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We all receive them:  emails from friends containing inspirational, or humorous, or sentimental set pieces or prayer requests, which we are asked to read and then forward, in turn, to our friends. They constitute a Christian internet sub-culture.

Here is the latest I received, just as I received it:

 “This is so true. Read it through to the end and then send your own acknoledgement. I mean in case you just have not gotten around to it this morning.
            Love and blessings,
            WHAT HAPPENS IN HEAVEN 
            This is one of  the nicest  e-mails I have  seen and is so t rue:
            
              
             I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.
              
            My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This Is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are Received.”
                
            I look ed around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on  voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

            Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.
              
            The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the  people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”
              
            I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many  blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth
              
            Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the Door of a very small station To my great surprise, only one angel was Seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Aknowledgment Section,” My angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed “How Is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.
            
            “So sad,”  the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked For, very few send back acknowledgments .” 
                
            “How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.
                
            “Simp le,” the angel answered.   Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”
              
             “What blessings should they acknowledge?”  I asked.
              
            “If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world.  If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy .” 
              
            “And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”
            
            Also .
              
            ” If you woke up this morning with more health than illness … You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day .” 
              
            “If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or  the pangs of starvation .. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world.” 
              
            “If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people
            In the world .” 
              
            “If your parents are still alive and still married …you are very rare .” 
              
            “If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”
              
            Ok, what now?   How can I start?
              
            If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
              
            Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.
              
            A TTN: 
            Acknowledge Dept.:    “Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people to share it with.”