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Tag: Gospel

The Gospel is Good News to all who will humbly accept Jesus and listen to His teaching.

We refer to the four books of the Bible which tell the story of Jesus Christ as the Gospels. These books are named for their authors: Matthew, a Jewish Apostle; Mark, a disciple of the first generation who recorded accounts of Peter and the Twelve; Luke, a gentile Physician and disciple of the first century; and John, one of the Twelve Jewish Apostles chosen by Jesus.

John 3:16 – God’s Love
.. so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 b

The Bible’s best known verse

John 3:16 KJV – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth

STOP! You lost them on “whosoever and believeth.” (No one talks like that anymore except fanatics and crazy people with signs.)

Nearly everyone has heard it. God so loved the world. – John 3:16

“So what?” think all the worldly viewers of your very public witness.

And you want everyone to know the same love of our savior you have experienced (and they are so worldly). Yet every time they give you that “so what?” look.

You may have even memorized John 3:16 as a child, but do you even get it as one mature in Christ?

In fact, have you truly read all of this chapter of John recently or have you ever studied John 3?

As I mentioned in the previous post, Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus about Spirit continues past John 3:16. Nicodemus, a faithful Jew, would have listened and considered every word of the Messiah of Israel.

Let’s step back from witnessing to the world for just a moment of personal reflection in the Spirit.

A Contemporary Conversation

Even Christians fail to consider that Jesus spoke every word of witness fully aware that the end of His earthly mission was death — even death on a Cross.

And so is your end, son or daughter of dust – your end is death and your destiny an awakening to the Judgment.

Yet only in God’s Son will you have eternal life, mercy to save your soul from damnation you deserve, penalty for the sins of this mortal life.

Those you have wronged cry out for justice. Almighty God, ‘el Shadday, from whom you walked away, grieves as a Father over the hardness of your heart.

Why, just as Satan and your enemies have accused, you deserve no mercy.

Has your unconverted friend or estranged family member given weight and consideration that we will perish? Do they see in Jesus eternal life in the Light of His love?

This challenging dialogue from John’s Gospel confronts every mortal with a life or death decision: accountability to facing the LORD, with … or without repentance.

Jesus’ Dialogue with Nicodemus, Good News for the world witnessed by John

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

Visit of Nicodemus to Christ

The Apostle John certainly records this dialogue with Nicodemus as a witness. John would have been present. His understanding at the time would not have been as complete as after the Resurrection, but John records a remarkable conversation.

This learned Jewish official refers to Jesus as his teacher – a Master instructing him.

And in the room with Jesus sit John, Nicodemus, and perhaps others seeking to learn more from their Messiah.

You should join them.

In this dialogue with Jesus, you should listen to Jesus’ answers to informed questions of this learned ruler of Israel, who acknowledges his own place at the foot of the living Son of Man.

And be certain to set aside what you think you know about Jesus and listen.

John 3:

Nicodemus: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…

Jesus: “.. no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

Nicodemus: “How can a man be born when he is old? ..

Jesus: “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus: “How can these things be?

Jesus: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

“Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen,

“and you receive not our witness.

Jesus confronts us with truth!

Do you receive it? Or do you need to hear more from the Spirit to be convinced?

Beloved listener, now witness to this dialogue with Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews at the feet of Jesus for His teaching, what further proof do you need?

Jesus: “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

“No one has ascended into heaven…

except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.

So Jesus’ truth and question to the listener is:

Do you believe that Jesus IS the Son of Man, the Messiah of God, descended from heaven – in the flesh?

What will Jesus say to Nicodemus and the world of why He has descended lower than the angels to be born into the womb of a woman of dust?

Miracle of the Cross

14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
Sign of a Raised Serpent

“We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. – Numbers 21:7

The LORD intercedes for sinners… repentant sinners.

“so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

Nicodemus and every religious ruler of the Jews since Moses understand. Sin must be punished! A remedy for sin requires not only repentance, but sacrifice זֶבַח.

Silence in the Presence of the Lord

The leader of the Pharisees also remains silent in the presence of Jesus.

Perhaps one scripture or another of response to hearing God’s Word comes to mind for Nicodemus, such as these words of the Prophet Isaiah.
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Then I said:

Woe is me for I am ruined

because I am a man of unclean lips

and live among a people of unclean lips,

and because my eyes have seen the King,

the LORD of Armies.
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John 3:16

We have listened with expectation to Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus, wondering along with the Apostle John what the Messiah will reveal next. In these most beloved words Jesus reveals the reason for His own Sacrifice at a time still unknown to them.

“For God loved the world in this way:

or “God loves the world this much:

John’s Gospel would have been completed perhaps three decades after this conversation with Nicodemus. The world would be those to whom it is written at the time, a Greco-Roman world, believers in Greece, Asia-minor or modern-day Turkey. These gentile believers, along with Jews who accept Jesus as the Messiah, know that we are the world κόσμος kosmos to whom Jesus speaks.

Nicodemus and Jews wondering if John the Baptist or Jesus could be their Messiah would have considered Scripture as Jesus speaks these words.

וְהוּא יִשְׁפֹּֽט־תֵּבֵל בְּצֶדֶק יָדִין לְאֻמִּים בְּמֵישָׁרִֽים׃
Psalm 9:8

And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

Judge of the World

You want someone to judge righteousness, don’t you?

Yet who can judge the sins of others? Certainly not christians, as we often do. This is just one of the reasons the world hates Christ, but it is not the only reason.

Who do you want to judge your own sin? Can you stand before the Judge of the world (whoever He may be)?

He gave his one and only Son,

Healing of the Serpent, Healing by the Cross

John Wesley makes the connection of the Serpent lifted up in the wilderness [v.15] and the healing for believers by gazing upon Christ.

He must be lifted up, that hereby he may purchase salvation for all believers: all those who look to him by faith recover spiritual health, even as all that looked at that serpent recovered bodily health.

Yea, and this was the very design of God’s love in sending him into the world.

God so loved the world – That is, all men under heaven: even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally perish.
John Wesley

Eternal Life or Judgment?

… so that everyone who believes in him will not perish,but have eternal life.

Yes, all believers: Jews (Messianic Jews, as we know know them), Gentiles (the rest of the world), Greeks and Romans.

You do not want to think of eternal life, but only this waning existence we call life. It is in the flesh and all realize it will end. But eternal life? That would be something else to consider, especially if it could contain the just punishment of our considerable sin and unrighteousness.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

So Jesus was not sent to condemn the world. This the Lord confirms to Nicodemus and those of you listening intently to the Messiah. Jesus came to save the world through him. Substitution for a required sacrifice, justification required for acquittal from our deserved sentence for sin.

18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned,

Good News!

This is Good News to the Pharisee Nicodemus, who by his knowledge of Scripture believes in the resurrection.

And it is Good News to and who listen to the Messiah, the Son of God our Father in Heaven.

Yet Jesus adds something here christian-sounding false preachers reject. In fact, as much as we would like for this Good News to apply to all of our loved ones and friends, it does not.

… but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Sorry … your mom or your dad, your brother, sister or friend, your misleading ‘good’ religious teacher – all are condemned, if they do not substitute this God-sent Sacrifice, Christ Jesus, for their own sin.

19 This is the judgment:

And why? Why does a loving God accept some for eternal life, yet punish others for not accepting the Messiah Jesus as their Lord?

Darkness or Light?

The light has come into the world,

Jesus IS the Light of Almighty God!

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men,” John testifies.
John 1:4

… and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

It’s true. We would hide our sin in the shadows.

Yet in the Judgment hiding sin is not an option. In the Light of Christ, the Messiah of the Lord God, we have life eternal only because He paid this dear price and severe penalty for our sin.

Here we sit listening to Jesus, along with Nicodemus. Or here we now sit reading the truth of the Word.

To which mortal souls of the world will you run?

20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

²¹But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

We must believe in Jesus to have eternal life.

Nicodemus, now in his later life, will leave the meeting in darkness to come to the light and practice the truth, true religion in his later life. John is the only Disciple who will not lose his life for his witness of Christ Jesus.

Shortly after this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, John the Baptist will be beheaded for his witness that Jesus is the promised Messiah of God.

The Invitation of John 3:16

And what of your witness and mine in these last days?

What has the Spirit put on your heart as you have listened with Nicodemus to the only begotten Son of God?

Jesus would love you!
o mortal of dust,
wonderfully formed
with water and spirit.

Yet will you love
the Son who came down,
born like you
to be crucified on a Cross?

Just to save
your sinful soul?
Just to save
your sinful soul.
Jesus So Loves the World
Jesus would love you!
Roger@talkofJesus.com
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God's Love Through John
to be continued...
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October 16, 2018
God’s Love Through John: Of water and the Spirit
“Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Christ Jesus – Gospel of John 3:5

The Apostle John begins his Good News with creation then proceeds to verify the identity of Christ as prophesied and witnessed in Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Previously I addressed the very question of God, for not everyone believes in Almighty God, creator of the heavens and earth. We will for the moment skip over the powerful testimony of John the Baptist and continue with creation.

Do you believe in God?

If so, it must follow that you want to know more about God. John refers to Jesus as logos or ‘the Word.’ He tells us: “… the Word was God.”

Therefore, Jesus IS at the beginning – He created with God and He IS God.

Note that the Hebrew word for God, אֱלֹהִים ‘elohiym is plural. Jesus speaks of Himself in this same plural sense.

John 3:11, “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

Perhaps you believe in God, but do you believe what God says?

Jesus speaks the very words of God!

John acknowledges the Messiah Jesus the Son as part of the One True God; but John witnesses even more. So let’s continue with the nature of God, also considering Spirit and the intangible attributes of that which is unseen.

John introduces the Holy Spirit in a dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus.

Nicodemus, a faithful Jew

Visit of Nicodemus to Christ painting by John La Farge

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and therefore believed in the resurrection. His learned position as a leader of the Jews brought him to question Jesus, who had performed many miracles.

John 3:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

We make the same mistake, thinking of birth as creation. It is not.

Just as the resurrection marks an event uniting a created soul with God, birth is an event marking a new existence of that which was already created. The birth of the flesh marks an event connected to the breath of a baby whose spirit is formed by the Lord.

Just as you don’t know the path of the wind,
or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman,
so also you don’t know the work of God who makes everything.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 CSB

Does the work of God in the spirit of man end with the end of our flesh? The Pharisees and Jesus believed the spirit to exist beyond the life of man. (We will not here discuss the nature and timing of the resurrected body here.)

Note that the Hebrew word for wind, רוּחַ ruwach, is equivalent to ‘spirit,’ which we note in the creation narrative of Genesis.

Genesis 1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

A description of a chaotic void of darkness, an emptiness, watery depths describes a formless space without purpose or life itself. Yet God, specifically the Spirit of God (רוּחַ ruwach אֱלֹהִים ‘elohiym) was moving over this formless void.

God IS the only Life in the instant of creation.

Jesus tells Nicodemus, ‘you should know that God is Spirit.’

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Born of water

Genesis 1:6-7 Then God said,

“Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.”

So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so.

Consider for a moment that if Jesus is the logos, the very spoken Word of God, then these Mosaic quotes may be attributed to the Messiah.

Jesus implies, ‘I AM He who separated the waters and I tell you that you must be born of water and the Spirit.’

Be born again from your chaotic sinful life into the resurrection, reborn pure and forgiven that you might have eternal life.

John also witnesses a connective symbolism between the pure water and the blood at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.

John 2:

6 Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification…

7 “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim… the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine)…

11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

John then tells us how after this Jesus goes to Jerusalem and cleanses the Temple marketplace. As a result of these events Nicodemus will come to Jesus privately one night.

23 While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.

John points out additional connections between the purification water and the purification of the wine of the Passover sacrifice. In his first letter John speaks again of this rebirth as he writes to the church:

1 John 5:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

6 Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement.

Born of flesh

Imagine a personal conversation with God! The Lord, a flesh and blood ‘Son of Man’ as Jesus referred to himself, answers a learned teacher of scripture. He essentially suggests to Nicodemus that what is created of water and Spirit is different from our flesh created from dust.

Water becomes essential to bones and flesh, as blood flowing with life. Spirit separates the chaos of created man from the lifeless nature of a formless and godless earth.

Perhaps Jesus referred to the scripture from Ecclesiastes in His dialogue with Nicodemus asking about being born of water and the Spirit.

10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied.

Jesus, the Messiah in the flesh, tells Nicodemus that we must be born again – born again in the Spirit.

John the Baptist and many other Prophets urged true believers in the Lord to repent. Jesus also preached repentance and emphasizes a return to a new and pure relationship between the Spirit of God and the spirit of a man.

To be ‘born again’ is much more than mere repentance, which may be temporal and lacking in guilt, contrition and an earnest desire for the cleansing of sin.

Our born again spirit is rebirth of a relationship between the new spirit of changed flesh and the Spirit of the Living God.

John also witnesses much more of the difference between spirit and flesh, mostly in the spoken words of Christ Jesus.

“The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
John 6:63

Born of Spirit

The concepts of spirit, as in the Holy Spirit and the spirit of man, is more complex than what we can address in discussion of John’s Gospel, letters and the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John. Jesus’ simple reply to Nicodemus that we must be born again does point to the Holy Spirit.

For a more detailed study worthy of academic study of Scripture as Nicodemus would have been familiar see the entry below:

“Holy Spirit.” Examples where the Person is meant when the article is absent… Sometimes the absence is to be accounted for by the fact that Pneuma (like Theos) is substantially a proper name, e.g., in Jhn 7:39. As a general rule the article is present where the subject of the teaching is the Personality of the Holy Spirit, e.g., Jhn 14:26, where He is spoken of in distinction from the Father and the Son. See also Jhn 15:26 and cp. Luk 3:22…
The subject of the “Holy Spirit” in the NT may be considered as to His Divine attributes; His distinct Personality in the Godhead; His operation in connection with the Lord Jesus in His birth, His life, His baptism, His death; His operations in the world; in the church; His having been sent at Pentecost by the Father and by Christ; His operations in the individual believer; in local churches; His operations in the production of Holy Scripture; His work in the world, etc.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary:

What does it mean to be ‘born again?’

We could, as many do, become entangled in more theological argument of what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3 and consequently neglect John’s witness of what Jesus reveals about the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus states that we must be born again in Spirit. Where else does John mention this?

Because the Holy Spirit commonly the Person of God most misrepresented and least mentioned, let’s look first to the examples cited in Vine’s Dictionary (above) to the scriptures from John.

“The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He [Jesus] said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
John 7:38-39 CSB

In our next post we will take a look at the witness of John the Baptist, who also bears witness to Jesus receiving the Holy Spirit, to which the Apostle John refers here.

Jesus, prior to His crucifixion and resurrection in the flesh and in the spirit, instructs the Apostles further about the Holy Spirit.

John 14:

25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

Jesus’s Gift of Peace
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

Who would not love a personal counselor like this? Jesus promises a Person with His same love in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Later John affirms this testimony of Jesus:

“When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father — the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father — he will testify about me.
“You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
John 15:26-27

John is witness and testifies to this for many years, more years than all other Apostles. Jesus also refers to the Holy Spirit as ‘the Spirit of truth.’

Does one desiring God seek truth?

John provides both witness and explanation of the Truth. Therefore, even in this present day we would not want to miss what he shares with the church in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.

“Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be harmed by the second death.
Revelation 2:11
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God’s Love Through John: To be continued...
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September 13, 2018
God’s Love Through John: In the Beginning
The Gospel of John

John 1:1 ESV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

1:1 ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος

The Apostle John begins his Gospel prologue with inspired, nearly unparalleled words pointing back to Genesis 1. Every Jew who knew God knew the beginning of the the Pentateuch.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz.

John connects creation with logos, literally the word for word in the Greek. Jesus is the Person of the spoken Word of Elohim! אֱלֹהִים

2 He was in the beginning with God.

In essence John proclaimed:

Jesus IS in the beginning, Jesus is with Elohim, Jesus IS Elohim!

Basic Belief: Do you believe in God?

John begins by categorically stating that Jesus IS the One True God.

This is Good News to those who believe. Yet even if you do not believe in the One God, John proclaims this Gospel as challenge to our misconceptions of the Creator.

Every Greek knew the importance of logos. A secondary use of the word logos, familiar to unbelieving Greeks who claimed many gods, is its use as respect to the MIND alone.

Think about this, John tells those who do not know God.

Reason through it and try calculating the logic of this relationship between a Power you cannot measure and a Person whom we have regarded. And again, John points to creation:

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:3 CSB

The First Letter of John

In his first letter to the church John begins in a similar fashion when addressing those who already follow Christ Jesus in the first century.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …

1 John 1:1 CSB

The Disciple Jesus loved gives followers of The Way a testimony of his own witness of ‘God in the flesh’ in the Person of the Messiah of God.

Orazio Fidani, Saint John the Apostle, c. 1640-56

John, now a fully mature Elder, tells his churches, gatherings of believers in Christ:

We know that Jesus IS who He says He IS. We are witnesses to the facts and preach our testimony to you you.

Jesus IS God and we have personally seen, heard, observed and touched the Living God!

Good news for believers.

4 ‘We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete,’ John writes to believers.

Jesus, the Christ, a personal Lord who loves and ministers to sinners.

The Beginning and the End

John’s Gospel and three letters reveal Jesus as the Christ, Almighty God as One with the eternal Person of the Son of Man.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John speaks to the beginning of Creation, in addition to providing troubling imagery of the apocalypse of the heavens and earth.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 1:8 CSB

John’s Vision of the Risen Lord

⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

The Apostle John, whom we picture as a young man mentored by Jesus, reveals much more about the Lord.

Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and earth, in whose image man is made, IS; in the Person of Jesus, a Savior to eternal life to those He loves.

Jesus will also judge rebellious sinners and cleanse creation of all unrighteousness. The LORD will make all things right.

John, through Christ, reveals the ending:

Revelation 21:3b Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

John’s Good News

Jesus loves you. This is John’s message. God is immeasurably more than an understood Power. Jesus shows God as a loving Father who also gives freedom to mankind to choose eternal life or deserved punishment for sin.

Do you believe in One God? Can you relate to Almighty God as a loving Father of a chosen family? In Christ Jesus we have seen the Lord!

John gives us both brief glimpses and detailed accounts of the Logos, the Very Word of God.

No mere mortal can fully fathom the ever-existent Creator of all things and of all men, even in the personal witness of John. Yet John reveals even more of the completeness of the One True God through consideration of the Spirit of God, the subject of our next look at understanding the Lord through the eyes of the Disciple Jesus loved.
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To be continued...
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September 6, 2018