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blessings, commandments, curses, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, faith, God's love, God's voice, heart, love, obedience, T.A. Sparks
“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” (Is 44:3 ESV)
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)
Do we want to get to know God better? Do we want to receive a deep(er) revelation of Christ’s intimate love for us? I do not know about you, but as for me, I know I want these things. If we find ourselves somehow stuck in our spiritual situation, it might be that we have failed to see the most obvious things by ignoring God’s still small voice of warning regarding those matters that are really important to Him. So, what is important to God? If we carefully read chapter 28 in the Book of Deuteronomy, we might see to what extent obedience to God’s commandments is blessed and how far disobedience is cursed. I only chose to take the two respective verses of introduction so that we can see the consequences of our (un)readiness to listen to and to finally follow our Shepherd’s voice. We read,
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you TODAY, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” (Dt 28:1-2 ESV – emphasis added)
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you TODAY, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” (Dt 28:15 ESV – emphasis added)
Sometimes it is not so much about the bigger things like to not yell at someone who wronged us and made us mad or to not gossip about our neighbor who behaves strangely at times. Hmm… or have we perhaps thought these were the smaller things? 🙄 It might be different for everyone of us, dependent on our natural inclination. Some people never gossip because they do not like to talk at all and others who like to talk can, of course, more easily be caught in situations where they run others down through idle or even malicious gossiping. Although I believe it is mainly our heart that matters to God – not so much our moral uprightness UNLESS our good manners have sprung from a completely new and God-given heart – we ought to be cautious how we as Christians talk or write in public, since, shouldn’t we be the light of the world? 🙄
It should not come to us as a big surprise that this world loves gossip and tittle-tattle. You only need to read the headlines of the news and you know what I mean. I know that the Holy Spirit usually convicts us also about these and other sins. But brothers and sisters, let’s just look at another ‘small thing’ that can easily be ignored. Imagine you follow Christian blogs and read their writings. Maybe, you like it, maybe you don’t. But even if we don’t like all what we read, yet use parts of what others were inspired to write about in our own entries without giving them credit, don’t we think that the Holy Spirit might be grieved? 🙄
Below you can find some thoughts by T. Austin Sparks on the connection between obedience and blessing. The blessing in this excerpt is the deeper revelation of God in Christ, a spiritual blessing which is typical for the New Covenant we live in, while the ‘lists’ of more material blessings and curses you can look up in Deuteronomy 28 primarily belong to the Old Covenant. But God who never changes still loves His people’s obedience and might chasten continuous disobedience by a professed Christian. Please note, I do NOT speak about new believers here who stumble from one small sin into the other, hardly able to discern what is right and what is wrong! Instead, I thought about those of us who have been walking by faith for many years and should know better. Just think about it for a moment… Can anyone of us seriously say they love God and then intentionally (!) disobey Him? Doesn’t Scripture take us to task as we hear Jesus say, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” (Jn 14:21 ESV)? T. Austin Sparks said it this way.
“The progressive knowledge of God in Christ is to the heart that trusts and the heart which has a disposition to obey the Lord.
“Be careful about the word “obey”. So often we mentally have a kind of catalogue of things about which we think obedience is required, and we reduce the whole matter of obedience to some of these things, and when we hear a word spoken about being obedient to the Lord we either think of some ordinance that we have got to obey, or some outstanding thing that has been a matter of reservation; some question or some fear. Let us remember that this kind of obedience the Lord speaks of is all-round obedience. It is not just the public obedience to the Lord in outstanding things. It is obedience in secret. Very often we are found out in the matter of obedience away back in the secret place where no one else in all the world knows anything about that particular thing, and the Lord has just mentioned that to us.
Sometimes it is in our domestic life. The Lord has said something about a thing that wants attending to, something that is not to His glory, and obedience touches there. It might be in our business life. It may be anywhere, just something that is not according to the mind of the Lord, and if only we were to allow ourselves to reflect upon it, we should know that that is not glorifying to the Lord. Obedience touches that, and remember that whatever may be the amount of teaching that you get in conferences or in meetings, this resurrection manifestation of the Lord to your heart can never come where there is not the obedience of love in every realm of your being. Lack of obedience shuts the door to revelation to the heart if there is not this disposition to see to things about which the Lord speaks, whatever they may mean.” (1)
Just for clarification, the knowledge of God in Christ Sparks wrote about does not consist in mere head knowledge about God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, Scriptures, creeds, doctrine, dogmatics etc. It is simply about knowing (read loving) God with our whole being, or rather about being loved by Him (1 Cor 8:1) by responding to the love received (Rom 5:5). What we really need to know, then, comes to us by revelation through the Holy Spirit as we obey the One Who loves us and Whom we have come to love, too.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12:28-31 ESV)
(1) http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003119.html
“In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks’ wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely – free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.”
Entering the Promised Land 
Susanne! This is so good! You put your finger right on where the problem lies with the church and most of us Christians. WE DO NOT LISTEN TO HIS VOICE as we should.
It seems that REAL love and listening to the one we love and who loves us, go together. I think that all too often we only give those who are speaking to us half an ear at best. The more we are familiar with that person, the worse it gets. My granddaughter had a college roommate that would stop what she was doing and look her in the face and pay full attention to her when she spoke. It really touched and impressed her so much because it was so rare.
You quoted:
Add to that verses like these:
Hearing, loving and obeying the voice of our God, TODAY, not only what God said and was written down in the Bible 2000 plus years ago! Jesus did not leave us alone, but He left us His Spirit to abide in our spirits to lead us into all truth and Father desires us to live in truth in our inward most being, in our hearts, so what Sparks said here really struck home:
Susanne, you shared one of these instances that Sparks was speaking of with me today where Daddy touched your heart and as you set your mind to obey Him, He gave you the grace to do it. How often I have heard Him speak to me like that and I did not listen and obey. How easy it is to harden our hearts to His voice.
Thank you, precious sister, for sharing your heartfelt insights and experiences with us. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Michael
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You’re so welcome as to the sharing, Michael. Thank you for your encouragement and for providing these additional Scriptures as another confirmation of my message. Very helpful! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I do agree that it is very easy to ignore God’s voice and to go on with business as usual. That was very good observation, too, as you said,
“I think that all too often we only give those who are speaking to us half an ear at best. The more we are familiar with that person, the worse it gets.”
Yes! This is also true if we think we got God figured out and stop asking Him about certain issues, presuming there would be no big surprises for us ahead anymore (just “preaching” THIS to myself! 🙂 )
Lets try to listen more often to what He has to say to us… TODAY… in the HERE and NOW!
Your sister and friend,
Susanne
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I so need help with knowing how to hear GOD for sure. As you know from other comments I try to show love or that I have love for GOD by doing what other Christians tell me that I should do. I mean I want to show that I love GOD so I do what they say. This how ever has caused a lot of conflicts and confusion for me because not every Christian agrees. Just last night I was conflicted about doing something I felt if I didn’t do it I was not obeying GOD and if I did it I felt as if I was also not obeying GOD. This sort of thing has happened a lot even just reading this blog. I felt a pull to read it and a pull not to read it.
I have been paying to have all other voices gone and to only hear the voice of GOD. I normally only find out during or after that I actually disobeyed GOD.
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Dear Fred,
It is a very long process until we get more confident of having clearly heard HIS voice since there are sooo many other voices closing in on us every day, from our old nature (self), from co-workers, family members, friends, neighbors, media etc. For me it is important to find some solitary and secluded time every day where no human being, as much as I might love them, is allowed to disturb and distract me. That does not necessarily mean that I always leap with joy because of being in God’s presence since sometimes it is all about doubts, tears and fears. But at least my worried and hurried thought life straightens up and my soul calms down when I try to seek His face on a prayer walk or on a bike ride. Being in nature helps me a lot since I live in a city where it is more difficult to find some real rest.
As for disobedience in general, my blog post was more addressed to those who should know what severe disobedience is. When we are still beginners in faith, Fred, we hardly learn from our ‘obedient’ times. Instead, we need to make many ‘mistakes’ until we realize in hindsight when we ignored God’s voice and when we actually listened to Him. We learn by trial and error for God’s subtle nudges can very easily be ignored, esp. when you are surrounded by ‘Christians’ who know it all better. There is also something like peer pressure we might fall prey to if we want to be loved and approved by everyone, something I always wanted, too. However, it never worked before my walk with Jesus and now with Him, it works even less. I think it is part of dying to self when we seek His approval more than man’s.
May God give us His wisdom regarding our decisions on what to do and what to omit!
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Susanne, this reply to Fred was SO good! You really explained how God trains us to hear His voice over all the other confusing voices. For my strong will He has often let me see the fruit of what my disobedience to His gentle voice and what it does not only to me, but to those I love. I have started to notice His gentle nudge to not say or do something through a very painful process and the grief goes deep into my heart. Each time I beg Him to change me so that it doesn’t happen again and I have become a lot more cautious about controlling my tongue. C. S. Lewis wrote,
“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
May Father comfort your heart as well as heal your tooth, dear sister. ❤
Michael
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I am happy to hear you liked my reply to Fred, Michael. 🙂
Thank you so much for your many prayers regarding my health, spirit and heart problems, my dear brother! I am already doing a bit better right now (the burden on my heart has been lifted a bit). Thanks again! 🙂
Susanne ❤
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Susanne, you are welcome to my prayers for you. I am glad to hear that your heart burden has lifted a bit. I will continue to pray for you, dear heart. ❤
Michael
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Thank you very much, my dear brother. ❤
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Thank you. At the moment I am in a battle with my self on going to church or not.
I already skipped the adult Sunday school which started 30 minutes ago. I think one sunday I felt GOD wanted me to go to that adult Sunday school class as they are teaching about the armor of GOD. Which I do need to know more about.
I pray about this and still don’t know.
I am still thinking about that video that said it was a sin to go to church. It is idolatry as some worship the building it self and not GOD, I think that is what he was getting at any way. His teachings were from Ruckman as Ruckman has a book out about the modern church. I don’t know much about Ruckman but I have heard people say they were not a ruckmenite.
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Fred, we do not need more knowledge about God and godly stuff, we need more knowledge, i.e. love of God. The knowledge we really need follows by revelation in His time. As for me I can say that every decision I felt ‘urged’ to make in a hurry was not from God. We need a rested mind before we can sense His gentle nudges more clearly.
It seems to me you keep looking for clear rules, laws, or principles on what to do and what to omit. However, on your search you always find contradicting information that tends to keep you in a confused condition.
REST, my brother! Drop it all if you can…
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You are correct. I am not sure exactly why I do that. I remind my self that I am not saved by what I do or what I do not do and that I am saved by Jesus Christ.
I think the reason I look for rules, laws and principles is to try and be as pleasing to GOD as I can be because he saved me. Not to get saved or to stay saved but because I am saved.
I have as of late tried to drop as much of that stuff as I could but I am having trouble. I really need help and a lot of help. I need Jesus Christ and I need his help!!
I need to get over this legalistic mind set I some how ended up with but didn’t start with. I think I have read/listened far to many books an sermons. A year or so ago it seems easier to hear GOD. I want to get back to that. Now I with your help I realized how to get back to that. I was focusing on his love back then so just need to do that again as you have said. Thank you very much.
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That was sweet! Thank you, Fred. 🙂 Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of our best times with God. And these times were very often times of rest and love where we were somehow in ‘His Flow’. Everything that does not flow easily, but causes us a lot of strife and self-effort (to convince ourselves) might have come from the devil.
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If you love someone then your more inclined to listen to them–Oh how we need to fall in love with our deliverer and get rid of all the other junk–good article Sue!
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Yes, you are so right, Ken. Falling in Love with God in Christ is the ONLY solution! May God give us His love in exchange for our idols. Thanks for encouragement! 🙂
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I remember being taught by the nuns as a child that correctly informing our conscience was important. I still believe that (though in certain respects the well-meaning nuns somewhat mangled doctrine). I mention it because of the difficulty we may have hearing and understanding God’s voice.
Catholics are still, I think, today taught that doctrine as infallibly interpreted by the Pope must take precedence over conscience. That can cause internal conflict (and needless guilt, when we do follow the dictates of conscience).
Also, abuse victims tend to have an overactive conscience, berating themselves for the smallest infractions — often for things over which they have no control or things God does not actually view as sinful. It is a legalistic viewpoint that denies victims God’s peace.
I always enjoy your instruction, Susanne.
With love,
Anna ❤
xxxx
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Very helpful there Anna as I am one who has a very overactive conscience. Because of this even food can make me feel guilty.
I don’t know exactly why I have such an overactive conscience.
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I have always been that way, too, Fred, from hence I understand. Only God can set us free from this oversensitive and over(re-)active mind and emotions. It is a problem of the soul, a personality that still needs to learn to trust God and to let go by surrendering every area of life to Him. Oh boy, THAT is difficult!!! 😛
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I am glad you enjoyed the read, dear Anna. 🙂
Although I believe our conscience is God-given, I think it can be manipulated. It can be suppressed to a high degree (just think about a hitman who kills for money) or it works defectively when we listen to an internal accusing voice which once might have belonged to one or more human beings who really accused us of ‘sins’ that were actually none.
Even if we have a ‘list’ of possible sins we might have done (the Roman Catholic way of soul-searching as I would come to know it), we will only get aware of what we remember in our mind. Even if the feelings over our memories display grief, that does not mean we really sinned. Many things people call sin, God does not. I was just reminded of King David eating (forbidden) Holy Bread (1 Sam 21:7) or of Jesus Himself who healed (worked) on The Holy Sabbath. If God convicts us of real sin, then there is NO doubt. We feel ashamed and urged to repent before Him and before others we might have offended, often with tears. But if we do so, we will have peace with God afterwards again and we will feel much closer and grateful to Him than before. Not so if the accuser was the author of our ‘repentence’. Indeed, Satan keeps coming back at us with always the same things. That can drive you nuts! And lasting peace of any kind cannot be found in these mind battlefields, either.
I have always been a control freak, Anna, in order to keep my feelings ‘under cover’. Woe to me if anything unexpected happens, good or bad. Then you might see me losing the balance I seemed to have had before. Just lately God has begun to open up these wounds that were covered under my controlling behavior and, dear Anna, it hurts a lot!!! But I believe we will be set free from all our fears and insecurities in the end since our Lord loves us just the way we are.
With much love,
Susanne ❤
XXX
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I have never heard this more clearly expressed! I have printed this out for myself, so that I may keep it handy. Thank you, Susanne.
Much love,
A. ❤
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You are ‘mostest’ welcome, dear Anna! ❤ I am happy you found this explanation helpful. 🙂
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Thank you, Susanne: you just identified my abuser. “Satan keeps coming back at us with always the same things.”
Years ago, I was in a relationship with a man I loved, who abused me. Whenever we had a fight, which was pretty often, I would hear about every infraction I had ever committed. Always the same things, over and over again. No forgiveness for anything, no laying aside of offences, but instead continual repetition and berating.
I know that now is the time for healing of those wounds inflicted by the enemy of my soul, and I thank God for the words he had you write.
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Oh, dear Louise!!! 😦 I am so sorry to hear that you had to endure the torment of having been abused through someone whom you really loved. I am sure God will heal you and me completely over time. You may know I can relate…
Much love to you, my dear sister in HIM who loves us more than any human being ever could! ❤ ❤ ❤
Your sister Susanne
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[Michael said,]“You can’t let the host (holy communion) touch your teeth…BURNER
If you miss the mass on Sunday or a “holy day of obligation”… BURNER
stepping inside a protestant church… BURNER
eating meat on Friday… BURNER
any thoughts about sex, much less looking at porn or doing anything sexual…BURNER
disrespecting or lying to a nun or a priest…BURNER
on and on it went…”
I have had that sort of thing but not with Catholics. Might be why I got a legalistic mind set that I am having major trouble getting out of. I have been known to block people on Facebook that constantly talk about hell. I remember one friend on Facebook that posted all kinds of don’t do this and don’t do that or you are going to hell. Posted bible verses to support what he was saying. So I avoid that sort of thing but the subtle things I still fall into as you know by my earlier comment and what was said in a reply by Susanne. I didn’t even realize I was even getting back into legalistic mind set until it was pointed out here. Although maybe I had some clues. I have no peace when I am in this legalistic mind set. Also in thinking I did have peace and love back before I talked to that guy on Facebook that I was not allowed to talk to. I have only had small short time frames of peace after that conversation.
A dream I had after that conversation has me concerned. The dram had a ghost called a tormentor being released by me. Not sure if that means anything.
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In general, I doubt whether it is possible to find a real friend on Facebook, Fred (exceptions confirm the rule). This whole social media thing is infested with evil spirits of which some of them, alas, are tagged ‘Christian.’
As for your dream, it seems to speak for itself, I believe.
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By the way thank you. I really do thank you. I needed help with what GOD was wanting me to do and you pointed me in the correct direction. I found it so hard to stay off facebook that I blocked it using my content filter thing that I have. Also as youtube has caused me issues as well I blocked that.
Again thank you.
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You are most welcome, Fred. I am happy I could help you a bit. 🐣🐳🍀☂🌝
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Dear Anna, Susanne and Fred,
I remember the nuns teaching us thousands of rules that if we broke only one of them it was mortal… TO THE BURNER, unless we could race to the confessional and take communion in a “sinless state.” There were rules like:
You can’t let the host (holy communion) touch your teeth…BURNER
If you miss the mass on Sunday or a “holy day of obligation”… BURNER
stepping inside a protestant church… BURNER
eating meat on Friday… BURNER
any thoughts about sex, much less looking at porn or doing anything sexual…BURNER
disrespecting or lying to a nun or a priest…BURNER
on and on it went…
All these things put a great guilt trip on us young Catholics who were serious about our eternity and obeying God. After Vatican II when a lot of these rules were tossed out I had to ask the question, “If breaking these rules condemned me to hell last week, but this week breaking them does not, How much more of this crap the nuns taught us is a lie?!!! It was not long until I walked away from all that religious law keeping and Jesus found me and broke the yoke of bondage I had been under all my life. The problem was the Protestant churches had their own long list of ruled to keep as well, so my freedom IN Christ did not last long.
Jesus said of the Jewish leaders 2000 years ago,
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. (Matt 23:4, KJ2000)
And Peter had to set the score straight regarding law keeping with the leaders of the early Church saying,
Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus…” (Acts 15:10-11, ESV2011)
For the religious mind that always feels it must be DOING something “for God,” the grace of Jesus Christ is an insult and law keeping is their identity. But as Paul put it, “For me to live IS Christ and to die is gain.”
Susanne, you said it well, “If God convicts us of real sin, then there is NO doubt. We feel ashamed and urged to repent before Him and before others we might have offended, often with tears. But if we do so, we will have peace with God afterwards again and we will feel much closer and grateful to Him than before.”
Jesus bought our freedom with His precious blood. Let’s not through it away by taking up religion over His grace.
Love to you all,
Michael
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That is strange, Michael. Not only that you often need to re-follow my blog, I even just now found this comment by you in my spam folder on WordPress. Leaves me wondering why… 🙄
Amen to everything you said about the RC binding heavy burdens on people. I recall how burdened my granddad, his sister, and afterwards my mom had been as well. Not so the protestants like my grandmom (my granddad’s wife). She really loved Jesus.
I remember that although she never talked much, one time she murmured tenderly while praying in her deckchair on our terrace, “Oh, my Savior…!!” ❤ She often had a handkerchief behind her glasses because of her glaucoma. And once in a while you could see some tears running down her cheeks when she prayed there in the sun.
I am glad God pulled you out of this and all those other sickening man-made systems that kept you from hearing the loving voice of God.
Much love to you, my dear brother! ❤ ❤ ❤
Susanne 🐱
PS
Thank you very much for the encouragement! 🙂
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Susanne, I am glad you checked your spam folder. I have had a lot of problems with WordPress as you know. I think that you are a lot like your grandmother in the way you love Jesus, dear sister. So many tears and such a tender heart.
You are right, I had to get out of all those legalistic systems of religion and seek HIM alone before I could really start to hear Jesus’ voice. Laws and the associated guilt (and Satan’s accusations) that goes with them tend to drown out the whisper of God.
I wish I could have met your grandparents.
YOU have been an encouragement to me so many times. You even have helped set me free of some of those man made laws I was still under and shown me greater freedom that is ours in Christ.
Much love to you, too! I will be forever grateful to our Daddy for you. ❤ ❤ ❤
Michael 🐻
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Mmmhhh…. that was lovely, Michael. You made my day, thank you so much!!! 🙂 You too have been a wonderful encourager for me since I have come to know you more than three years ago. Thanks a bunch for being YOU, my dear brother! ❤
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