Thursday, March 27, 2014

SST #13 | "The Cost of Discipleship" | Pastor Paul Penno

The Cost of Discipleship

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic 
Discipleship
Lesson 13: The Cost of Discipleship

The final lesson in this cycle of studies on "Discipleship" prompts the question, What will it "cost" Laodicea to be in partnership with Christ our High Priest in His mission to the world? There is a difference between fulfilling the great commission,--"Go ye ... and teach [disciple] all nations,"--before 1844 and being co-laborers with the Harvester during the cleansing of the sanctuary.
It will cost Laodicea everything she thinks she knows about righteousness by faith in exchange for an appreciation of what it cost the Son of God to obtain justification by faith which is parallel to and consistent with the at-one-ment with God. This is the "offense" of the 1888 message.
Why is Laodicea's discipleship and devotion to Jesus lukewarm and lackluster? The True Witness diagnoses her disease which is causing Him acute nausea,--"I am about to spue thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 3:16).
This warning is parallel to that Christ gives those who say, "Lord, Lord, open unto us ... I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ... you yourselves thrust out" (Luke 13:25-28). That's an awful word--"iniquity." We instinctively pass it on to our Sunday-keeping neighbors.
What we need to realize is that devotion perfectly appropriate during the ministry of the High Priest in the Holy Apartment becomes "iniquity" when weighed against the incomparably greater scope of His ministry in the Most Holy Apartment! Christian experience perfectly acceptable in times previous to the cleansing of the sanctuary becomes "lukewarmness" in our day. To our High Priest, there is no more nauseous sin than this.
The truthful Witness testifies that Laodicea's self-understanding of righteousness by faith is pre-1844. And further, she has no hunger and thirst for righteousness. Her confession is: "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." According to the Heavenly Counselor she doesn't know her spiritual condition: "Andknowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17).
The True Witness addresses "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans" (Rev. 3:14). "The angel" is the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who have unwittingly led the church into a self-centered understanding of righteousness by faith which it proclaims to the world as its gospel commission.
We know Jesus challenges the Adventist Church regarding her message because He appeals for a correction of course. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed" (Rev. 3:18). The Savior couldn't be more clear. The "white raiment" which Laodicea lacks is obviously garments of righteousness. This clothing is "gold tried in the fire." Furthermore, the Heavenly Merchantman markets His commodity to her. She is "to buy of me gold."
The "gold" of which He speaks is faith and love. "The gold tried in the fire is faith that works by love. Only this can bring us into harmony with God. We may be active, we may do much work, but without love,such love as dwelt in the heart of Christ, we can never be numbered with the family of heaven." [1]
Her problem is not a deficiency of doing "much work." The "gold" we lack is not more feverish activity. That we're truly "rich" in, already. Our need is basic. In respect of the very "gold" itself, the True Witness says our treasure-box is empty.
Why "buy" it? Why doesn't He say, "Ask of Me, and I'll give it to you"? Could it be that we must surrender our false concepts of righteousness by faith in exchange for the true? These "goods" wedo possess: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods" (Rev. 3:17).
Writes the pen of inspiration: "What greater deception can come upon human minds than a confidence that they are right, when they are all wrong! The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception ... Those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual condition ... secure in their attainments ... rich in spiritual knowledge." [2]
The "price" we must give up is "deception," false "spiritual knowledge." In other words we must surrender our false ideas and deceptions regarding righteousness by faith in order to "buy" the "gold."
Is our Lord trying to tell us that we don't really understand what love is, and therefore cannot have true faith? Is the "angel" of the church destitute of "such love as dwelt in the heart of Christ"?
There are two great antithetical ideas of "love." One has come from Hellenism and is the kind of "love" that the popular evangelical churches accept today. The other is completely different, and is the kind of love that can have its source only in the ministry of the true High Priest in His cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. [3]
Christ Himself makes clear what New Testament faith is, and His view is different from that of the "popular ministry": "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him ..." (John 3:16). God's love is the first thing, and until that love is revealed, there can be no "believing." As the result of His "loving" and "giving," the sinner finds it possible to "believe." Faith is a heart-experience, "heart-work" to borrow Ellen G. White's phrase, and it cannot exist until God's love is understood and appreciated.
The "believing" is not motivated by a fear of "perishing" or an acquisitive regard for "everlasting life." The primary cause of faith is "for God so loved." The results of God's love are "that He gave His only begotten Son" and "that whosoever believeth." The believing is a direct result of God's loving the world.
Thus Jesus' clear definition: Faith is a heart-appreciation of the love of God revealed at the cross. A subtle shift has occurred in the Seventh-day Adventist Church regarding its understanding of righteousness by faith. An acquisitive hope of reward is set forth before the people and the world to offset the "cost" of discipleship now. Such self-centeredness is antithetical to the "gold" of Christ's righteousness. When faith and love are truly tested, it will be revealed as to what source produced the righteousness--whether it be self or Christ.
--Paul E. Penno
Endnotes:
[1] Christ's Object Lessons, p. 158.
[2] Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, pp. 252, 253.
[3] Early Writings, pp. 55, 56.
Note: "Sabbath School Today" and Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson are on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The Harvest and the Harvesters

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Discipleship
Lesson 12: The Harvest and the Harvesters
 
No generation of God's people have ever been translated without seeing death; never before has "the harvest of the earth" been "ripe" for the Savior's sickle (Rev. 14:15). It was the Lord's intention that the 1888 message prepare the "harvest" for translation. Would that not require that the message be more mature and developed than any previous of "harvesters" had ever perceived?
The message that is to prepare the grain for harvest must include "a part of the gospel" which the Reformers did not proclaim. [1] "The gospel" is righteousness by faith, and the third angel's message in verity is the same. [2] The light which the Reformers did not see and proclaim would obviously be "new light" so far as the people of 1888 were concerned.
Ellen White adds the shocking statement, "Paul, as we have seen, did not preach it." Preach what? "A part of the gospel which could be proclaimed only in the last days." [3] That "part of the gospel" is not cold mathematical calculations of the 2300 days. The genius of the 1888 message was its relation of justification by faith to the unique judgment hour truth of the cleansing of the sanctuary. [4] "Paul ... did not preach it." The cleansing of the sanctuary is surely "a part of the everlasting gospel."
What "event" can move that "other angel" of Revelation 14:15 to decide when to give Jesus the signal to "come" the second time? The answer, "The harvest of the earth is ripe." This simplest imaginable divinely inspired illustration explains the delay in the return of Christ!
But this special farm "harvest" depends on the volition of the "grain." An entire "crop" can selfishly refuse to let the Lord's warm sunshine of the gospel and refreshing showers of "the latter rain" perform the ripening process. It's a "harvest" process God cannot force upon the "field of grain."
The Lord Jesus Himself asked rather plaintively, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). The Lord is all-powerful, He is omnipotent, but He cannot force His people to believe if they love unbelief.
A very serious example of the evil of unbelief is the popular attitude toward the beginning of the "latter rain" and the "loud cry" of Revelation 18:1-4.
Can you imagine the farmers in a drought-stricken land where their crops are withering, being unhappy when the Lord sends them a gentle shower of latter rain moisture? That would be unthinkable, wouldn't it? But our "harvesters" lived out this unimaginable scenario in 1888. We were in danger of losing the third angel's message, the reason for our existence as a people; the Lord did not overwhelm them with lightning, thunder, and gully-washer great rains--just a gentle shower of the Holy Spirit in "latter rain" power.
The Lord gave His Holy Spirit to two young men in a message of justification by faith that was like a gentle rain on thirsty land; Ellen White was overjoyed. She said she had never heard anything so wonderful at any time at any place! She immediately recognized the leading of the Holy Spirit. But she was pained by the rejection the "harvesters" manifested: "The course that [was] pursued at Minneapolis [1888] was cruelty to the Spirit of God." [5] "I know that at that time the Holy Spirit was insulted." [6]
She went on to further state to Elder Olsen: "The time will come when many will be willing to do anything and everything possible in order to have a chance of hearing the call which they rejected at Minneapolis. ... Better opportunities will never come, deeper feelings they will not have." [7]
Jesus said something both wonderful and terrible when He said to His disciples, "Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). It was a parallel statement with the one in Matthew, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). As authority figures to other people (that is, parents, teachers, preachers), can we actually open or lock the gates of heaven to people? Jesus says yes! If a pastor/evangelist tells his congregation bad news, he can close the gates of heaven against youth and adults. We may wonder why they drop out of the church family, but that was the reason.
You are a "harvester" in the church; could it be that Jesus has in a sense fulfilled His promise to the disciples and "given" you "the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 16:19), so you can lock or unlock for someone the gate of the New Jerusalem? Someone will listen to you. What can you say? Shall you tell him to wrack his brain and think of every unconfessed sin and make it right ... or else? Or shall you tell him what the angels told the Bethlehem shepherds--"glad tidings for everyone, your Savior is born" (Luke 2:8-11), "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42), which includes you. He has "abolished death," your second death, which He has already died for you (Heb. 2:9). He has adopted you into His Father's family (Eph. 1:5, 6). He has reversed the "condemnation" that came on "all men" in Adam (Rom. 6:15-18). He takes you by the hand and says, "Let's go--to Heaven!" He has promised never to let go (Isa. 41:10, 13). The work He "began" in you when you were baptized long ago He will continue (Phil. 1:6).
In Steps to Christ, Ellen White says that if you do not resist Him as your Savior, He will "draw" you all the way into His New Jerusalem (John 12:32). [8] Believe Him! He loves you and wants you in His kingdom more than you can imagine.
Let us thank God for a new "today" wherein we can apply some healing balm to the wounds we have made, and we can tell someone some precious good news. There is nothing to thank God for more earnestly than that we have another day in which to receive His precious gift of repentance with another opportunity to use those "keys" to the kingdom the right way.
--Paul E. Penno
Endnotes:
[1] Ellen White says that Luther taught justification by faith "clearly." She also states that he did not proclaim the full gospel as it must yet be proclaimed, for "this message is a part of the gospel which could be proclaimed only in the last days. ... The Reformers did not proclaim it" (The Great Controversy, p. 356).
[2] Evangelism, p. 190.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Cf. Early Writings, p. 254.
[5] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 360.
[6] Ibid., p. 1043.
[7] Ibid., p. 1030.
[8] Steps to Christ, p. 27.
Note: "Sabbath School Today" and Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson are on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org
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Thursday, March 13, 2014

Discipling the Spiritual Leaders

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Discipleship
Lesson 11: Discipling the Spiritual Leaders
 
This lesson focuses on how Jesus selected his original apostles, the twelve, and how He trained them to "continue the work after He left." This is an interesting topic, and very important, and we encourage our readers to study the Bible texts and resources cited. However, these essays focus on the "1888 message dynamic," so we will give an account of an event that occurred early in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church having to do with our "spiritual leaders." The Holy Spirit has been "discipling" them for 125 years to accept the "most precious message" that the Lord gave to our church in 1888.
________________________
 
George Santayana wisely said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." [1] We could well paraphrase him to say that a denomination that does not remember its past is fated to repeat it. Apparently we must know it before the gospel commission can be finished: "The Lord has declared that the history of the past shall be rehearsed as we enter upon the closing work." [2]
If the time is near for that "closing work" (as we hope), we may also believe that the time is here when the 1888 "history of the past" must be faithfully, honestly "rehearsed." "We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history." [3] For once in history we must not repeat history.
Ancient Israel failed on the borders of the Promised Land, and were turned back for another forty years of wandering. Moses sent twelve "leading men" to "explore" the Promised Land, "whether it is easy or difficult country in which to live." Ten "explorers" thought it was "difficult," and only two thought "it is easy. ... Let us go up at once and occupy the country" (Num. 13:3, 16, 18, 30, New English Bible).
Many thoughtful Seventh-day Adventists have understood this episode as a "type," and our 1888 history and its aftermath as the "antitype." In 1888 the Lord sent two "messengers" to "explore" the finishing of the gospel commission who brought a report that it is "easy" rather than "difficult" if only we can believe the word of the Lord. He chose to send the message first to "leading men" at a General Conference Session. [4]
Throughout her seven decades of service as special messenger to the remnant church, Ellen White demonstrated more than human ability to discern serious issues beneath the surface. Never is her prophetic gift more clearly displayed than in her comprehension of the 1888 message and its history. For example, a statement familiar to Sabbath School Today readers:
"The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders [A. T.] Jones and [E. J.] Waggoner. ... This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world, ... proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure." [5]
Frequently she referred to the message as the initial outpouring of the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit. [6] As a farmer's crops need rain if the harvest is to come, so the Latter Rain is to ripen the "grain" and prepare "for the sickle." This is "the completion of the work of God's grace in the soul ... that prepares the church for the coming of the Son of man." [7] And Satan's slanderous charges against God can never be silenced and the "great controversy" resolved for the government of God, until His people believe and receive this "completion" of grace "in the soul." Ellen White spoke openly and frankly about getting ready for "translation" then and there in that generation. [8]
She also said that Israel's "leading men" refused the message and shut it "away from our people in a great measure." "By the action of our own [leading] brethren [it] has been in a great degree kept away from the world." [9] God's plan was (1) to give the message first to the leadership; (2) they were to give it to the laity; and (3) the church unitedly was to give it to the world. [10]
"Had the purpose of God been carried out in giving the message of mercy to the world, Christ would have come, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God." [11]
Like Israel's history at Kadesh-Barnea, can any aspect of our history be more important than our preparation for the sealing, our reception of the Latter Rain, the giving of the Loud Cry, and a preparation for the second coming of Christ?
But there is reassuring Good News. The truth of Seventh-day Adventist history does not indicate that the Lord has (or will) cast off His people. "The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat." [12]
Something will have to "give": either the conviction that "the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history"; or that the church has ceased to be the agent which the Lord will employ in finishing His work on earth [13] (this author refuses to accept either). The only reasonable option seems to be that we shall have to surrender our spiritual pride, and let our "glory" be laid "in the dust." This is what happens by accepting the full truth of the Lord's "teaching in our past history."
It will be genuine justification by faith, the message that will lighten the earth with glory and call God's waiting people, "Come out of her [Babylon], My people."
--From the writings of Robert J. Wieland
Endnotes:
[1] The Life of Reason, vol. 1, "Reason in Common Sense."[2] Selected Messages, book 2, p. 390.[3] Life Sketches, p. 196 (emphasis supplied).[4] E. J. Waggoner communicated his convictions to the General Conference president, George I. Butler, in a letter dated Feb. 10, 1887, and published "nearly two years later" (The Gospel in Galatians). The evidence seems clear that the opportunity to accept the light was given the "leading men" at an official Session of the church--its highest body of deliberation.[5] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 91, 92.[6] See Early Writings, pp. 271, 279, et al.[7] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 506.[8] Review and Herald, March 4, 1890, etc.[9] Selected Messages, book 1, p. 235.[10] See Review and Herald Extra, Dec. 23, 1890, etc.[11] Review and Herald, Dec. 24, 1903.[12] Selected Messages, book 2, p. 380.[13] This is the conclusion which many zealous offshoot groups advocate.
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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Discipling the Nations

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
 Discipleship
Lesson 10: Discipling the Nations
  
What will it take to disciple the nations? John the Revelator "saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power: and theearth was lightened with His glory" (Rev. 18:1). Proclaiming "the everlasting gospel" to "every nation" is a big job! (Rev. 14:6).
Isaiah was overjoyed to write about the time when the earth will be drenched with a special "light" of "the truth of the gospel." He says to God's people, "The Redeemer shall come to Zion [the church] ... Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isa. 60:1-3).
As encouraging as these promises are, the reality is that Seventh-day Adventists have been making disciples for well over a century and a half. There is still the challenge of the unreached masses of Asia, the Third World and now even the Western World. We owe a sincere debt of gratitude for past pioneers and generations who have devoted their lives and treasure to the spread of the Third Angel's Message. They have put in place the worldwide infrastructure for God's final evangelistic campaign.
There is an "efficiency" which no human agent or organization can supply for the finishing of God's work for the nations. Brethren to this day resist the message of the cross and the sanctuary, which the Holy Spirit initiated through His messengers A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner. The pen of inspiration drew back the curtain to reveal the source of criticism. "By exciting that opposition Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world." [1] The Spirit-indited truth from Pentecost supplies the "efficiency" so necessary to reach the world.
The same writer recognized God's hand in raising up messengers. "The message given us by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean church, and woe be unto anyone who professes to believe the truth, and yet does not reflect to others the God-given rays." [2]
The message God sent in 1888 is the "latter rain." The "latter rain" is parallel to the message of the Pentecostal "former rain." "Great truths that have lain unheeded and unseen since the day of Pentecost are to shine from God's word in their native purity." [3]
Is there a "great truth" that shone clearly on the Day of Pentecost? Yes, and here is the focus of the 1888 message: Speaking to that great crowd of thousands of people from many nations and languages, Peter boldly declared that they had crucified the Son of God: "Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). A few days later he told them, "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, ... and killed the Prince of life" (Acts 3:14, 15). Nothing in Paul's epistles is quite so strong, so directly confrontational! What happened on the day of Pentecost? A repentance deeper than has ever been known. The murder of the Son of God is the greatest sin ever committed; repentance for that sin is the greatest a human heart can ever know.
Do you think it might be possible that Peter's sermon applies to us today? It is a clearer understanding of what Christ accomplished on His cross and a deeper appreciation for what it cost Him. The teaching of the cross at Pentecost will be amplified a thousand-fold when understood in light of the cleansing of the sanctuary truth.
Shall the Seventh-day Adventist Church disregard the authenticated "beginning" of that final message, which was "in a great degree" rejected and "kept away from the world"? [4]
That same writer tells how the first Pentecost relates to the future second one: "A work is to be accomplished in the earth similar to that which took place at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, when they preached Jesus and Him crucified. Many will be converted in a day; for the message will go with power. ... The theme that attracts the heart of the sinner is Christ, and Him crucified. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus stands revealed to the world in unparalleled love [agape]. Present Him thus to the hungering multitudes, and the light of His love will win men from darkness to light, from transgression to obedience and true holiness. Beholding Jesus upon the cross of Calvary arouses the conscience to the heinous character of sin as nothing else can do." [5]
It meets exactly the heart-longing of every honest-hearted soul in "Babylon" (and there are many!), so that "the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number [will] take their stand upon the Lord's side." [6]
A clearer view of what happened on the cross. The phrase "the unparalleled love of Christ" suggests how "the Lamb" will be the central feature of the prophecies. [7] The extent of Christ's sacrifice will be shown in the kind of death He died--the equivalent of the second death, the ultimate one of all lost mankind. The Father "laid on [Christ] the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). The implications are staggering: the "all" is the human race. Therefore, He does not lay that iniquity upon them.
What Christ accomplished on His cross, identified by the 1888 message, is the heart-warming "great truth" of justification by faith. Instead of imputing the "trespasses" of the human race onto themselves, He imputed those onto Christ (2 Cor. 5:19). The reason for this grace is that Christ "tasted death [the second] for everyone" (Heb. 2:9). Scripture cannot be broken: the full debt was paid for every sinner who has ever lived. "Through one Man's righteous act [the cross] the free gift [not an offer] came to all men, resulting in justification of life" (Rom. 5:18).
That "gift" is justification which "came upon all men," like "the grace that encircles the world with an atmosphere as real as the air which circulates around the globe" (Rom. 5:18). [8] The miracle is not magic; the truth penetrates the heart. The sinner grasps the horror of the hell from which he has been delivered. No joy can be deep and lasting which has not been built upon that foundation of joyous contrition. "If one died for all, then all died." You die, so that now you say, "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20).
Thus what Christ accomplished was the reversal of the judicial "condemnation" that the first Adam brought on the entire human race. It is a "judicial ... verdict ... of acquittal" on the same human race (Rom. 5:16, NEB).
The message of Pentecost declared forgiveness for the entire human race, particularly for the involvement of "all" in the murder of the Son of God.
Zechariah prophesied "living waters shall go out from Jerusalem," to the nations, whose source, Jeremiah said, was "the Lord, the fountain of living waters" (Zech. 14:8; Jer. 17:13). Ezekiel was shown that this river was "waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over," a river bringing healing to the nations (Eze. 47:1-9). This is the eternal life which flows from the cross of Christ. We may taste of it here and now by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit--the latter rain message.
--Paul E. Penno
Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 234, 235.
[2] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 1052 (Ms. 24, 1892).
[3] Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 473.
[4] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 234, 235
[5] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 1073, 1074.
[6] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 612.
[7] The sacrificial "Lamb" is the central feature of the Book of Revelation mentioned 25 times.
[8] Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 68.
Note: “Sabbath School Today” and Pastor Paul Penno’s video of this lesson are on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org
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