The “Rural” Mom Meets the “Urban” Daughter-in-Law | Eastern Lightning

The “Rural” Mom Meets the “Urban” Daughter-in-Law

Liu Jie, Hunan

Different Viewpoints, Constant Conflicts

    I am a typical housewife, a good wife and a loving mother, I take good care of my husband and children, I'm hardworking and thrifty in running my household, and I've never recklessly spent my money. But something unimaginable happened to me. My son married a fashionable girl who really loved to have fun and dress up and follow the trends of the world. She pursued and purchased whatever was popular in the world, she threw away money by the handful, and however much she made each month was however much she spent. Since there was such a huge difference in our ways of thinking and living, my daughter-in-law and I often would be at loggerheads, we got into angry arguments, and our problems continued to get more and more intense.

    One day I saw my daughter-in-law come in carrying a bag, so I hurried over to ask her what she had bought, and how much money she had spent. She lit up and said: “I bought a dress, it wasn't expensive, just 400-something yuan.” When I heard this, I got extremely angry: How could she be so relaxed, she was acting like she was someone with a lot of money. When I buy a dress, it's less than 100 yuan, and I wear it for several years. However, the clothes she bought were expensive, and once they became outdated she'd stop wearing them, while her wardrobe got stuffed full of clothes; the more I thought about it the angrier I got, and it started to wear on my face. When my daughter-in-law saw that I wasn't happy, it wiped the smile off of her face, she turned around and walked into her bedroom, and I heard the sound of the door slamming shut.

Eastern Lightning | A Debate Between a Christian and a CCP Official: What Really Is a Cult?

A Debate Between a Christian and a CCP Official: What Really Is a Cult?

Characters

Zheng Yi: A Chinese Christian. During his work in America, he investigated The Church of Almighty God online and accepted Almighty God's work in the last days. Three years later, he returned to China, and passed on the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God to his sister, Zheng Rui.

Zheng Weiguo: Zheng Yi's father, the minister of the United Front Work Department in a city of China. He practiced red re-education of his children at home, strongly opposed them believing in Almighty God and tried to stop it.

Eastern Lightning | Do You Know the Significance Behind Easter?

Do You Know the Significance Behind Easter?     

     Easter is known to every Christian, and it originated from the Lord Jesus’ resurrection and ascension three days after His crucifixion. Christians observe the feast of Easter to commemorate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, so Easter occurs between March 22 and April 25 each year. In this year, Easter Day is on April 1. When you are celebrating this feast, however, do you know why the Lord Jesus was resurrected three days after His death? And why did He appear to many people after His resurrection? What was God’s intention in appearing to them? Sisters and brothers, what do you think?

      It was not until later, when I read two passages of God’s words, that I came to understand the Lord Jesus’ kind and thoughtful intention in appearing to those people after His resurrection. God says: The resurrected Lord Jesus is the Lord Jesus that had initially spent thirty-three and a half years working among mankind. Although He had been nailed to the cross and experienced the valley of the shadow of death, and He had experienced resurrection, His every aspect had undergone no changes. Although He now had nail marks on His body, and although He had been resurrected and walked out from the grave, His disposition, His understanding of mankind, and His intentions toward mankind had not changed in the slightest. Also, He was telling people that He had come down off the cross, triumphed over sin, triumphed over hardships, and triumphed over death. The nail marks were just the evidence of His victory over Satan, evidence of being a sin offering to successfully redeem all of mankind. He was telling people that He had already taken on mankind’s sins and He had completed His work of redemption. When He returned to see His disciples, He told them with His appearance: ‘I’m still alive, I still exist; today I am truly standing in front of you so that you can see and touch Me. I will always be with you.’ …

…………

     

     “After the Lord Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to the people He thought necessary, spoke with them, and made requirements of them, leaving behind His intentions, and His expectations of people. That is to say, as God incarnate, it doesn’t matter if it was during His time in the flesh, or in the spiritual body after being nailed to the cross and being resurrected—His concern for mankind and requirements of people did not change. He was concerned about these disciples before He was up on the cross; in His heart, He was clear on the situation of every single person, He understood every person’s deficiency, and of course His understanding of every person was the same after He had died, resurrected, and become a spiritual body as it was when He was in the flesh. He knew that people weren’t entirely certain of His identity as Christ, but during His time in the flesh He did not make strict demands of people. But after He had been resurrected He appeared to them, and He made them absolutely certain that the Lord Jesus had come from God, that He was God incarnate, and He used the fact of His appearance and His resurrection as the greatest vision and motivation for mankind’s lifelong pursuit. His resurrection from death not only strengthened all those who follow Him, but also thoroughly put His work of the Age of Grace into effect among mankind, and thus the gospel of the Lord Jesus’ salvation in the Age of Grace gradually spread to every corner of humanity. Would you say that the Lord Jesus’ appearance after His resurrection had any significance? If you were Thomas or Peter at that time, and you encountered this one thing in your life that was so meaningful, what kind of impact would it have on you? Would you see this as the best and the greatest vision of your life of believing in God? Would you see this as a driving force of your following God, striving to satisfy Him, and pursuing love of God in your life? Would you expend a lifetime of effort to spread this greatest of visions? Would you make spreading the Lord Jesus’ salvation a commission you accept from God? … His appearance allowed people to have another experience and feeling of God’s concern and care while also powerfully proving that God is the One who opens up an age, who develops an age, and He is the One who ends an age. Through His appearance He strengthened the faith of all people, and through His appearance He proved to the world the fact that He is God Himself. This gave His followers eternal confirmation, and through His appearance He also opened up a phase of His work in the new age.”
      

Source The Internet

The Church of Almighty God | The Experience of Growth of a Christian Born in the 1990s

The Experience of Growth of a Christian Born in the 1990s

Wei Chen, Fujian Province

I'm a Christian who was born in the 1990s. I was once a student in one of those famous schools that all parents want their kids to study at and will go to extreme lengths to get them in. In China, they are known as key schools, and I studied in one for 10 years. In China, parents have very high expectations of such schools, and rack their brains for ways to improve their children’s chances of going to these high-quality places of learning. They think that their kids will thus gain a first-class education that will put them head and shoulders above the rest and bring glory to their family and ancestors. In order to get me into a key school, my mother pulled out all the stops to develop relationships with the right people and also spent a considerable sum of money. But the schools run by the C.C.P. have already lost all their purity of purpose and have become dens of lies and falsehoods. The teachers and staff—who should have been upstanding models of fairness, humanity and morality—have become treacherous, cunning and immoral hypocrites who are cultivating batch after batch of similarly hypocritical students, the so-called “pillars of the nation.”

The Church of Almighty God | How to Pursue to Be an Honest Person

A Collection of Sermons for Supply

 The Church of Almighty God Pitcure

How to Pursue to Be an Honest Person

Miaoxiao Anyang City, Henan Province

In the past, when reading in God’s word that we were required to be an honest person, many brothers and sisters thought that it was not hard to be an honest person and that as long as one told the truth without cheating others in everything, he was an honest person. Most people did not meditate or seek whether they had lived up to the standards of an honest person, and even less did they pay attention to entering into being an honest person. Thus, the matter of practicing being an honest person was shelved. Recently, through the man’s fellowship “The Four Indices People Have to Grasp in Pursuing the Truth to Gain the Transformation of Their Disposition,” we have clearly realized the importance and crucialness of being an honest person, knowing that being an honest person is the prerequisite and the foundation for the transformation of our disposition and is the start of pursuing the transformation of our disposition. Because God likes honest people and loathes crafty people, only if we begin by practicing and entering into being an honest person will we be able to establish a normal relationship with God, and will we easily communicate with God and receive the working of the Holy Spirit. If we have no entering in in being an honest person, we cannot have transformation of our disposition, even less can we be saved and perfected by God.

The Church of Almighty God | Walking Down the Bright Path of Life

Walking Down the Bright Path of Life

 Walking Down the Bright Path of Life

Xie Li, America

I used to be someone who would chase after the trends of the world, I wanted to abandon myself to a life of pleasure, and I just cared about the pleasures of the flesh. I would often go with my friends to KTV all night long, I would go for joyrides in the middle of the night, I would go fishing out on the ocean, and travel all around in search of fine foods. I’d see others around me, and they too were all striving to eat well, wear nice things, and enjoy good things. I felt that these were the things that a man must work for in his life, that this is why you must work hard to earn money, that this is the goal in life that everyone should have.

The Church of Almighty God | The Conversion of a Son of Disobedience

The Conversion of a Son of Disobedience

 The  Church of  Almighty God Pictures

Li Baosen

Tieling City, Liaoning Province

In the fall of 1996, I accepted the Lord Jesus in the True Jesus Church. Later, I became a preacher, responsible for shepherding over thirty churches in my parish.

At a co-worker meeting in 1999, Elder Li from Shenyang said to us, “In recent years, there has arisen a sect called ‘Eastern Lightning.’ They preach that the Lord has been incarnated the second time, even as a female. They grow so rapidly in number that nothing can stand in their way. Whoever believes in Jesus is a target hunted by them. They belong to an underworld organization. In order to convert a believer in the Lord, they either seduce him with beauty and buy him off with money or threaten him with violence. If he refuses to obey them, they will break his arms or legs, or cut off his nose or ears. Many elders, deacons, and believers of our denomination have been taken captive by them. Now they have come to Changtu area, so you must take stringent precautions and keep a good watch over the flock lest any brother or sister be taken captive by them. …” I did not doubt about his words at all. From then on, whichever church I went to, I wantonly spread the elder’s words and even made up the rumor: “This gang of people of ‘Eastern Lightning’ are promiscuous, extremely filthy.” In order to better prevent the brothers and sisters from being converted to “Eastern Lightning,” I personally taught them in detail how to guard against and resist it.

The Church of Almighty God | The Song of Life in Tortures

The Song of Life in Tortures

 The Church of  Almighty  God  pictures

Gao Jing    Henan Province

In 1999, I was fortunate to accept Almighty God’s end-time work. Through reading God’s word, I felt God’s holy, honorable, and righteous disposition, and knew that all these words are the expression of God’s life being. I had inexpressible moving in my heart. For the first time I felt the security and joy in the bottom of my heart brought by the working of the Holy Spirit. Since then, I desired more and more to gain these truths. After entering the Church of Almighty God, I saw that it was a new world completely different from the society. The brothers and sisters were all simple, kind-hearted, pure, and lively. Though we were from different places and had different social backgrounds and statuses, we were as dear as a family and loved and sustained each other, happily staying together. That made me truly feel that the life of worshiping God was so happy, joyful, wonderful, and sweet. Later, I read these words of God, “As a member of mankind and as one of the godly Christians, we all have the responsibility and obligation to offer up our body and heart for the accomplishment of God’s commission, because our whole being comes from God and exists because of God’s sovereignty. If our body and heart are not for God’s commission and not for the just cause of mankind, then our soul will be ashamed to face those who were martyred for God’s commission and will be even more ashamed to face God who provides us with everything.” (from “God Is Sovereign over the Destiny of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) From God’s words, I understood that as a created being, I should live for the Creator and consecrate and spend my whole being for God, and only this is the most worthy and meaningful life. Thus, when I heard that in the remote areas there were still many people who hadn’t heard Almighty God’s end-time gospel, I resolutely said goodbye to the brothers and sisters in my hometown and took the train going afar.

The church of Almighty God | The Loss and Gain of Gatherings

Testimonies of Returning to God

The Loss and Gain of Gatherings

Guozi    USA

My name is Guozi, and I’m a high school student studying abroad in the USA. I was born in a Christian family, and my mother accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days when I was one year old. I remember when I was very young that my mother would always say to me: “God created heavens, earth, and everything that exists. We humans were also created by God, and God loves us more than anything. Whenever something happens to you, remember to pray to Almighty God, and He will watch over and protect you.” So when I was very young I learned that God exists, and when anything happened to me and I prayed to God, I experienced God’s protection for me. But truly having knowledge of God and God’s work was something I gradually gained in the course of attending gatherings and fellowshiping about the truth together with brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God and practicing entering into the word of God …

The Church of Almighty God | With Life Hanging by a Thread, the Hand of God Came to the Rescue

With Life Hanging by a Thread, the Hand of God Came to the Rescue

 The Church of Almighty God pictures

Ling Wu    Japan

“If I were not saved by God, I would still be drifting in this world,
struggling hard and painfully in sin; every day gets bleak and hopeless.
If I were not saved by God, I’d still be crushed below the devil’s feet,
snared in sin and its enjoyments, ignorant of what my life would be.
If I were not saved by God, I’d be without my blessings here today,
much less know why we should live on or the meaning of our lives.
If I were not saved by God, I’d still be confused about my faith,
still in empty space passing the days, unaware in whom to put my faith.
I have finally understood God’s loving hand holds mine as we go.

I would never go and lose my way ’cause I’m on this brilliant course to stay” (“If I Were Not Saved by God” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Whenever I hear this hymn of experience, I am always deeply moved. If it weren’t for God saving me, as described in the hymn, I might still be wandering aimlessly in the world, tiring myself out chasing after money, even to the point that I would long since have lost my life and died abroad in a foreign land …

The Church of Almighty God | Gossip Is a “Fearful” Thing

 Gossip Is a “Fearful” Thing

 The Church of  Almighty God Book picture

Li Zhong

Jiyuan City, Henan Province

Whenever I remember that in those gloomy days, I was fooled and deceived by satan and therefore dared not accept God’s new work, I even more loathe and abhor satan and all the schemes it employed.

Why Does Eastern Lightning Surge Forward With Unstoppable Progress?

Why Does Eastern Lightning Surge Forward With Unstoppable Progress?

Christ of the last days has been doing His work in mainland China for over 20 years, work which has shaken the various religious sects to their core. The most perplexing question for the religious community during this time has been: Most pastors and elders in the religious community have done their utmost to judge and attack the Eastern Lightning through various means such as spreading rumors about and defaming the Eastern Lightning. Furthermore, they have even sealed off their churches and even gone so far as colluding with the CCP government to arrest and persecute the Christians in the Church of Almighty God. But while under the frantic condemnation, resistance, and persecution by the CCP government and the religious world acting as two arms of Satan’s forces, why are there more and more believers from various denominations and sects accepting and following Almighty God? Why is it those who have good humanity and used to have sincere belief in the Lord are willing to follow Almighty God to the very end? Why do they continue to do so despite enduring endless condemnation, defamation, coercion, and persecution by the CCP government and the religious world? The CCP imprisons them and yet they don’t look back. How is it that the Eastern Lightning surges forward, unbeaten and unbroken by Satan’s forces, to bloom with new prosperity and growth day by day? How has it spread so far and wide to every corner of China to be accepted and followed by millions? Why has it also spread throughout the world to many different countries and regions?

The Church of Almighty God | God’s Discipline Drove Me to Seek and His Words Conquered Me

God’s Discipline Drove Me to Seek and His Words Conquered Me

 The Pictures of  The Church of Almighty God 

Xin Yu

Shangqiu City, Henan Province

I was once a worker of the “Justification by Faith Church.” Since I believed in Jesus in 1987, I had expected that one day I would be received up into heaven by the Lord and enjoy the heavenly blessings. However, when the Lord “knocked” on my door, I took Him as a deceiver from Satan and condemned and resisted Him with all my effort. When I recall the past, I feel very regretful…

At a co-workers’ meeting in December 2000, the leader told us, “Now there arose a sect called the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ They preach that the Lord has come back and is no longer called Jesus but Almighty God. Don’t be deceived by them! They specially deceive the young so as to commit adultery. If you don’t accept their way after listening to their message, they will disable or detain you! …” I believed his words without discerning them, and conveyed them to the brothers and sisters as soon as I came back. I also stressed again and again, “Without my permission, no one can receive the people of the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ Whoever disobeys will be expelled from the church!” Just like this, I sealed off the church and hindered the spreading of God’s new work greatly.

The Church of Almighty God | I Nearly Became the False Christ’s Funeral Gift

36 I Nearly Became the False Christ’s Funeral Gift

 The Church of  Almighty God pictures

Zou Honglan

Yantai City, Shandong Province

I was formerly a leader of the “Hua Xuehe sect.” I had held such a belief: The Trinity (that is, the holy father Hua Xuehe, the holy son Guo XX, and the holy spirit Bi XX) are the true God, our belief is different from others’, only the “triune” God we believe in is to fulfill the whole Bible, and all the other denominations and sects will stream to our church in the future. Those who believe in our way all have the “moving” (the twitching of the flesh), which is the foreseeing that money can’t buy. When you need help and pray for this moving, it will answer you. How marvelous!

The Church of Almighty God | Before the Truth, I Finally Confessed Myself to Be an Evil Servant

124 Before the Truth, I Finally Confessed Myself to Be an Evil Servant

 The Church of Almighty God  pictures

Zhang Wenbiao

Fushun City, Liaoning Province

My name is Zhang Wenbiao. In the fall of 1994, I believed in Jesus in the Slain Church. Soon I was appointed as a leader in charge of shepherding and sustaining one hundred and fifty believers of ten churches.

One day in the winter of 1995, the senior leader called us leaders in different areas together. At the meeting, he said, “Now there arose a sect called the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ They say that God came into the flesh again. They’ve departed from the Bible. It’s purely a heresy, from a false Christ. There’s an evil spirit in their book. If you read it, you will be captivated…” I believed these words to be true and began to hate the people of the “Eastern Lightning.” I made up my mind: I will be a faithful servant of the Lord, and will protect the flock and prevent any of them from being snatched away by the “Eastern Lightning.” After I came back, I spread the senior leader’s words in the churches, “The ‘Eastern Lightning’ is a ‘heresy,’ a ‘cult,’ and a ‘mafia.’ They are deceiving people everywhere. Once you join them, you can’t withdraw. If you want to withdraw, they will kidnap your family and break your legs or gouge out your eyes. Everyone must be careful not to be deceived by them.” I also made some rules as a precaution in the churches: Every church worker must guard the church carefully and ensure that no one receives strangers or fellowships with them about belief in God. Whoever has contacted the people of the “Eastern Lightning” must confess his sin and curse the “Eastern Lightning” before all the believers. All this made the brothers and sisters nervous, and they were all afraid of being deceived by the “Eastern Lightning.”

The Church of Almighty God | An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

83. An Arrogant Believer’s Process of Transformation

 The Church of Almighty God | pictures

Zhang Yitao    Henan Province

“God, Your work is so practical, so full of righteousness and holiness. You have been patiently working for so long, all for us. In the past, I believed in God but I didn’t have a human manner. I disobeyed You and hurt Your heart without knowing. I am full of shame and regret and am indebted to You. Only now do I realize this. … Without Your harsh judgment, I wouldn’t have today, and facing Your genuine love I am grateful and indebted to You. It was Your work that saved me and caused my disposition to change. Without sorrow and pain, my heart is full of happiness” (“Oh God, the Love You Have Given Me Is Too Great” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Every time I sing this song, I think of God’s salvation for me through all these years, and I am full of gratitude for Him. It was God’s judgment and chastisement that changed me. It made me—an arrogant, ambitious, rebellious son—appear a bit more like a human being. I sincerely give thanks for God’s salvation of me!

The Church of Almighty God | Why Is the Religious World Always Frantically Resisting and Condemning God’s New Work?

The Church of  Almighty God Pictures

Why Is the Religious World Always Frantically Resisting and Condemning God’s New Work?

The two times that God has become flesh to walk the earth and carry out the work of saving man He has been met with the utmost resistance, condemnation and frantic persecution from leaders in the religious world, a fact that has puzzled and even shocked people: Why is it that every time God unfolds a stage of new work He is always met with this kind of treatment? Why is it that those who most frantically and aggressively resist God are the religious leaders who read the Bible over and over again and who have served God for many years? Why is it that those religious leaders that people see as being the most devout, the most faithful and the most obedient to God are actually unable to be compatible with God, and instead are always acting perverse and being enemies of God? Could it be that God made a mistake in His work? Could it be that God’s actions are not amenable to reason? Certainly that is not the case! There are two fundamental reasons that various denominations and sects have people who are able to play the role of resisting God, turning into enemies of God, and these are: First, along with these people not possessing the truth and not having knowledge of the work of the Holy Spirit, they also do not have knowledge of God, they always rely on their limited knowledge of the Bible, theological theories and people’s conceptions and imaginations to delineate God’s work that is always new and never old; Second, since mankind is deeply corrupted by Satan, its nature is arrogant and self-conceited, it is unable to obey the truth, and it especially values status. The combination of these two aspects leads to the tragedy of mankind forsaking and condemning the true way time and again throughout history.

The Church of Almighty God | God’s Best Protection for Mankind

God’s Best Protection for Mankind

 God’s Best Protection for Mankind

Kuiqian    Rizhao City, Shandong Province

My station in life, or status, was something I could never let go of, and when God created an environment that exposed me, I was only negative, complaining, and despairing. Only through refinement after refinement did I come to understand God’s good intentions, and that His testing of me was not to torment me. Rather, it was to cleanse me and make me perfect, to allow me to understand that believing in God for the sake of a station can only ruin me, thus allowing me to let go of improper views of pursuit, and to have a proper goal to pursue.

After some time of serving as a leader in the church, I was promoted to be a district leader’s partner. Before long, I was promoted again and entrusted with being a district leader. This linear “rise” made me work even harder to perform my duty, looking forward to the day that even more would be entrusted to me. This hope became the impetus for my pursuits. However, just as I was dreaming of my step-by-step “ascent,” I was replaced! At the time I was crushed—I felt that I had lost my station and my path of faith in God had come to its end. I was in pain to the point that I considered leaving the church. I even thought about dying. Later, through enlightenment from God’s words, I gradually came out of that negativity. His words were: “When the mountains move, could they make a detour for the sake of your station? When the waters flow, could they cease before your station? Could the heavens and the earth be reversed by your station?” (“The Twenty-second Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). At the time, although I realized that my desire for status was too strong and that faith in God should not be a pursuit of status, I didn’t have any real understanding of myself, and I thought to myself: I won’t pursue status anymore; no matter what duties are arranged for me, I’ll obey and that’s it. Later, the church arranged for me to preach the gospel and to look after new believers. I accepted all of this. So, I believed that I had let go of my desire for status.

The Church of Almighty God | After Losing My Status …

  After Losing My Status …

Huimin    Jiaozuo City, Henan Province

 The Church of Almighty God book

Every time I saw or heard of someone having been replaced and them feeling down, weak or sulky, and not wanting to follow anymore, then I looked down on them. I thought it was nothing more than different people having different functions within the church, that there was no distinction between high or low, that we were all God’s creations and there was nothing to feel down about. So whether I was taking care of new believers or leading a district, I never thought I focused much on my status, that I was that sort of person. I never would have thought in a million years that I would display such shameful behavior when I myself was replaced …

As my work had not brought about any results for some time, my leader replaced me. At that time, I thought even if my character wasn’t made out to be a district leader, I must surely still be allowed to do the watering or safeguarding work. I never expected for my leader to get me taking care of the routine stuff. I was surprised then, thinking of such a dignified district leader as myself being today made to run errands, and that anyone in the church who could run or who had a little intelligence could do this job. Wasn’t getting me to do this job an obvious waste of my talents? But I kept my feelings to myself, afraid that my sisters would say I was disobedient, that I cared about my status. But as soon as I got home, I fell flat on the bed and felt awful. Thoughts of having no status from now on and wondering how my brothers and sisters would see me filled my head. And to make me run errands—how would I ever be able to have my day again? The more I thought about it, the more awful I felt.

The Church of Almighty God | Led by God’s Love in the Tribulation, I Became Stronger in My Heart

Led by God’s Love in the Tribulation, I Became Stronger in My Heart

                                   Chen Lu    Tonglu City, Zhejiang Province

The Church of Almighty God-Pictures

I was born in the countryside in the 1980s. My family has engaged in farming for a living for generations. To enter the college and break free from the poor and backward rural life, I kept studying hard. When I was in high school, I came into contact with The History of Western Arts and saw many superb paintings such as Genesis, The Garden of Eden, The Last Supper, and so on. Through them, I learned that in heaven there is a God who created all things. Thus, I was filled with yearning for him. After graduating from college, I successfully found a good job and married a satisfactory husband, and finally realized the wish of my forefathers and mine—breaking free from the hard farming life that continued for generations. In 2008, the birth of my child added many joys to my life. Facing everything I owned before my eyes, I thought that I would be very happy and satisfied. However, when I was enjoying the good life that everyone admired and longed for, I could never get free from the unexplainable sense of emptiness in the depth of my heart. I was very perplexed and helpless with it.