Christians in an American Nation

[This post is part two, please begin with part one of this post, America, a Christian Nation]

So, where does this leave us?

I think the key is in the three commands from Scripture regarding authority.  The word “king” is used only a handful of times in the New Testament epistles where it doesn’t specifically refer to a person.  Only three of these are direct commands about our relationship to civil authorities: I Timothy 2:1-2, I Peter 2:13-14, and I Peter 2:17.  All three of these are supported by other Scriptural teaching about authority.

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.     ~ I Peter 2:17

The idea behind the word honor (in both places) is the same idea in I Timothy 5:3 talking about widows, and in Ephesians 6:2 directed to children about their parents.  It is used several times in the gospels in reference to children honoring parents, and at least once each referring to honoring the Father and honoring Christ.  It means, essentially, to place value in something or to revere. (Timao)

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme ; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.     ~ I Peter 2:13-14

The concept of submit in I Peter 2:13 is from a Greek military term.  Hupotasso – “In non-military use, it was ‘a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden’.”  This is so contradictory to our thinking, especially when the authority doesn’t align with our particular political ideology, but that is another issue for another blog post.  Suffice it to say, that we must, according to the commands of God, give in and cooperate with our civil authorities when doing so does not violate God’s commands.

 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.     ~ I Timothy 2:1-2

I saved this one for last because I wanted to make several points.  First of all, notice the “first of all”.  The Apostle Paul gives a lengthy introduction in chapter one and he mentions this as a primary concept when he gets to the “meat” of his message to Timothy (much of which is about teaching the church people at Ephesus how to live).  Now, think of all the things Paul teaches in I Timothy (modesty, requirements for elders and deacons, false teachers, interpersonal relationships, etc.) and over and above all that, Paul (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) says that “first of all” or the most important thing is that we pray for each other, and especially for civil rulers.

And the prayer is very precise.  Supplications are entreaties or needs; seeking and asking for our needs to be met.  Prayers implies that the supplications are being made to God.  Intercession means “a falling in with”, “a coming together to visit”, or “that for which an interview is held.”  In other words, God through Paul is commanding that we meet with God and ask for Him to work His will in the lives of our civil leaders.  Oh, and lest we forget, we also need to be thankful for them.  Sometimes that is a tall order, but it is God’s command.

Paul continues in verse three to tell us “this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”  I don’t know how much more plain we can get than that.  Praying to God for the needs of our civil leaders and being thankful for those leaders is something that God considers GOOD.  Then verse four reminds us of the most basic need, and the place our prayers should probably start for these civil leaders – their salvation.  God desires ”all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”  I would suggest that our primary responsibility, given by God, toward our civil authorities is to pray for their salvation.

As difficult as that is, there is more in this passage.  After vindicating what he just said on the basis of God, Christ, and his own apostleship, Paul goes on in verse 8 to tell us how often and in what spirit we should perform these prayers – “everywhere… without wrath and doubting.”  This is to be our constant prayer, everywhere we go; literally in every location that you find yourself, this should be your prayer.  The same concept is presented in I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”  In each and every place and situation we find ourselves, we should be praying, and specifically praying for the salvation of our civil authorities.

Further, this prayer must be done not in wrath (anger, wrath, indignation, agitation of soul).  This seems to never be the case when discussions of politics come into play.  How often we get angry or indignant first, and only then (sometimes) decide to pray.  But that attitude cannot be part of our prayers.  Also, these prayers must be done in faith, not doubting.  How easy it is for us to pray a prayer and not really believe that it will happen.  Given the sinfulness of some of our political leaders, it can be difficult to honestly believe that they might be saved.  But God’s grace and mercy reaches to the worst of sinners.

Oh how great our God is!  He knew that we would have problems through the ages with unrighteous, ungodly civil authority.  He knew the one thing that could give us a “quiet and peaceable life” (vs 2) was the salvation of those civil authorities.  Salvation, a gift from God and the will of God for all men, is exactly what we should be praying for.  God, in his infinite wisdom, knew exactly the two specific sins that would most likely prevent our prayers from being answered (Psalm 66:18; Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 59:2; John 9:31) – anger and doubt.  So in concluding this primary command, God reminds us to beware these pitfalls, these sins, that would endanger our prayers from being answered.

What changes would God perform if His people would begin, in earnest, praying faithfully and continually for the salvation of their civil authorities in faith and without anger!  I don’t believe America is a Christina nation; I don’t believe she ever was a Christian nation, but I do believe that if we ever want America to return to the Biblical principles that inundated her founding, we have no choice but to begin with the command of God.  Pray for the salvation of your civil authorities.

CC

America, A Christian Nation

Recently, there was some understandable outrage over the following email (edited for space):

…The White House will celebrate “Winter Holiday” this year, not Christmas….  They would not be called Christmas trees this year. They will be called Holiday trees.  And, to please not send any ornaments painted with a religious theme….  If you missed his [President Obama's]statement that “we do not consider ourselves a Christian Nation” this should confirm that he plans to take us away from our religious foundation as quickly as possible. 

The truth is a bit different from the email (which was a hoax and is reproduced in full in the link), but it got me thinking about another blog post I had read recently by my friend Scott Kay.  Scott says:

…America is unique in that it was founded on many principles that derive directly from Scripture….  Yet, it is without question that those principles that have influenced American life and thought for so long have been eroding at alarming rates in the past number of decades.  The trajectory toward increased secularism is just that: a movement away from the Christian concepts, practices, and principles that have undergirded and permeated our American society.

I agree with this statement, and like Scott, it concerns me.  I would suggest that you read his entire view on the concept of America being a “Christian nation” as I think it reveals one of the problems that has created the position we find ourselves in today.  The simple fact is that America, whatever she was, is not now a Christian nation, and yet, we still think of America as a Christian nation (whether historically or currently).

I won’t try to reproduce what Scott wrote, but I agree with his premise that America was never a Christian nation (that no such construct ever existed).  I believe our thoughts of America as a Christian nation have produced in us a complacency that has allowed the enemy a foothold to erode the Christian principles in our nation.  We get emails like the above and respond with outrage that this cannot be done in our Christian nation.  However, despite the fact that the above email is a hoax, the foundation for the types of actions it suggests have already been laid.  Sadly, our Christian heritage has vanished from the “public” eye as a driving force in the policy and practice of our civil government.

When we as Christians think of America as a Christian nation, we react to the ideas of removing God from the Pledge of Allegiance, or of changing the definition of the basic family unit to include same-sex couples, or even of restricting free speech in matters of religion.  And we cheer when victories are won on these issues, and proudly proclaim America as a Christian nation while we fall back into our complacency.  Meanwhile the enemy takes the defeat in stride and jumps right back up to start fighting again.

What were the issues that Christians reacted to a generation ago (more or less):  Displaying the Ten Commandments or Nativity scenes on public property, public prayer in public schools, Biblical creation freely taught in science classes.  Where are these issues today?  We have lost the battle in our complacency because when a single fight was won, we sat down complacently while the enemy battled on.  This is the same stance that most Christians take today, and if we maintain this complacent attitude, what condition will we leave our nation in for our children and grandchildren. 

As concerned as we may be about health care, social security, and foreign relations, I submit that we should be more concerned with the heritage we leave for our children in our nation.  As important as social, economic, and international issues may seem, if we keep fighting these battles with a complacent, “Christian nation” mindset, we will end up as defeated as those who went before us.  We need to evaluate our attitude, our strategy and the method we use to fight.

Now, I am one of the least likely people to be a political activist, and, honestly, in most situations I really don’t even like discussions of politics.  Truth be told, I’m not exactly certain of what our proper role as a Christian is concerning political activism.  I don’t see much in the way of commands in the Scripture as to our relationship with civil authority other than to honor (I Peter 2:17), submit (I Peter 2:13-14; Romans 13:1-7), and pray (I Timothy 2:1-2).  I have heard and do understand the argument that we have different responsibilities because we live under a different form of government than the writers of the New Testament.  I don’t condemn anyone who chooses to be politically active, but I can’t say, honestly, that I have faith in being as activist as some of my friends (Romans 14:22-23).  [Please don't misconstrue this as a suggestion that we shouldn't be involved in the political process of our country, I do vote and consider that right and proper.  The issue is the depth of involvement, or when involvement becomes activism.]

So where does that leave us? 

Tomorrow:  Christians in an American Nation

CC

Bugs

It isn’t often that I talk about my work, but I program computers for a living.  Mostly I use PowerBuilder, .NET, sometime Java or Perl.  I know that means little to nothing for most of you, but suffice it to say, it is writing the “behind-the-scenes” stuff that makes computers do the things we want them to do.

When the program doesn’t do what we want it to do, we call it a “bug”.  OK, well, maybe we call it many more things, but once we settle down and calm ourselves, we refer to the particular part that is broken as a “bug”.  I’ve often wondered about this and where this terminology comes from.  Now, I’m no etymologist, nor am I an entomologist, but I have a theory that at least has some merit.

As I was fixing a problem with my code today, a bug, I created more problems with the supposed fix than we had to start with.  We got them all fixed eventually, but I think that is why we call the bugs, because of the way they multiply.  It is very easy to fix one problem and create more in the process.  As we continue doing this, eventually we stamp out all the bugs (and we did with this project today), but it requires continual work to get them all done.

This is the same way as sin works in our lives.  As we stamp out one, we see a deeper issue or two that needs to be dealt with.  As we deal with these issues, we see other, deeper issues.  If we tire in the work, we leave ourselves in the middle of the sins, and these roots grow back into other problems that will need to be dealt with later.  But, if we work with God and continue to remove these issues from our lives, eventually we get them rooted out and things “run” properly.

This is the process of Christian growth.  We work on the areas that God has revealed.  Sometime the problem is rooted deep and is difficult (and painful) to remove, at other times, it is an obvious problem that we need to fix.  But as we continue to eradicate these issues, we grow more and more to the image of Christ, the goal of God for our lives.  Let us be diligent in digging deep to eliminate the “bugs” that are preventing our lives from being what we should be.

CC

Discipleship

One thing I have been concerned with for several years now is the lack of focus on discipleship in so many circles.  Christianity has spent so much time focusing on soulwinning, but once we get them “in” we are content to let them figure the rest on their own.  Please do not misunderstand my purpose in this.  It is not to decry the time spent witnessing and soulwinning; rather it is to remind us that soul winning is only part of the “Great Commission.”

The same Christ who said “Ye shall be witnesses unto me” also said “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”  These are not options to pick and choose as we see fit.  These are the opposite sides of the same coin.  They are both required and one is just as important as the other.

This is yet another area in which I had a broader readership than I have because I would love to hear from people about how much they were discipled.  Christ spent a great deal of near one-on-one time with the twelve, and this is one of the most important aspects of discipleship.  We have lost something in Christianity because we have lost the one-on-one relationships of true discipleship.

Discipleship is also doctrine oriented.  That is, when Christ taught, He didn’t center on standards for the sake of standards.  He spent time expounding doctrine and applying it to daily life.  This is sometimes revealed through standards, but the core of the standard is doctrine, simple, uncompromising, truth.

Listing the reasons why we have gotten to this state could well be impossible as they vary so much, but I think the central core of the reasons can be stated in two simple truths.  First, we simply don’t love enough.  We consider the case of a parent who abandons an infant or underage child and we scoff and scorn.  But, aren’t we doing the very same thing when we don’t do our part to adequately prepare a new convert for the Christian life?  The argument can be made that God is responsible for the growth in a new convert.  That is true, but God has given the responsiblity to the Church (Ephesians 4:11-12).

The second reason we have such a problem is that we don’t have a clue where to start.  I dare say that the vast majority of Christians were not discipled as new converts, and therefore have no clue where to begin discipling someone else.  If anyone knows of quality, doctrinally based discipleship lessons, I’d be glad to hear of them.  Unfortunately, much of what is available is too overly focused on outward conformity that it misses the point of transformation through a renewed mind (Romans 12:1-2).

CC

Hope Thou In God

Why are thou cast down, O my soul?  And why are thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

Yet the Lord will comand His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me?  Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?  And why art thou disquieted within me?  Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

~ Psalm 42:5-11

 

I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.

The Lord is ON MY SIDE; I WILL NOT FEAR: [emphasis added] what can man do unto me?

~ Psalm 118:5-6

 

I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name forever and ever

Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

~ Psalm 145:1-5

 

But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:19

 

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye not much better than they?

~ Matthew 6:26

 

Dear Father, let me say in truth and sincerity of spirit that You indeed are my all in all~

CC

I Believe

I believe that God has given me all the answers I need in His Word. (I Peter 1:3)

What do you believe?

***************
I Believe
by Wes King

I believe
In six days and a rest
God is good
I do confess
I believe
In Adam and Eve
In a tree and a garden
In a snake and a thief

I believe, I believe
I believe in the Word of God
I believe, I believe
‘Cause He made me believe

I believe Noah
Built an ark of wood
120 years
No one understood
I believe Elijah never died
Called fire from heaven
On a mountainside

I believe, I believe
I believe in the Word of God
I believe, I believe
‘Cause He made me believe

It’s been passed down through ages of time
Written by hands of men
Inspired by the Lord
His Word will remain to the end

I believe Isaiah
Was a prophet of old
The Lamb was slain
Just as he foretold
I believe Jesus
Was the Word made man
And He died for my sins
And He rose again

Legalism

So I’ve been reading some material (more on this later, maybe) and one of the topics discussed is legalism.  Another term, like fundamentalist, that has different meanings to different people.  So, here are the various definitions posed by the author of the article I’m reading, just curious what everyone else things about this.

So,

What is Legalism

~CC

Command Number 2

If ye love me, keep my commandments – John 14:15

Christ’s Second Command - Rejoice, and be exceeding glad… (Matt 5:12)

Specifically this verse points back to verse 11 – “when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake”, but the command is repeated over and over that we should rejoice.

How often we let joy-thieves come in and take our joy away from us.  Our joy should be in the same place as our hope, the Lord, our rock, our fortress, our strong tower.  Nothing should be allowed to steal our joy.

Surely there is a time for sorrow, and sorrow over sin, but even in that sorrow, we can recognize the joy of forgiveness.  “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” – Psalm 30:5.  Remember, no matter how deep the valley seems, God will walk it with you.

So what is it that you allow to rob you of your joy?  Is it financial trouble?  Is it cares of this world?  Is it suffering?  Is it the current political state?  What robs you of your joy?  And now, knowing that Christ’s second direct command is to Rejoice! what will you do about it?

~CC

Because I Am A Valued Customer…

I wasn’t sure what to post today.  Had several ideas when I was driving to work, but they were gone when I got there (too many grey hairs and not enough grey matter underneath).  Graciously, the telephone rang shortly after dinner and my bank (Bank of America) was kind enough to give me a topic to post about.

Seems that Bank of America has decided that because I am such a good and valued customer, they want to reward me by signing me up for a special Accidental Death & Dismemberment insurance policy.  Well, isn’t that very kind of them.  I appreciate rewards for being a faithful customer and this sounded nice.  Then the kicker came.  BoA was going to pay for this special policy for 60 days while I reviewed it.  If I wanted to keep it, I would be billed after the 60 days.  If not, I could call and cancel at any time.

Wait, what?  You consider me so valuable that you are giving me a reward, a gift, that I have to pay for?!?  How would you feel, if on your birthday or Christmas, someone gave you a subscription to the “Cheese of the Month” club.  Then they told you, “We paid for the first two months, and if you like it, all you have to do is send the payment to this address.”  Or sign you up to a receive a magazine and said, “We paid for two months, but signed you up for auto-renewal.  If you want to cancel it, just call this number.”

I think I know who wouldn’t be invited back for birthdays and Christmas.

So I told the lady no thanks and tried to get off the phone.  I was a cold caller for a few months back when I was married and finishing college, so I try to be polite to these folks, but I knew I would not get off the phone that easy unless I simply hung up.  Sometimes I do hang up, but tonight I decided to answer back a little.  So, when she started with the, “But, sir, this is free to you for the first 60 days and if you don’t want to keep it, you just need to call in and cancel it.”

She finished, and I asked her, “So BoA considers me such a valuable customer that they want to give me a gift that I have to pay for?  I would think if I were a valuable customer, they would pay for the gift instead.  Or, better yet”, I continued, “why not give me the gift of not calling me with these promotions again?  I have insurance at work that I am happy with, and I don’t want any more right now.”

Realizing that she was getting nowhere, and maybe agreeing with me somewhat, she dropped down to the “If you have any questions please call”, and rattled off an 800 number.  Then she made the mistake of saying, “If there isn’t anything else I can do…” and I just couldn’t resist myself even though she was obviously trying to hang up (much like I was doing earlier in the call).

“Well, now that you mention it, could you please pass on to your management that I would consider it a much better reward if they would stop these phone calls?” I asked. 

“Yes, sir,” she said, and my pity for her won over. 

“Thank you,” I said, “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” she replied.

Honestly, I guess there are still enough people that respond positively to these types of phone calls that it remains profitable for companies like BoA to continue calling.  But honestly, people, if we would all just make a concerted effort as a nation to “Just Say No” for a year or so, I wonder how long this model of interrupting tele-marketing (I won’t glorify it by calling it salesmanship) would continue.  There would still be some idiot companies that are so behind the times they would still try it, but after a year of saying “No” we would be ready to continue saying “No” until they all went away.  (What, can’t a guy dream a little?)

~CC

Husband and Wife

[Note:  The links in this article are NOT to Wikipedia.  I consider Wikipedia to be a beneficial source for information in many areas; however, their articles on Egalitarianism and Complementarianism contain a sidebar with a graphic of a 1500's artwork of a male and female nude.  I find this offensive and tried to remove it several times, only to be rebuked by Wikipedia.  Seems in order to change this I need to get "consensus from the community" that it is offensive (because "what offends you personally is not an issue").  I have initiated a discussion on the Template:GenderChristianity "talk" page to try to have the image removed or replaced, but that seems to not be working.  It seems it was a violation of protocol for me to ask here for people to email or become active in the discussion.  Now that I know, I have removed that request.  Back to the regular Blog...]

I’ve been in several discussions lately and read several blogs that centered around gender rolls within a Christian marriage.  At least one of these discussions started as a reault of the over-lordship of some husbands in treating their wives (and daughters) as slaves (untie my shoes, fetch my slippers, etc).

I must confess to being in agreement with some of my more liberal acquiantances that 1) this type of overbearing, unloving attitude (as in master-servant) is disgusting and 2) that I am sad for any woman trapped in such a stifling relationship.  It is people like this that give the rest of conservative Christianity a bad name, and I will go so far as to say that this type of unloving attitude by a husband will be grounds for discipline from God.

Let me begin by saying that there is a sense in which the liberals (Egalitarianism) are correct.  In Christ, there is no male and female, and as children of our Heavenly Father, we are all equal.  Equal in standing with God, equal in love from God, equal in access to God, equal in grace from God, and equal in the gift(s) of the Holy Spirit.  There is no heirarchy in our relationship to God.  God treats us as individuals, and women have no less access or grace because of their gender.

Now having said that, I will be quick to add, that while I do have compassion for those in the bad situations discussed above, it does not change my belief or interpretation of God’s commands.  There is indeed a heirarchical structure in the home: Christ-husband-wife-children.  This (Complementarianism) is clearly taught in I Corinthians 11, Ephesians 5&6, and I Peter 3.  Abuse of this principle in domineering and emotional abuse by some un-loving husbands does not negate the principle.  While I understand the desire to change things in order to remove people from a bad situation, the way to do that is not to violate the teaching of Scripture.

I belive much of the problem could be corrected with a better understanding of Biblical authority.  I’m not sure why, perhaps because of our culture, but we tend to look at authority from the wrong perspective, a bottom-up perspective, focusing on those under authority.  We generally look at authority as someone who is above us, making rules for us, telling us what we can and cannot do.  We often think this happens with little or no thought of how it will really affect us, and indeed more and more that is the way authority operates.  But this is not the Biblical view of authority.

Biblical authority includes a top-down view, focusing on the responsibility of the authority itself.  No doubt, there are passages that teach those under authority how to respond (submit), but the focus seems to be at least as much on how the authority should act.  Consider Romans 13 for a moment.  We generally read this passage as an admonition to submit and obey authority, and that is a principle taught in this Scripture.  In fact, we are commanded twice in the first six verses to be subject to authority and we are commanded twice (being generous) to not resist authority.  However look at the passage again, we are reminded four times that the authority is an ordained minister of God.  Not ordained in the sense of a pastor, but more in the sense that God has placed them there for a specific purpose.  Now, as a husband and father, as a leader, this is a sobering thought.  Hold that thought and look at Hebrews 13:17 -

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

Again, this passage is written to the one under authority, but the implications to the authority are again sobering.  As an ordained minister of God’s authority (as a husband and father), I must give an account to God Himself for how I handle the authority He has given me.  Wow, that is serious.  I think one of the most serious problems in leadership today is that leaders get so caught up in the concept of forcing someone to submit to their will and/or whims that we miss the responsibility of being a leader.  Responsibility means we follow Christ’s commands, and that includes being loving, gracious, and kind to those under our authority.  A husband who demands for submission from his wife in areas like fetching his slippers or the like and in doing so makes her life miserable is NOT being loving.  (And don’t even get me started on this concept of “Christian” Domestic Discipline (prepare to be sickened).  A man who physically strikes his wife is an abuser regardless of whether he has convinced her it is “biblical”!)

None of this is to imply that there shouldn’t be a “buck stops here” aspect to authority.   But again, the attitude behind this cannot be “my way or the highway” or it isn’t loving.  It should instead be “I accept responsibility before God for the hard decisions I must make for this family”.  The focus is on love and mutual respect, and I do belive there should be open communication, especially when it comes to difficult decisions.  But the final responsibility for that decision is the husband/father.  Also as authority, I am responsible to train my wife in the Scriptures.  Some have a problem with the word “train”, so feel free to use the word disciple instead.  If I don’t do this, I am at fault and will answer to God for it.  My wife has no such command to train (aka disciple) me, and if she doesn’t, she will not be condemned by God.

Finally, I think much of the misunderstanding also comes from a lack of taking the whole counsel of the Scriptures.  In Ephesians, the analogy of Christ and the church is used to help understand the heirachical relationship between a husband and wife.  First and foremost, we never in Scripture see Christ as being submissive to the church.  Furthermore, the concept of discipline in the spiritual realm comes from God, not from Christ.  We see Christ loving His bride (the church) even if they are disobedient.  He even has given gifts to the church in order to accomplish His will (discipleship).  Never do we see a domineering, overbearing image of Christ in realtionship to the church.  Rather it is a beautiful picture of a caring love willing to take responsibility (He even died for His bride’s sin).  Oh that I could even begin to be that type of a husband.

~CC