82. Remember the Sabath by Jon von Ernst  
    What does it mean for a believer to ?Remember the Sabbath?? It means to cease from our own works and totally rest in the completed redemption work of Christ. It means to honor Christ by believing in Him and setting Him apart as holy, believing that His blood is sufficient for our justification.
    
    Being set free from the dominion of sin and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit to live a holy life in full obedience to God is the essence of the Sabbath rest. It is here, abiding in Christ, our Sabbath, that we truly have rest because He is our peace.
    
    
83. Understanding Salvation by Jon von Ernst  
    When Jesus, as the Spirit of Truth, comes to indwell our spirit, He makes us alive to God. He becomes our life and has promised that he will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). We have been saved by this salvation of our spirit. This aspect of eternal salvation is completed when our spirit is born of the Holy Spirit.
    This, however, is not the end of the salvation process. It is just the beginning. When we are born again, our spirit is made alive; we have been saved. We now embark on the next phase of the salvation process, the salvation of our soul.
    Now the Lord begins to work within us to transform us, to change our desires, how we think, and talk, and act. God begins the life-long process of conforming us to His image.
    He accomplishes this purpose of transformation, of conformation, by teaching us to hear His voice and to obey His speaking as we look to Him and submit to Him as Lord.
    
    
84. Reconciliation and Freedom by Jon von Ernst  
    God looked at Abel and saw that he trusted in the shedding of the blood. God looked at the children of Israel at the Passover and saw that they trusted in the shedding of the blood. God looked at those under the Law of the first covenant and saw that they were trusting the blood. Today God looks at us to see if we are trusting in the blood that was shed when Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
    When God saw the blood applied by faith to the door posts and lentils, He passed over them and they were not harmed by the angel of death. When God looks at us today, He looks to see if our faith is in Christ and in the blood he shed for us.
    
    
    
85. Separation from God by Jon von Ernst  
    By Adam?s one act of rebellion and disobedience, we were all constituted as sinners. We were made sinners because through Adam?s one act, the nature of mankind was changed. Our nature was transformed in the moment of disobedience from innocence to sinfulness. We now sin because we are sinners by nature. There is a thing within us that is not good. It is this sin within us that causes us to sin. The sin within us causes us to do the things that we don?t want to do. Mankind has become slaves to sin.
    
    
86. Receiving the Holy Spirit by Jon von Ernst  
    I believe that many people never received the Spirit when they believed because they never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. They had merely heard the gospel of repentance. They may have been led to feel sorry for their sins. They may have been baptized in water. They may have even gone through the motions of repeating a prayer asking for forgiveness and asking Jesus to come into their heart. But through this entire process, they never even heard that there was a Holy Spirit.
    
    Since believing, they may have joined a church. They may have begun reading the Bible. They may have made vows about living for the Lord and ceasing from sin. Yet, instead of embarking on lives overflowing with love, joy, and peace, they have experienced lives of struggle and frustration. They continually try to be better. They try to please God. But they find they do not have the power or the ability to do it. They need the Holy Spirit!
    
    
87. Understanding Scripture by Jon von Ernst  
    The Scriptures are spiritual and must be spiritually understood. The natural man is not able, not having the Spirit of Christ within him, to understand the Scriptures, because, being spiritual, they are discerned only through the Spirit. They just don?t make sense to the natural man. It does not matter how well educated you are or how many degrees you may have. Without the Spirit, you do not have the ability to understand the Scriptures.
    
    Many people today, however, are sold on the importance of studying the Scriptures, of poring over them, of analyzing them, because they think that in doing so they will find a deeper understanding of God and of His ways. But they are unwilling to come to and completely trust in the One of whom the Scriptures speak, the One that has the power to give them life and to give them understanding.
    
    If we know the power of God, Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit dwelling in our human spirit, God, by this power, will teach us all that is ours in Christ. He will reveal the truth in Scripture to us.
    
    
88. Following in His Steps by Jon von Ernst  
    When, by faith in Christ Jesus, we are born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, we not only experience our sins being forgiven and ourselves being reconciled to God, we also begin to experience the ?much more? that God has provided for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We begin the process of sanctification, the process of being saved by grace through the power of His life working within us to accomplish God?s will within each of us.
    
    This will begins to be accomplished in us as we enter into a relationship with the Father. This relationship with the Father creates within each believer an innate desire to please Him in all things.
    
    In pursuing this desire, we begin to experience, more and more, God?s incredible love for us. We find that the more we demonstrate our love for His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, by submitting completely to His authority as Lord, and obeying Him, the more we come to experience and understand this amazing love that God has for us.
    
    
89. An Intimate Relationship by Jon von Ernst  
    Christ died and rose again that we might experience the same intimacy as He had with the Father. Christ endured to the end, empowered by the Holy Spirit to both know and to do the Father?s will.
    
    He did this that we might now freely partake of this same oneness that He had with the Father, the most intimate relationship possible for any human being to experience. Praise the Lord, this intimate relationship is now freely available, by faith, to every person in Christ!
    
    
    
    
90. An Intimate Relationship by Jon von Ernst  
    Christ died and rose again that we might experience the same intimacy as He had with the Father. Christ endured to the end, empowered by the Holy Spirit to both know and to do the Father?s will.
    
    He did this that we might now freely partake of this same oneness that He had with the Father, the most intimate relationship possible for any human being to experience. Praise the Lord, this intimate relationship is now freely available, by faith, to every person in Christ!
    
    
    
    

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