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| Who is controlling me?? |
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This morning I found myself meditating on one of those really short verses which can be life changing, if I take the message deeply to heart and resolve to make it part of me. I actually started in the Gospel of John, reading about obedience to Jesus' commands being equated to loving him, then found myself magically transported to the following...
8:8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
So I ask myself, who/what is controlling me? Is it really the Spirit of God? Well.....sometimes, yes. But other times, no. Do I know when I'm not?
If I go several days, or even just one day, without cracking open God's word first thing in the morning, without spending time in prayer, without making a point of taking God everywhere with me, can I truly say God's Spirit is controlling me? In that case it seems more likely I've taken control. I've forgotten all about God and his Spirit, and am led rather by the things in this world, things I see with my eyes, hear with my ears, smell with my nose, touch, taste, i.e. living purely by my physical senses, or....living sensually (Eph 4:19). Being controlled by me equals being controlled by my ..... er, um, by my own nature, the sinful one, right?
When I think about it, I know when my nature is controlling me. Anytime I'm living purely to satisfy physical appetites and self-ish desires, I have forgotten God and am being controlled by my own (sinful) nature. By contrast we are told that "those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires," and "the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:5-6)."
Today I am resolving to monitor my attention more closely than ever, to be aware of who/what is controlling me, and hopefully to keep my mind set on that which the Spirit desires. Thus hopefully I will be assured of pleasing God my Father, my true desire! |
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| To add a comment to "Who is controlling me??" |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| wow God was dealing with me on this same thing...must be the theme right now!!! lol I am watching closer as to my actions and words. I only want someone to see me and for them to see Jesus. May all that I do and say lead others to Christ. Excellent blog brother! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Thank you for this It was Great and meet allot to me God Bless you always,Doyle |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Great lesson this morning Mike. I am finding that mychurch has truly been as asset to our ministry and I wanted you to know that. The blogs and testimonies have all been awesome blessings in the life of our church.
I once saw a church sign that read, "He who angers you; controls you." If we allow others to ruffle our feathers so very easily than God is not in control of our lives, the world is. |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Great reminder Mike. Thanks for posting it! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Thanks Mike, as yesterday morning I was reminded so : Today I am resolving to monitor my attention more closely than ever, to be aware of who/what is controlling me, and hopefully to keep my mind set on that which the Spirit desires. Thus hopefully I will be assured of pleasing God my Father, my true desire
I was reading in Matthew 7:7 and wow what a reminder that I just happen to need!!!! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Thanks Cheryl - I am totally with you, "May all that I do..."
Thank you Doyle (and you too Elizabeth)! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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It is ironic that this morning I read in Romans 6:22
6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Who is in control if we have been set free and are slaves to goodness. We have our lapses, of course, but do we stay there??? God has set us free and therefore our houses are in order. We just have to remember that we are his and not the worlds.
Great Blog
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Jerry, great observation regarding anger. I am convinced none of us knows anything about "righteous anger", given our nature -- we are so prone to self-satisfaction. It's better to avoid anger altogether!
Hey Rich!! Thanks for dropping in!
Ah, Donna, Matt 7:7, ask seek knock. It's all about where our attention goes! Man do we need ever need those reminders. Thanks for standing with me! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Another passage that comes to mind is in I John....I think it is...where it says we are to try the spirits that come our way to see if they are from God. It's easy sometimes to let our flesh reason for us when we must be using Gods word....
Great thoughts for today Mike. Happy Friday. |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Thanks Mary - yes we've been set free from bondage, that which used to hold us captive no longer enslaves us.... but so easily we allow our attention to lapse (as you pointed out), either momentarily, for an extended time, or for those who fall away, completely.
Ever watch a child as they're watching TV? There's no doubt who's in control (or not) in that case! The TV fully captures the attention! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Thanks Loren, hope your Friday is great too! Yeah, that's a good one too - spirits can easily seduce our (my) attention away from God. |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Faith was attributed to him as righteousness...
You know an interesting point was made to me, the tree that was apart of the fall was the knowledge of "good and evil." Not just evil but good too!
For even actions that appear to be of good can in fact be of man and not Spirit. What is goodness? What is righteousness? If goodness can be apart of the fall then what are we to do?
Live, I think. Live with the faith to say "Lord I am a wretch but you say that I am yours. I do evil when I intend to do good and good when I intend evil. But I know only this that no action or lack of action is going to make me any different than what I am, redeemed by grace."
It is such a strange dichotomy that we "Christians" live in. We need to look for fruits of the spirit but we within ourselves can not produce it. We are called to live and walk righteous lives and yet if "we" do it then it is evil and not with God. How very narrow that road to salvation truly is. It comes down to a very simple word, faith. Faith was attributed to Abraham as righteousness (Ro 4:9). Without faith one cannot please God (Heb 11:6). |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Amen Debora, redeemed by grace! "I do evil when I intend to do good and good when I intend evil" reminds me of Paul's struggle: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me." A picture of being controlled by the sinful nature. Wow! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Golly, that hits hard! I think a lot of us are going through this same challenge, the realization of the degree of selfishness within us. All the devotions/studies/lessons I"ve been involved in in the past couple of weeks have been dealing with God's perfect love & our inability to love as He does. I admit that although I've spent time reading & studying & meditating, I've gotten out of the habit of asking God to take my selfishness out of me & replace it with his Holy Spirit, which enables me to do what I cannot accomplish on my own. Thank you for yet another reminder, for the accountability, and for the encouragement to stay on the path of righteousness! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Hey Mike, you wrote, "By contrast we are told that "those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires," and "the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:5-6)." " all I can add is Amen.
thanks for the reminder to stay our minds on Jesus and His word.
peace |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Michael this very good scripture. I give star to you. |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Thanks Juan... now have fun controlling that new "horse" hehe :-)
Glenn....maybe the coolest part is the promise of "life and peace". When we seek to control ourselves, why do we wonder when our lives collapse around us? Thanks for the comment, my friend - your input is always valued and helpful!
Yes Bernadette, God's word cuts deep sometimes....maybe cutting deepest when it isn't already a part of us? I put this verse on one of my memory cards, hopefully as a constant reminder. I'm not at all above admitting I need reminding daily, if not hourly!! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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YOu know I keep pondering that Mike, being controlled by a sinful nature. It is so hard for me to not to want to look down and say "Ah! sin, unrighteous acts!" and then scramble arround stamping out all the actions or thoughts that don't follow Him. Because the same God of the Law is the same God of Grace. It can see how it was so hard for the pharisees and sadducees. Even Paul said "...agree that the law is good..." and Christ who said " I did not come to abolish the law..." Mth 5:17. It is so hard to not try and control it.
It makes me wonder, when Lord will holiness start coming out of these pores? When will I even look like a shadow of you? How? It makes me ask, What do you want me to do? How do you want me to live? How can I actually please you?
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Can it be so simple as faith? |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| ok, so not only did the Lord convict me with a song I had never heard before on my way to work today, and I decided to blog about it, but then I read your blog Mike, and I say Good Grief Lord! as I am feeling quite targeted by my God this morning! Sometimes I think the Lord just wants to "stir" us up. I dont consider this a bad thing at all. Sometimes when we allow God to be on a back burner in our lives from time to time,while the world and all its influence sometimes takes over .......... even though He knows we still love him, and serve him, He is a jelous God after all, so I think he likes to "throw" himself in our face .... mabe just to remind us that we need a "holy alignment". I consider these little reminders wonderful "spiritual maintenance" for myself. Thanks for confirming, that I need to tell the world to just chillax! and separate myself from it, and take some time to tell my Jesus thank you,and I love you again. |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Mike~As I was reading my Bible study this am I was reminded of our lesson Wed. night at church:
40:28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. 40:29He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 40:31 but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.
I came back to add about yielding and surrendering to God and souring just like a eagle would. Our pastor mentioned an eagle wouldn't flap his wings a hundred times like a hummingbird, going about being busy bodies, no an eagle is busy in the work of the Lord and gently and gracefully goes through his day. I second Paul's post, God provides what we need~love and Him~ our part is to remain yielded in that love which produces obedience and gentle grace. ~ |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Oh Tammy, I'm sure the Lord was to stir us up! There's no reason he'd want to allow us to settle for anything!! :-) Glad to see that you recognize the stirring going on!!
Thanks Jairah! I see you understand well "apart from me you can do nothing!" I don't think that "apart from me" comes from the Holy Spirit leaving us though, I think it comes from us mentally leaving him, forgetting about him, our attention on other things. It seems there is a discipline to keeping my attention focused on God/Spirit rather than my immediate surroundings and how they can satisfy all my appetites. My index cards have been a big help lately, in fact I'm looking at them now, Rom 8:8 right on top! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| ooh, Paul, great great point...."Our part is to yield" ...well put!! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Debora, regarding the exercise of faith in context w/who or what is controlling me... I can either buy into self-help strategies (yes, even Christian self-helps) in order to change my behavior (this seems more like faith in the author of the self-help books rather than faith in God), or I can expend my energy just being with God, in his word and in prayer, having faith that his Spirit will gradually change me. I don't know, but this seems like the exercise of faith to me. Does that make sense? |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Cheryl, I would rather not be a hummingbird, that seems like it would be exhausting! lol -Great metaphor! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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I know, Mike, I was just musing about myself. How I can struggle with "to be or not to be." When busyness for me can become legalism and no longer is about Jesus but, me. It connected in my brain about your musings about who is controlling you.
“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Ro 7 :14-24 |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Oh. P.S.
I have had Bronchitis for (forever) the past week and my cough meds make me a little loopy. Sorry if my comments seemed a little disjointed. |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Debora - your comments are wonderful....very engaging, really causing me to examine my point of view. No apologies needed! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Mike this is a great post and I tink I'm going through the same thing. lol |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| Mike great post....i won't sing this time promise almost did but i will refrain..... |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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aw Rosie, go ahead and let it out! lol
LJMadness, great to "meet" you, thanks for your kind comment. Ain't it comforting knowing we don't go through things alone! :-) |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| This is a theme the Holy Spirit is dealing with me on now. Thanks! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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| If the spirit controls us and our thoughts, we are at peace...so if we are at peace, we must be doing what God wants of us, right? If I am not at peace, then I can pretty much figure out that I am not in the will of God. If I am, then I hope that means I am where He wants me to be. Great blog Mike! |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Awsome Post mike If I could only manage to surrender my will long enough to make it to the end of my porch.
Blessings,
David |
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| February 15, 2008 |
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Dave, I have the utmost confidence in you, surrender is within your grasp! Maybe not 100% surrender, but I believe only one man in history achieved that.
Janell, funny but there have been several blogs the last day or so dealing with this.
Deb, you make it all sound so easy! (But I know better...) |
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| February 16, 2008 |
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I must admit,this post made me sqirm,it's a battle,everyday,before your feet even hit the floor,I think a invisable (literally) happens,trying to "take" your mind,this way or that way,and I'm speaking for myself,I have to choose to give Him my day,before it begins.The battlefield is,the mind,and I am learning,the battle is not mine,but His!!! And,we already know He wins!!!!!!
I looked at some of the comments you've recieved,prior to this post and I smile,it is VERY clear,that people here know the word of God,encourage each other,share,and even bare their imperfections.
I'm not talking about the exterior,I'm talking about stepping out of our flesh,and learning;it's not about us at all. |
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| February 16, 2008 |
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| Hi Noelle- great comment thanks! Yep, quite a few hear know the word of God, it's really amazing how encouraging (and knowledgeable) people are. Good point about the battle for the mind, that's key! We aren't in a vacuum, trying to claim our day for God. We are constantly bombarded by stimuli designed specifically to draw us away from him - i.e. temptations! Thanks for your input! |
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| February 17, 2008 |
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Thanks Lara, and Pastor Tim!
This week I have attempted to continually examine who/what is controlling my actions....the H.S.? If I'm faithfully following my Lord and Savior, that is the only acceptable answer. Any other controlling influence draws me away from him!! Oh how difficult it can be to be properly controlled hour by hour, minute by minute! |
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| February 17, 2008 |
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| And here I may have missed this one, if I weren't for your plug on my lastest post :) |
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| February 18, 2008 |
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| Interesting blog, sure did make me think. |
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| February 19, 2008 |
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Mike I just love your thinking... it so intimate. Great questions to ponder. Great observations. I see a serious preacher/teacher emerging.
Pastor Aminata |
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| February 19, 2008 |
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Mike, all I can think about is the old Outer Limits theme. . . "We will control the vertical. . . We will control the horizontal. . . " I know my nature tries to control both - but I shouldn't let it.
(Now start humming the Twilight zone theme. . . ) |
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| February 19, 2008 |
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| Gene, I remember that show....barely. Actually just the old reruns. Actually I've got an old song by Starland Vocal Band running through my head. Heard it today on the radio, just can't get rid of it.... |
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| February 20, 2008 |
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Ahhh, the dreaded earworm!
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| February 22, 2008 |
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"Today I am resolving to monitor my attention more closely than ever, to be aware of who/what is controlling me, and hopefully to keep my mind set on that which the Spirit desires." Great blog! |
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| March 06, 2008 |
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| Mike I'm having a wonderful time reading all your posts! Thanks for doing this for us! |
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| March 06, 2008 |
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Thanks, Contagious!! (or uh....you're welcome!)
Pro- , still monitoring! (just so you know I don't write them then forget them) |
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| March 06, 2008 |
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| Mike, you haven't been invaded by the pod people have you? I'm just asking mind you. |
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