Podcasts about 14i

DuckDuckGo defines the Rapture as "the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ." Many people have argued that the word Rapture is not in the Bible, but is the meaning? Revelations 7:9 "9After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." Revelations 7:13-14 13Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” 14I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Based on these scriptures which are talking about the End Times, there is some sort of Rapture, Sealing or Protection of "Gods People" (Yah's People) from the coming Trumpet Armageddon Destructions on the world. Nevertheless, in this message I didn't focus on the idea of the "Rapture" as much as I focused on the intentions or the consequences of the "Rapture." For many believers, Christians and Christ Followers the Rapture for them is just about being saved from the coming destructions of the world, but in this sermon, I describe that for a select few, the Gods Chosen People, those who have suffered under the curses for the 400 years, for those people, the Rapture is not just about being saved from the Trumpet judgements but it is about being restored into their former glory. “At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.” Zephaniah 3:19-20 For my latest news and updates go to: https://leodunson.com/ For Exclusive Content go to https://leodunson.vhx.tv --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leoisrael/support

Sunday AM ServiceExodus 20:14I. The Law About AdulteryII. The Lure Of AdulteryIII. The Losses Because Of AdulteryIV. The Lessons To Prevent AdulterySupport the show (https://app.easytithe.com/app/giving/firstbaptist)

Intro: Writing personallyLet Me Run This By You: What would you say to your inner child?Interview: We talk to Ed Ryan about surviving two theatre schools, surviving 9/11, and interrupted grief.FULL TRANSCRIPT (UNEDITED):I'm Jen Bosworth from me this and I'm Gina Polizzi. We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it. 20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all. We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet? And I'm scared. Like, I think partially 1 00:00:34This is this, the main character is based on me. Like all our character. I think every writer writes about themselves. I don't care what you say, aspects of themselves. So I'm like, man, would I do this stuff? Would I, how far would I go to people please? Like that? That is what I'm wrestling with. That is what is, is, how far do we go? And how far would I go to people please? Now I don't think I'd go that far, but people do go far. 2 00:00:59People go far and feel like they're in a few state and feel like it wasn't them. That was making the choice. And, and I believe that I believe that that can happen. I also just think it's interesting in the lens of like, feeling, having felt for a long period of your life, that you weren't allowed to have certain emotions. It makes sense to me that you would be surprising yourself with where you can go in your imagination, but that would also lead to, you know, surprisingly like our, we had a conversation one time on here where I said, I don't feel like I've ever seen you angry. So, and you, you said you do get angry, but I just wonder if maybe there's just a lot of unexpressed anger and this is a great way to get it out. 1 00:01:42Totally. And I, and I think you're right. I think you're right on. And so, and I also think, and I wonder how, you know, how you feel about the idea that writing, right? Somebody, I wonder if people write and I don't know how you write, but if people read, I mean, I know a little how you write, but if peop, if people can ever write fully devoid from their own person, you know, like, like where they don't put themselves in their characters or their, if they're writing, I guess maybe if you're writing non-fiction I don't know. But when you write, do you agree that like each part of you and every, oh yeah, 100%. 2 00:02:24And I, I, in reading the Stephen King book about writing, you know, he, he realized like years after the fact about the way that he was writing himself in his stories, like, I guess famously and in misery, he is when he was at the height of drug addiction. And he, at the time he did not feel that he was writing the story about himself, but that's what it ended up being. Yeah. I mean, in part, just because like, how else would you do it? I mean, you only have your own as close as you can be to anybody else. What you really stuck with 24 7 is the ruminations in your own mind, the reactions to things, your worldview, your worldview is, is so people can recognize a lot of things about their worldview, but then there's all kinds of things about their own perspective that they would never think unless they had occasion to see it, contrast it with something else and say, oh, wow, I think about that really differently. 2 00:03:21So anyway, I think it's cool. I think it's great that you're going there and I'm excited to see where it goes. 1 00:03:32Let me run this by you. I started seeing, so I had a therapist that was this Orthodox Jewish man that I stopped seeing. It was just it. I always what I, you know, and it's so blatant at the time after, but during, during, I never see, like, I'm looking for like a father figure. And, and he started to say things that were, and it's all I'm on the phone, you know, but like he has six kids and he wanted to, he started saying things like, do you think that this is because you never had kids kind of like why my emotions? 2 00:04:13And I said, you know, 1 00:04:15I don't know it could be, but I, and you know, it was it's interesting. So I just had to say, you know what, I'm so-and-so, I think that I'm going to take a pause on this. I just don't feel that were, I was proud of myself. I said, I just don't feel like it's a good match right now for me, a good fit. I couldn't just say it's so funny. I have to qualify it. Like, I couldn't just say this isn't a good fit. I was like, not a fit right now for trying to soften that. Just ridiculous stuff, but that's how I did it. And yeah. And so I, I was like, okay, well, do I want to get another therapist? Or do I want to, so I do see like a coach, like, what do I want to do? 1 00:04:55So I started seeing, I had a first session with a coach outside in a park. Who's a, she coaches, she does a lot of career coaching, but I just, like, I've known her for a while. And I liked her and we got to some interesting stuff like, you know, and you've said some stuff about like inner child stuff. Like I never really felt like I could connect with the idea of making peace or taking care of my inner child. And I couldn't understand why. And I think I got to the point where the reason I I'm afraid to things that my inner child will hurt me or that I will hurt it. 2 00:05:35Her. Yeah. 1 00:05:37So, so I thought I'd tell you about that. 2 00:05:41Hurt you. Any idea what you mean by that? Like 1 00:05:44Sabotage, like my inner child is so angry at the way that my parents, and then I have been treating her that she will fuck things up. Hm. 2 00:05:54Yeah. By misbehaving. Yes. 1 00:05:57Misbehaving sabotaging. So there's not a trust there. There's not a trust. And I wouldn't have ever, whenever I, in the various forms of therapy and schooling that I've done in this area, I always felt really, it's not even that I bristled with when we did inner child work. It's like, I thought, well, I don't even know this is weird. I don't even know what this is. 2 00:06:23Yeah. I totally, I can totally relate. And I think I have had the same exact opinion, this very cynical sort of point of view. It all seems so I would just want to roll my eyes talking about inner child, but I think it's like that thing that I was telling you about when I did that thing on clubhouse and everybody was playing and I was just afraid of it. I think it's just that I think you learn to hide the parts of yourself that get you in trouble in the world for whatever reason. And then if there are parts of yourself that you first identify when you were very young, they're locked away. Good. They're locked away. Real good. And there's a real, I mean, just intense fear about going there. 2 00:07:07And I guess like the best signal that I have about that is that every time I start to think about it or talking about it, I start to cry, which, okay, well, there's obviously a lot there. I, I don't believe, see my thing about it is like for a long time I did therapy. I did. I've I'll total in total. I've probably done therapy. I'm going to say for like 10 years between different therapists. I, it's not that I think I'm done. It's not, you know, it's not that I don't want to be in therapy. I, there are reasons that I'm not in it right now, but I just very quickly be talking about my childhood became like, okay, but I talked about it and now I'm just complaining. 2 00:07:56Or, you know, now this is just, when are you going to get over? And that's the voice of like everybody in my family, like get over it. Everybody's everybody hurts. Like not even, not, not even everybody hurts, just like, get over it. You're your grownup. There's no time for that anymore. And I, that is the voice that I cannot quiet in my own head. So, whereas at one point in my life, I thought I had done all that. Cause I did 10 years of therapy. Now I realized I just never even approached it. I stuck with things that were more happening in my life now. Or like I would spend a lot of time like crying about my dad or whatever, but it wasn't like it's, you know, that was about him. 2 00:08:37It was about me talking about him. It wasn't really about me talking about me because I think when I started talking about myself, that's when all the walls and defenses went up and I was like, you know, and I, and I couldn't do it. And Aaron has said to me, a number of times, like you've never really dealt with this stuff and I, and I've just been so incredulous, like, of course I have, I've done, I've dealt with it a ton, but I really haven't. I haven't, I've done like layers of it, but I haven't, I haven't done all the layers. 1 00:09:06Yeah. And I, I could totally hear that and I can totally relate to not feeling, to feeling like I haven't really touched on it. And the reason I know that I haven't gotten to the core of sort of any inner child work is that yesterday when I was, when she had me doing an exercise outside in the park, like just trying to approach my inner child, the only way I could make contact with her was across a field with loud noise in the background with me yelling and her yelling back. So like not screaming at each other, but like there was, had to be a barrier. Like I couldn't the intimacy of approaching her straight on was too much. 1 00:09:46So I was like, Hey, I'm over here. And she said, hi, I'm over there. And she was like, really suspicious of me and stuff. But I knew like, oh, I'm really having, I have a lot of trepidation about approaching this part of myself. And so I have to have a separation, like a barrier. It has to be, it has to be moderated. It can't be like, I can't just walk up to her. There's no way in hell. There's no way. 2 00:10:13What's it. Like when you look at pictures of yourself, when you were really young, what did you think? 1 00:10:17I feel like I don't even know who that person is. Yeah. 2 00:10:21I have the same exact, whereas I know this just could be the difference between thinking about yourself and thinking about another person. When I look at even very, very young, young baby pictures of my kids, I think, oh yeah, their personality was there. You know, from the beginning, this is who they still are. And sometimes I'll share, I'll show them something and they'll say, you know, it seems like they kind of recognize. Yeah, that's me. Whereas I look at that person and I think, I mean, I've seen this picture before, but I, I have what, who is that per yeah, I've just have no idea. I think I, what I basically did, starting in theater school is just form a whole new set to start over. 2 00:11:05I just formed a whole new identity. I was just like, not to the point that some people get like my sister where they tell everybody that our parents are dead. But to the point of just, yeah, I'm this person now. And you know, and I'm, and I'm done with that other person, whoever she was, I hated her no matter what. And of course the realization realization I have recently is no, but I still hate myself. So I really haven't a changed divorce. And I, and there's a, you can't walk away from who you are, you have, you have to. 1 00:11:37Right. And, and, and I, I, my coach, Deanna, was like I said, I don't know who that person is. And she said, she's you, you just haven't integrated her yet. Like there it's you. And I was like, whole, I saw it as a separate sort of. So it's interesting. And she said, trauma, you know, we talked about neuroplasticity of the brain and trauma and, and how it's rewiring. Like, so, and she's like, I don't really believe in, well, I don't know if she said this, but I got, kind of got the feeling. She was like, she didn't really believe in mantras and all that, but she said, what happens? What do you start telling yourself when you are scared? 1 00:12:19Or when you have an audition, that's scary. I say, I'm going to screw this up. That's my mantra. I'm going to somehow screw this up. I'm going to, she's like, all right, we have to cut that off immediately. She's like, I don't care what you say, but you can't say that to yourself anymore. So I was like, okay, what can I believe? Like, what can I get stand behind? Because I'm not going to say, oh, I'm the greatest actor and everything. No, no, no. I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all. But what I do believe it, I do have evidence to show in my heart and in my bones that things have that everything is happening at the time it's supposed to be happening. I do believe that I do. I can stand behind that. I can't say it's good. I can't say it's awesome, but I can say, so she said, all right, we're just going to go with that. So now, like, you know, I think, oh, what if I get a call back for this role I really want, and I know I'm going to fuck it up. 1 00:13:04And I said, Nope, it's going to happen. If, if I do fuck it up, it's going to be, because it was the time to fuck it up. Like I have to believe in the timing of things, because I can't really believe in the goodness of things, is that, you know, 2 00:13:17Right. And sort of similar to that is how I'm always just thinking in my mind that I'm just starting over at that. I'm always just putting the other the past behind me. It's, that's not you that you can't really do that. And, and it's all, it's every failure in every experience you go through every part and every iteration of yourself is a part of whatever it is now. It's not. So what's what this is making me think about is when I was in private practice, I became sort of known for treating really severe trauma cases. And so almost all of them had did. 2 00:13:58And the technique for integration when a person has multiple selves and just for people who are listening, it's not like civil, civil, and bark, like a dog, whatever. It's really a lot more subtle than that. Now in severe cases, people have these few states where they go and they're just doing something else. I mean, I had, I had clients who would get themselves. They would go into a few state and then do terrible things that really dangerous, dangerous, terrible thing. But the technique is you have them all sit around a conference table. 2 00:14:38You have, what's amazing to me is if, if you're talking to a person who suffers with us and they've never heard this technique before, they never go conference table, they go, okay. Yeah. They're, I mean, they're just immediately, oh, that's a good idea. They can all come together because of they're in their experience. They feel or see. And they all have very often, they all have different names and different ages and they have different things and they fight with each other about what they're doing. So I say, let's just do the conference table thing. Let's have everybody meet together and we can work on the agenda. But like the underwriting overriding thing has to be we, whatever we do, we want to do it United. 2 00:15:20And what it gets tricky is when you're, you're not doing it United and everybody's, and that's the sabotage thing. That's what you get a lot of it. The sabotage thing is like this one is, and it's all because it was all a coping strategy for not being able to, you know, the parts of yourself that were rejected by whomever get shunned. They don't go away. They just get shunted off into another part of you. And it's funny because I really see a lot of my dysfunction feels splintered like that. Like I can say, I can click into a mode. That's happy, happy, and positive. And, but then if I'm not feeling happy and positive, then it's like, I'm not that person anymore. 2 00:16:03I'm just this other sad, depressed person. Or sometimes I'm, you know, we all have it to some degree and I feel it a little too. It doesn't feel like different parts of me that have different names, but it still feels like it needs a lot more integrating. 1 00:16:18Yes, I totally agree with that. And the other thing I worry about, and I think, and I, I don't know if you've ever worried. I worry that might the, that part of myself, the small, vulnerable, whatever, I would say five or six year old part of myself is going to disclose some, even more deep trauma happened. 2 00:16:38Okay. There you go. That's probably exactly right. 1 00:16:41And I don't want to, and I am like, I don't know if I can handle that. Like I, so she is the keeper of secrets of when I was young and who knows what the hell really went on. Like I could have been worse than I thought is the, is the, is the, is the overarching fear 2 00:16:59I can see why you would be afraid then. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if I wonder if part of your way it is going to be instead of, or like in addition to fearing that is like, yeah, that's scary, but she needs help. She needs, yeah. 1 00:17:14Yeah. That's what, that's what Deanna said too. It was like, yeah. She needs to be seen and heard. Yeah. And that's your way to freedom. And I was like, what? Because whenever someone says the way to freedom, like that interests me because freedom from such self doubt, freedom from such self-loathing or fear, you know, self like freedom from that seems amazing. So if someone tells me, you want to get free from this, you know, as long as they're not telling me some wackadoo stuff, but you, you want freedom from this thing, then it's going to take a certain amount of work. I'm like that, that I'm curious if I will do that word, which is just to say 2 00:17:58To our listeners, that the experience of doing this podcast has people are always reporting to us. Oh, I've reconnected with people. I'm, I'm healing things and remembering things, but that's true for us too. And I have reconnected with people that I haven't spoken to in a number of years. And it's so gratifying. I mean, that, that's actually another piece of this disintegration thing is like the person I was when I was in theater school and the friends I had. And I just basically with the exception of you just moved on from that and never looked back and you know, these are people that I love that I loved then, and that, you know, as I'm reconnecting with them, I'm like, oh yeah, you're amazing. 2 00:18:48And I'm just so grateful that we're having the opportunity to do this. I, this is what college reunions are meant to do, but they don't because it's kinda like one, you know, it's just, it's all because you just get through one layer of like, well, what do you look like? And what are you doing? As, you know, as an and, and I guess social media has changed that for people, like they get a better sense, but, but that's even, that is not the same as actually talking to somebody who you haven't talked to. And then now I'm like texting with people and it's fun. It's and then the other thing, which I've mentioned to you at least once before, but I'm still thinking about a lot is the people who I don't remember, but who remember me to me, that means I have just been so self absorbed that w that to, to a great degree. 2 00:19:43When I think back about that time, I, I almost can only think about myself and how I felt about things and whether I was getting treated well, or, you know, instead of like the fact, I mean, I guess that's human, but I just feel like if there's somebody who remembers me, then there's a re then the reason that I don't remember them is not anything other than I was just paying only attention to myself. And I, and I have compassion for myself about it because I, you know, it was just doing the best I could, but I'm interested in going back and healing those riffs too, because I, I think that something happens that has happened to me over time is like, I was never the most popular or the least popular. 2 00:20:37I was always in the middle, which meant that I ended up looking down on the people who were less popular than me and, and looking up to and resenting the people. So it was, I was just seeing everything in terms of like status status. Yeah. That's what it is. I have been entirely status obsessed in a way that is a complete surprise to me. I had no idea that I was status obsessed and it makes sense because that's how my parents are. That's how everybody, I mean, that's how a lot of people are. Why would I be unique? Why would I be exempt from 1 00:21:10Them? Well, that's the thing. I mean, I think that we, that I get get, so I get so trapped in thinking I'm uniquely where I'm at, and that is garbage. I am a unique human because everyone is to a certain extent. And then we're all the freaking same. We're all worried about what we look like, what we sound like, who, what, what other people think of? What other people think of us and how we're coming off. And, you know, that's part of being human, but I think you're right. I think for me as well, when people remember things, I don't remember, people were like, yeah, we were friends and I'm thinking we were friends. And that is because I was too busy probably thinking about myself and what else I could do, or why it's, it's what they say in 12 step programs, really about self centered fear. 1 00:21:55It's like, I'm so self-centered, and, and 2 00:21:59She'll warm. I'm I'm shit, but I'm, but I'm 1 00:22:03Yeah, shit. Or I'm the special warm and a, not a worker among workers, you know, like it's, it's, it's an interesting thing. And we come by and see the thing that's really also interesting to me is that we come by it, honestly, that is the part that I have to remember. It's that the people come by the shit, honestly, including me, I'm not so special that I don't come by it, honestly, it's not right. You know? 2 00:22:26Yeah. I mean, right. Yeah. I think it is. It's completely amazing. I'm completely great. I, I'm an apropos of our conversation that we had a while ago about like constantly evaluating our progress. Like when I can get away from doing that, I'm just full of gratitude for, for, for what we're, what we've already done. Even if we never did it again after this, what we've already done has been so personally helpful. Yeah, 1 00:22:54Me too. And I do see it as a way also as, as we move forward as artists, as a way of building allyship with people that I once looked at as not nemesis, maybe, but like as adversaries or doing better than me or doing worse than me, or now it's, it just seems more they're equal. Like I feel more equal with people and I think that's a better way to go, because the other way is like, 2 00:23:20It's also just the truer way to go. Like, it's just a lie. We tell ourselves when we think we're so sped. It's like, okay. But I mean, among other things, it's simply a false, 1 00:23:31Which is why, like, things like the like organized, like army and stuff works because you all get put in basic training and no one is better than the, there were, you're all lower, lowest on totem pole. And I think that builds some kind of comradery. And yeah. So anyway, I just, I just, I don't know why I was thinking about that, but I liked that idea. 2 00:23:55I, I started to watch some of the showcase this year is DePaul theater school shows. I was just curious if you had seen any of them. I 1 00:24:07Have seen it. And you know, it's interesting. I, the, the way that they filmed it, for the most part, it's the same camera shots, right. Of each I'm like, okay, okay. I think that we could have been a little more original with that, but I think they were trying to be equal to everybody and not quote you. And, and also 2 00:24:30It's not a film school. I mean that, you know, I, I, for that reason, I give it a lot of credit because it's like, oh, wow. I wonder if somebody had been tasked doing that in our year. I'm, I'm not certain we would have gotten anywhere. It would've been 1 00:24:44In video camera shaking and like, yeah, yeah, 2 00:24:47Yeah. So it's cool. I'm happy for them that they have this. I mean, I'm happy for them that they have this access. It's probably has the same effect that it did when we did the in-person thing, which is like, not a lot, unless they're going to move to LA. But what I felt was interesting is looking at the acting and just remembering, like, talk about not being special. We all did bad acting in the same way, you know, which is to say not connected, not real, very, very self-monitoring of like, how is this coming across? You can see people thinking that, how is this coming across? Versus there was a few people who was like, oh no, they're in it. 2 00:25:29They're totally there. They're there. It's just ed. And I say, this was so much compassion because I think probably the entire time I was just looking, I was just observing myself. I'm sure I did a terrible job. Yeah. And 1 00:25:41I can see it too. And I, you, it sticks out when someone's really in it. And it is so hot. And we said this, and I, I think we've talked about this on the podcast. It's so hard to get there. It's hard to get, to stop the self-monitoring to be in the moment and just tell the story or be in the it's so hard. So what it happens and you see it, you're like, oh, that's gold, that's gold. And it's not to say that, you know, we all get there at different times and we have different moments of it, but yeah. 2 00:26:09Yeah. What's hard to account for, I mean, you know, to a certain degree, there is only so much teaching that somebody can do of actors, because what you really need also is just these life experiences that either do, or don't lead you in the direction of really understanding yourself. And if you're a person who is not interested in understanding yourself, you're probably pretty limited as an actor or, or like, or maybe even very successful, but just that one, you know? Yeah. Right, 1 00:26:39Right. You might, you might make a million dollars, but as we talked about it, that not equal being in the moment and being it truly like for me in an experience, just because you made a million dollars doing it does not. I, I is a recent, recent, recent discovery that worth and money are not necessarily the same. Oh my God. Oh my God. 2 00:27:04Me too, girl. Me too. I'm just like, yeah, because actually there are other, I've heard the phrase. It's not always about money, but I really have never lived it. I have always been like, no, no, no. It's always 0 00:27:26Today on the podcast, we're talking with Edward Ryan, Edward is someone who went to the theater school at DePaul university and then left and then went on to have many adventures and different incarnations as an artist and is still on that adventure. And he's thoughtful and kind. So please enjoy our conversation with Edward Ryan. 3 00:27:47I was, I was a year below you guys. Okay. Okay. Okay. Edward, 2 00:27:52Ryan, congratulations. You survived theater school. I did twice. Twice. Yeah, because you just went back a few years ago to get your degree. So tell us about 4 00:28:03That. That was a very different, yeah. So you know what I did do some local theater, like a while ago I met a costumer and his name was Frank and he wound up teaching at a really small private school in Springfield, Massachusetts. And he's basically started a theater program there that's called American international college. And he said to me one day, like, how come you never finished your degree? He was like, give me your transcripts. And I, I, I got my transcripts. And he was like, you could be done in like a year and a half or two years and have a decree. 4 00:28:47Well, I didn't know I was going to be so, you know, affected by, was it, it's a school that serves a lot of sort of underserved communities. So there's a lot of first-generation Americans, a lot of first-generation college students. And in contrast to a place like DePaul, although we complained about the building on north Kenmore, the facility, there's nothing. I mean, they have nothing, these kids and, but their like passion and their drive is really what you know is so inspirational, you know? And they're like, we can make theater out of anything, you know, out of nothing. And it was kind of a strange situation because Frank and I were very good friends, you know? So all of a sudden he was like my professor and I mostly had to do academic classes to graduate there. 4 00:29:33You know, they took all my credits and I re I did a history of theater. I was like for like the third time, like all of, you know, this time I wasn't able to cheat. As I remember 2 00:29:46Cheating, I did cheat, oh 4 00:29:48My God. Anaconda make us, had every test that doc, whatever his name was, Jack O'Malley gave us. Oh, hilarious. And I've always been really studious, but like second year I was like, oh yeah. You know, give them up. 2 00:30:05That's funny because I don't actually remember the cheating thing, but when Dave was on, he, he referenced that, I guess it was widespread. I mean, you know, in a way, I'm sure they were like, oh, these kids they're so dumb. Just something easy. 4 00:30:20Get the same test every year, year after year after year. And luckily I lived, I lived with second years. So it was like, and you know, and she had them all, like, she was a stage manager, dramaturgy, Jenna, all a file. I just had to go in every week and pull it out. Yeah. 2 00:30:35I mean, are you the, one of the people who just got a brochure from DePaul and that's how you went 4 00:30:40With, yeah. With this gesture on the front, I never went to visit the school. I auditioned in New York and it was, you know, I had applied to NYU and I had an audition set up, but their auditions for summer, I didn't audition at the same time. And it was like really late. And I applied to Providence college. That was, if I wanted to like go the more academic route, dammit. And I remember going for my audition and I, I like heard really quickly that I got into DePaul and I just decided I never even went on my audition for NYU. 4 00:31:21I, I thought that the city would probably be a little too, you know, I was, I lived near the city. So it was like always my grandfather lived in the city and I thought that's going to be too much of a distraction, you know? And I really wanted to, you know, get an education. So I went to Chicago and I flew out and my parents drove all my stuff out. 2 00:31:42What, like, what did you make of it? Day one. What was, where was your head at with it? 4 00:31:47I was like, Chicago is so clean compared to New York. Yeah, it really is. I lived in Seton hall and I lived on the fourth floor in the corner room that was like ginormous with Cedric was Cedric steins was my roommate. And we had this other third roommate that we never liked. And then he got kicked out of the dorms, like halfway through the year. So we had this great big room and it was right above. I felt like the blues brothers, cause he looked at our window and they're like the El tracks by, but it was really close to taco burrito palace. Oh 2 00:32:24My God. I forgot all about TVP. Okay. Well they have many, you know, there's like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I think that one is actually still there. 4 00:32:39That place like on a Friday or Saturday night was like, you couldn't get near it. And Rose's Tavern is like hole that the Mesopotamian woman who was like, let anybody drink. Okay. If you could walk, you choose giving 2 00:32:53Toddlers shots of you guys 4 00:32:56You'd be surprised. And there was some sort of characters in that joint. I mean, I remember like winding up at some apartment and being like, I shouldn't be here. What am I doing? 2 00:33:10So, but you left, you left after your second year. Okay. And it was rough. You said you had a rough, 4 00:33:16It was, I was, I was planning on living there. So I was living there for the summer. I was living with Cedric again and then Noel wrath. Yeah. And we were living like sort of west of everything, like up Armitage. It was like desolate. It was like this really weird apartment where I had the closet as my room. And I just remember like taking out the garbage, had to go out the back doors to this garage. And there was like this Harley biker who was always hanging out in there. I don't know if I was just like, this is where children get molested. I can't, you know, it was odd and Cedric left and he went to Africa, there was a trip to like Africa. 4 00:33:56And I remember Susan Lee was on that trip because he was like, he called us and he was like, oh, I met Susan Lee and wait, 2 00:34:07Susan Lee was just randomly in Africa with this girl. Don't you remember? That's when she came back and said to Erica, oh, I've got to teach you African dance. Okay. 4 00:34:18But, you know, I really, I really want, I was like, you know, I was kind of shocked about it and you know, I think it was a lot for me to go there. You know, I'm the youngest of five. And then my mother had remarried and I have four step kids. So my parents had like nine kids under the age of like 30. And you know, financially that no matter how much money you make, I think it's, it's a burden. And I was really committed to like the theater school. And I didn't have a warning that was sort of, you know, productive. I remember going to Rick Murphy's office and not having any morning, my first year of going in and sitting down him being like, you're fine. 4 00:34:59Get out of here. You know? And then my second year he was like, what the fuck is going on with you? You know? And he's like, what's up a tree Kessler. And I was like, I don't know if she hates me. And he was like, get your shit together or something like that, you know? But there was no like sort of actionable steps. And then when I left and asked back, I was like, wow. And you were talking about mushrooms. So for the first time I ate flushes and I wandered around Chicago and I found all these incredible places. I was like, oh my God, like a Paul said and all that. I was like input. And like I realized, I was like, in my own backyard, I thought I was lost. But I, you know, I have like some journal entries about Sundays are the best day in the world. 4 00:35:40Everybody does what they want. Even God rested on Sunday. And it was so much fun. Yeah. All by myself, just wandering around the city. But you know, people were like, oh right. Speaking of that, I remember I was dying during Eric Slater's interview because we got a phone call at like 6:00 AM, one day at apartment two downstairs. And it was Eric and he was, he had been arrested. And it must've been when you guys were doing Andrew CLIs and the lion, because he was like walking home. It was really late. He was walking home from our house, I guess. And the cops stopped him and arrested him. 4 00:36:21And we were like, he had to be like at the Merle reskin theater for this purport, like that morning. And I think we wound up calling John Bridges and it turns out they had just taken and he looked like a shady character. 3 00:36:38I don't know. But I wanted to ask 2 00:36:43Total digression, but I always thought in lineups, they got other criminal, like people that they know, they know and they can just random. Yeah. They get rent. I don't know about now. But you used to do this random ass people for lineups. Yeah. But the way you get them there is by arresting them. Well, I think you can, apparently in Chicago, 4 00:37:05I think he was drunk. He was probably stumbling. Maybe he was like, had a few beers and they were just like, oh yeah, public drunkenness let's go. But that was like one of the funniest. And it was like the day that my mother called me late, it was like crisis. You know, we went into crisis mode and it was like, she got out her clipboard and like gave us all the assignments. And then my mother called me that morning and she was like, is everything all right? And I always thought, I was like, you know, my mom just says that like intuition, you know? And I was like, everything's fine. You know? Like, and I remember saying to her, I'm like, I think your psychic should always, so you're, you're saying, so 2 00:37:47You didn't, it was, there was no, I mean, there was a warning without any information in it or 4 00:37:55Yeah, there wasn't really anything specific, you know? And like I had truly Kessler my second year for voice and speech. And I had had Ruth's Rupert who you, she was there for a really short period of time. And then she left, she came back and she was like, oh, I got a contract. I'll be here next year. And then she came back like the next week and was like, I'm leaving. And she got a job at Yale and she went off to teach at Yale and she taught Christian Linklaters work. And then Trudy, our second year. And I was sort of excited to, I guess, first she taught LSAC and other things and was doing Linklater again. 4 00:38:37So it was sort of like the same class again in a row. And I think Ruth was a really great Linklater teacher. And I don't know if I don't know Trudy and I just had something. I still tell, I, I S I'm still in contact with Ruth. She's my Alexander technique teacher now. And there was a 13 year gap in our relationship, but she'll always say like, oh, I'm going to this conference, Judy. I said, hi. You know, cause when I got my letter, it said that I had three absences from voice and speech. 4 00:39:18And to this day I say, no, I didn't, I would have never done that. Like I was pretty committed. She, I had a full freedom, so I was born like tongue tie and she was like, I want you to go. I never had any speech issues, but she's like, I want you to go see this doctor. So I went to see this Dr. Bastion. And he was an ear nose and throat guy that worked with actors in Chicago. And he was like, oh my God, let me clip it. And he's like, I've never gotten to do it. And I was like, so it's a little thing underneath your tongue. So it's, it actually tells your tongue behind your bottom teeth. Like everybody's develops that way when you're pouring it recedes. 4 00:40:00If you're not, they usually just clip it when you were born, but they never discovered mine. And so I wound up letting this doctor like do it. And then I had rehearsal for like my intro with Trudy. And I just remember meeting her in her office and her being like sticking her thumb in my mouth and being like, oh yeah, you have a significant overbite. Like, and just saying like, you know, you don't have a speech issue, but maybe if you got your tongue released, it would change your speech. You know, it's, I would love to see what it does. You know, I just felt like I was pretty committed to it. And David was my acting teacher second year. 4 00:40:40And in David's class it was like, I could do no wrong. You know what I mean? I remember like almost hating it, like him being like some like, okay, you know, you critique each other's like scenes or improv or whatever you were doing. And he would say, so who saw what ed was doing? And somebody was critiquing it. And they were like, what are you? He was like, you know, what are you talking about? Like, he was like, he was fine. Like, he was like, my opinion is the only one that matters. So, you know, and just being like, okay, so now they hate, 3 00:41:14I have to say I'm shocked that, you 2 00:41:16Know, usually the story is that the second year acting teacher hates your guts and then you get cut. Like, that was my experience. Cause I was cut and then asked back crazy, crazy. But, but it's interesting that David, that thought you could do no wrong in your, as your acting teacher? 4 00:41:39Well, it was really weird because I had David and first quarter I was in David's intro and he gave me a better grade in my intro. Then he did an acting class and I remember him saying to me, do you know why I did that? And me being like, yeah, like, and really having no clue. But I remember, I remember getting into a fight with him in that rehearsal for that intro and him saying something to being able to like, okay, well what, what, what do you want? And he was like, I don't know what, you know, just, you better try something else. Cause that's not working. Like he yelled at me and everybody was like, oh, and David and I used to take these, walks around the block at the theater school and have these little chats. And he was like, you know, he, he, he gave me every indication that he thought I was talented. 4 00:42:22And then I remember my second year of him saying to me, do you really want to be here for another two years? And I was like, well, yeah, you know, I really want a degree. And he was like, what are you going to get out of us Shakespeare classes? And I remember, and I was like, oh. And then I remember telling him about my issues with Trudy and him being like, you know, Trudy he's like, I'm the head of the voice and speech, which I didn't even didn't really even know at the time, you know, it was odd to me that he was, and, and then, but then he gave me, but then he gave me a bad grade, like enacting class. And so it was sort of like this. I was like, what the fuck? 4 00:43:02Like what, you know? And I just, you know, and then in my intros I was always like a middle-aged alcoholic. Like every single one, you know, or that I was like the alcoholic vicar in that horrible, a farce that thought it'll coat did where my, like I walked in the room in my pants, you know? And Corpus, yeah. It was like, first of all, farce is tough. You know, it's a tough, and for some reason they thought, you know, I heard this a lot about our class. Like, oh, these guys could do it. Like they could graph it. Well, guess what we couldn't and it fucking sucked. It was just like Riddick. 4 00:43:43I was like, Betty Hill, is that what I'm doing? Like, it was just like, it, it, 2 00:43:50It, it's hard to be funny care, but like the experience it makes you funny 4 00:43:59Is that I remember seeing David's like intro second quarter. It was like bomb and Gilliad. And I was like, why don't I get to play one of these like transvestite hookers? Like I can do that. And then it just wasn't, it, it was like the autumn garden, my last one. And again, it was like, I mean, Eric Yancey, I drink so much peach tea my second year of, cause the dining room was my first one. And it was like all of these like waspy, you know, I played like one little boy, that's the scene. We, we, we sorta had a yelling match about, but it was so I don't know. I mean, I was, I was, I remember Noel being like I got in and you didn't. 4 00:44:43I was just like, I didn't really, the thing was, I thought they stopped going to New York for the, I didn't ever have a desire to be on television or in the movies I wanted to be in the theater. And I went to the theater school and I sort of saw that transitioning transition happening. It was kind of like, I have no desire to live in LA. I just think it's like the new years and fake foods. Like, that's all I could think of when I'm thinking of LA. Like it was a desert, everything there is artificial. Like every, every blade of grass is like planted. I don't know. And I thought I was okay with it for a while. Cause when I moved home and my stepfather died kind of suddenly like that summer and you know, it was one of those things like, okay, everything happens for a reason, you know, it's really hard. 4 00:45:34Yeah. My mom, my father had passed away, but he was sick for a really long time. And so I think she was like prepared for that and she wasn't really prepared for my stepfather dying. And so I was okay with it for a long time, but I really, till recently we realized like, I think it really, you know, I remember somebody calling me and asking me to do it a play and not wanting to do it because I had to a lot of musical theater. And I was like, when I did the first play, I was like, wow, musical series is so hard. I'm like, why am I doing this? Like, you know, I sang a lot, but I was like, I hate singing. 4 00:46:14You know, I really don't even like it. And I just, so I, you know, I never saw myself as any Shakespeare characters. Like I was like, you know, I had to read every male part in high school and English class. I read every like male part while the teacher read every female part. And I was like, I hate Shakespeare. Maybe this isn't the place for me. What was disappointing about it is that I wanted it to agree, you know? And I was a good student and I think that my circumstance, this is just sort of allowed me to sort of flounder a bit and not really have a, a footing, not really have any direction, you know? 4 00:47:01So I had some great mentors and I did do some more things and, but very little. And then I moved to New York and it was really not about that. You know, it was about just see what else was out there. I just excited. I was like, okay, I'm moving to New York. And I had worked for J crew for a couple of years and I had left and I called them up. It was like a move to the city. I needed a job and they gave me a job and I started going out in the city. Somebody took me to a nightclub and it was like the first time ever. I was like, you know, we would go see, I, I saw the last grateful dead show in Chicago. 4 00:47:45Like we went to fish, meaner Bana when we were out there. And when I went into this like sort of world of these nightclubs and sort of saw all of these like characters that were present, I sort of became one. You know, I was, it was like my job to go out and, and have fun in sort of a clown. And it was, it was an interesting time in my life. I like to call it the turn of the last century, but it was like from, so I guess I, I moved to the city from like 98 till 2000, or I guess it was 99 till 2003 is when I moved here. 4 00:48:37So I was there for about four years, you know, I worked at the world trade center that was, you know, and I think that compounded things. And I think it sort of made me realize that I was having a lot of fun in New York. You know, I had this, I had great roommates. We had a great loft in Brooklyn, these crazy parties that were like before Brooklyn was cool. I say like, we've priced ourselves out of it. You know, we made it cool. And then, but it was nothing I could sustain or really even monetize. 4 00:49:20You know, there was always like the job that I had to maintain to with, I really had no desire to do theater and I didn't for about another 10 years till I moved here. And, and I was okay with that, you know, I was sort of working in retail and I realized, you know, later that the whole going out and becoming this like character, which I didn't really think I was doing at the time, but I really was, you know, doing things that I'd never done before, or, you know, even these parties were like insane. 4 00:50:02We would like wear like Russian military uniforms and have 200 people in a Japanese go-go band at our house and fill up, we would like fill up kiddie pools with water. We had a great space. And so we did, and I lived with a caricature artist and all these kids from Vassar and it was just, you know, we'd get like a sitar player and, and have like an opium den. And I just 2 00:50:40Have a question I have to go back to, what was your character like? What was your, your nightclub character? Sure. 4 00:50:48So I always joke that I looked like, like huckleberry Finn, you know, I was working for J crew, but I was, I was just myself, you know, I, I would, I had my baseball cap and I had this baseball cap that said ack, which is actually the three letter code for new work airport. And I'm sorry for Nantucket airport. My initials are the Newark airport and people. And so ack people. And I would like, have my pants rolled up different, you know, I worked for J crew. So I was like a walking, like, you know, the J crew like twist that, how it used to be pants rolled up at different lengths and like maybe, or I'd wear like a crusher hat or something. 4 00:51:29And I'd get in line with these people who were like going to bang, bang, and buying their like, you know, tight leather pants and stuff. And it just became like this. I was, you know, I was kind of like a quirky, you know, I dressed, I danced a little funny. I, I attribute movement to music to that. You know, I sort of just followed these impulses that had me sort of stomping my feet a lot. And I danced with my face a lot and I would show up with like a big bunch of gerbera daisies and a couple inflatable sunshines. 4 00:52:08And, you know, I had one friend Franco, who's the only person that I ever went out with. I could always go out by myself and, you know, leave by myself. And I would just, you know, do these fun things. Like, you know, I wrote like a Valentine to the world and like, you know, we put on red paper and pass it out to everybody. Or we would, we'd bring junior mints to junior, was the DJ and pass them out to everybody. Yeah. And people, you know, I was talking about the hat. People would say like, like, what does ack stand for? What does ack stand for? And I got, you know, and that goes to the three letter code for Newark airport. 4 00:52:52And I got so sick of it. I started this thing, like the hairball remover that Cass asked for by name, you know, like, and I didn't really, I never, you know, I still sort of felt like I didn't belong there. You know, it was kind of like this secret thing, but you know, you cold places all the time. And then people start, you know, recognizing you and, you know, you start like getting in for free or, you know, and I found these places where it just seemed, I was appreciated, you know, people would, and I met a lot of such interesting people. I mean, everybody from people who were, you know, Sharman to, there was some pretty, you know, crazy shenanigans that went on, you know, at the time. 4 00:53:44And some people that, I mean, everyone from Tonya Harding and then it comes out and she was interesting to me, but that's like the funniest story I ever time, I let her Newport cigarette for her. Like I do the Catholics, I would see it. Evan am, you know? Okay. 2 00:54:01So I'm just, there's like a theme here, which is that you went to the theater school for two years, and then all of a sudden you had to leave while you might have otherwise been processing your grief about that. You had to go all of a sudden process with your mom because she lost her second husband. And then you moved to New York to get that life going. And then nine 11 happened and you were working at the world trade center. So you have had major Griffis interruptus. 4 00:54:36It's true. Yeah. I, I think, and, and, and I've recognized in my life that I have a hard time, like getting things done that are in my normal routine. Like say, like getting my car inspected, you know, it's like once a year and it's like, whoa, you know, so when things like that happen, it takes me a long time to regroup. And you know, I'm not gonna, you know, sit here and say that I'm, that it, you know, these things like ruined my life in any way, shape or form, you know, I I'm, I'm so lucky that I, you know, I've been in the circumstances that I've been in and that I have a great family and that, you know, I always had a bit of a safety net. 4 00:55:25Not like some people, like, I didn't really have a safety net. Like I felt like in New York, I couldn't do theater because I wasn't independently wealthy. And I, and there was just no place to, you know, you really, it just doesn't exist anymore. You know, if you notice people who go to New York and become directors and, you know, actors are either, you know, inherit that position. I have 2 00:55:52Another way of making money, even though even this Celia Keenan Bolger's of the world. I mean, it is, you cannot, you cannot make a living, even if you're on Broadway. 4 00:56:04Right. It's true. You know, and it's, and it just became, I just became disenchanted with it. You know, I was like, I mean, I still love the theater, you know? And I was, like I said, I was really lucky. I had, you guys were talking about those monologue books, know like Jocelyn Baird is the woman who edited all of those books, which I didn't know, but she was someone who I did theater with when I was like in high school, she's who she picked my audition monologues. And she, you know, I'm still in contact with her. She's a playwright. And she went to Yale. She coaches kids on how to get into programs now, stuff that I was like, what is my brand, that kind of thing. 4 00:56:54But it's like, I, commercial theater I guess, was exciting to me in a certain way, but it was, you know, it was other theater that I liked too. And I don't think it was just theater. I think it was just art, you know? And I think it was like art in life is what I've discovered. You know, like everything is art, you can make anything artistic. And I think that's kind of what I do. I just haven't shaped it in a way, like, I need to write a book. 2 00:57:28You haven't been able to shape it because you've had suspend a lot of time in reaction mode, you know, to various losses 4 00:57:35That, yeah, like the whole nine 11 thing. I, you know, I remember, I didn't tell anyone that for years, you know, it was just something that, I mean, my friends knew there was, there was an Edward Ryan who died that day, who was from Westchester and star. And so there were people like my old boss, Alyssa, who was a harpist and a composer who I worked for as a personal assistant. And, you know, she just heard like names bred off. She knew that's where I worked. You know, we didn't have very few people had cell phones. I ran into one of her three sons and he was like, we got to call my mother. 4 00:58:16I was like, she literally was, she was afraid to call my mom. She was like, that was the only contact number I had for you is your house phone. And I didn't want to upset her. And I was like, oh my God. I just thought I was Ted. I, I will, could been, you know, it was, yeah, it was, it was a rough, it was a rough day, you know, I've had better. And it was my first day back after like 10 days of vacation. And we opened, there was a mall in the building six where the big divot down to the path, trains wound up, you know, the, the second tower that fell. 4 00:58:58And luckily, you know, we were really lucky. We, I, we locked ourselves in at first. I mean, we didn't have any sort of clue what was going on, you know, when you were sort of in it, even it wasn't until we got to the Seaport that we realized that there was planes being flown into the building. You know, I was like, we heard the second plane and we crossed the street and we saw the second building on fire. But at that point we thought somebody was like dropping bombs or shooting missile. You know, we couldn't, you know, come up with the, the idea of someone flying planes into the building. And, and I was like, you know, what do I, what do we do? 4 00:59:41You know, I was like, we're dead. And I was all right with it actually, you know, it was a, it was a strange feeling, but I was like, I'm okay with that. Like, I'm not going to spend my last moments here, screaming, yelling, running, like, you know, there's like this peacefulness about it. And I remember my nephew had been born, my sister's second son who lives here and I had never met him. And so that was the only like little thing I thought about as a regret. And then luckily we were okay, you know, and it was a long, you know, process of sort of also from my loft, I could see this, you know, smoke stack for the next, you know, three weeks. 4 01:00:29And I, even that day, I didn't really process anything until I got to a friend's house. And I, I, they were all there watching the news and I laid down behind them. They were like sitting in my futon and I like fell asleep. My adrenaline like finally ran out and then I woke up and I went home to my loft and the two girls that lived there, Lily and Rebecca were there and they just like grabbed me. And I don't think I stopped crying for like two days. Like I didn't leave the house. I didn't do anything. You know, I talked to my mother, but it was sort of like I was at work. 4 01:01:09So it was like, you know, and I was responsible for other people. And I, I felt like I also have to advocate for those people in the moment, you know, where they were like, oh, you know, well, you can come work at, you know, fifth avenue that day. And I was like, yeah, they're not going to work anywhere today. You know? And it was so I didn't tell anybody because people's reactions were so strong and I didn't want to like tell the story all the time, you know? And so I just didn't tell anybody for a long time. And I realized when I did that, it was actually helpful, you know, to talk about it and to talk about the, the impact of it. 4 01:01:54And I think that it, you know, made me a little more, maybe maybe careless or in a living, but also really living like really living, you know, in the moment, you know, and knowing what that meant, nothing like a little, you know, little flying a plane into your buildings to wake you up. Yeah. Yeah. So that was 2 01:02:22Yet the third or the fourth thing, which is that you graduated from school three years ago. I don't know if you were what you were planning to do when you left, but then the pandemic happened. 4 01:02:34Oh yeah. Not even three years ago. It was a year ago. Oh, that's when you were done was a year ago. Yeah, it was may. I went back to school in 2000, I guess it was 2019. I went for, so I got a bachelor's degree, but I went to Nepal for two years and I went there for a year and a half. So I somehow finished a four year degree in three and a half years, but yeah, I had enough credits. So I was like, bye. And yeah, I was stage managing for them a production. They were doing a little shop of horrors, which was really interesting stage managing and just sort of doing everything for them, for these kids. And I felt so terrible for them. 4 01:03:14And I mean, everything is still there. Like all the props we made, everything is just, I keep thinking of the Titanic it's frozen in time because they decided that even in spring, they were going to be fully remote because they didn't, they didn't think it was fair to leave it to the last minute to decide they wanted people to be able to kiss those sort of ducks in a row and, and know what to expect. Cause I think that was really one of the hardest things on any students or kids during the whole pandemic was like every, you know, the, from month to month, they didn't know what was coming next. You know? 2 01:03:49I mean, I kind of feel like that's how I had spent sort of the stopping and starting of Edward Ryan you've sort of stopped and started and stopped and started. And, and now you, you, you started school, you finished school and you were, and so the kids too, but also you stopping and starting. Yeah. 4 01:04:07Yeah. I mean, I think, I think that, you know, I have a little more, I have some more skills to deal with it. You know, I have a little more, it's like my work at school, you know, just cultivating creativity with this class that really affected me and sort of made me realize that I was more than just a theater artist probably. And do you remember those photographs in the like nineties of like different, like the Beastie boys are run DMC and they were on the rooftops of buildings. So this guy, John Nardell was that photographer. He worked for all these different it's, he's not the person you would expect to be taking photographs, but he was a teacher at the school and he taught this class and this class is so annoying. 4 01:04:55Like it's going to really drive me crazy. And all the kids were really like, he railed against like every assignment does a lot of work and we weren't allowed to buy anything. We had to make everything. And, you know, he gave us a lot of art supplies, but we had to like build vessels to like carry them in and incorporate every handout somehow creatively into this, into this book. And I mean, it was a lot of work and I would, I stay up till three o'clock in the morning, like, you know, making these things and doing the stuff. And he was like, you know, your work is like, incredible it's so it's, it's so much beyond, you know, what were some of the kids are doing here? 4 01:05:36And I was like, well, it shouldn't be, you know, like I have a little, few more resources than they have in their dorm and, you know, but, but the kids too, they were sometimes inspired in that to, you know, these kids to inspire them was like such a, a great thing because they were, so some of them were so disenchanted. And by the end of this class, you could just see that they had all found like what they were good at, like what sort of creative, artistic thing that they really connected with and that they loved and that they were just excelling in. And it was so exciting. Like it was really a, it was a great class. 4 01:06:18I 2 01:06:18Love that it was called cultivating creativity. 4 01:06:21Yeah. Good class. And I mean, you know, we either studied artists or, or, or techniques from Zen, Zen, Zen doodle, or 2 01:06:35Zen doodle. Yeah. There's 4 01:06:36Dan tangles. Yeah. Like he was a Venn tangle instructor. So, you know, we started with that. We did, like, we studied like in Stein and like, it is like sort of pop flags. And we each took a, a country. We were assigned to country and their flag and we, you know, created, you know, work from that. It was a really a great class, but hard, you know, these kids were not used to being asked to do to actually like work. I mean, the school itself knows who their students are. I think a lot of them have, you know, different accommodations and different, you know, struggles or opportunities. 4 01:07:18And, you know, they come from, like I said, an underserved communities and places, and it's like one of those places where, you know, if like Frank, the guy who ran the program was like, I couldn't let, just kidnapped graduate, you know, you know, like there's no way. And you know, whether it's paying his tuition bill or, you know, or raising money, whatever needs to happen. And, and, you know, he got me ready and Frank got me writing again. I directed, I took a directing class, which was a great read life, you know, so great books. 4 01:08:01And it was fun. You know, I really sort of was inspired to just be creative. And I looked at some MFA programs and I auditioned at Yale and I, I think I realized I did not get in, but I realized before that, that I, and Ruth was like, do you really want to go there? And I was like, you know, it's yeah. You know, and she's like, Hmm. And when I went there, I realized what she meant it, like, first of all, it's a shithole about bad facilities, you know, while you're waiting in an old computer lab with like broken computers, stacked in the corner, going this girl from West Virginia, she was a young girls high. And from what I was like, oh, this is what you thought. Yeah. You know, and I sort of felt like they had given the keys, you know, it was like the opposite of the theater school. 4 01:08:48It was like the kids were running that place. I mean, they held all the power and I think it's, it's sort of the way things are going these days, you know, with the me too movement teachers are one of the teachers at Yale said we are the only teachers that have to teach our students naked sometimes. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what? We are the only teachers that have to teach their students naked. Sometimes 2 01:09:15The students are naked or the teachers are the students. What for, for zoom? I mean, on zoom, they're naked. 4 01:09:21No. I mean just different productions where, you know, they are directing a student who is nude and that's why there's intimacy coaches and all of that now, you know, to protect them. Because I mean, you can obviously see working in close proximity with a naked student that could open you up to problems, say like at the school, like what did Kat call it a spontaneous sex of study naps. I mean, there was a loud groping and touching going on that was like, you know, probably, you know, innocent, but you know, could certainly have been a trigger for some people. Sure. You know, like Trudy shoving her thumb in my mouth. 4 01:10:03Yeah. Not good. Not good. Yeah. So that was the day I had three, sorry, three absences. And I was, and I, myself use was damaged by habitual use was the other thing on my letter when I got cut from the theater school, self use was debt is damaged by habitual. You understand what that means? Well, neither did I. I mean, but as I think at that age, I just thought, well, I'm damaged. 2 01:10:31I also can tell you that Rick Murphy, when we were doing set, a very similar thing that David said to you, so I'm doing space work. Rick comes up to me, whispers in my ear. What are you doing? Drop out and go see the world. 4 01:10:48Yeah. 2 01:10:49And I'm like, I'm like doing work first year, second year. I don't remember. He whispered in my ear, why are you here? Go, go see the world or something. And I was like, what is happening? 4 01:11:02You know, I loved Rick Murphy. I mean, he was just like magic, right? I mean, this is not a pipe dream was like, so in captivity it was called freewill and one lust back then. And that was the other thing I wanted to tell you 2 01:11:20That it changed names. Oh no, no, no

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost The Collect: Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a 1Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2the king said to the prophet Nathan, ‘See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.' 3Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.' 4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?' 8Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Psalm: Psalm 89:20-37 20 I have found David my servant; *        with my holy oil have I anointed him. 21 My hand will hold him fast *        and my arm will make him strong. 22 No enemy shall deceive him, *        nor any wicked man bring him down. 23 I will crush his foes before him *        and strike down those who hate him. 24 My faithfulness and love shall be with him, *        and he shall be victorious through my Name. 25 I shall make his dominion extend *        from the Great Sea to the River. 26 He will say to me, ‘You are my Father, *        my God, and the rock of my salvation.' 27 I will make him my firstborn *        and higher than the kings of the earth. 28 I will keep my love for him for ever, *        and my covenant will stand firm for him. 29 I will establish his line for ever *        and his throne as the days of heaven.” 30 “If his children forsake my law *        and do not walk according to my judgments; 31 If they break my statutes *        and do not keep my commandments; 32 I will punish their transgressions with a rod *        and their iniquities with the lash; 33 But I will not take my love from him, *        nor let my faithfulness prove false. 34 I will not break my covenant, *        nor change what has gone out of my lips. 35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness: *       ‘I will not lie to David. 36 His line shall endure for ever *        and his throne as the sun before me; 37 It shall stand fast for evermore like the moon, *        the abiding witness in the sky.' “ Epistle: Ephesians 2:11-22 11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the uncircumcision' by those who are called ‘the circumcision'—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God. Gospel: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Watch the video version of this show on YouTube »Alex Ross is the co-founder & CEO at Gregarious, Inc. Gregarious is the company behind Greg, an app dedicated to helping people grow healthier and happier plants. Greg's community has grown from 100 beta users in August 2020 to over 50,000 monthly active users today.Alex graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied data science and statistics at MIT. Alex has worked for companies such as Cisco, The Daily Aztec, and Cannon Trading.Prior to founding Gregarious, Alex spent 4 years as Director of Engineering at Tinder. Alex also co-founded Enplug, a digital signage company that was acquired earlier this year.In this episode, you'll learn: The two critical steps in making a successful app An ingenious strategy for partnering your app with retail companies Why you should involve your customers in content creation Links & Resources Tinder Enplug fitbod app Y Combinator (YC) Alex Ross' Links Greg app Alex's Twitter: @AreteRoss Job opportunities at Gregarious Alex's LinkedIn Gregarious, Inc. on LinkedIn Follow Us:David Barnard: https://twitter.com/drbarnardJacob Eiting: https://twitter.com/jeitingRevenueCat: https://twitter.com/RevenueCatSub Club: https://twitter.com/SubClubHQEpisode TranscriptAlex: 00:00:00The two steps in making a successful app business are make something worth using, and then put it in front of the people who would use it.If you have a plant, and you don't know what to do with it, we solve that problem.So, what we did is we reached out to a bunch of plant retailers, “Hey, we will help your customers have a positive outcome with your product.”Can you put in our little QR code? And now when these retailers ship out a new plant, every single one of them has this little QR code in it.It led to our first 15,000 users, I'd say. David: 00:00:30Welcome to the Sub Club podcast. I'm your host, David Bernard. And with me as always, Jacob Eiting. Hello, Jacob.Jacob: 00:00:53Happy to be here. David: 00:00:55You sound incredibly happy.Jacob: 00:00:57It's great. It's a Friday, David. The sun is shining. They're grilling a bunch of chickens in my hometown. I got nothing to complain about. It's gonna be great.David: 00:01:05Our guest today is Alex Ross, founder and CEO at Gregarious, makers of Greg, an app to help you grow healthier and happier plants. Prior to founding Gregarious Alex spent four years as director of engineering at Tinder.Alex also co-founded Enplug, a digital signage company that was acquired earlier this year. Welcome to the podcast, Alex.Alex: 00:01:27Thank you guys. Good to see you. Thanks, David, Jacob.Jacob: 00:01:29Hi. David: 00:01:30So, I'm going to try really hard this whole podcast and not call you Greg, but I've made that mistake.Jacob: 00:01:36I was thinking like, I get like annoying company name questions. Sometimes. I'm like, I'm sure you get more worse than me.Alex: 00:01:43But I'm considering just legally adopting Greg as alias or something. Jacob: 00:01:48Yeah. You know, I mean, that's a news cycle right there. A little bit of earned PR. David: 00:01:55So I wanted to ask you, so obviously, you know, director of engineering at Tinder that's, I mean, what a rocket ship that must've been quite a wild ride. So, tell me a little bit about, about how you ended up at Tinder and then, you know, if you do have any fun, war stories from there, that'd be great to hear. Alex: 00:02:16Yeah, definitely. It was a rocket ship. Definitely some war stories, some wins, some losses. So, I came across Tinder and I was looking to get into like a consumer application. so I was interviewing with Uber and Twitter, and then I came across Tinder on an angel list. Actually the head of recruiting at the time reached out to me and I kind of took it on a whim.To be honest, I had not used the app before, before even interviewing or anything. that's kind of a challenge for Tinder is like, do you, how many of the teammates need to use Tinder? Because a lot of people are married and in relationships, and those are great people to have on the team. And so it makes it odd, and kind of difficult or complicated. But, basically I joined when it was around 70 people, if I recall. So, it was a pretty small team. There was already a global user base, so it was one of the scrappiest, global brands I think probably has ever existed. Because this was all right before Tinder or right around the time that Tinder launched its first monetization efforts.And so there wasn't really awareness as to like, great, there's this like large, global, many millions of people are using this thing, but is it going to make money? Right? That was still an open question at the time that I joined. So, yeah, basically I joined and it was very, it was definitely still a startup.And, so there was not a lot of structure and I think my manager changed on the first day, like the person I was talking about working with's desk changed, but I had a great time and basically I ended up creating the growth team. So I became very focused on, growing the international user base.One of the coolest things that that team did is we decoupled Tinder from Facebook. And this was from Facebook login because like Tinder came to, came to fame by having, you know, you tap one button, it imports your Facebook photos. It basically made online dating as easy as it possibly can be because like you push a button you're in and then you're dating.Right. And by making it that simple, it made it so you felt less than desperate by using it. I think it was like one of the important psychological dynamic, because if you feel like you have to work to start using that application, then maybe it means that like you aren't having as much success in dating in the real world.So, by making it simpler, it made it less stigmatized. More cool. Right? And so when we decided to then allow people to create accounts with a phone number that introduced all this complexity around like, well, are people going to want to do that? Then they have to add profile photos. They have to type in their name.You have to introduce an onboarding process. You have to worry about spam. So, in any case, my team led that decoupling of Facebook and Tinder, and this was like pre Cambridge Analytica, pre GDPR. So it was definitely pressure. And it was like, it was a lot of good foresight and it did lead. It was a very successful project.So, that was kind of what I cut my teeth on it Tinder. And then from there, I ended up creating the trust and safety team. So we then kind of took on anti-spam, which is a major problem for any global consumer or especially a brand that you're introducing people to each other. Like you're introducing strangers to each other.That is a spammer's dream.Jacob: 00:05:32There has got to be just so much abuse on Alex: 00:05:34So much, and it was all stuff. I agree. Yeah. 24 7. and so we ended up creating a team kind of bottoms up. This is a cool effort. Cause it wasn't like an executive side, like, oh, Tinder needs to needs to create this team. But rather. A collection of engineers that were very motivated to solve this problem.So, we created a trust and safety team again, before, before GDPR, like this was before the world was really focused on, privacy and data security and protect users. Very consciously.Jacob: 00:06:01It's it's interesting. Cause now, you know, even with like clubhouse recently have had issues here. I think now the expectation is you need trust and safety from day one, which even five or six years ago, wasn't really the case. It was kind of like, well, I'll just grow and then you'll solve it later.So, that was, I would say early days for even that concept of like a whole dedicated team to those, those, those aspects of, yeah. If you're meeting people in public mind, God, like you need good Alex: 00:06:28Real. Yeah. You really need to continuously try to protect people. Cause there are, there's a rare selection of people that are not great. Right. SoJacob: 00:06:36Yeah. David: 00:06:37So then, tell us a little bit about the transition from being a tender to founding a company, because you had founded companies before and plug, and been at, other large companies before Tinder, but Yeah. What, what led you to, to found Gregarious? Alex: 00:06:54Yeah. I actually saw Jacob and I shared an experience interning at Cisco systems. Is that right? Did you, yeah, Jacob: 00:07:01Wait, when were we at the same? Like onboarding. Alex: 00:07:04No, no. I was actually in the finance organization, so I was doing internal auditing. it was crazy. I was on a team that like investigated other people for like, you know, abusing their corporate cards and stuff like that. So there'd be likeJacob: 00:07:19Interesting. internally. Alex: 00:07:21Internally. yeah. it was a very, Jacob: 00:07:23We've had interns on that team. Alex: 00:07:27It was a unique, it was definitely the only inboard,Jacob: 00:07:29Yeah. Wow. I was testing, I was testing phones, so I'm actually not sure which one of those is more boring. I think actually you might've had me. So Alex: 00:07:38That's for sure. yeah, so I got exposure is Cisco is interesting for anybody who doesn't know cause you have to drive between meetings. Right? Cause the campus is so large. Jacob: 00:07:48Campus. Alex: 00:07:49Yeah, Yeah, Talk about, oh my gosh. Culture. Yeah, so the, the process leading up to, to starting Greg was very deliberate. because I had done a startup before and that company had gone to success a successful outcome, but it was a lot of hard work was honestly grueling.Definitely like, hardest challenge of my life. And so I knew that I wanted to be involved in starting a company and building a culture from the ground up again. but I knew that I wanted to do it differently. and so basically there was a lot of preparation thinking about really the main thing I was thinking about is what is the industry that I want to be working in, because I think that startups often don't go the way you expect.But you can learn so much. And so I was really thinking like, okay, what do I want to become an expert at? Right. Like what do I want, if it doesn't work out in the way we expect, what would I like to have learned four years, five years, seven years worth of information about.And, I really kept coming back to science. and I wanted to, to kind of use my engineering experience and pivot that into, more real world, like physical phenomenon. Right. And like learning how the universe works. David: 00:08:59That's amazing. Alex: 00:09:00And so that's really, a lot of the thesis of Greg is that we apply computer science and software engineering to this specific domain of how to plants work.Right. And, and basically the, the dots kind of connect looking backwards, but it was a process of discovery of like, what's an area that's emerging and like kind of changing, like where is there an opportunity, right. Because I think it's helpful to position yourself at a place where either you can cause change or this change already happened.And, right now, like a lot of people know there's climate change. and there's also a lot of, rapid things happening in plant science world, specifically around like CRISPR and plant genetics and stuff like that, really at the deep end of it, which we can get into, but it's like way deep. but, but basically, this was before the pandemic.So we were actually looking into plants before COVID and already there was like the rate of people bringing plants into their homes was growing by 50 to a hundred percent per year. And we wanted to validate like, Jacob: 00:10:03I really like, that seems like that seems like a thing that would be fairly stable, like, is it, is it, is it a, is it a generational trend, like millennials or younger folks being? I have a lot of people on Twitter. I follow that seem very interested in plants more than I've ever been. Alex: 00:10:20There's a couple converging trends. Yeah. I think that part of it it's associated to like the mental wellness movement. So it's kind of this trend line follows a one that's very similar to like meditation and yoga just five years later. So I think it's a very, it's a lot of adjacent interests there, but then there's also an aesthetic component to plants where like, people are kind of decorating their spaces and they're getting more like trendy in how they, you know, how they, even people who are eating, like you want to have like a space that you invite someone into and it's very nurturing.Right. so yeah, there was definitely a generational kind of tailwind already happening. And then COVID just like crammed that up. Right. Cause then everybody's on zoom and you look in the background, some people have plants and you're like, oh, that looks kind of nice. Like I'd like that.Jacob: 00:11:04I have this. I have, I still have this like barren white wall back here. That is embarrassing. Yeah, I need, that's why I was excited. I, I, I installed Greg today and I was disappointed. I couldn't buy the plants in the app yet. So we'll have to talk about that as we get a little Alex: 00:11:17That's something that is coming. That is the client segment. Yeah, definitely. yeah, so we kind of saw an opportunity and we did some due diligence, some interesting things I think, to identify like, is there a revenue opportunity in my favorite stat that I like to share that blew my mind when I learned it is home Depot, is a publicly traded company.So you can look up their, you know, annual statements and you can see how are they making money. And if you look up their statements, you'll see that they make more money on indoor garden than on any other product segment. Like home Depot sells lumber, paint appliances, all these other the Jacob: 00:11:54That's like, that's like actual revenues. Is that also margin con? Cause I would imagine these are high margin items as well, I would guess. Alex: 00:12:01Yeah. Depending on where you fall on them. But yeah, they're, they're, they're pretty hard margin. and no, we only looked at revenue, but they make like last night, like $11 billion per year in revenue. Which is, and, and they're like 10 or Jacob: 00:12:15Store, right? That's, one. Yeah. And there's like, every town has four of these. Alex: 00:12:19Exactly. Yeah. And home Depot is like 10 or 15% of the plant retail market. Probably. It's hard to estimate.Jacob: 00:12:26Okay. Yeah.So, it's like roughly like a hundred, a hundred billion dollar a year kind of thing in the US. Wow. That's it. That's the size of in-app subscriptions for anybody. Who's curious, like, roughly like in that ballpark.Alex: 00:12:39Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like Apple's app store, subscription Jacob: 00:12:42Oh yeah. Sorry, app store. It's not even subscriptions. I think that's the app store broadly. Yeah.Alex: 00:12:47So we combined the plant Tam with then the app store growth in subscription revenue. And there's our business model.Jacob: 00:12:56There you go. Did you, did you, I mean, yeah. You mentioned like wanting to get into something physical into something science related. Did you have like a passion for plants or was this something that is like deep in you or, or was it more like me and an app subscriptions, which is like, wow, this looks like a good thing I can work on and I actually care about it and know a little bit about it.Right. So how, how did it, how did you go? Like, Yeah.This is what I want to do. Alex: 00:13:17That's a great question. It was like 75% the ladder. So the same as you, where I was kind of, I got exposed to it cause I started getting plants and I realized I did like them, but there was no brand to guide me. And there was definitely no science to help me keep them alive. Right. but I, I grew up in the mountains and so like, I, I, my family, I lived in Mammoth Lakes, California for any of the listeners know where that is.And so I, you know, I, I went on like a solo backpacking trip, like shortly before starting all of this and kind of communed with like being in nature with no people around me. And maybe that put me in touch with the plans a little bit more. but it was mostly, kind of identifying, this is a realm of science I'd like to work in because plants are mostly.Physics-based, this is something a lot of people don't don't realize, but because they're stationary, you can almost view them as like, like a civil engineer would a bridge. so there's not, so you can kind of really think about like the water physics, the light physics. And so they're a really great vehicle for learning, just physics generally, and also how like the sun and earth orbit matters to that plant and that location.There's so much science there that we learned that there's a depth. That was, we were very interested in diving deeper intoJacob: 00:14:31Yeah. Not to mention, not to mentioned biology, right. Alex: 00:14:33There is, but Jacob: 00:14:34As an intersection, right? Yeah. Alex: 00:14:37Yeah. Biology is difficult though, right? Like if you're like an engineer, who's trying to approach it,Jacob: 00:14:41Right. Yeah. Alex: 00:14:42it's messy, you know, I Jacob: 00:14:44Yeah, exactly. Alex: 00:14:46Yeah, yeah,Jacob: 00:14:47But if you think about it, it was a closed system, right? Like yeah. You have it. It's potted, it's planted, you know, lumens in, you know, water in, you know, nutrients in, you can, yeah, you can, you can make some approximations, right. As we like. Alex: 00:15:02The closed system is really important. I can. so what Greg does is Greg predicts when a given plant is going to need to be watered. And that's like the super simple, like simplified functionality. It's one of the main things you need to know. And the way we figured that out talking about closed systems is kind of a fun fact. you can very accurately measure the amount of water that a plant loses by weighing it on one day and then weighing it the next day. And the change in weight is the water lost in grams. And it turns out, so what we did is we did that for like 700 plants for like six months. And we, we then graft what was the grams of water lost per plant per day?And you get this beautiful pattern. It's like it random, like this is a very clear, like almost a heartbeat of a plant, which is a great fit for like machine learning.Jacob: 00:15:56Yeah. So, so, so how did, how did you pull this off? Like practically, did you have like a big garage or warehouse or something like that? That's, that's more work than I usually do for software. So tell me what that process was. Alex: 00:16:09It definitely did. So at one point I had like 150 plants and they all had a plastic, little pots and I had like labels. I named them like a one through nine and then C one through whatever. Cause I had to keep track of it. Right. It's all in our progress database. And but that didn't scale. And so like me and my co-founders, we were all measuring every day, every single day, hundreds of plants, but that didn't scale.So then we went on Craigslist and we started saying like, Hey, we're looking for people to weigh their plants every day, twice per day for a couple of months. And we had hundreds of responses, like people, people care about their plants and they thought that it was cool to be doing like citizen science.Right. And so we ended up with people in Berlin and, and you know, Sydney.Jacob: 00:16:48All right. Cause it doesn't have to be local, right? Yeah. Alex: 00:16:51And actually it needs to be in like Southern hemisphere versus Northern hemisphere because the location of like the sun and solar radiation effects that. Yeah. So we needed a global distribution for sure.David: 00:17:01This is like way off topic for, for subscription apps. But, but if you, if you squint it's, there are a lot of similar problems in understanding user patterns and user life cycle. And like, there's so many hard to understand variables. Alex: 00:17:18Yeah, David: 00:17:18But one thing I'm curious about on the plant science, like how much does like humidity and other things play into that.So if you, if you have, you know, 40% humidity, one day and 60%, the next does that actually impact things. Alex: 00:17:31No humidity. We don't really need to model humidity very much. it's actually, there's a couple of things that are misconceptions. You don't really need to worry about missing or humidity and you don't need to worry about fertilizing. Like all of that is overdone. for the most part, like there's some cases where it, matters, but, I'd say for like 99 out of 100 plant types that you're likely to own doesn't matter.And even more people don't realize that the humidity reading that we see in the weather is what's called relative humidity. And it, it not actually like super scientific way to measure, like how the water in the air relates to a plant. You need to look at absolute humidity, the whole totally different calculation.There's basically relative humidity changes according to the temperature. And so I see as humidity, you can almost, and to be honest, like, ignore, except for a couple of plants, like really evolved to be in, like, you can picture it. you know, in England, like, United Kingdom, like BHAG, right. Where it's just so much water, like, okay, well does like some, some ferns like are from like the Pacific Northwest, like Washington area where it's like constant rain forest, those types of plans.Yeah. You're going to have a hard time if you're not, in a very human environment, but the vast majority of EBI don't have to worry about it.Jacob: 00:18:47I have, I have more questions on the plant physics, but I think, I think I will let, I will, I will have to like save my curiosity.David: 00:18:55Well, we'll have to do the, we'll have to jump on your podcast and talk, talk points. Jacob: 00:19:00Plant Club, just invite V2 to newbies on there. Just to ask questions. We'll be there. David: 00:19:05So from, from all of this, you, you started to alluded to it a bit, but one of the things I was really impressed talking to you a couple of months ago, was just how I'm vicious. Your plans are with Greg. So you're, you're kicking it off with a consumer subscription app. but tell me a little bit about like, where you want to go from there.Alex: 00:19:25Yeah, definitely. That's a part of like, going back to like how we started it, why we started it. I have seen, or like I've worked at companies and like not naming names that are very, very revenue focused. Like just purely prime directive is we just need to make coin and as much of it as possible. Right.And then the question is, well, if you get there, then what do you do? Because if you do accumulate a level of avenue and a lot of influence, you kind of inherit a social responsibility, right? Because like you're accumulating all these resources. If you're like a Facebook or an Instagram, I think there's like general consensus.Like you kind of need to think about the impact that you have. Cause you're too big to not think about it. Right. And so with Greg, like we really thought about if we manage to navigate this very challenging process of getting to scale. Well then what? Right. And our goal what's really interesting that people don't realize is that plants in our homes are just plants that were taken from various places in the world and put in our homes, right?Like there there's no such thing as a houseplant, it's actually just like a giant jungle tree that somebody took a cutting from and then transported it to England and then ended up the United States. Right. so the physical principles that govern, being able to predict how to keep those plants alive is, are the same as the physical principles required to predict how to keep like crops alive.Right. like plants that are grown for our food system of which there are like billions. Right. And those plants, like it turns out plants are really like an infrastructure piece of our planet, right? Like plants are our like big support system on spaceship earth. And it's kind of interesting. Jacob: 00:21:10It's, the, it's the first stage of catalyzing, the sun's resources, right? Like, Alex: 00:21:15That's exactly it. And a lot of people don't realize this, that basically all of life gets its energy from the sun. Like that is the input of all of energy into what we know as life, as you know, maybe there's more on other planets that works differently. But as far as we know, all of life depends on solar energy.Jacob: 00:21:31Yeah, Alex, you're leaving out some very, very, sensitive, bacteria that live by vents. Okay. That, that Alex: 00:21:40I love that you noticed.Jacob: 00:21:43I'm D I'm disappointed in myself that I can't think of what they're called. They're extremophiles some kind of, I Alex: 00:21:47Yeah. Jacob: 00:21:48All, it's all, it's all discovery documentaries, so Alex: 00:21:51There's a vanishingly small number of, like living things that, thrive on geothermal energy from the earth score. Right. But that's like less than like 1% as far as I know. What people don't realize as an example is that like plants. A lot of people think that plants are just taking things out of the ground that is sucking nutrients out, sucking water out. They're actually also putting things back into the ground at all times. And so plants, like, for example, they photosynthesize. So they take energy from the sun and they are the only thing on the planet that takes energy from the sun and then converts it into energy that all other life can use. And it's not only insects and birds and mammals like us, but plants are also depositing sugar into the soil.So it's a bi-directional flow and that sugar feeds the bacteria. Jacob: 00:22:38Is that an active process while they're alive? Is it, or is it during decomposition? Alex: 00:22:42No, that is an active process. Like plants are actively depositing sugar into the soil and that, that those sugars feed the bacteria and fungi and those bacteria and fungi are responsible for breaking down the, inorganic, nutrients like nitrogen into a format that plants can absorb because plants can't just like stop nitrogen.Now they depend on. Those organic, you know, facilitators. And so it's a very symbiotic relationship and there's growing awareness now that like having a quote unquote, living soil is crucial for our planet. And I'll tell you like an example of how, how much awareness there is around this. during my due diligence for Greg, I went to a plant genetics conference.This is like for any engineers in the call, like imagine like AWS reinvent, accepted the geneticists. Right. And so they're like presenting, like how they run their projects. And it's, it's a really cool parallel world, but half of this conference was dedicated to soil like microbiomes, because that's how important it is.It's like truly like a resource. It's an infrastructure for our spaceship earth. Right? David: 00:23:49That's amazing. So, so one of the things, yeah, you and I talked about was not just, you know, consumer subscription to then like funding science, which is kind of what you're talking about now, but then also the potential to take this from, from B2C to B2B. So like you have, nurturing these who have to manage the planets before the people buy ‘em.You have office buildings that have thousands of plants. You have, you know, commercial facilities like there's, you know, plants existed on so many different layers of are of, of, of use, So tell me a little bit about kind of the long and short term plans of potentially transitioning or not transitioning, but, but kind of building on top of what you've done for consumers to then expand into more B2B, use cases.Alex: 00:24:42Yeah, definitely. Some other examples. people don't realize that cities have to like municipalities have to maintain the plant inventories, right? Like there are people who manage the inventory of plants. Exists, you know, or there are small businesses. there are people in most towns, I grow food for their farmer's markets, for example.And so those are like smaller scale farmers and then there's large scale farmers, right? And there's a real dearth of like talented software teams, writing applications for any of those parties. And that's really the long-term opportunity to be spotted. If we can pull together a talented team to make products for those people, that's a longterm opportunity.And my, my thesis on this, which I think we're aligned on is that, like delightful, simple consumer user interfaces, like simple software is appreciated by everybody. Right? Jacob: 00:25:35Okay. Alex: 00:25:35like enterprises don't want to use complicated integrative Jacob: 00:25:40There's tastes now in software, right. And all levels of, employment. I think it's, it's a bit of like our gen my generation aging into the, the enterprise buying world. And, also just like people have enough software experiences in our lives. They've learned to discern like, oh, this is good.And, oh, this is bad. and I think there's, yeah, I think it's really, I mean, we I've, I've done it a ton in making revenue count. I came from the compute super subscription world. I learned a ton of lessons about onboarding and, and, and, and creating delightful experiences and like, you know, playing, playing against and into people's like, you know, habits and things like this that you carry into the enterprise world or B2B world, and it can really supercharge software.And it's probably what we're going to see. Yeah. I think. I think there's still, there's always this like technical leap or not technical in the sense of computers, but technical in the sense of processes and whatnot, when you leap from consumer to, to selling to businesses. But as you said, you bring those teams together, you, you build your data set, you learn more about Alex: 00:26:45Right, Jacob: 00:26:46Act of growing plants, then someday you, you, you can, you Alex: 00:26:49Right. And there are some, some famous examples of this. I definitely see it with RevenueCat. Cause like you compare the UI to a SAS that was created 10 years ago and it's just more of delightful. Right. It's like simple. And I know to use it. I'm not like getting a headache while I'm on it, but it's nice.Right?Jacob: 00:27:05It's very nice. Very nice of you to say Alex: 00:27:07Yeah. Bye-bye But, but like some examples like strike became famous, right? Because like they had a good Jacob: 00:27:14Same. Yeah, yeah. Say my mindset. Right. Just like, make it easy, make it simple, make the, make the shortest possible path to value. Right. Alex: 00:27:25Or, slack would be another example. Right. Whereas it was almost a consumer level application that just took off like wildfire because individuals liked it. Right. Jacob: 00:27:34And then they added enterprise grid, whatever they have now, or whatever to sell it to, to, to Alex: 00:27:39And then nothing is things, Jacob: 00:27:41Need that to begin with.Alex: 00:27:42Right? David: 00:27:43Yeah. So it's just, it's really cool that there's, there's just such a direct path from selling to consumers right now, and then selling to municipalities who are managing their plants in a few years, and then selling to, you know, the, the company should have to manage this at scale and then selling to farmers.That's really cool. One of the things that, again, that you're not talking about, you and I talked for like two hours a couple of months ago. And so there's, there's so much that I would, I would've loved to have recorded that and released it as a podcast. But, Jacob: 00:28:20Glad I can glad I can contribute. David: 00:28:23Yeah, one of the, one of the fascinating things that you talked about was kind of your view on marketing. And so I'd love for you to talk about that more broadly, but then specifically what you're doing with nurseries is just such incredibly smart marketing. Like, I mean, it, let me say tangent for a minute.So it's just so obvious talking to you that you're not the average like app founder, you know, like none of my apps have had even, even like when, when hundredth of the due diligence and market Jacob: 00:28:55Why I was gonna say, I've never, I've never bought some, like, I've never had a physical warehouse of plantsDavid: 00:29:02Yeah. and so it's just, it's just so clear that you, you think about things in a way that, that most, you know, at people don't most software people don't most even founders don't. and, and so I think, you know, we've talked about this on the podcast before, is it just so many apps are trapped in this?You know, we just, we have to advertise on Facebook to grow. We have to do this. And like that clay book, I've just, you know, dumping money, a bunch of money in ads, I think leave so much on the table. And so I just love that you're, you're going to do that. And that we've talked about that, you know, you've got to do paid marketing and, and maybe I've already started experimenting with it, but, but yeah.So tell me about what you're doing with nurseries and then just kind of, you know, some of your thoughts on, on marketing and virality and stuff. Alex: 00:29:51Yeah, definitely. I think broadly, like what I would, I think I'm definitely aligned with that where, your broader point is that like building an app is half technical and UI design and getting the product really, really, really right. Right. But the other half that people are often uncomfortable about is needing to get it in front of the right people.Right. And so in my mind, the way I break this down is the two steps. Like I have a theory that like the two steps in making a successful app business are make thumping worth using, and then put it in front of the people who would use it. Right. And it's like remarkably hard to do either one of those, but, Once we had, the beginning signs of retention.So we got our first, like, I don't know, 5,000 users by like posting on Facebook and on Reddit and like that kind of stuff. Then we started thinking about, what is like the most optimal time for people to be introduced to grade. And what we came up with is, well, we solved the problem of, if you have a plant and you don't know what to do with it, how to keep it alive, we solve that problem.And so the most natural moment would be when you get a new plant, right. Because it's like, that's a moment. And you're like, oh crap, I have this thing. What do I, how do I keep it alive? And, so what we did is we reached out to a bunch of, plant retailers, like online in-person brick and mortar all over the place.And we basically said like, Hey, we will help your customers have a positive outcome with your product. Right. And so let's do this trade where like, we will give them. at this point we had a subscription tier. And so we said, we'll give them free subscription tier for N number of months. At first it was six.And now it's three. and in return, can you put in our little QR code flyer, like nicely designed four inches by four inches recycled paper card that has a QR code and it takes you to download. Great. Right. And so we did that and now like when these retailers ship out a new plant, every single one of them has this little QR code in it.And it's almost like a digital companion to your unboxing experience. Right. And so that was definitely like a very natural fit and it, it led to our first, probably like 10 or 20,000, 15,000 users, I'd say.Jacob: 00:32:10So can I ask, like, did you do that yourself? Did you have somebody on your team? Cause like, yeah. I'm, I'm in the camp that that's outside of my experience. I don't like calling the pizza person. Like I, you know, I, I don't know how to do that. So how, how did you, how did you delegate that and, and Alex: 00:32:24Yeah. Jacob: 00:32:24The resources and a small team to pull that off. Alex: 00:32:27Definitely. so I I'd say I provided the, the oomph behind it. but then I have a good friend, who I've worked with in the past named Colin, who does like growth marketing stuff and that's his comfort zone. Right. And so I definitely did reach out to a bunch of the biggest partners in the beginning.Because the thing is that like with early stage stuff, founder led sales can be great, right? Like you don't always need it. It's better if you don't need it to be Frank. but, we were so early and we had no partners at all that I was like, I ha this is crucial for us. Like, we need to have a better source of user acquisition.That's like our next major challenge to solve. And so I did reach out to them and then call in kind of like took over and scaled that. Right. Cause like, I, I ultimately like I needed to be writing code and stuff. and so now he owns that relationship and he's been able to keep that going further.Jacob: 00:33:22Yeah, it's just one of these unique channels. you know, I don't know, you can, as a, B to C app founder, I think David's points exactly on, I think we've a lot of us have settled into this world where there's one or two channels to like get growth and that's paid, paid marketing.There's a lot of good, growth resources out there. oh yeah, there's a lot of good growth books. I've read, moving into the B2B world that say there's like seven channels or whatever. There's only like so many like ways to get and in and in, and in B to C we tend to be like, well, yeah, there's these two, essentially, but it's not really true.Like you can try seven, I guess the trick is finding stuff that two things, one is approachable. Like, that's why I asked about you. How did you make it happen? Well, you were able to start it off and then you had somebody to work with you to, to, to bring it to scale. But then the other thing is it has to move the needle. Right. And so, and so you have to figure out and like for a price that's reasonable, right? And, and that sometimes is hard to find as well. Because I think with this, you have this adjacent high velocity market of users. You have a place, your users are going every day, which isn't maybe always the case for all apps.Right. It's hard to find there's no meditation store that people are going to day. Right. Alex: 00:34:33Yeah. I thought about this. Jacob: 00:34:34That's your, that's your advantage? You know?Alex: 00:34:37I thought about parallels. Like I wonder if like fitness apps have tried partnering with gyms. I'm thinking like fit. Jacob: 00:34:44I'm sure the gyms wouldn't be as eager maybe. Right? Alex: 00:34:48Well, I mean, possibly I'm just thinking like, if, if like, Jacob: 00:34:51This also like there's also this like benefit right from the, for the Alex: 00:34:54There has to be. Yeah, yeah. But I would just, I just like theory, graph, like I'm thinking if there's an app That helps you track your workouts. Like I use football, I'm a user, it's a great app and, and it's a complete compliment or a gym. Like I can't do gym without, I can't do football about gym. I don't really do gym about that.So, I, there might be a thing there, or like with meditation, I'd be curious if, like yoga studios. Cause here's the thing is Jacob: 00:35:21Find the adjacencies right. Alex: 00:35:22Yeah. And so here's the thing about a mobile app business that I have found is that one of our strengths is that we're building an audience, right? Like mobile apps only really work with retention.And so you're like building up this audience of people that are committed to your app and your brand over time. And these smaller businesses are looking for ways to get audiences. Right? And so in the scale of a mobile app is such that you might actually be able to accumulate an audience that is valuable to those small businesses.That can be a part of that trade. And so we've actually talked about that with our partners where we basically say like, well, you're referring users to us. We can refer users back to you. And our scale is large enough that it could actually be a meaningful number. so I think you can kind of get, it's definitely a B2B strategy where it's like, I'm thinking of the strategic value I can provide to my partners in return for them providing value.Which might be why it's less common in the, in the B2C, like mobile app world, right.David: 00:36:16Yeah. Any other, experiments that you've done or kind of things that you're working on in the, in the marketing realm that you've seen fail or things that are being successful right now Alex: 00:36:27We really want to tap peer to peer referrals and that has not been easy. And so that, that is one Jacob: 00:36:33Have you seen, have you seen the new store kit to stuff? Alex: 00:36:36Not Jacob: 00:36:36Yeah, they did. This is, I don't know when this is going to go out, but they, they dropped in, in, in the dub DC, this, this, this week they announced there's a new API. That's going to make that kind of possible. Now you'll be able to, you'll be able to like extend somebody else's subscription, based on some sort of like action. I think I, I, I don't know if they made it as like, for extending, for like a customer support use case. So there might be a case maybe Apple's like, no, we didn't want you to use it for incentivized referrals, but it could Alex: 00:37:09Yeah, Jacob: 00:37:09Make incentivize referrals work and like a really smooth way. Sorry, I'll derail. But, Alex: 00:37:14I love it. Jacob: 00:37:15It's, kind of a change.Alex: 00:37:17Well, it's probably useful to listeners. we have definitely hacked around incentivizes invites using promotionals that will say RevenueCat has been helpful.Jacob: 00:37:26Oh, so, and so you guys are, you guys are pushing folks, but they have to go through like this, like a user-driven process, right? Alex: 00:37:33They do. Yeah.Jacob: 00:37:34Is friction.Alex: 00:37:35It's friction. It has been fine, but it's not quite as productive as we like. So that one. Jacob: 00:37:39Have a lot of users that get confused about the process. I would imagine. Alex: 00:37:42Yeah. And it's like a deep Linky thing. So it's like not super transparent. the thing that's worked better, the one that I'm most excited about is I love this one. we, created, user generated content loops. so, basically people, there are certain things you can do in our app that like publish web pages on the web.And so for us very specifically, People like Greg, we don't have a database of like every plant in the world yet. Right. There's like 400,000. It's really complicated. And like, that's actually, one of our core IP is, is developing that database. And the only way we can do it is if we allow users to contribute to it.Right. and we need to be like a crowd source, like model and we get really good at curation so people can create new species in Gregg. And then we curate that and then we publish that page on the web and then it starts showing up in Google search traffic for other people searching for information about that species.Right. And so I love the theory of this and like check back in, in a year to see how it turns out. But I love the thing. Because it's like, okay, a user publishes a web page, which then more users find our app through. So then they join the app and then they publish more webpages. And then so more users find the app and then they publish more web pages.Right. And so it's like a very like positive reinforcement loop. And I think those types of recursive positive reinforcing user growth loops can lead to very healthy, growth curves, right?Jacob: 00:39:08Yeah. I mean, that's the, the challenge of these apps. You said it with retention is the big thing. I think you, you you're you're you're you've got some tables. Keeping a plant alive plants live a long time. Therefore, hopefully your app gets used a long time, but then, finding these things that can take what is inherently like a decaying process, which is people leaving your app and turning it into something more stable, which is how you build this, like yeah.Long-term business. And then, you know, for, in your case, like use this as a platform to move into other segments and whatnot. but, but but moving away, from this, like get them in, monetize them, let them go. Right. Model, which like, it seems just like the whole world is pointing us against right. With, with the way that ad tracking is getting less easy to do and all this stuff.Alex: 00:39:54Yeah. Jacob: 00:39:54So I was gonna say SEO, that's one of the seven good channels. Right. So you've hit at least three, Alex: 00:40:01Do end up dependent on, on Google. AndJacob: 00:40:05It's something can change in Alex: 00:40:06Yeah, Jacob: 00:40:07Or. Alex: 00:40:07But like I've been wanting, I've been watching SEO for a while and I think that generally, as long as you're not doing shady things, you don't have to worry about much. Right, Jacob: 00:40:16Content that people click on and find useful it will work. Right? Like, but when I did our blogs for revenue cat, initially the ones that got really good traffic for us kind of got us off the ground. Like I didn't, I didn't think, like I thought a little bit like, oh, what are people going to Google?Whatever. But no, I was just like, I'll just make plus that people will read and spend time on and share. And like that's all it took. And you'll find the posts that some of the posts that I did that were intentionally like, I'm trying to be like, SEO smart. Didn't do that. Well, the ones where they were just really good posts and like contained a lot of really good content and get referenced a lot. Those are the ones that still generate traffic for us. So like, which is nice because you don't have to be like an SEO master anymore. You can kind of just make good stuff and do Alex: 00:40:56Yeah. Jacob: 00:40:56Things. Yeah, David: 00:40:57Yeah, I was going to ask, I think we talked about this, but have you, have you done some paid marketing and how's that gone for you? Alex: 00:41:05Yeah, definitely. We did use paid marketing to like, scale up, by like a two X factor. So did that add a little bit of extra? And, so we've been running on Instagram and Facebook, and it's been pretty productive to the point where it's almost NetSpend zero. it's like we spend a dollar in advertising and then we make a dollar in revenue.We're still very early. And so we haven't had enough months. Like the, the, the pain point is if you do a trial. It's actually a much longer, payback period or like what finance people would call a float. And then a lot of people expect, because let's say you have, we're generous. We have a 30 day trial, which is like a bit much for a mobile app, but we do it.And so 30 days, and then the user subscribes, and then you get paid and then apple will pay you a month later. Right. So you actually end up with like up to a 90 day float. and so that's not as tight as I would like hope for, but it's better than nothing. And I think that's the key is that like, because we're a revenue generating app we're able to do the ad spend in like a reasonable way.I think if that weren't the case, then it'd be very difficult.David: 00:42:12Yeah. And, and at some point, I mean, with, with your other strategies of referrals, of SEO, of building a base of users, that then you can get more and more partners, you know? So, so if you went to home Depot, 10 million active users, then that's a much more attractive proposition to them. so at some point, you know, spending at a loss might actually make sense, but it's amazing that the subscription, model enables you to even spend break even, but keep that flywheel going, which is it's.That's incredible.Alex: 00:42:52And I think the NetSpend break, even that creates an interesting exercise because then it's like, it becomes, we didn't get into like financing, but like if you fundraise That's then a good reason to fundraise because then if you have more capital, you can put that capital to work. Because if you know, you'll make, if you have a dollar, now you'll have a dollar again in 90 days, as long as you can carry that float.Well, then at the end of 90 days you have a dollar and a user Jacob: 00:43:17Yeah, which is like, has, has value, right? Like you've increased the value of your user base has adult, you know, dollar per user active value essentially in the venture market or revalue reevaluate. Right. So, it, it does make sense. So yeah, I w I want to ask, like, You guys, it seems like your apps pretty developed for how long you've been working on it a year and change.Right. and you mentioned, you mentioned this, like finding iterating to like a retention goal. Like how did that go? Did you start with just like the basic function, like the most basic thing and then add stuff until you got, and what, what I guess specifically, like what metric were you looking at to say like, okay, retention is good now. Alex: 00:43:58Hmm. Yeah, that's a great question. So we did start with the most basic core functionality, and I think one of the things that we did that I would do again, We just solved our own problem. So like I, so we, we started at the beginning of COVID, so like New York where I live, locked down basically the day, almost the day that I left Tinder.Right. And so and so I remember I'll never forget things were shutting down. So I ran to the nursery nearby plant nursery, and I bought like 30 plants. Cause I was like, I need to have the problem in order to be deeply motivated to solve it. Right. Cause like, if you actually have like over 10 plants, keeping track of them kind of socks a little bit, it's hard.And so I knew that I needed the problem and that motivated us and, and our whole team really, we basically just wrote like a prototype app to solve our own problem. and once it was working for us is when we started bringing like beta users in, we did like a test flight, version for a month brought in like maybe a thousand or I think it was 2000 beta users total and there in like August, 2020.And. Jacob: 00:44:59Did you, how did you get that list for the beta? Just Facebook and Alex: 00:45:04Facebook. It was, it was mostly Facebook like groups and stuff like that. Jacob: 00:45:07Mm. Alex: 00:45:08Yeah. and it posted on Reddit. Reddit is hard. but, we did a little bit Jacob: 00:45:15Rip off middlemen made easy. That's my favorite. We posted, I posted right. It was where we launched two and I have this, this favorite hater quote that I have like screenshot it on my desktop that I will hold on to until we IPO. Alex: 00:45:27The hater codes or something people should be prepared for, I think,Jacob: 00:45:30Yeah. Alex: 00:45:32But let's see. So we solved that. Here's the key is that we specifically, for our app, we wanted to solve the retention piece first. And so he chose the behavior in the app that would be associated with retention because the way that I personally think about retention is that right.What happens is you have a trigger. So a person needs an external trigger to think about opening your app. Right? So it could be a feeling that they have like Tinder, it's a feeling I'm bored or I'm lonely. And I want to see people, and that's an external trigger that causes a person to think about your app.Then you need value to them to actually open your app. Right? Like, okay, I have this trigger in this app can adjust that trip. Sure. So for us, we didn't have like an emotion, but we did have, the need for reminders. And so basically we, leveraged push indicator very heavily. Our whole app is like a water reminder app right now that's the core value.And so we built that specific functionality, water reminders before anything else, because we wanted to validate, is that a sticky behavior? Is that something that people will actually want to do and use over like six months? Right. And because we knew we wanted to get six months of data, we had to build it first.Right. Because you have to really think about how long it's going to take to get that validation. and we were bootstrapped. And so we knew that like, well, we can't bootstrap for forever. Right. And so we needed to front load the questions that we knew investors would be asking when we went out to fundraise.David: 00:46:57So speaking of which you just raised $5.4 million seed round, how, tell us about the process. It sounds like you were, you know, having been at Tinder and been in Silicon valley and in the industry, that was your goal that you didn't come into it thinking you were going to bootstrap this forever. and you were specifically kind of building up some of those retention numbers and other things that you knew investors would ask for.So, how did fundraising go having kind of iterated into that direction? Alex: 00:47:35It's definitely hard as hell. I don't know, like you don't ever say that it's not. but it wasn't, it wasn't like excruciating. I think recruiting is actually probably a little bit more difficult, especially right now. There's a lot of, a lot of movement in the, in the why people are working, how they wantJacob: 00:47:51It's easier. It's easier. to write a check than it is to take a job. I think, you know, like to give it to somebody to do, do Alex: 00:47:57You can write multiple checks. Right?Jacob: 00:47:58Yeah. It's not your, it's not your every day, you Alex: 00:48:02Exactly. Yeah. So, let's see. We actually, to go back to your first point, we weren't, completely, we hadn't decided that we were definitely going to raise VC capital. and so there was like, like we did work through that as a team and we ended up deciding, various specifically. Our mission is one that we believe would benefit from us being good at raising capital, because we think that if we can bring capital and talent to this industry and this problem domain, that's a good thing.And then even from a life perspective, like we wanted, we want to move quick, we want to be able to grow. You want to be able to like, build delightful things for lots of people. and so that was, that was the main motivation behind the VC capital. I think it's a big trade-off. so we, we definitely did not take it lightly and we did deeply evaluate Jacob: 00:48:49Closes, off a lot of paths, Alex: 00:48:51It does. Yeah, Jacob: 00:48:52You kind of really narrows what your future, I mean, Alex: 00:48:55Yeah, Jacob: 00:48:55You on a trajectory to something potentially much, much bigger, but it Alex: 00:48:58Yeah, Jacob: 00:48:59Of like brings down your, your options. Alex: 00:49:02It does. Yeah. And I think you just have to think about like, am I okay with needing to focus on eventually providing an exit to these people who trusted with their capital, right. Yeah. And I think maybe something that people don't think about is like the CEO, whoever is fundraising. Like you, you build a relationship with your, your, your VC partners, right?Like I consider them like life journey partners at this point. And so it's not that like, it's certainly not an adversarial relationship. It's more like I have a true responsibility to these people because we had a clear, like, this is the agreement is like capital and then they have obligation to their investors too.And so, you know, I'm aligned with that and I think you're right. You just have to think about like, is that, is that aligned with my vision for this, this journey, right. David: 00:49:45And then speaking of, of an exit, you shared with me, you have a very unique approach to employee equity. I'm actually curious to hear at, Jacob's take on this, having gone through the whole thing, himself, but Yeah. Tell us about your equity structure. Alex: 00:50:05Yeah. We, we definitely are, experimenting and trying something different and I think there's pros and cons.Jacob: 00:50:12Investors love that, by the way. I'm sure those were easy conversations. Alex: 00:50:17Surprisingly most investors were, were okay with it. I definitely had a couple that were concerned about, the implications in the medium term, but here I'll get to what it is. So, yeah. Okay. So basically, like we, wanted to distribute as much of the financial ownership of the company across as many of the early teammates as we could.And the reason for that is like the real thought that I had that whether or not other people think about this kind of thing, I would, I would encourage people to ask the best, which is, if I have an exit, how big of an exit would I really want to feel very fortunate about. Right. And like, really think about like how much money do I actually need.Right. Because I think that there's a lot of people who get caught up with like, I want a billion dollars, right. Or like, I want like a hundred million dollars. I've been fortunate enough. Like we pointed out earlier, my first company was acquired for like a fine amount and then Tinder totally exploded. I didn't own as much of it, but it is still a positive outcome.And I can say that like they didn't change anything. And I know it's a very cliche thing to say, but I think it's a productive exercise that if anybody was founding a company, I would recommend asking, at what point am I again, feeling fortunate about the outcome, right? And then what we really thought about is our ability to recruit a great team.And basically the decision that we made is that, there's really two aspects to equity. and I'd be curious again, Jacob's take on this there's there's compensation for risk. So early teammates take more risks, quote unquote. Right? And so that, that's a typical, like reason for, founders taking a large, large Jacob: 00:51:52Costs risk mostly. Right. But Alex: 00:51:54Opportunity cost and risk.And then the other dimension that I think about is. Where, early stage companies are hard for everybody who's involved. And my prior experience pointed towards like the first 20 people who joined the company, or at least definitely 10 or 15, all worked, pretty much as hard. And definitely at least not like 10, it's impossible to work 10 times harder. Right. And so, Jacob: 00:52:19And with less M with less glory, to be honest, Alex: 00:52:22With less boring. Yeah, Jacob: 00:52:23Don't, they don't get all the likes on follows on Twitter or whatever. Right. Alex: 00:52:27Exactly.Jacob: 00:52:28Try to distribute it, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a grindy place to be for sure. Alex: 00:52:33Not getting the glory is like a, it's definitely a double edged sword because I think that that glory is also a responsibility. Right. But, yeah. And so basically we decided to try this approach where we wanted to do this exercise of distributing that equity as equally as possible. And so he set up a mathematical curve where whenever I make an offer, I just look at this math equation.What is the amount of equity that this next person gets. Right. and, and so, and we did that and basically projected out like, okay, each person gets to like, like if we reached a billion dollar company, each teammate should have an outcome of something like $10 million or more, right. Like something, something above that number.And it was really important to map that out because otherwise it can go forward. And, yeah, basically that, that was our exercise. I mean, basically they decided like, okay, can we, can we turn that around a little bit? And, the side effect that I like, so again, we're, we're early in this, like, we're, we're an eight person team we're in a 15 and it may turn out to be complicated.And again, we check in in a year, but what I like about it is it, did enable a completely transparent cap table. Right. And that's nice. Cause like, I don't think it's like maybe required, but I do like being able to show people like this is who owns this Jacob: 00:53:50Who owns with you? Right? Alex: 00:53:53Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so that's a positive side effect.But there's definitely it's complicated.Jacob: 00:54:00Yeah, I well, so David, my take is actually we do something very similar that's I like also like, so interestingly and, and inside, inside baseball, I think, it it's it's we, we did, something similar. No, we weren't as scientific with it for the first, like we had like a rough rule, but it was like the same, like X, each number, like the number like decreased, like, but this backoff curve, I've found it a very, it's a very hard problem to reason about, because you want, you want to think about this, you want the hundredth employee to have some skin in the game.Right. But you, you need to balance that with like, Hey, like come join this company that you've never heard of. And like probably has like worst benefits and you know, who knows it's going to be, it's going to be a mess. Right. And so like, finding that balance is really hard. and, and, you know, Looking at where we're at 30 people now, and the complexity definitely grows. And then I think also you start thinking about like recruiting leverage and like, what, you know, what, how much equity do I need to offer to be able to like, recruit these different types of roles and things like that. And your systems get more complex, but, but, but it's still, did you guys, did you do something special on special on founder equity to create like more, more room on the cap table?Or did you ha how many co-founders do you have?Alex: 00:55:11That's such a blurry line. I don't know if this is just me by name or no, like, well, is that the fourth person? Like, I mean,Jacob: 00:55:18I guess that's true. yeah. Alex: 00:55:20Yeah. Jacob: 00:55:21A, maybe that's a, it's a YC thing is where they're like very clear, like who are the co-founders and who are not But, but yeah, I, I agree. It's probably mostly a, a label.Alex: 00:55:32I feel like we have six co-founders. realistically there were, there were two of us that were like, thinking about this, you know, like that's not true. There were three of us that were thinking about this, like two years ago. so we, I, I called them co-founders and so we're all on this same plans.Like we have this graph where like, I am the first black. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, It's Jacob: 00:55:51Interesting. Alex: 00:55:53Like as much as possible. And so the hardest, this plan is definitely hardest on the first three people and it requires incredible cultural buy-in to that because it means that the outcome, like, I, I definitely worked on this for a lot longer than like the people who are joining today.Right. And like, it was stressful and hard, but here's, here's my, my, my personal take. And, is that I actually think the risk of doing startups and I feel like YC, you may agree with us. The risk of doing startups is like so much lower than most people realize for people who have the fortune of having a safety net.Right? Like if you're, if you, if you have a family and you don't have savings, then like, of course that is a, that is a risky proposition. for people who are relatively early or mid stage in their careers and they have savings and they're not actually gonna end up in a really dangerous spot, then I think that startups are almost always a net positive.If you really apply yourself, because the amount that you learn and grow by solving that many problems, only accelerates your career. Right. And so going back to the risk versus there's also opportunity costs, and then there's effort. I personally discount the risk for people who are fortunate enough to have that safe space.I discount that risk almost to zero, because I think that it's just such a, even this time around for me, my second startup, I have learned so much and it's been such a good life experience that even if it didn't work out tomorrow, net win. For sure. Sure.Jacob: 00:57:17Yeah. David: 00:57:18So part of the reason I brought it up was that I, when I joined and I've told Dick at this, when I joined revenue, this is way inside baseball. Goodness a open, an open enough on the podcast. But when I joined Romney, I thought more along the lines of you, Alex. Like I thought, well, why is Jacob getting so much more of the company and, and revenue Katz, like the first 10 employees and then the next 20 it's actually, it's very generous compared to the industry, like take a, did an incredible job and has been great with equity.So, but, but early on you, you're at a startup and you're like, wow, I'm working really hard. He's working really hard. Like why, why, why is the outcome going to be so different? But honestly, 18 months in and Jacob having raised a series B and like taking a lot of the hardship, like you as a founder are going to have to do things and be under amount of stress.And like, there, there really is. And I, I don't, it's probably somewhat true for maybe those, you know, those first early employees, how carry a little bit of that load, but the F but a founder just has to carry a different load. And so. Jacob: 00:58:29It's always going to fall on that first two, you know, whatever people on the cap table. Right. Whatever it's going to keep rolling until it hits you at some point. And, you know, as it gets bigger. yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I don't know. It's an, it's an interesting, this could very easily devolve into like the nature of capitalism and ownership.Right. Because it doesn't, it plays very much against this, like, you know, constant, like Marxists debate about like labor versus capital and like, what are the value and what is like value and like, cause you know, you like, you had this whatever period it was one month, one year or whatever. That's like such, you know, if you

Pentecost Power comes from the Word 1. It has a power to bring life to those who are dead. 2. It has the power to give hope to those who are hopeless. Ezekiel 37:1-14 (EHV) The hand of the LORD was upon me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley, which was full of bones. 2He had me pass through them and go all over among them. There were very many on the valley floor, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” I answered, “LORD God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.'” 5This is what the LORD God says to these bones. I am about to make breath enter you so that you will live. 6I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh back on you. I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 7So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling, as the bones came together, one bone connecting to another. 8As I watched, tendons were attached to them, then flesh grew over them, and skin covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind that this is what the LORD God says. From the four winds, come, O wind, and breathe into these slain so that they may live.” 10So I prophesied as he commanded me. Breath entered them, and they came back to life. They stood on their feet, a very, very large army. 11Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost. We have been completely cut off.' 12Therefore, prophesy and say to them that this is what the LORD God says. My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from your graves and bring you back to the soil of Israel. 13Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” If you have any questions or comments, contact Pastor.

Sunday PM Service Revelation 11:1-14I.   The Instructions for Measuring the TempleII.  The Introduction of the Two WitnessesSupport the show (https://app.easytithe.com/app/giving/firstbaptist)

https://vimeo.com/539763558 Welcome to the CXR channel, our premier podcast for talent acquisition and talent management. Listening as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging and retaining the best talent. We're glad you're here. Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:20Hi Welcome back to another CXR eXpertease. I'm Chris Hoyt, president of CXR and your tour guide on this wild 15 minute ride together, where we'll connect with industry personalities, experts and leaders to talk about one thing that's keeping them up at night or that they've learned in their career that they want to share with you, our passengers on this journey we call talent acquisition. If you're here live, you can jump into the chat and ask whatever you like of our guest. And if we've got the time, we'll try to get the question on the call if we miss you, we'll put the question in our open public forum found at CXR.works/talenttalks. Now as a reminder, anyone can attend the live sessions, or can subscribe to our full video in podcast series anywhere you listen to podcast by joining, or excuse me, by pointing your vehicle at CXR.works/podcast. Now, as a point of clarity, each of these segments and the guests are chosen around feedback received on our 2021 priority survey that you'll find in the reports and research section of CXR.works. If you haven't added your own thoughts to this open survey with the hundreds of other talent leaders that have already chimed in, today is the day! We're going to publish the results and a bit of insights by the end of this week. So with all of that, let's jump in. Because as we know, the world is just starting to open up again after the COVID pandemic has wreaked havoc on nearly every part of our lives, both personal and professional. And from a talent and working perspective. A lot of organizations are struggling to find or even know what to expect of the new normal. So with us to talk about the talent supply and demand perspective of that challenge is market expert Jay Denton who is the chief analyst at Thinkwhy. Jay, welcome. How are you this morning? Jay Denton, ThinkWhy 1:55Hello, Chris. I'm doing good. Glad to be on. And I hope everyone fills out that survey for you. Chris Hoyt, CXR 1:59Yeah. We'll get those results out pretty soon. So, Jay, before we get going, give us a little bit of background about yourself, who is Jay, and why should we give a heck or a hoot about what you think? Jay Denton, ThinkWhy 2:14I'll I'll do my best with that, Chris, for that ah, that question. I've been studying the labor market for almost a couple decades now. And in a variety of fashions. Previously, it was with real estate and trying to figure out, if someone wants to buy a piece of real estate, where's the demand going to be aware of jobs really going to be created? And now ThinkWhy what we're doing with our labor IQ product is helping, you know, with that where the jobs would be created, but then what should you actually pay those people? And so you know, I'm using that part of my background to help with the product that we have here. Chris Hoyt, CXR 2:45Nice. Well, look, we'll get right to it, leaders are starting to see those job growth numbers, right, we're starting to see rumbles and it can be a little scary when for almost the last year. Applications for many, and response rates are literally at an all time low for them. And many are scared. They're predicting a tidal wave of attrition. At the same time, and they don't know if they need more recruiters or if they should hold steady, should they fight for resources? Should they just be patient? Wait, what are your, what are your thoughts sort of in summary on supply and demand for labor? And how that sort of plays out from from the remainder of the year? Where should their heads be? Jay Denton, ThinkWhy 3:23You know, it's interesting, we think through this because we're projecting 73 million hires for this year.

Homily focusing on Jn 10:11-18, 11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, 15as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them....

Show Summary: “Women have such delicate hormones. They experience shifts at different times that make them feel that their body is at war against them.”Women are natural nurturers. They are great at multitasking, particularly in taking care of their children, working, and doing household chores. But as they age, they experience different issues in their bodies, such as weight gain, loss of libido, and loss of energy.These issues cause mood changes, difficulty to stay in shape, and usually have crazy cravings. And it doesn't only happen with moms, even in single and younger women, which is quite alarming, especially for the younger generation.In this episode, Juanique and Gina discuss the other possible reasons why you don't feel like yourself because of these shifts in your body, their personal experiences and how you can prevent it from happening. Listen as they talk about the program they created for you to heal yourself using the tools they have in the roadmap.Important LinksBe a part of The Gutsy Health Membership nowExceptional Highlight:There can be a time and a place for cardio, but from a hormone balance perspective, keeping it short and doing things like Yoga, Pilates, strength training might be a lot better.If your hormones are all over the place, you should take an honest look at your stress. If you're stressed, that's going to take priority, and all your other hormones will drop.Sleeping resets everything; it brings inflammation down..Show Highlights: Why do we gain weight and lose our libido as we age?Gina 2:14I think for me, it was a combination of trying to heal my body from birth control, being under so much stress. I remember waking up in the morning, and I don't even feel like myself anymore. I don't feel positive anymore. And I was using caffeine and coffee to get me into a good mood.How our hormones and organs work togetherGina 11:05The main ones that I'm thinking about are your sex hormones. You have your estrogen or progesterone, your testosterone. These hormones are like a symphony. Your estrogen, that's what's going to drive you for reproduction, that's what's going to support you to have sex & have a baby; that very juicy hormone there. Your testosterone is more like your metabolism.What happens to your cortisol level when you're not sleeping?Juanique 27:22When you're not sleeping well, you will have a higher cortisol level in the morning.Gina  27:45There's a research study where they deprived mice of sleep, and I can't remember how long it took. But after a certain amount of time, they all get diabetes.What’s inside the Gutsy Health Membership?Juanique 46:17Gina and I have put together inside The Gutsy Health Membership these incredible units that deep dive into the dysfunctions, and we give you tools to help you become the expert in your own healing.Every month, each member is emailed a discount code to use on Provo health or Honestly Essential, so you get 10% off of everything all the time.Support the show (https://www.mygutsyhealth.com/gutsy-family)

Providence Vs. PrideEsther 5:1-14I. PRAYERFUL PREPARATIONII. POISED BY PROVIDENCEIII. PRIDEFUL PASSIONS

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? That is the question as we come to this psalm to look at the theme of Maundy Thursday. Psalm 116:12-1912How shall I repay the Lord  for all the good things God has done for me? 13I will lift the cup of salvation  and call on the name of the Lord.  14I will fulfill my vows to the Lord  in the presence of all God’s people. 15Precious in your sight, O Lord,  is the death of your servants. 16O Lord, truly I am your servant;  I am your servant, the child of your handmaid; you have freed me from my bonds. 17I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving  and call upon the name of the Lord. 18I will fulfill my vows to the Lord  in the presence of all God’s people, 19in the courts of the Lord‘s house,  in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal, Jesus gave us a new commandment, to love one another as he loves us. Write this commandment in our hearts, and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.Amen.

Welcome to the CXR channel, our premier podcast for talent acquisition and talent management. Listening as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging and retaining the best talent. We're glad you're here. Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:20Hello, everybody. Welcome to the CareerXroads podcast and our special segment that we like to call the expertise. I'm Chris Hoyt, president of CXR. And today, we're going to grab about 15 minutes with keynote speaker and noted author, Jason Lauritsen. Now, these segments are typically delivered in a quick and easy sort of format. We talk about any topic that actually fits within the scope of hundreds of the hundreds of ta leaders have actually told us we're a priority for them. So that means we could be talking about DE&I, we could be talking about people planning, technology, or like today life experiences. So if you're interested in weighing in on what you think, in 2021, for recruiting leaders, what they should focus on, you can take part in our new 2021 priorities benchmark, it's open to everybody and can be found@www.cxr.works. So if you're with us live today, you can fire up your keyboard and use the chat section, you can drop in a question for Jason, we'll do our best to get to them if we can before we run out of time. And if we don't have time, when you think of something later, you can always join us in our open, free exchanges on the website at cxr.works/talenttalk. So enough about me explaining what we're going to talk about, we can start talking about it. Jason, welcome to our humble show. Jason Lauritsen 1:28Thanks for having me. Chris Hoyt, CXR 1:31Glad to have you on Jason, for those who may not know you, because I feel like I've known you for at least a decade in the space. But for those who may not know, you give us a little bit of background like who is Jason? Jason Lauritsen 1:42Who is Jason? Jason is a native Midwesterner, husband, father to three. I am a crusader for all things, employee engagements, I kind of early in my life had an experience that I think woke me up to the reality that work sucks for a lot of people, and it doesn't have to. And so I committed my career to fixing that. And so that really, the way I do that is through writing and speaking and training and consulting. So that's that's me in a very fast nutshell. Chris Hoyt, CXR 2:13That's pretty good. That's the escalator pitch. I like that is. So let me ask you last time you and I were talking, the reason we thought it'd be really great to have you on the show. You were sharing a story we were talking about getting knocked down and getting back up and you know, trying to run a business and trying to do the right thing. And you had shared a story with me that I just really tickled me and I thought it would be fun to bring it on the show and have you share about how how you're okay with failure. And why what happened to set that up right? Jason Lauritsen 2:43You know what, I think that's good. I say to people all the time that one of my, you know, one of my cultivated strengths, I guess, throughout my lifetime, is that I am really good at failing fairly massively, and then extracting a lot of learnings from that to propel me forward. And so this is where it started, I guess my origin story. So, so yeah, the question and I know not many people have actually heard me tell this story. So this is coming out. I guess a little bit this will explain something probably to some people, but Chris Hoyt, CXR 3:14I'm so sorry that and I'm so sorry, because I heard it to laugh. I shouldn't laugh. I feel horrible already laughing. Jason Lauritsen 3:21Everybody has permission to laugh, right? It is a funny story in hindsight. So it was only it was only not funny to me, I think at the time. So you know, I set this up. So this goes back sixth grade. You teed it up perfectly earlier, part of the reason this story is so awesome. Right now,

In this episode, Lead Pastor, Rev. John M. Chong preaches on Revelation 13:11-18 // 2021.03.14I. His ImageII. His IntentionsIII. His ImpressionFellowship EChttp://www.fellowshipec.org | @fellowshipec

When You Don’t Get The Answer You Desire Or Expect, Remember God Knows The Larger Picture And Has Something Bigger Planned 2 Samuel 7:8 - 16 8“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 9I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. 10And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning 11and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders a over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “ ‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me b ; your throne will be established forever.’ ”

In this episode, Lead Pastor, Rev. John M. Chong preaches on Revelation 12:1-6 // 2021.02.14I. A Great Sign - A WomanII. Another Sign - A Great DragonIII. The SonFellowship EChttp://www.fellowshipec.org | @fellowshipec

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." - Psalm 139:14I'm getting ready to teach on this passage to a bunch of college girls and can I tell you why I am so excited? If there is one thing I know a lot about, it's that a lot of college girls struggle with body image. When I was in my early 20's and my late teens, I didn't feel like I was fearfully and wonderfully made. I felt like I was awful and ugly made. But listen to this.

ELITE : SIX Think Tank meetings are discussed over Zoom with our members every Friday at 9:30am.Facilitated by DANNY : DE HEK meetings are recorded for our Podcast, we’ve been doing this since COVID-19 if you’re interested in joining in with us check out our Website.Danny de Hek 0:00Welcome to elite six business networking Think Tank, facilitated by your host, Danny de Hek . The place where decision makers come together to share their experience, knowledge and skill1st meeting for 2021. And we do have a theme today. And it’s checklist for 2021. And we call it last year I think Warren a fitness. So I don’t know if any of us have got our WOF, in business ever. It’s not we’re allowed to start a business, you don’t need to get a certificate to start your own business, like children really, isn’t it? Yeah, you can just have children and be responsible parents.David Clarkson 0:44On some of them in some of the professions you have once of fitness, like the accountants and what have you, and they get checked from time to time and they’ve got they’ve got to pass the audit if they want to maintain the run. So, you know, and I believe some of the lawyers and architects do the same thing. SoHelen Oakes 1:08I suppose it isn’t done for more industries. Really, when you think about it? Yeah, yeah.David Clarkson 1:13Well, I don’t for buildings, let’s face it.Danny de Hek 1:17I like it, you can just about be as long as you’ve got a What do you call that thing? Public liability. You’re calling yourself an IT professional and supposed to be depends what you’re working on really small stuff isn’t really that big a deal. Right, listen to yourselves. I’ll start my name is Danny. And I’m, what am I? What am I What am I don’t know what I am, I’m actually starting to do a lot of online workshops and courses. And I’ve just managed to buy some software to do that. So I’m really looking forward to getting that going. And I’m going to probably start recording my first LinkedIn course this afternoon. And I’m looking forward to that. So that’s going to be a course I’ve actually ran face to face a couple of times, and I’ve also run it online over zoom. We’re real people. So now I’m gonna chop that up and make a call. So that’s what are my new ventures for 2021. And, Helen, what do you do?Helen Oakes 2:14I’m Helen, I am a photographer and digital artist. I consider myself an entrepreneur. I’m making a new business, a new store for my digital art. And I’ve started podcasting but I need to keep going because I’ve only done a few. And what was the other thing? blogging? Bit of a blogger, but need to keep doing that.Danny de Hek 2:42And you’ve started a new project this year. Um, new project?See Full TXT Script at https://www.dehek.com/general/podcast/think-tank-topic-checklist-for-2021-wof/P.S. If you like this podcast please click “like” or provide comment, as that will motivate me to publish more. Would you like the opportunity to be featured on the WHAT : DE HEK Podcast? You are welcome to INVITE YOURSELF to be a guest.

THE WEEK OF EPIPHANY II - MONDAYLESSON: COLOSSIANS 1:9-14I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exalt in my God. Isaiah 61:10In this Gospel (John 2:1-11) Christ makes it quite clear that He finds no fault with providing expenses for a wedding and all that is needed for a wedding, adornment and merry-making, eating and drinking, as the usage and custom of the land require.It is true that this seems to be excess and wasted expenditure and a worldly matter. Suitable moderation must be observed here, without completely destroying the wedding celebrations. The bride and bridegroom must be suitably adorned, and the guests must eat and drink and be joyful. Provisions may be supplied and usual procedures followed with a good conscience.Scripture often refers to these matters with approval. Mention is made in the Gospels of the bride's adornment, the marriage garment, the guests, and the good fare at the wedding. Even the Old Testament sets forth examples with approval. Abraham's servant gave Rebekah, Isaac's bride, jewelry of silver and of gold as well as raiment (Genesis 24:53).We should never pay too much attention to the hypocrites and self-made saints with their sour looks who are pleased with nothing except what they themselves teach, and will not even suffer a bride to wear a garland or any other adornment.SL.XI.466,7AE 76, 240PRAYER: O Lord, we thank and praise you for all the joys and pleasures which you have given us to make us happy here on earth. We pray for your grace to enable us to enjoy these things, following the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Show Summary: Do you cancel appointments with your dietitian because you feel like you're not consistently following the meal plans prepared for you?Do you feel a bit pressured to visit the clinic because of struggles that prevent you from achieving your health goals?You are not alone. Many people feel this way when they realize that it's a challenge to keep up with their dietitian's recommendations. That typically happens because of multiple triggers, such as the emotions, body chemistry, and stress that cause cravings. Addressing those gradually increases the chance of your wellness through the help of your health coach.In this episode with Gina Worful, a registered dietitian and master of human nutrition, you will learn how to determine:What causes your triggersHow to know what your body needsHow your physiology worksListen as she breaks down the reason behind your cravings and get tips on how you can understand your body better.Important LinksGutsy Health WebsiteProvo Health InstagramGina Worful InstagramGina is offering $30 off any of her masterclasses at https://gutsy.ch/gina. This is on top of the holiday discount she's already running! Just use the code GUTSY at checkout to have the extra discount applied.3 Exceptional Highlights:When we get a craving, it's actually just your body telling you, “Hey, there's something that I really need”.Whenever your body gets this signal that there's a little bit of stress or a warning, it actually activates a different part of your brain that's called your amygdala. It's one and only job is to keep you safe if there's a threat.When we don't sleep, we don't heal properly. And when we're not sleeping properly, cortisol goes through the roof, blood sugar goes up.Show Highlights: How Gina became a dietitian??Gina 4:14I became a dietitian in 2012. When I went to I studied at Eastern Michigan University, they have an amazing dietetics program there. And I thought, the more knowledge I have, the better I can help people..Why are patients scared of follow-ups?Juanique 7:20Whenever I consult with people, people have this shame around food, and I have to remind them, this is a safe space, I am not going to judge you here.Where do mostly cravings come from?Juanique 24:40A lot of times cravings do come from nutritional deficiencies. What is the process revolutionary for Tristin?Tristin 38:02 In my mind, it feels very revolutionary because you're not really talking about nutrition, you're talking about deeply embedded psychological processes, you're talking about working through trauma. Support the show (https://www.mygutsyhealth.com/gutsy-family)

INSTAGRAM: @youth_bioyPSALM READING: Psalm 141:1–10NEW TESTAMENT READING: Revelation 3:7–22OLD TESTAMENT READING: Esther 2:19–5:14I never enjoy being rebuked by someone else, but over time I have come to see the faithful rebuke of a friend as something of great value. The Scriptures tell us that the right kind of rebuke is an important way in which God cares for us, and in which we can care for each other.

ADVENT WEEK TWODecember 8, 2020Wait to WaitPsalm 27When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall. … I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:2, 13-14I remember how the chapel smelled: of must and fabric softener, typical of a basement in an old house, but also the sweet beeswax smell of a lit votive candle. It sat burning next to the small box (called a tabernacle in Roman Catholic parlance) to indicate that some consecrated wafers were contained therein. The body of Christ. This was the small subterranean chapel of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington, D.C., where I once lived. We would gather there for morning prayer, and longtime community member Art Laffin loved to lead us in a sung call-and-response version of this Psalm.And then we would go on about our business of distributing food and clothing to low-income neighbors and medium-term shelter to families… and protesting the violence inflicted on God’s image-bearers for the sake of the military might and prosperity of the United States.I could have, and did, pray that Psalm through while believing every word of it. I was also young, privileged, and idealistic, with plenty of resources to fall back on if and when my experiment with radical Christian living didn’t pan out. Sometimes we got shouted at during our protests, which was terribly exciting. Sometimes friends got arrested on purpose. But today, 20 years later, the category of “adversaries and foes” seems at once broader and more concrete. The arrests are not protest theatre; our adversaries do much more than just shout at us. Begging the Psalmist’s pardon, I don’t see them doing a lot of stumbling and falling. Frankly, I’m not sure that I do believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait? Be strong? Seriously?God who loves the bold and the discouraged, when we find we cannot even wait for you, help us to wait for a time when we can wait for you. Make good on your promises. Show us your goodness. Amen.Dr. Sarah Morice-BrubakerAssociate Professor of Theology See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Acts 16:25-40 – Mercy Received, Mercy GivenDecember 6, 2020Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)Right Attitude about Yourself9Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. (1 Timothy 1:15)Right Actions towards Others23“For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. 24And when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25But since he did not have the means to repay, his master commanded that he be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment be made. 26So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27And the master of that slave felt compassion, and he released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe!’ 29So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30But he was unwilling, and went and threw him in prison until he would pay back what was owed. 31So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their master all that had happened. 32Then summoning him, his master *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34And his master, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he would repay all that was owed him. 35My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:23-35)Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:16)

Announcer 0:01Welcome to CareerXroads Uncorked a series of member chats inspired by good drinks and current talent acquisition trends your hosts Chris Hoyt and Gerry Crispin breakdown today's recruiting headlines while reviewing a selected beverage of choice with industry leaders and influencers join us for a drink and conversation. Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 0:22Social media as such, Facebook says we just want to remind me to remind you of things that you were doing this time last year and it's like yeah, wonderful in the in the COVID era you're sending me pictures of when we were out and Sonoma Chris Hoyt 0:35Thanks for rubbing it in that I'm not out at the vineyards thanks for rubbing it in that I'm not in London or Paris or Japan. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 0:44Yeah, and to add insult to injury This is my wife and I was five year wedding anniversary, which also got got bashed a bit by by COVID Gerry Crispin 0:53Bummer Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 0:54We're on the right run a rain rain check. Chris Hoyt 0:57Oh man, Gerry Crispin 0:57Sorry I am a little bit late. I just thought I would join you by telling you I've got Walt Chris Hoyt 1:04Awesome awesome. I couldn't get Walt Gerry Crispin 1:08And you got right could not get Rex. Is that gonna Walt too? Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 1:13Yeah, no, I got you. Yeah, I got Walt, I got Walt Chris Hoyt 1:16I do not I am the outlier today. I could have ironically I am near Sonoma could not get Walt. But I have abear Gary Farrell which is a Sonoma County. Pino 2017. Well ranked. So now I'm pouring it. We waited for you. Gerry doesn't even wait look at him Gerry Crispin 1:36I, I was on talent net. And I had to manage a conversation about I don't know some bullshit. And but it was good. It was a good conversation. And then I said, You know, I gotta leave. And I had already opened the bottle. Chris Hoyt 1:52Well, let me can I want to call this out before we did a little toast. Oh, so hold your glass up. Look at your glass. These are called COVID pours? Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 2:01Yes. Chris Hoyt 2:04We never poured wine this heavy when we were before COVID. Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 2:08Some of us may have? Gerry Crispin 2:10Yeah, well, maybe. Maybe. Chris Hoyt 2:13I'm very concerned Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 2:14I do think that it's grown. Chris Hoyt 2:16Yeah, sure. We get back to the bars. And some we're gonna order a drink and it's gonna come out. It's gonna be a tiny little what we're used to. It's gonna be like, we'll have to order triples in order to get.. Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 2:25No it'll probably be quadruples because they'll be they'll be trying to make make up for lost time. So therefore, it will be smaller than they would have been. Chris Hoyt 2:33All I 'm sayin is save me a trip. I'm just filling up and save me a trip. Well, Cheers, guys. Cheers. Gerry Crispin 2:39Cheers to you. How are you Walt? Well, I mean, not Walt Chris Hoyt 2:45Like a bottle. Gerry. Admit it. Gerry Crispin 2:46I know. I know. Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 2:47Yeah. Gerry Crispin 2:49How's Elanco doing? Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 2:50We're doing we're doing well. We're doing we're doing busy, which is normal for us. We've had a busy busy busy several years. But but we're doing well. Gerry Crispin 3:00Who do we see? Who do we see earlier this week for briefly? Oh, Shannon and I had a meet a we obviously we do two or three meetings a week. At least. We have one on critical. And Tom referenced you? Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 3:16Yep. my campus is there. Gerry Crispin 3:17And we had a nice conversation about universal relations and some of the issues that we see our members doing in 2021. And I think he was appreciative of it. So is it was useful? Curtis Dorsey, Elanco 3:31Yeah. Yeah. Now we are we are we are definitely, you know, having come off of an IPO then lots of work day, then, you know, major acquisition, you know,

BUY THE GO CREATOR GO BOOK & JOURNAL:www.antoinebeane.comhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GV2DK1Vhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GVJ6MP5FOLLOW GO CREATOR GO & TRIUMPH MEDIAWORKS:Facebook & IG: @gogreatorgo & @triumphmediaworksTwitter: @gcreatorgwww.triumphmediaworks.com___________________________________SCRIPTURES CONCERNING IDENTIGenesis 1:27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.Jeremiah 1:5Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.Jeremiah 29:11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.1 Corinthians 1:30And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.1 Corinthians 12:27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.1 Corinthians 6:17But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.1 John 3:1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.1 Samuel 12:22For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.1 Samuel 16:7But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.Colossians 2:10And you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.Colossians 3:12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.Ephesians 1:1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.Ephesians 1:11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.Ephesians 1:13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.Ephesians 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.Ephesians 1:4Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love.Ephesians 1:5He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.Ephesians 1:7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.Ephesians 2:10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.Ephesians 2:13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.Ephesians 2:19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.Ephesians 2:6And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.Ephesians 2:8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.Ephesians 4:24And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.Ephesians 5:8For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.Galatians 3:28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.Genesis 2:7Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.Isaiah 43:1But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”Isaiah 49:16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.Isaiah 64:8But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.John 1:12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.John 15:15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.John 15:16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.John 15:5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.Matthew 5:48You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.Matthew 6:26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?Philippians 3:20But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,Philippians 4:19And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.Psalm 100:3Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.Psalm 139:14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.Romans 5:1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.Romans 6:6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.Romans 8:15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”Romans 8:17And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Announcer 0:00Welcome to the CXR channel, our premier podcast for talent acquisition and talent management. Listen in as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging and retaining the best talent. We're glad you're here. Chris Hoyt, CXR 0:16Hi, everybody, Chris Hoyt here from career crossroads, I am bringing you into the fold on a new podcast videocast series that we've been delivering for, I guess just about two months now. Now, I get to take on the lucky task of sitting down with an industry leader and a practitioner and ask them to share just one thing. One thing that they've learned on their professional journey felt as a leader or that they do in their everyday delivery that really makes them successful. Now, these talks are really no more than about 10 or 15 minutes. And as such, we call them an eXpert Tease. Now you can listen in live and participate with questions and chat, or you can find them on our website at CXR dot works or CareerXroads podcasts or on the youtube.com/careerxroads channel, I'm going to tell you if you're watching live, you realize there's never been a better time to dial in because I apparently look like a pumpkin with the lighting and a remote situation today. So that's a good excuse to push you out. push you out to the YouTube channel and check that out. So if you are with us live, you've got the opportunity to drop a question in the session chat. And if we've time, we'll try to address them during that segment. If we run out of time or there are follow up questions, we'll take that conversation over to the open and public exchange that is hosted by csr. And that's at CXR.work/talenttalks now, the topic today is one that I have been looking forward to for quite a while it touches on a subject of DNI that I think oftentimes gets overlooked that actually sits within an area of talent acquisition that's so often gets ignored or avoided when we're talking about job descriptions and being conscious of how important gender neutral pronouns can be when creating a successful description, as our guest today recommends job stories, not description. So let's jump in today. My guest is Kay Kelison and she is the principal researcher at Zillow. Okay, welcome to the show. Kay Kelison, Zillow 2:05Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here, Chris. I appreciate it. Chris Hoyt, CXR 2:10I'm really, really happy to have you. Kay Kelison, Zillow 2:12Great. Chris Hoyt, CXR 2:14I enjoy your work. But when you when you talk about gender neutral pronouns, in job stories, what are you really talking about? Why is this so important? Kay Kelison, Zillow 2:24Well, I think it's important because if we choose certain terms, we eliminate others, we need to think about who to include. And that goes with females, transgender disability folks and stuff like that. And so I look at the job story about how we engage with them, and how we make them feel welcome. And and thought of, you know, in when we're seeking talent, and I think it begins with the job story, or did job descriptions, and how we engage with them by using language that they can relate to? Chris Hoyt, CXR 3:09And what is what's something like that look like? Kay, like, what would be sort of a before and after example, for those who this might be kind of a new, new topic for them? Kay Kelison, Zillow 3:17Well, I think, I think sometimes it starts with the title. Like I've seen some titles that have chair, Chairman, when we should be saying chairperson, you know, when we say he or her, we should be also thinking about them. And they, you know, it's inclusive. Some people don't identifies she and her, or he and him. They identify themselves of them and they. Sometimes it's also as simple as elitist. And affinity bias. You know, I know some of us when we're in tech, we talk about, like, how people associate their jobs, or they're looking for talent. and hire manager might say, start talking about,

Renewal – Life Lessons From Nehemiah, #8 Continuing – Neh. 13 By Louie Marsh, 11-1-2020   “6While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king 7and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 9Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.” (Nehemiah 13:6–9, ESV)   NEHEMIAH DIDN’T QUIT!   Three Ways To Last In Ministry:   1) SELECT who I’m really serving.   “2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2, ESV)   Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. Hebrews 12:2 (MSG)   LIVE FOR AN AUDIENCE OF ONE - JESUS   Not Jesus AND…   2) SETTLE my past.   “12Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind….(Philippians 3:12–13a, ESV)   One Thing – Then he says two!!   "Forgetting" is stronger in the Greek, "completely forgetting." Paul uses an illustration here of a Greek runner completely forgetting his opponents whom he is leading in the race. Just as a runner's speed is slackened should he think of those behind him, and the thud, thud of their pounding feet, so the Christian's onward progress is hindered should he dwell on the past full of failures and sins, full of heartaches and discouragements, full of disappointments and thwarted hopes and plans. As long as a Christian has made things right with God and man, he should completely forget the past.. Wuest's Word Studies .   How Can I Forget?   MEDITATE on Christ’s work on the cross.   “13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13–14, ESV)   ACCEPT His Forgiveness and let go of my past.   “43To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”” (Acts 10:43, ESV)     3) SET my eyes on the right prize!   “13… and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b–14, ESV)   “11being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;” (Colossians 1:11, ESV)   We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, Colossians 1:11 (MSG)  

13Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.c 22The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.d

In this episode, friend of the show Claudia Brdar explains how to make your chosen interior design style for your homeThis episode is part of a very special DIY renovation series.⠀Claudia from @therenovateavenue and Founder of the DIY Renovation Academy will join us once a month on the show to take you through EVERYTHING you need to know to DIY your reno.⠀⠀This is like a little sneak peek into her super popular DIY Renovation Academy course.⠀⠀This series is exclusively for Dream Home Movement listeners.Listen to Claudia's episode on How to choose a design style for your homeHow to contact Jo and Carl from Violeta Financeinfo@violetafinance.com.au03 9775 0532www.violetafinance.com.auFollow Claudia and The Renovate AvenueFacebookInstagramWebsiteFollow the Dream Home MovementFacebookInstagramWebFollow Carl and Jo VioletaFacebookInstagramWebGuest bioClaudia and her husband Pete have renovated small properties right through to large scale projects. Several years ago they bought a run-down 1960's weatherboard house (purchased for $460K) and ended up completing a major renovation ($75K), creating a beautiful sought after home ... on a tight budget! They set the suburb record for a property price of $1.035 million (2017)!They're currently renovating a 1960's brick house to sell.Both Pete and Claudia have a real hands-on DIY approach when it comes to renovating, focusing on achieving that ‘WOW’ factor ... thinking bigger, outside-the-box, and never afraid to take a risk.Claudia created The Renovate Avenue to share her knowledge, and inspire others to climb the property market via the renovation avenue, building a financially stable future to retire earlier (and do what you love).Transcript*This transcript is automated, so may not be 100% accurate*How to make your interior styling work - easy, practical tips with Claudia Brdar00:00:00 - 00:00:04I've got a confession to make. I'm not very good at interior styling. I don't00:00:04 - 00:00:10know how to make things look good around my home. I know what I like, but00:00:10 - 00:00:15I don't know how to make it work. I don't know how to translate my vision00:00:15 - 00:00:20what's in my mind into reality. And I know that might come as a bit of a00:00:20 - 00:00:25surprise or might seem a little bit weird, considering I host a podcast about00:00:25 - 00:00:29home improvement and renovation. You would think that I had some interior00:00:29 - 00:00:36styling skills, but sadly, I don't I guess that's kind of why I host this podcast,00:00:36 - 00:00:42because I can tap into experts who do have the skills. And so, for this episode00:00:42 - 00:00:47, Claudia Brdar from The Renovate Avenue is coming onto the show to take us00:00:47 - 00:00:54through how to make our design style work. Welcome to the Dream Home00:00:54 - 00:00:59movement. This is your weekly dose of home and property inspiration.00:00:59 - 00:01:04Bringing you clever tips and advice from the very best experts and real life00:01:04 - 00:01:12reno stories with your host, Jo Violeta. Hey, thank you so much for tuning00:01:12 - 00:01:16into this episode of the Dream Home Movement. I think you're going to love00:01:16 - 00:01:22this one. Lots of really practical tips from my dear friend Claudia, who is the00:01:22 - 00:01:28founder of The Renovate Avenue and the D.I.Y Renovation Academy. So00:01:28 - 00:01:32you might want to grab a paper piece of paper and a pen and take notes. But if00:01:32 - 00:01:37you're not able to, that's okay, because I’ve transcribed the episode so you'll be00:01:37 - 00:01:42able to see transcription and I will pop all the relevant information in the show00:01:42 - 00:01:47notes as well. So I've got you. Don't worry. And oh, hey, if we haven't met00:01:47 - 00:01:52before, my name's Jo Violeta, Thank you so much for listening to the show. I00:01:52 - 00:01:57Co-own an award winning finance business called Violeta Finance with my00:01:57 - 00:02:02husband, Carl. He is a mortgage broker. So if you need a hand financing your00:02:02 - 00:02:07home renovations, organising a home loan, refinancing your mortgage, maybe00:02:07 - 00:02:10you need to organise a loan for your next investment property or your first00:02:10 - 00:02:15investment property ‘exciting’ we would love to help you our contact details00:02:15 - 00:02:21will also be in the show notes, and if you're a regular listen of the listener to00:02:21 - 00:02:25the show, then you might be familiar with Claudia because Claudia is actually00:02:25 - 00:02:31delivering an exclusive little miniseries for Dream Home Movement listeners.00:02:31 - 00:02:38And it's based on her course Thie Renovation Academy. So last season she00:02:38 - 00:02:43took us through planning a home renovation. And then this season she's taking00:02:43 - 00:02:49us through actually planning your styling and doing the styling for the home so00:02:49 - 00:02:53last time she was on, she comes on about once a month to deliver these little00:02:53 - 00:02:58sort of like many lessons I suppose last month we spoke about choosing your00:02:58 - 00:03:02design style so it could be a Hamptons or industrial or contemporary,00:03:02 - 00:03:07she explained what those design styles are. And then she took us through. How do00:03:07 - 00:03:11we figure out what design style we're going to use for our home Oh my gosh, I00:03:11 - 00:03:14love that episode so much. If you haven't listened to it yet, you might want to00:03:14 - 00:03:19scroll back and listen to it. And then in this episode, Claudia is taking us00:03:19 - 00:03:24through how to actually make that design style work. So how to practically00:03:24 - 00:03:30bring it together? And can I tell you I needed this episode so so badly? And00:03:30 - 00:03:35I'm feeling far more confident now that I will be able to style, our next00:03:35 - 00:03:38property, which hopefully we're purchasing soon. All right, let's get stuck00:03:38 - 00:03:45into my chat with Claudia. Hey, Claudia. Welcome to the show. So lovely to00:03:45 - 00:03:48have you back again. Thank you so much for having me. I have a lot of fun00:03:48 - 00:03:55when I'm here with its great and I learned so much. So last time we were00:03:55 - 00:04:00together. Well, I just hit my microphone stand. That made a weird sound.00:04:00 - 00:04:05Anyway, last time we were together, we spoke about how to choose a design00:04:05 - 00:04:10style for your home. We spoke about Hampton style and contemporary and00:04:10 - 00:04:16modern and all of that sort of thing. But what I'm wondering now is, once00:04:16 - 00:04:21you've chosen the design style for your home, how do you actually put it all00:04:21 - 00:04:27together? Because for a home styling novice like myself, it can It can all feel00:04:27 - 00:04:32a bit overwhelming. Yeah, Yeah, for sure. Can be. Definitely can be. And I00:04:32 - 00:04:38have a lot of questions about all the time, So I get it. Well, I've got some tips00:04:38 - 00:04:42to share with you, Jo, and everyone that's listening. I wanted to start00:04:42 - 00:04:47talking about the seven elements of interior design. These are really important00:04:47 - 00:04:56because it includes space, line, form, light colour, texture and pattern. Now00:04:56 - 00:05:03just think about all these seven, and the key is to keep them balanced in a00:05:03 - 00:05:08really pleasing interior. So that is the key in a lot of different things as well.00:05:08 - 00:05:15Balance is very important, so I just want to say it again. It's space line forms00:05:15 - 00:05:21Light colour texture and pattern. Getting these balanced in your00:05:21 - 00:05:26environment is important, and if you want to write them down, having having00:05:26 - 00:05:31each of these in your space will make it a very pleasing and aesthetically00:05:31 - 00:05:36pleasing interior. That's what you want your place to really start and have a00:05:36 - 00:05:40think about those things. Incorporating those things into your space is00:05:40 - 00:05:45Important. Now for listeners, if you are driving right now or you're running on00:05:45 - 00:05:50the treadmill or something, like walking your dog or whatever, I will have the00:05:50 - 00:05:56list of those seven elements in the show notes if you can't jot it down. That's00:05:56 - 00:06:01fine. Claudia and I have got you covered, So can you tell us a little bit more00:06:01 - 00:06:09about each of those elements? Yeah,00:06:09 - 00:06:14I'll go through. If you also want to mention when I say colours and textures00:06:14 - 00:06:18and pattern. If you're unsure those three their colour, texture and pattern if00:06:18 - 00:06:22you're unsure of where to start with those because it can be quite00:06:22 - 00:06:27overwhelming. My number one tip stick to three colours, three colours or00:06:27 - 00:06:32shades. Don't go more. If you're really overwhelmed with it pick three00:06:32 - 00:06:36colours or three shades. If you've got a good idea of what your colour scheme00:06:36 - 00:06:42is, and if you're not sure, then grab some paint samples or go online and00:06:42 - 00:06:48have a look at what colours work together. So, that's a really handy tip is00:06:48 - 00:06:56stick to 3 colours or shades to start with. Light is really a00:06:56 - 00:07:05important in any space. Natural light is always beautiful feeling in any space,00:07:05 - 00:07:10so natural light. If you don't have enough natural light, then get it happening.00:07:10 - 00:07:17Get a skylight or, you know the windows light is very important aspect and00:07:17 - 00:07:24also lighting artificial lighting. Really think about where the lighting is being00:07:24 - 00:07:30placed and get rid of dark corners and things like that. So there's, um, really00:07:30 - 00:07:35quick sort of tips to really think about it. Incorporate into your home. Texture00:07:35 - 00:07:40is really important as well. To add to your home. You don't want just a blanket00:07:40 - 00:07:44of the same fabric, the same material in your home. You want to add texture00:07:44 - 00:07:48on texture. It's so important and really pleasing to have. And when I say00:07:48 - 00:07:54texture, I mean texture in your furniture pieces in your fabrics, in your decor00:07:54 - 00:08:00accessories in your window furnishings. Adding texture is important00:08:00 - 00:08:03because if you've got everything in a blanket of the same fabric texture of00:08:03 - 00:08:09material, then it starts looking very bland right. Okay, so you could have00:08:09 - 00:08:13that very basic colour palette, which is just three colours. Which sounds great00:08:13 - 00:08:18to me because that sounds just nice and simple. But mixing it up00:08:18 - 00:08:25and adding some depth and interest through texture. OK, I like that.00:08:25 - 00:08:31Another key thing to think about in your space choose a hero piece in each00:08:31 - 00:08:39room. So what I mean by Hero piece is a big, beautiful piece of art or a chest00:08:39 - 00:08:47of drawers, or a fabulous rug in your space. So00:08:47 - 00:08:52really think about what your key pieces in each room and then with that piece00:08:52 - 00:08:55Then you throw until complimenting colours as well that have hints that have00:08:55 - 00:09:02hints of colouring your major piece. So if you've got a big piece of art that's00:09:02 - 00:09:06got some blues through it, incorporate some complimentary blues as well into00:09:06 - 00:09:10the space. So it really works and flows together well, so that's that's another00:09:10 - 00:09:16key tip to think about in getting or interior style, right. How does that sound?00:09:16 - 00:09:22Oh, that sounds great. I love that. It's almost like an anchor for the room00:09:22 - 00:09:29. That's really clever Yes, yes, and anchor your room with a beautiful big rug.00:09:29 - 00:09:35Rugs have a great way of doing that. And rugs are a beautiful, a beautiful way00:09:35 - 00:09:40to add colour and texture and soften the room up as well. So the beautiful rug00:09:40 - 00:09:46really anchor's your room? Well, would there be any styles that are rug00:09:46 - 00:09:49wouldn't work with, Like you know how we were talking about the design00:09:49 - 00:09:55styles, for example, industrial. Can you still have rugs? You can for00:09:55 - 00:10:01sure. Yes, I probably wouldn't put a big plush rug in industrial style, but yeah00:10:01 - 00:10:05, definitely. I think rugs can work in any space, just getting the right texture00:10:05 - 00:10:12and colour. Right? Great. Another tip Jo is a mirrors, mirrors and magical00:10:12 - 00:10:16in a room they really are. They add light and depth in a room and can visually00:10:16 - 00:10:21make a space look better so they could bring white in a room. They00:10:21 - 00:10:25look beautiful, so they could really open up a space too. So have a think about00:10:25 - 00:10:31a mirror and have a think about a big one. I’m all about a00:10:31 - 00:10:36big mirror. You've seen my giant mirror in my old house in Seaford, which we00:10:36 - 00:10:40just left there because we couldn't get it off the wall. So our tenants are00:10:40 - 00:10:48enjoying that mirror. The next thing I want to share as00:10:48 - 00:10:54well Jo is for decorating the rule of three, which is a rule in decorating terms00:10:54 - 00:10:59. It means objects look better in a group of three. So there's this way to follow00:10:59 - 00:11:06the rule of threes to display a matching set of decor so it could be three pieces00:11:06 - 00:11:13Or three frames. It could be three vases also placement different sizes00:11:13 - 00:11:19next to each other. So try not to, have things. the same height as well00:11:19 - 00:11:25. Add two different heights and also so get creating odd numbered00:11:25 - 00:11:33arrangements like 1,3,5. So that's another little decorating. Tips00:11:33 - 00:11:39for you have the rule of three and add interest so add depth by adding00:11:39 - 00:11:45different textures to your items and pieces. Textures really, really00:11:45 - 00:11:51adds interest and also different heights and the rule of three. Next00:11:51 - 00:12:01thing I wanted to also mention is 60 30 10 interior design secret and which00:12:01 - 00:12:08I'm sharing with you all So 60 30 10. It's a timeless decorating rule that can00:12:08 - 00:12:13help you put a colour scheme together really easily. If00:12:13 - 00:12:16you're overwhelmed with colours, you're not sure what to stick to. Stick to00:12:16 - 00:12:22three colours or shades. This tip will help you with this. Also, because the00:12:22 - 00:12:3060 30 10 is a 60% plus the 30% plus the 10% proportion is meant to give you00:12:30 - 00:12:37balance to the colours used in any space. So 60 will be the walls00:12:37 - 00:12:43So that's the majority of the colour. 30% will probably be in your00:12:43 - 00:12:49furniture pieces. in room your armchair,00:12:49 - 00:12:56your coffee table that's your 30. And then your 10% ease your let's say, for00:12:56 - 00:13:01example, your 10% is your cushions, your throws. That's your accent colours00:13:01 - 00:13:07that you're throwing into match the rest of the space. So 60 30 10 is a really00:13:07 - 00:13:13good thing to consider when you're putting a space together. So 60 your00:13:13 - 00:13:20walls, then 30% furniture pieces and 10% is your decor00:13:20 - 00:13:27accessories, for example. So keeping all that balance and also sticking to00:13:27 - 00:13:32three colours or shades to really simplify it for you guys is a good way to start.00:13:32 - 00:13:41Okay, so So then what way would have the walls in one colour for example, And00:13:41 - 00:13:46then you don't have your decor and the accent same colour as the walls. For00:13:46 - 00:13:53example, you just write that 10%. That's like your accent colours. Yes, yes,00:13:53 - 00:14:00that's a good way of putting it s o that will help you understand of how a space00:14:00 - 00:14:04comes to get and how it can slow and look aesthetically pleasing as well.00:14:04 - 00:14:10That's another tip. Okay, good. o amongst all that'll amongst all picking a00:14:10 - 00:14:15colour, speaking the shades getting your style, right? Don't forget00:14:15 - 00:14:18about functionality because you don't want to pick pieces, and I'm going to be00:14:18 - 00:14:23functional. You don't want to pick a two seater when you’ve got a family of00:14:23 - 00:14:28five. So really consider what pieces air going to work in your space, because00:14:28 - 00:14:35if it's not functional than it may not be right. So functionality is really00:14:35 - 00:14:41important. Yeah, about everything. Don't forget when you're picking00:14:41 - 00:14:46Stylish and cool items. If it's not functional, maybe don't get it. So, like the00:14:46 - 00:14:54couch needs to be comfy. Yes, yes, we've got a big family yet Don't get a tiny00:14:54 - 00:14:58little so far with a huge living room as well. So I really think about what's00:14:58 - 00:15:05going to work. Yes, got it Gotta say, though. Claudia and I did a bit of a00:15:05 - 00:15:09shopping trip to Chadstone last year to remember that shopping trip, and we00:15:09 - 00:15:16went to Coco Republic, not sponsored by them or anything way. Their chairs00:15:16 - 00:15:21there are so gorgeous and they're so gorgeous that they look like they would be00:15:21 - 00:15:26ridiculously uncomfortable. And then you sit in them and I don't know what00:15:26 - 00:15:32what they've done. But those chairs are magically comfortable, aren't they?00:15:32 - 00:15:37Goodness, yes. And that furniture is amazing. And it takes three, I think00:15:37 - 00:15:41three. Sometimes six months for these pieces to come delivered to you. So00:15:41 - 00:15:48they're made for you. Well, they are absolutely amazing. Coca Republic. You00:15:48 - 00:15:51haven't been a cheque it out, guys. There's got beautiful pieces. And there00:15:51 - 00:15:56was a mirror there. George. Remember the mirror? Yes. And it was almost00:15:56 - 00:16:01like three days, So he'd say, like 100 of you standing in the back of the mirror00:16:01 - 00:16:06. That makes sense. I remember that. I went, I went Teo. I went to Coco00:16:06 - 00:16:10Republic a couple of weeks ago just to show car. I can't remember the00:16:10 - 00:16:14designer's name, but there's a specific designer has created a ll these amazing00:16:14 - 00:16:18pieces of cocoa a republic. And you know he's got the little show. They've got00:16:18 - 00:16:23like the back, like his little showroom, virtually just to show him that mirror00:16:23 - 00:16:31and designers work is amazing. We're digressing, though, but comfort is and00:16:31 - 00:16:35functionality is important as well. Really important. Don't don't forget about00:16:35 - 00:16:40functionality because you'll be kicking yourself later when, Yeah, it's not00:16:40 - 00:16:45gonna work in your in your space. You just you can just look at it and admire it00:16:45 - 00:16:55. But not any other tips for us to be a ble Teo. Pull it all together. So look,00:16:55 - 00:17:00that's that's, um, really easy sort of interior design decorating tips to start00:17:00 - 00:17:05thinking about to get it right. Onda again. The seven Elements of interior00:17:05 - 00:17:10design. Like I said, John, if you wantto go over it quickly again, so space00:17:10 - 00:17:16line forms light, colour, texture and pattern. There's a really this is the key to00:17:16 - 00:17:21keep everything balanced in your space. S O space is really important. You00:17:21 - 00:17:26want to get your space right and get the feeling right and the lines so the line00:17:26 - 00:17:32means the lines of your furniture pieces. The line. You know you can have a00:17:32 - 00:17:39curved coffee table, softer line on your sofa instead of a harsher line, which is00:17:39 - 00:17:43a more modern style, so sharper lines or a more modern modern style.00:17:43 - 00:17:48Whereas softer lines amore contemporary, more traditional, really think about00:17:48 - 00:17:56the key pieces of furniture when you're buying it as well On DH again light.00:17:56 - 00:18:01We've spoken about light. Yes, enough light in your space Colo are texture00:18:01 - 00:18:06and Patton. And again, you don't get too busy with your patterns, and you tell00:18:06 - 00:18:10us if you want to really simplify it, stick to three colours or shades. Like I said00:18:10 - 00:18:15earlier, that that will really help you find the balance in your space. The right00:18:15 - 00:18:20balance. Amazing. I love that. Those tips of fantastic. They're really practical00:18:20 - 00:18:26. They're easy enough for a novice like myself to understand an implement but00:18:26 - 00:18:32impactful enough to make a huge difference and good, full it altogether. Love00:18:32 - 00:18:36those seven design elements as well. As I said, we'll have those listed in the00:18:36 - 00:18:43show. No, Claudia, that was fantastic. Thank you so much for so glad If00:18:43 - 00:18:48people have any questions or they want Teo, get some more tips because00:18:48 - 00:18:53you've got loads of great tips on your website. Instagram and Facebook. How00:18:53 - 00:18:58can they get in contact with you? And how can they follow you and learn from00:18:58 - 00:19:04you? Yeah, I'm on Instagram and Facebook, the Renovate Avenue and also00:19:04 - 00:19:08my website. There were never any avenue dot com es so you can get in touch00:19:08 - 00:19:13through either of those avenues. I am always happy to track. They can get in00:19:13 - 00:19:25contact with the renovate avenue through any of those avenues. Yes, a again,00:19:25 - 00:19:28Thank you so much. And I look forward to chatting with you Claudia again in00:19:28 - 00:19:34about four weeks time about a month's time. And this time we are going to be00:19:34 - 00:19:41talking about how to create a style board. And that's a really important part00:19:41 - 00:19:47ofthe styling. Your home, isn't it? Yes, yes, this is fun. This is fun as well.00:19:47 - 00:19:52So it's all fun. Really. It's so much looking forward to that. Thank you again00:19:52 - 00:19:56for joining me and thank you, everyone for tuning in. Bye bye. Thank you.00:19:56 - 00:20:01Thanks for joining us on the dream home movement. Be sure to come over00:20:01 - 00:20:06and say hi on Facebook and Instagram. I hope that your dream home projects00:20:06 - 00:20:10are going well and I look forward to chatting with you again next week

How the Enneagram and coaching can help you live with integrity This episode is a very special episode because this week’s guest is someone who worked with me, helped change my life as much as I helped lead her change, and our souls connected the very night we met. Courtney Baker is a business coach and online marketing sales strategist, and this episode is all about our journey together, how we met, how my coaching helped her make the shift in her life that she needed, and how the Enneagram helped every step along the way. Listen to this episode to hear how my coaching and techniques helped change one woman’s life, how she impacted mine, and the road we went down together to find fulfillment, compassion, and joy. Initially connected I start this episode discussing how I had found Courtney on social media, admired her work, sent her referrals, and eventually how we first met over dinner. We both discuss how we initially knew our souls were connected, how everything else melted away, and how she knew her life was about to change forever. Using the Enneagram as a roadmap back to herself We dig into how she was unhappy, how she had lost the joy and fulfillment of helping and coaching other people, and how she thought she was ‘broken’ after years of therapy and not knowing what was wrong. We talk about our journey working together, the different methods that helped, She shares how she initially mistyped herself on the Enneagram, and how everything changed once I typed her correctly—even though she was resistant to hearing it. We talk about what it means to live in integrity, and how my coaching ensured she was doing so in every aspect of her life. Courtney Baker Courtney is a Business Coach for Coaches, Entrepreneurs and Personal Brands. She is an expert in online marketing and sales strategies helping her clients reach six and seven figures. Courtney has been in the coaching industry for over a decade and currently serves as a Forbes Business Coach. From her start working on the marketing teams that supported high level coaches with six and seven figure incomes to creating her own coaching business that scaled from zero to over $200,000 in just a year, Courtney Baker is a strategy wiz. She is the founder of the Business School for Coaches, host of The Business of Coaching Podcast and specializes in helping women learn marketing strategies that bring massive success.Quotes:11:27 (Courtney)Once I made enough money that I wasn't struggling or I could basically do anything I wanted, the drive to run a business kind of left me.15:45There is a dark side to all of this, especially when we are taking people to the next level, we have to do a gut check.16:48We don't have to grow in the drama or in the chaos. We don’t have to blow sh*t up to grow.19:14 (Courtney)It wasn't that there was never enough money, but money would never be enough.24:14I couldn't comprehend that you could have joy and be experiencing grief and pain in the same day.31:43You become more in integrity and a better f**king coach when you are in your work AND leading people.37:26 (Courtney)Most of the time I could be my own clients’ ideal client.41: 51 (Courtney)The journey is gonna continue for me, and I'll have more to learn always.46:48 (Courtney)If we are not careful with the sabotage cycle or have enough self awareness that's when we start to dip down.56:45 (Courtney)If there's any purpose of life, in my opinion, it is to do the best that we can while we’re here.

Daily Devotion - Psalm 19:14 - Acceptable In Thy Sight“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14I used to complain often. I didn’t hear myself most times and sadly, complaining became my first language. It wasn’t until one day one of my closest friends (several of my closest friends) pulled me to the side and told me about my unbearable habit. Do you find yourself complaining or saying things that might reflect a negative perspective?I encourage you to use the passage from today’s devotion to help you with your words.Acceptable WordsThe only time I heard this passage was typically before a pastor or minister would preach. I never heard it or studied it outside of this context. This summer I used this passage as the theme for my message to a women’s group. I shared with the women that if we are going to be Gods “Wonder Women”, we need to be mindful of the words that come out of our mouths. It reminded me of Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit Theron”.There’s a story in the Bible of a centurion who had a sick servant who asked Jesus to heal him. He believed that Jesus only had to “speak the word” and his servant would be healed (Matthew 8:8). The Bible also says in Matthew 15:11 that “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”Think about the key verse. Now think about some things you are asking God for or situations where you need God to act on your behalf.What has your perspective been and what has your response been?Have your words been acceptable or have you spoken negatively?PrayerDear Lord help me to change my perspective on the issues of life. Forgive me for the times that my words have negated my faith. Help me to trust you fully and to represent you well. Help me to bring honor to your name with the words that come out of my mouth. I love you and I thank you. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-psalm-19-14-acceptable-in-thy-sight/

Revelation 5:1-3Revelation’s seven events1-3 Church on earth4-5 Church in heaven6-18 Tribulation 19 Second coming20:1-6 1000 year rule20:7-15 Great white throne21-22 HeavenMatthew 4:17Revelation 5:8-9The Doctrine of redemptionJesus destroyed the records of my sin.Romans 3:24Jesus became all I need1 Cor 1:30I belong to God 1 Cor.6:20My sins are forgiven forever Eph 1:7I am God’s workmanshipEph 2:10God will finish what He startedPhil 1:6I am set free from any bondage, to be zealous for GodTitus 2:14I will worship the Lord foreverRev 5:9Romans 6:12-13If you enjoyed the sermon please contact us at bluespringsbaptisttemple@gmail.com or call (816) 229-7777 Let us know.

Rev.12:1 And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; Eph.2:6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: Rom.13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Rev.12:2 and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered. 3And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. 4And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon standeth before the woman that is about to be delivered, that when she is delivered he may devour her child. 5And she was delivered of a son, a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: 27and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father: Rev 3:21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne. Luke 8:21 But he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these that hear the word of God, and do it. 2Cor.4:16 Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. Heb.4:2 For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. Lk.1:45 And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord. Lk.1:31 And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. Matthew 13:18-23 18Hear then ye the parable of the sower. 19When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side. 20And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it; 21yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth. 22And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. 23And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Mat.13:37-38 37And he answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; Genesis 1:11-12 11And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind: and God saw that it was good. Joh.16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. Lk.1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. Joh.16:19 Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Php.3:10-15 10that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; 11if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: Joh.16:20-22 20Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. 22And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. 2Cor.3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. Col.1:22-23 22yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him: 23if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister. Gal.2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. 2 Corinthians 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different gospel, which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him. Jas.1:23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: Eph.4:13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 2Cor.4:10-11 10always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. 11For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. Gal.4:19 My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you 1Cor.12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof. Heb.13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever. Amos 3:3 Shall two walk together, except they have agreed? 2Jn.1:7 For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the anti-christ. Col.1:27-28 27to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; Col.3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. Phm.1:6 that the fellowship of thy faith may become effectual, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in you, unto Christ. Rom.8:16-17 The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: 17and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Jas.1:21Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. 1Cor.15:1-2 Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, 2by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. 1Pet.1:22-23,9 22Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently: 23having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. 9 receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Rom.8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Isa.3:4-5,12 4And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. 12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. Mat.10:6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Rom.8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Rom.1:3 concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, Heb.5:8-9 8But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him. Rom.8:23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Rom.4:17 (as it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. Gal.3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. Galatians 4:1-5 1But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; 2but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. 3So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: 4but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Gal.5:4 Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you Gal 2:16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Gal 3:6-7 6Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. 7Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham Gal 4:6-7 6And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Pr.29:21 He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child Shall have him become a son at the last. 1Jn.2:28 And now, my little children, abide in him; that, if he shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 2Cor.4:11 For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (6) Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 1Jn.3:2 Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. 1Jn.4:17 Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world. 1Jn.3:3 And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Titus 2:11-15 11For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; 13looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works. 15These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise thee. 2Tim.4:7-8 have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: 8henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing.

Hope For Life with Bob Lenz - an inspiring message for your busy day. This week's devotional theme is Value. Today's episode will be from Psalms 139:14.Psalms 139:14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.To discover more, visit lifepromotions.org.

When it comes to removing wrong mindsets, we have to understand the source. Without knowing how a lie became our truth, we run the risk of layering our minds with the same stuff again.  I know myself is a mindset that sounds grand, but it can be limiting. When the certainty of your knowledge of self  prevents you from attempting great feats, it is a problem.  It is good to know yourself, but don't allow a fixed mindset to rob you of new opportunities. A fixed mindset believes in it's abilities, but doesn't think it can acquire new abilities. A growth mindset is confident even in absence of knowledge or resources; it believes it can obtain what is needed in the future.  The victim mentality is one of those sneaky mindsets that does not announce itself. Every effect has a cause and victim mindset points to an external source as the cause of the challenge.  A victim is someone who has suffered the effects of a bad situation like crime or illness. The mentality sees every uncomfortable situation not as life happening, but as a crime against them. The victim needs a villain, and the villain can be their parents, their neighbourhood, the government, the rich, etc.  Victims share the same lexicon. They use the same words and share similar ideas. They understand each other and attract the same.  Going through a major challenge can lead you into victim mode. When we stay in casualty mode, we start to attract people who only feel useful when others are in pain. Beware of friends who only show up to help you when things are rough, but feel useless if you don't need them. If you seem to end up with those sorts of friends, chances are you are attracting them.  As we head into the weekend, I want to challenge you to watch the words you use. Which pool are you drawing from?  References:Psalm 139: 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well.  Proverbs 4:18The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. 

Perhaps one of the most curious creatures in the book of Genesis was the serpent. Genesis 31 says now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. An interesting little tidbit about the Hebrew word translated to Serpent is that it can also be translated as 'the shining one'. I think this is interesting because usually when we see things that are deceitful and the serpent was the deceiver.Usually, when we see things that are deceitful, they are shiny. They are pretty. They grab our attention. The fruit looked good to eat. It was pleasing to the eye.In 2 Corinthians 11:14, it says,"And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." - 2 Corinthians 11:14I just think it's worth a little discussion that everything that glitters is not gold. In fact, we need to be really, really careful these days. Which side we take, where we stand, where we dig our heels, and what lines we draw in the sand because everything that glitters is not gold.The shining one, the ancient one is still making things very, very glittery today. Just because it looks good and sounds good doesn't mean it is good. That is why prayer is so important in our daily walk so that we remain grounded in the truth of God's word as well as who God wants us to be. 

TranscriptionSteve Markovich 0:03Part of the culture of OhioHealth is that it’s a very team-based culture. We tend to solve all of our problems in multidisciplinary teams. And how do you do that and still have the same chemistry and dynamic while you’re making social distancing or working from home?Gary Bisbee 0:16That was Dr. Steve Markovich, President and CEO of OhioHealth as he works through changes brought by the COVID outbreak. I’m Gary Bisbee. And this is Fireside Chat. OhioHealth has the largest health system in its region, with 12 hospitals and 400 ambulatory sites. Dr. Markovich and his executive team are focused on using lessons learned from COVID-19 to accelerate to the next level of convenience for consumers. Recovery is a top priority for the health system, and for patients needing surgery or treatments. The OhioHealth executive team is working to solve a key barrier to patients returning, which is the restrictions to limit or exclude visitors and family members from accompanying patients. One of the learnings from the COVID crisis is that the state and local governments have an expanded view of OhioHealth actual delivery network. Let’s listen.Steve Markovich 1:12I think the government views us, in fact, as a system that is more comprehensive and more integrated than it really is. I was being asked questions by the governor’s office about well, how are we coordinating with all the nursing homes to use nursing home beds as overflows we need them. And they frankly didn’t understand that. OhioHealth doesn’t own a network of nursing homes.Gary Bisbee 1:32As a result of the crisis, OhioHealth will be addressing more completely the integration of disease management and public health. I’m delighted to welcome Dr. Steve Markovich to the microphone.Well, good morning, Steve and welcome.Steve Markovich 1:49Good morning.Gary Bisbee 1:49We’re pleased to have you at the microphone. We’ve been leading off our conversations the last eight or 10 weeks with the discussion of COVID. What’s the state of the surge in OhioHealth’s primary service areas, Steve?Steve Markovich 2:02So we’re in central Ohio central and southern Ohio, very stable right now we compared to some of our colleagues across the country, and our governor acted very quickly and aggressively. And that blunted when I think most people would think of as the surge. So we are averaging about 1100 patients in the hospital across the entire state, of which we have 80 to 100 at any given time at OhioHealth, which is a 12 hospital system. So it is relatively flat. For the last few days, we’ve seen declining volumes at a state level. So this may take you straight to see the backside of the curve, that the big exponential peaks and a lot of people have predicted it really was born in Ohio.Gary Bisbee 2:45Good news there compared to some of the other hotspots. Why don’t we move to OhioHealth? Many of us are generally familiar with OhioHealth but Steve, could you give us an update on OhioHealth as it is today?Steve Markovich 2:58Sure. As I mentioned, we’re headquartered out of Columbus, Ohio at the center of the state. We’re the largest system in the region with 12 hospitals 400 ambulatory sites about 1000 employees, physicians, and about four and a half billion in revenue. 30,000 Associates. So it’s a medium-sized regional player, we are only within the state of Ohio and don’t venture up to Cleveland or down to Cincinnati. So to that center part of the Midwest, Columbus is a unique community in the state capitol. It’s not a manufacturing center. It’s really very much a business center. It’s the Ohio State University. So you’ve got a lot of the economic base here is very, very stable. It’s actually a great place to have a health system.Gary Bisbee 3:39What’s been the policy on remote working due to the COVID outbreak?Steve Markovich 3:43As soon as the Governor declared a state of emergency we effectively sent anyone who wasn’t a frontline caregiver home. And we are still working from home yet the typical administrative challenges up front are making sure everybody had access to the right software and the remote capability, but we’re making it work. It’s great when you can see people are just doing a session. Today, one of the things we got back is the associates that are working remotely while they’re able to do their jobs, that connectivity to their teams, and the connectivity to their manager, something that is challenged. So we’re trying to work out ways to work through that. We’ve had board meetings, we’ve managed to work through it. And so we are right now we’re working on a plan to hopefully bring everyone back. You know, you look across the community. I know folks that aren’t even planning to come back in Columbus, some folks in other industries are coming back in September. So we’re trying to figure out what makes sense, let’s say for our associates, where there might be some increased operating efficiencies. Now let’s prove to people can work from home. While it was a challenge, I think it’s one of those things that in the long run, we’re going to find that it creates opportunities for us.Gary Bisbee 4:49Can you focus a little bit more on the opportunity side? Will this translate into people permanently working from home in certain cases?Steve Markovich 4:58For example, revenue cycles, Our revenue cycle prior to COVID was largely campus-based at one of our administrative centers. We’ve got 1000 people working from home now. And the intention is not to bring them back. So I think especially folks that are working transactionally will benefit from working at home. I think for a lot of individuals, we’re going to end up at a hybrid model, where people will be able to as needed work from home, one of the things we have to do is we have to look at our physical plant and say, okay, at the administrator spaces that were designed in the past, with large group operating spaces, can we still have space, social distancing, we’ve got signs up in the elevators. Now, at work, you can only have two people in an elevator, there are things we’re going to have to rethink how we do part of the culture of OhioHealth is that it’s a very team-based culture we try we tend to solve all of our problems in multidisciplinary teams, and how do you do that and still have the same chemistry and dynamic while you’re maintaining social distancing or working from home?Gary Bisbee 5:54It’s a big project. You mentioned earlier that you have teams working on thinking about how to get back to whatever normal is going to be. How’s that working out? Steve?Steve Markovich 6:05We got two teams. We knew the day this all started, we started what was called back to business. We knew that there was going to be a wave of patients on the backside as well. I think yesterday we had 4000 prepped up imaging studies that needed to be done for patients. So we knew that there was this way that was going to have to happen. And so how do we come back to business? How do we make sure we’ve got the staffing, the supplies, the clinical protocols that allow us to function in the new world, as the governor relaxes some of the restrictions that he has in Ohio. We can do surgery, we can do elective surgery. We just can’t keep people overnight. Emergencies are still a “go”, treating pain, treating cancer, those things are still good, but you can’t do an elective procedure. We have to stay overnight. So we know there’s going to be this wave of people that need care. So we start thinking about that the day that the Cova crisis started. At the same time, we have another team that’s looking at what we call COVID plus one, which is what they learn from COVID. And how do we not go back to the way we were meant, like most of the systems across the country, our er volumes fell 50%. So people come through the front door 50% of baseline. Do we want to take it back to what it used to be? Or can we create new models of care and new delivery models where we can hopefully save some economic impact? Because we all know that there are a lot of folks that end up in different levels of care that really don’t need that, that level of support. How can we further leverage ambulatory surgery centers rather, for elective surgery, rather than bring people to the big hospital? Because prior to COVID, it was really a lot of physician input and physician preference. But really, we have to think about it differently now, as opposed to just saying, we want to bring everybody we can’t do our big institutions. So we’ve got two separate teams working on those things.Gary Bisbee 7:56Makes good sense. What’s your feeling about the way that your community is looking at coming back. Is there any way to judge how much concern there will be with coming back to your surgery facilities or the hospitals?Steve Markovich 8:13It’s anecdotal at this point, we had heard some concerns and started to make some plans, thinking I’d hear from other system leaders across the country that there was a significant number of folks that were hesitant to come back out of fear. We are working both through our physicians, some of our physicians are our best advocates for the safety of the healthcare system. Our government officials have stepped up. The mayor did a public service spot where he was talking about how safe the hospitals are. And then we’re going digital and print media to let people know how safe things are, that we have adequate PPE and that we will take great care of them. One of the big concerns we heard was really not so much around patients being concerned about infection or more COVID as much as the severe restrictions that were put in place around visitors. Family members, people who are willing to come to the hospital. But if they ask if their wife can’t come with them or their, their caregiver or partner, that creates an issue. So one of the things we’re really looking at is what’s the policy on folks coming? If folks are coming in for surgery? How far do we let support folks come with?Gary Bisbee 9:18Just follow up on that you’ve been mentioning, communicating with the community with your caregivers. What has been your communication strategy, Steve?Steve Markovich 9:27We’ve had multiple channels. We communicate internally with associates and physicians every day. My chief medical officer is on point for daily communication. I communicate to the organization with a video once a week. I communicate to my board once a week, and then every two weeks or so I do a communication video to the medical staff. We’ve done some things that I think are a little unique, and I’m very proud it covers from several aspects of the crisis. The four system CEOs we got together, and we said, “Listen, this is bigger than any one of us.” And so when it comes to the safety of the healthcare environment, our policies around visitation support for an alternative site of care, you know, standing up the convention center as 1000, better 1500 bed hospital in Columbus, for mass casualty management, we did that together. And so there’s been a lot of communication to try to reinforce across the community, that it’s not just about a house, it’s about the network. It’s about the system of care that exists, and that people should have confidence in that all four CEOs. We wrote a big letter to the editor. In some communities, hospital systems don’t collaborate but we’re really proud of Columbus. We have a way of doing things that are above us at that level. We all agreed to be one team.Gary Bisbee 10:43Excellent. What’s the morale been of your caregivers? It doesn’t sound like you’ve been swamped, like some of the hotspots but nonetheless, treating patients on a continuous spaces. What’s the morale been?Steve Markovich 10:56It’s really been pretty good. We’ve been very transparent with where we are, what we’re doing, we created some really solid channels for feedback as well, as we got into this. We had some physicians from the front lines that jumped in to help us work on the teams to set policies and procedures and help us as things evolve. We recognize, right upfront, there are eight principles that we set out at the beginning. And one of them was taking care of our associates, economically, physically, and psychologically. And when I say associates, I include the physicians with that. And so we created physician associates resilience teams. So every day there’s an incident command center report out and resilience and burnout is actually an agenda item. So we’ve been working hard to take that into effect. The good news is because we didn’t have the volumes that you might have seen in other parts of the country, we’ve been able to manage the workload, and frankly, when the volumes went down, we sent a lot of people home to keep them safe and keep them ready for a recovery period. So we’ve been able to rotate people through to make sure that people are feeling refreshed as best they can.Gary Bisbee 11:57Just thinking about leadership for a moment. What have been your takeaways from this crisis in terms of your leadership style? What have you had to do differently or think about differently?Steve Markovich 12:10It’s interesting. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on that because I’m a relatively new CEO. Having only been in the job now about seven months when this thing kicked off. Historically, I would have been the guy that was probably running Incident Command, and I needed to stay about it. And so we put together and I essentially kept the senior team out of incident command, we put together a structure where we had clear channels, we had clear roles and responsibilities. We empowered those people, we gave them as broad of decision making authority as we could. And we basically said, “Listen, job one is to take care of the people, and that could be the patients or the associates.” We got to do this safely. And we’ll figure out the processes and the finances on the back end. But we got to make sure we got the right PPE, we’ve got to make sure we’re managing this appropriately. We got to collaborate with our government officials. The biggest thing is that my leadership change was really elevating. And then letting those people that are really experts at the job, just turn it loose, and they have really done a great job and it has been great to see some of those young leaders mature and grow into the roles.Gary Bisbee 13:10So you mentioned PPE, how’s the supply chain been holding up for PPE for OhioHealth?Steve Markovich 13:17It was really challenging at first, like most places, we have GPO relationships. And we had gone to a lot of relatively limited inventory. And so there were a lot of challenges up front. We ended up working back channels and alternative producers. And so we are in a pretty good place right now. We were super fortunate. And you may have seen it on Today Show and I think it was on Time Magazine. There’s a large think tank in a town called named Patel. There’s a lot of government work and research and we work with them to actually come up with a decontamination system. And so at one point, you can reuse a mask 20 times and so we started decontaminating them long before we had the alternatives PPE or from a supplier perspective, we were recycling PPE to the tune of 10,000 masks today at one point. It was great to see that innovation come up. That was one of our family physicians who in partnership with Mattel, started thinking about how can we fix this thing. And it was great to see that level of cooperation. But we’re in a pretty good place right now. We are tracking it very closely in Ohio. The governor has a perspective that really the healthcare system is in fact a system where you’ve got small hospitals, big hospitals, nursing homes, the independent silos and bureaucracies, and the different legal entities. I think he takes a perspective that, listen, it’s one system, we all got to take care of each other. And so you’ll have a hospital association stepped up and helps us track who’s deep in PPE who’s not who can help somebody else out. So some of that does go on, but we’re in a pretty fortunate place right now.Gary Bisbee 14:52Many of your colleagues are talking about the fact that we should have a more reliable supply chain for PPE And perhaps thinking about how much of the supply chain is outsourced globally? How would you think about that?Steve Markovich 15:07I think that’s spot on, I think we’re going to have to rethink for critical items, whether it’s in 95, or facials, there are certain surgeries. And we’ve seen even before COVID, we saw the problem with one of the major GPOs with the problem of production in China, and sterility. So this idea that we’re dependent on relatively few channels, and those channels are offshore, it creates challenges. So I think we’re going to need to look at that. I think whether it’s local sourcing, or creating deeper bench deeper stockpiles, I think those are all the things we’re gonna have to look at.Gary Bisbee 15:39So you were a command pilot in the Ohio National Guard for a number of years. How does the military handle its secure, reliable supply chain? Are there any lessons learned there for us and healthcare?Steve Markovich 15:51The military focus, you know, has some of the same issues. You’ve got some relatively specific items that may be sourced from a single vendor and they have to do another on a worldwide basis, so you end up with inventory management. And there’s a logistics tail to just getting things moved, that the military is really, really good at. I think inventory management awareness of where you are things that you can learn that I took away from the Air Force, clearly a strong sense of supply chain management, people that understand that business and just making sure you go through your contingency planning to where if you’re dependent on a single supplier or one or two suppliers, that is a risk that we’re not talking about at the board level. In today’s world, it’s not sustainable.Gary Bisbee 16:31Yeah. Well, and the question is who’s really going to pay for this excess capacity that we all think we need now that we’ve drummed out of the system before? So I’m sure you’re talking about that with your board too.Steve Markovich 16:45Yep. We had a tremendous response and I’m sure most communities did. We had a tremendous response from the business community for folks that have in their particular businesses. They may have used masks or protective equipment. We had over a million items donated in a relatively short time, we actually had to get a separate warehouse just to take care of what was being donated. Again, that was another place where all the systems in Columbus came together. And so it doesn’t make any sense for each one of us to be looking for help from different businesses. We ought to look at this together. And then if there are issues we got to supply that we can draw from. Yeah, that’s just terrific.Gary Bisbee 17:20Turning to telemedicine, have you seen a marked increase in telemedicine visits?Steve Markovich 17:25Huge. I think through the last report that I saw, we’ve done 75,000 telemedicine visits, ie visits, video visits, mobile chat with a patient so that was a relatively immature space for us. We knew we were gonna have to get better at it, but there just had been that catalyst to make it all happen. And COVID really pushed it. And so we’ve got 900 providers now that have all been trained, and the office staff and we’re actually encouraging folks, especially for routine follow-ups, things like that telemedicine is going to be huge. He’s been using it for a while. tele-consults for things like urology, counsel to the Are things like that, but pushing it down to primary care? we’re operating at a whole new level now. And I don’t see that going back.Gary Bisbee 18:07Well, it helped the CMS and the insurance companies are paying for the tele-visits to I suppose that was an important part of it.Steve Markovich 18:13Absolutely. I think in this case, just because of patients not wanting to go into their doctor, there’s pressure to solve that problem no matter what. But the fact that they’ve now created a way to make the economic model work is a good thing.Gary Bisbee 18:26Have your providers your caregivers responded to this? Have they been innovative in terms of how they’re thinking about and using telemedicine?Steve Markovich 18:36They’ve been superpartners. Most of them are very engaged, they see and they’re thinking about it from a safety perspective and a patient care perspective. They don’t want to bring people into the office that don’t need to come into an office. It’s really been remarkable to watch the collaboration. It is challenging in a community-based hospital system like Ohio Health. Our providers are all on epic. But you’ve got independent folks that aren’t and so it was interesting, there were a lot of requests for help to help create a telemedicine solution for them something that they could connect with their patients or that was secure and appropriate. So we’ve been trying to help them as much as we can stand up that capability.Gary Bisbee 19:12Well, let’s turn to the all-important economics piece. How will OhioHealth end of the fiscal year? I think you’re a June 30 fiscal? How will you end up your 2020 fiscal year Steve?Steve Markovich 19:25We are going to weather this better than some. So we did take advantage of a number of government programs as well as the Medicare advance payment. So from a cash flow perspective, we’re in a good place. We did curtail capital. And we did discretionary spending. We put a lot of constraints on the organization, new capital projects were stopped and we actually lowered the threshold, the authority matrix for what people could do to really try to make sure that we have things clamped down on things. Our fiscal year ends June 30, essentially the last third of the year. We’re what we’ll probably watch about the first two-thirds of the year. But overall, I think we’re going to end up in a pretty good place moving forward, we did make the strategic decision, we have a pandemic PPE program. So even though I’ve got associates at home, we’ve released June 1, we’re keeping them whole economically, we’re going to need those associates, we are modeling as quickly as we can, what the bounce back is going to look like both the short term pent up demand as long as what as well as what is the new normal look like. And so rather than put associates in a conundrum or an economic hardship, we leveraged our economic stability to keep them whole. And our board was very supportive of that. And we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about that. Just the fact we had the ability to do it, we chose to do it. But this next few months will be those are going to be the benchmark that we use to look at how the next quarter looks and we’ll probably end up in a quarter to quarter budgeting or management situation for a little while.Gary Bisbee 20:50Well, that makes good sense. What about cap x? How are you thinking about budgeting next year for cap x?Steve Markovich 20:56We will still have capital available. It’ll be a little more emphasis on routine capital. And then some of the big projects with long term bricks and mortar type things that would have had a much longer-term financial payback. We’re really looking at those. Clearly cash is important right now. And so we’re trying to be very, very selective of what we need to do. There will still be regular routine infrastructure that has to be managed, and some strategic thinking, but some of the major projects right now, I was on a capital meeting yesterday, and everything is being relooked at because we just don’t know the volume assumptions that went along with some of those strategic projects. Those are actually in flux. So we got to figure that out.Gary Bisbee 21:32Sounds like, in addition to your cap x plans, your strategic plans for the next several years may need to be adjusted as well.Steve Markovich 21:39Absolutely. I was talking to our population health team this morning on a call, they’re gonna have to help drive what the new normal looks like and how we deliver the care and what level of care is going to be appropriate in the new home. I’m not gonna say the whole strategy has changed, but I think that demand on the system is going to change just because of the nature of people going to the doctor or going to the house. Go to the surgery center. People are rethinking those things as how bad they need it. Or where else can they get it?Gary Bisbee 22:05Let’s turn to the Board of Directors, which you mentioned meeting with previously, how have you communicated with your board during the crisis?Steve Markovich 22:14I do a letter to the board every Friday that summarizes how the week is gone and what the issues are dealing with. I think I mentioned earlier, I do an all-staff video once a week on Tuesday, I attach that video to the mailing to the board. So the entire board gets that I’ve gotten a lot of very positive feedback on that. I have had a couple of private board calls with my executive committee in my chair, just to inform them of anything major that was covered down or what we were, whether it was the plan for reopening of elective surgeries, things like that. So the communication with the board has been good. We have had one full board meeting. We’ve had several committee meetings, but the full board actually had one fully electronic remote meeting, which was great.Gary Bisbee 22:55Well now I’m asking everybody any tips for smooth virtual board meetings.Steve Markovich 23:00Give ya a couple that worked well for us. One thing is we literally because you know, most of us use PowerPoint or something like PowerPoint, one of my concerns was keeping everybody on the same slide, you got to make sure everything is numbered, even the agenda, each topic of the agenda. It’s had its own separate slides. So if you just went page by page by page, you knew where to go. We also put whoever each slide was assigned a staff member. And that name was put on the slide so that if a board member had a question because some of the board members had visuals, and they were using an AV tool that had visual capability, and some board members were calling in. So sometimes when you’re calling in, you can’t tell over the phone who’s actually talking. And so I wanted to make it crystal clear if you had a question on slide 17. Here’s what you should ask. And so there was no ambiguity as to where to direct your question as you went through the meeting. Because it’s not unusual to have a person meeting you could have three or four people talking and I could appreciate on the phone, you might not be able to I understand we need to direct the question to it went really well.Gary Bisbee 24:03Yeah, that’s a terrific idea. I had not heard that before. So well done. Let’s move back to a higher strategic level, it seems evident that public health is now part of the national security, not sure that we thought about it that way before. How do you think about that? Steve?Steve Markovich 24:20I think this has been a real eye-opener. Frankly, there’s a lack of integration of public health, both at the state level and at the federal level. I think this is going to be the catalyst that makes us rethink that I mentioned a little bit ago, I think, in the health systems. I think the government views us in fact, as a system that is more comprehensive and more integrated than it really is. I was being asked questions by the governor’s office about how are we coordinating with all the nursing homes to use nursing home beds as overflow as we need them. And they frankly, didn’t understand that. Ohio health doesn’t own a network of nursing homes. They’re independent, very high-quality nursing homes in the region. But it’s not like we’re networked on a giant computer database. Well, we know what each other census is and what the demand is for beds or TV or anything. So when we say public health, it’s not just about testing and disease management. It’s how do you in situations like this? How do you create a system that truly is integrated and leverages everyone’s capabilities? Like most hospitals, we’ve been through a lot of mass casualty exercises, and contingent outbreak exercises. We’ve never exercised the system to this level. New York during 9/11 would be the closest thing having come from the military. I’ve got this vision of Sunday, there’s gonna be an exercise, where there’s a Blackhawk helicopter from the National Guard landing on one of our hospital helipads. When we start thinking about it at that level, we will be on the right track.Gary Bisbee 25:45Does this kind of add to our focus on social determinants of health?Steve Markovich 25:50I think the data is showing for patients who are struggling with social determinants of health and this particular disease outbreak is or having worse outcomes. It’s just another case where folks, folks that are either socioeconomically challenged or medically challenged, their prognosis is poor. We have to figure out ways to address that. You’ve got cultural barriers to testing. There’s actually I sat on a committee that was looking at how do we get greater penetration of testing into minority communities where there is a fear of government and fear of gig systems, because they don’t trust they don’t know where the data goes, they don’t know how to be used. So this is a multifactorial problem of how do we address not just social determinants, but deeper penetration of the healthcare system and to all the patients that we serve?Gary Bisbee 26:36Yeah. Well said, this has been a terrific interview. Steve, if I could wrap up with one question. We’ve had a number of people at this microphone talking about a “new normal.” What do you think will be changing going forward as a result of the COVID crisis?Steve Markovich 26:54Could there be so many things I think the just how we approach our interaction with each other you know, whether it’s the need for physical distancing or the desire to do things in a way, that is like, if I can do it from my family room, if I can find my groceries that I can find my paper towel, I can I see my doctor and get what I need. So I think there’s going to be a whole new, and I’m a family physician by training, you know, I was trained with the idea that you know, your patients and you understand your patients, and you have these deep relationships, that whole model is going to be challenged. And I think that’s probably one of the biggest things we’ll see. I think, too. How do we continue to deliver high-quality care in smaller communities, this clearly shows us the economics of health care are going to have to be addressed. If you look at the hospitals that are dealing with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of COVID patients in the larger urban centers, or the small community hospitals that were living on elective surgeries and we shut that off. I think that’s a wake-up call that we’re going to lose. County hospitals are smaller community-based hospitals if we don’t do something.Gary Bisbee 27:57Well said, Steve, this has been terrific. Thanks. So much for your time and good luck to all of you in Ohio and OhioHealth.Steve Markovich 28:05It’s a pleasure. Thanks for doing for this.Gary Bisbee 28:08This episode of Fireside Chat is produced by Strafire. Please subscribe to Fireside Chat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you’re listening right now. Be sure to rate and review fireside chat so we can continue to explore key issues with innovative and dynamic healthcare leaders. In addition to subscribing and rating we have found that podcasts are known through word of mouth. We appreciate your spreading the word to friends or those who might be interested. Fireside Chat is brought to you from our nation’s capital in Washington DC, where we explore the intersection of healthcare politics, financing, and delivery. For additional perspectives on health policy and leadership. Read my weekly blog Bisbee’s Brief. For questions and suggestions about Fireside Chat, contact me through our website, firesidechatpodcast.com, or gary@hmacademy.com. Thanks for listening.

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:13-14I’ve seen this passage referenced many times during the past several weeks. It is familiar to me, and quite special because I grew up hearing my mom and her sisters sing a popular trio in our church that is based on these words. I love the verses and the song, but sometimes I don’t understand it. I struggle deeply with prayer. Several of the Devotable authors are putting out a book on prayer, but it’s difficult to think I will ever be comfortable with my prayer life.I’ve lived with an awareness of my infertility for 10 years. Nearly 120 months of unanswered prayer is not easy to reconcile with my God, who I know is faithful. I’ve learned an incredible amount of wisdom during this time, but my mind plays tricks on me. I’ve started to believe that God wants to bless everyone but me. I must be doing something wrong. Although I know I am a sinner, I know this mindset is not the whole perspective of God on my life. It’s simply not true to His Word or His nature.Solomon's PrayerSo I decided to do some extra study on these verses. I learned that God said these words in response to Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple. The first idea for the temple came in 2 Samuel 7:13. David said, “see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” David saw what he had, and he was thankful. That thankfulness turned into action and blessings from God. Although David did not get to build the temple, he gathered the supplies. God promised that David’s family would sit on the throne of Israel forever – a picture of Christ to come.David’s son Solomon built the temple, and at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 6, he asked God to bless His people by blessing the temple. This would be the place where the Israelites would pray for wisdom and relief from distress. His prayer of dedication covered many topics, but I began to see that specifically he prayed about everything in God’s answer.Listening to the prayers made in the temple (6:21)forgiveness (6:21)drought, locusts and pestilence (6:28)I’d never thought about this passage that way before. Solomon prayed, and God answered his specifics. Then God reminded me of something that has become very near and dear to my heart: I am the temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” Every day I need to think like David and pray like Solomon. I must dedicate myself to the Lord intentionally and not let my thoughts stray from the truth.God Answers Prayer in His Own TimeI’m still struggling and learning. When I have trouble beginning a prayer, I will spend several minutes writing down what I am thankful for. If I do this, I can cultivate an attitude of trust in God’s faithfulness so I can begin to bring my specific requests to Him. I pray, and God answers in His time. Never yet with a child, but with contentment and intimacy.The next few verses in the passage are not as commonly known, so I challenge you to memorize them as well. We can treasure them as God’s blessing for us, His “temples.” “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.” 2 Chronicles 7:15-16Read the full devotion at https://devotableapp.com/daily-devotion-2-chronicles-7-13-14-dedication-of-the-temple/

Psalm 38 A psalm of David. A petition. 1O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me. 3Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin. 4My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. 5My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. 6I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. 7My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. 8I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. 9All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. 11My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away. 12Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception. 13I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear, like a mute, who cannot open his mouth; 14I have become like a man who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply. 15I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God. 16For I said, “Do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.” 17For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. 18I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. 19Many are those who are my vigorous enemies; those who hate me without reason are numerous. 20Those who repay my good with evil slander me when I pursue what is good. 21O LORD, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God. 22Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

Philippians 3:14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.To learn more about Dr. Billie J. Minton's ministries within her Blue Ridge Moment book series, please visit her author website at BlueRidgeMoments.com. Dr. Billie J. Minton's Blue Ridge Moments books; Volume 1, subtitled, "Your Life Is Only As Good As Your Connection With Jesus," and Volume 2, subtitled, "Celebrating Footsteps of A God Dependent Life," and Blue Ridge Tenderpup children's book series may be found at Amazon.com and BlueRidgeMoments.com.

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In this episode, you'll meet Katie Wilkins: a wife, a mom to three young children (one is adopted), and a home school mom from South Carolina.Katie has a unique story about the power of forgiveness. She shares with us how an unforgiving spirit can immobilize us, not only spiritually, but physically as well.I met Katie a couple of years ago through our church, and we instantly connected. I'm adopted and she and her husband, Todd, have adopted a child. Katie and I both have experience with an unforgiving spirit related to sexual abuse, and we both have been healed and restored through Christ and the power of forgiveness. Katie also participated in a Bible study class I taught based on the book I've written called Unlocked Hearts, Unleashed Joy - Forgiveness Is the Key.Being hurt or harmed comes in many different forms, and we all have to learn and practice the holy art of forgiveness. If we allow bitterness, anger, and even hate to take root in the soil of our hearts, it will begin to suffocate our joy and diminish our impact for Christ.If you're interested in the book/Bible study/memoir mentioned above, you can find it on Amazon. Just click on the link.https://www.amazon.com/s?k=unlocked+hearts%2C+unleashed+joy+forgiveness+is+the+key&crid=3GBME6BVRYAAO&sprefix=Unlocked+heart%2Caps%2C175&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14I pray, as you listen to my precious friend share her story, that you will allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart in every corner to see if there's anyone you need to forgive or to ask forgiveness of. Once you do, you'll celebrate sweet freedom, and know immediately that the joy of Jesus has been unleashed in your heart. Keepin' it Real for Jesus' sake,Melanie

Contagious Joy – Joy in Humility A Walk through the Book of Philippians (week 5) Sermon Summary Philippians 2:1–4 (ESV) 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.   As we move into chapter two of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church, Pastor Chris highlights an essential message for Jesus’ disciples to live-out: a lifestyle of Humility. The paradox is that greatness comes through genuine humility. Our culture makes “tooting your own horn” an acceptable activity. Acommon practice of secular society is to promote pride, to engage in self-promotion, the fruit of selfish-ambition. Pride was the first sin, committed by God’s first created being – Lucifer,the ‘Day Star. Son of the Morning.’ “13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high….14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.15But, you are brought down to Sheol (place of the dead)…’”Isaiah 14:13-15 (ESV)   In contrast, humble people who follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus inherently find joy in serving others. Humility bears the fruit of assurance, dependence (on God), authenticity, and thankfulness. “2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Isaiah 66:2 (ESV)   “6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God…gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6 (ESV)   Humility vs. Pride: Pride Humility About my glory About the glory of Jesus Christ Makes me my own “god” Celebrating God serving me in love Leads to arrogance, cockiness, smugness Leads to confidence Is independence Is dependence Is controlling Relinquishes control Our greatest enemy Our greatest friend Is demonic and satanic Is Christ-like and Spirit-enabled     Four Actions of Humility 1. Humility Builds Churches Strong and Healthy 2. Our Goal is the Humility of Jesus 3. God Humbled Himself 4. Humility is Exalted   To the Apostle Paul, humility was the essence of unity in the church. He worked hard to demonstrate by his own example that a life of humility was challenging but rewarding. “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:5–7 (ESV) Paul knew the disciples had witnessed Jesus in the flesh showing them what a humble lifestyle looks like. His effort was to be as much like Christ as he’d heard about. “12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.’” John 13:12–15 (ESV) Ultimately, Pastor Chris encouraged us, humility transformed Jesus so that God might exalt Him. His name became powerful and brought glory to God the Father. Jesus exaltation was fourfold: resurrection, coronation, intercession, ascension. “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-10   3 Thoughts on Pride 1. God hates proud people Proverbs 6:16–17 (ESV) 16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, Proverbs 8:13 (ESV) 13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. 2. God humiliates proud people Proverbs 16:5 (ESV) 5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished. Proverbs 16:18 (ESV) 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 3. God opposes proud people James 4:6 (ESV) 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”   3 Key Actions to Cultivate Humility 1. Live Thankfully 2. Listen and agree with Word more than your thoughts 3. Invite and pursue correction and counsel   Discussion Questions 1. How do react when you hear an arrogant person at work or school? What thoughts come to mind? 2. Thinking about Paul’s message in chapter two, what do you suppose the followers in the Philippian church were struggling with? How do Christians today struggle with the same issues; how are they evident in the church? 3. Why do you think God hates pride so much? 4. How do you recognize your own prideful thoughts?   Application Questions 1. What steps will you take this week to uncover prideful thoughts and manners in your life? 2. Who will you share with, and ask prayer from, this week to replace your pride with humility?

View the Bulletin for Sunday December 29, 2019Service Times: 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.Bible Study: 9:15 a.m.Old Testament Reading -Isaiah 63:7–14I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD,according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israelthat he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior.In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them;in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit;therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people.Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit,who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths?Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble.Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.Epistle - Galatians 4:4–7When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we mightreceive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of hisSon into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son,and if a son, then an heir through God.The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the second chapterWhen [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared toJoseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, todestroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departedto Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what theLord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, becamefurious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all thatregion who were two years old or under, according to the time that he hadascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophetJeremiah:“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation,Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream toJoseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land ofIsrael, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took thechild and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard thatArchelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to gothere, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And hewent and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophetsmight be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Message: The gospel according to LukeText: Luke 18:9-14I’m glad that I am so good:Pharisee prayed to himself about someone else. Comparing himself to these 6 people was his only way to feel good about himself.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "…we must ask ourselves whether we often have not been deluding ourselves about our confession of sin to God - whether we have not instead been confessing our sins to ourselves and also forgiving ourselves. And is not the reason for our innumerable relapses and for the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living from self-forgiveness and not from the real forgiveness of our sins?"Praying for someone or about someone?Have mercy on me because I am so bad:Mercy is the 1st cousin to grace. Included is not being able to: pay, earn it, fight back, keep up…I surrender.Who do you think is the worst person in our church? Look around, who is the worst person in our sanctuary today?What person in your life is your biggest spiritual hindrance?

The Light Has DawnedJohn 1:1-14I. THE LIGHT REVEALS A. Jesus is revealed as the Word B. Jesus is revealed as eternally preexistent C. Jesus is revealed as God in the flesh D. Jesus is revealed as Creator of all things E. Jesus is revealed as LifeII. THE LIGHT IS REJECTEDIII. THE LIGHT IS RECEIVED

In this podcast I want to remind you of your intrinsic value to God and why that should matter to you. Genesis 1:27 NIV So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Created formed, shaped Fashioned from the very imagination of God into the likeness of God to be His representative. The fact that humans are made in the image of God is the very core of the sanity of life. Made like God...in His imagine... Grasp what the magnitude of that reality. You are made like God. God is Faithful and True (Rev 19:11) The Truth (John 14:6) Love (1 John 4:8) Just (2 Thess 1:6) All powerful (Matt 28:18) Holy (1 Peter 1:16) Everyone...regardless of their abilities or disabilities, beauty or blemishes, everyone of us is valuable beyond measure because they are God's masterpiece. Unique. Valuable, no priceless, Chosen Designed Loved Psalms 139:13-16 says it best 13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Quoting these Scriptures should be part of your regular routine. We were trying to sell a truck. We didn't use it very often; but it was in great shape and it should be benefiting someone. We put it up for sale at really good price. Almost immediately we began to get calls. Most of them were genuinely interested, but one man "low balled" our suggested price with the comment, "I'll give you $800 for the truck." It was a ridiculous price. Wayne, just chuckled, "Oh, no you won't! I know what this truck is worth." The reality is we don't know our worth. And that makes us sell ourselves short. Do you do that? Please don't do that anymore. 3 Reasons you need to know your worth. 1. It makes you confident. When you know your worth, you are confident. You walk in the confidence. You make better choices. You try new things. You step out of your safe little place. 2. It makes you more productive. You will accomplish more, because you begin to believe you are capable of achieving more... in life, in relationships and in your vocations. You will begin to value the talents and gifting inside and use them to give and/or create the things that would enrich your life and the people around you. 3. It even makes you more respectful of others. When you realize that being made in the imagine of God makes you incredibly valuable; you also recognize that it is the same thing that makes the person honking their horn at you on the highway valuable too. Or the person across the isle from you at work. Or your neighbor. That knowledge has made me more forgiving. I realize that person that just behaved like a "bonafide rascal" (isn't that a lovely name for them) is somebody that Jesus loves. When I'm having trouble forgiving, I deliberately remind myself, God loves so and so and I need to treat them accordingly. So how do you begin to recognize your intrinsic worth as a divine masterpiece of God? Stop using the wrong measuring tool! Your bathroom scales cannot tell you what you are worth...they only tell you what you weigh. Stop assigning the wrong metric to your weight. Your mirror reflects your face, but not your worth...don't give your mirror the power to assign your worth. Your mom's opinion, your husband complaint, your grade school teacher's insult is only a viewpoint, not an accurate evaluation of your worth. The only place you can discover your worth is through God's eyes. He gives you a glimpse of what His divine design for you to be in Scripture...He whispers it to you when you come into His presence...as you walk in obedience when you obey His instructions you see gifts that He has deposited in you... You were designed to plug into a power source...sorta like a hair dryer. You were made for God's Power. He wants to empower you. He has called you to partner with Him. Wow! Think about that for a minute. as you receive His love you'll be able to pour it out through your life...You'll experience His wisdom...His grace...to be and become all God made you to be. You might be surprised...but He won't; He saw it in you all along.   Have you rated this podcast yet? Please help me reach more people with encouragement!   Have you subscribed to the podcast? So you don't miss a single episode you will receive notification every time I publish a new podcast.

The Gifts of Tongues and Interpretation - November 2, 2019 - Steve MillerAs I was praying about this message some time ago, I felt like the Lord gave me three analogies to illustrate the purpose of speaking or praying in tongues.Lighter fluid – Sometimes conditions aren't ideal for starting a fire. Lighter fluid (or “boy scout water,” as my brother and nephew call it) gives your fire a “supernatural” boost.A key – There's no way to enter through a locked door, but a key is a small but precisely effective way to open the way that was impossible without it.A spark plug – You can have a perfectly designed car, plenty of good fuel, and plenty of air being mixed precisely right, but without the spark plug firing, fuel won't ignite so you've got no power. Spark plugs need to keep firing consistently for your car to keep running powerfully over the long haul.Acts 2:4 - All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 10:44-46 - 44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.Acts 19:6 - When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.I want to start out by saying that I believe that at least some form of the gift of tongues is available for every believer. Later in the message, we'll look at distinctions between different varieties of tongues or functions of the gift, and what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 12 when he asks “Do all speak with tongues?” (The implied answer is “no.”) And we do not teach that a person needs to speak in tongues in order to be a true Christian or to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. But in the three passages above, it's pretty clear that in these three groups of early believers, all involved received an ability to speak in tongues, not just a selected few. So let's start by looking at the nature and purpose of speaking in tongues, which tends to seem like a strange and ambiguous activity to us in the first place.Did you ever wonder why the Holy Spirit enables believers to speak in tongues and what is going on when we do?When we speak in tongues, who is speaking?We are speaking. The Holy Spirit is speaking. (See the verses above.)It's a cooperative effort. When we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit is providing words for us to speak, bypassing our cognitive thinking process. Therefore, it's not unreasonable to say that when we speak in tongues we are declaring the Word of God. We are speaking truth. The words we speak are just the right ones, for they come from the Holy Spirit, our Helper.So when we speak in tongues, just what are we speaking?1 Corinthians 14:1-2 - Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. When we speak in tongues, we speak to God. He understands what we are praying even though we don't.Strong's: mustérion (moos-tay'-ree-on): a mystery, secret, of which initiation is necessary; in the NT: the counsels of God, once hidden but now revealed in the Gospel or some fact thereof; the Christian revelation generally; particular truths or details of the Christian revelation. HELPS Word-studies: mystḗrion (the root of the English term, "mystery") – mystery. In the Bible, a "mystery" is not something unknowable. Rather, it is what can only be known through revelation, i.e. because God reveals it. This agrees with what Jesus said about sending the Holy Spirit:John 16:12-15 - 12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. According to Jesus, one of the Holy Spirit's main purposes is to reveal truth to us. How much? He has all the thoughts and wisdom and powerful Word that belongs to the Father and Jesus! And Jesus promised that the Spirit will take of what is His and declare it to us. That's rich.1 Corinthians 14:13-17 - 13Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. 16Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. It's reasonable to ask the Spirit to give you interpretation or understanding of the things you pray in tongues. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul makes it clear that an interpretation is necessary if someone gives a prayer or message in tongues in the public meeting. But if we ask, we should expect that the Holy Spirit will give us some interpretation when we pray in tongues privately, especially since Jesus said that communicating revelation from God to us is one of His chief activities.It's definitely prayer, or communication with God.It can be thanksgiving and praise to God.We can be declaring the wonders of God. Acts 2:11 – (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!I believe that this declaration in tongues is not just limited to praising God for the wonders that He has done in the past, although that is powerful. It also includes declaring what He is doing now in the present, as well as what He will do in the future. In this way, we can be making declarations prophetically and speaking life and God's will into situations with His authority, which will bring powerful and transformational results.It can be used in intercession.John Bevere shares a story of a young woman he led into the baptism of the Holy Spirit in college at Purdue University. The Spirit awoke her the next morning and impressed her to pray in tongues. While doing so, she asked the Spirit to give her an idea of what she was praying about, and the impression came that she was praying for an older man in a life-and-death emergency. Later, after feeling a release that she was finished, she soon discovered that she had been praying for her roommate's grandfather who had suffered a heart attack at exactly that time, and that his life had been saved.A parent at our school tells about a dream that she had in which she was praying in tongues about a car crash that happened, and the next day she saw in the news that a similar accident had actually happened during that night, and the parties involved had survived.Ephesians 6:18 - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. What kinds of speaking or praying in tongues are there? Can any believer potentially have this gift, or just selected ones of us?Now, doesn't 1 Corinthians 12 teach that we all have differing gifts? It asks, "Do all speak in tongues?" The implied answer is "no." But what particular gift of tongues is that referring to? David Pytches, in his book Spiritual Gifts in the Local Church, explains that the Bible shows different types or uses the gift of tongues:"There are apparently three distinct manifestations in the area of 'tongues': The use of tongues where utterance is not understood by the speaker, but overheard by members of the public, and, without interpretation, understood by those whose own language it is.This is tongues used as a sign, like happened in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.Cathy tells about young Mark and Mike Knudsen understanding a word in tongues given in the service here several weeks after they had been adopted from India.John Bevere tells of a woman on his staff who sat near the back of a service while he was preaching, and in a relatively quiet voice, prayed in tongues for him. After the service had ended, the man sitting in front of her turned around and said, “Ma'am, may I say that your French is excellent!” She responded that she didn't speak French. He replied that he was a French teacher, and throughout the service she had been speaking perfect French in a special, very old dialect. In fact, every time she would speak something in French, John would follow by preaching the same idea in English!The use of 'tongues' in public worship. The 'language' used is unknown and should be followed by an interpretation given by the Holy Spirit.The use of 'tongues' in private which needs no interpretation, though apparently this could be asked for. Most of those who use the gift in private have never exercised it in public worship. Public exercise is a distinct anointing, yet a link between the public and private use appears to exist, i.e. any person who exercises the gift of tongues in public almost invariably uses the gift in private."What are the benefits or fruit of praying in tongues?1 Corinthians 14:4 - The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.· Jude 20-21 - 20But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.· You are built up, or edified (as in building a house), when you pray in tongues.· Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so it's not unreasonable to expect that praying in tongues can bring healing, refreshment, rest to our bodies. Busy ministers testify that regular prayer in tongues helps prevent them from burnout.· Joseph Prince shared this testimony: “Doris, a young woman from Singapore, shared how she started to worry when her menstrual cycle stopped. For two years, she believed God for restoration of a regular cycle and described how her journey was like a roller coaster ride with some very low points when it got really difficult to stay in faith.“One day, she watched a sermon I had preached on praying in tongues. In that video, I taught on how tongues was like rivers of living water flowing out of the belly, pushing out defilement, edifying the spirit, and repairing the house of God — our bodies. She remembered how I had shared that the word for “belly” was also the word for “womb,” and she started to pray often in the Spirit every day and to partake of the Holy Communion each morning.“Doris shared, ‘This has become part of my morning routine. Through it, I have grown closer to the Lord in my spirit and I feel such shalom-peace in my heart every day. I also experienced my restoration after more than two years! Praise Jesus!'”· Joseph Prince continues: “Now please don't think that in talking about physical healing, I am downplaying the importance of building up your inner man ... Many times, when it comes to healing, God goes to the root first, removing your deep-seated fears, anxieties, past hurts, and erroneous beliefs — mental strongholds that need to be demolished — before He deals with your physical body. The medical profession has been telling people how chronic stress, worry, fears, and depression can lead to all kinds of physical ailments. So, certainly, take full advantage of praying in the Spirit to fortify your inner man and build yourself up in faith and in the love of God (ref.: Jude 1:20–21). But as you do, be cognisant of the truth that praying in tongues can also repair your physical body. God wants you whole in every way, inside out!”· In her book Chasing the Dragon, Jackie Pullinger tells about how she ministered to heroin addicts in Hong Kong in the 1970's. When these new, Spirit-filled believers experienced the awful withdrawal symptoms, they were told to pray in their prayer language, and as long as they did, the symptoms went away. In this way, they were able to be delivered from heroin addiction.· Praying in tongues seems to be a key for receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that He had much more to say to us, but that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide us into all truth. John Bevere talks about how, as he is writing his books, if he gets stuck, he will take time to pray in the Spirit, and as he does, inspired ideas and words will start coming into his mind. He tells a story about a time he was preaching in Mexico, and just before the meeting his host found out about some unexpected trouble from the local authorities. John went outside and prayed in tongues, and the Lord gave him specific direction about what to preach. The authorities who came to break up the meeting ended up getting saved.· John Bevere tells of very busy ministers who testify that regular praying in tongues brings them rest and refreshment that helps them avoid burnout. · Joseph Prince teaches about this rest effect of praying in tongues: “It is not just the daily demands and responsibilities of family and work that are stressing us out. We have an enemy called the devil and one of his objectives is to “wear out the saints of the most High” (Daniel 7:25, KJV). He does this by stirring up storms in our lives (quarrels, crises, stressful situations), planting anxious thoughts in our minds, and invoking in us feelings of inadequacy and panic. Many times, we respond by leaning on our own efforts to manage and solve a hundred and one things! After a while of running around trying to do this and that to make things work, we end up mentally and physically exhausted, ready to just fall apart.“Friend, if I have just described you, I want you to know that God did not design you to live a life of stress but to enjoy a life of rest. He has given you a powerful weapon to counter stress: praying in the Spirit, which is able to rebuild and repair your entire self from the inside out. It costs you nothing, has no bad side effects, and isn't dependent on external factors such as a quiet surrounding with mood lighting and soothing pan flute music. Tranquil environments are great — I myself like to take long walks in the park or along the beach. But what happens when you “come back to reality,” to the sound of blaring car horns, or your kids throwing their toys around and screaming at each other?“You need something that is more robust and goes deeper — God's peace that surpasses understanding. And you can come to this wonderful place of rest and refreshing as you pray in tongues and sense His presence and love. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (ref.: 2 Corinthians 3:17). Let His Spirit free you from stress, worry, and anxiety as you unwind through your heavenly language.“Perhaps you already know how to pray in the Sprit, but for some time now, you have not exercised this wonderful grace gift. Can I encourage you to start doing it again? “Beloved, the Lord beckons you to draw near to Him today as you pray in the Spirit. He invites you to come to Him if your heart is full of labour and heavy with worry, and He Himself will rest you (ref.: Matthew 11:28). Let Him drive out all fear and confusion.”· The edifying effects of speaking in tongues tend to be different from one person to another. Larry Christenson, in his book Speaking in Tongues, wrote: “When you get closer to people who have had this experience, and watch them over a longer period of time, you actually discover great variety in their experiences. Perhaps the working of the gift is something like this: As a person prays in tongues, he is edified – built up – in that part of his life where he most needs building up. This would seem consistent with the working of the Holy Spirit, for He always deals with us as individuals.”· Christensen reports of one woman who experienced a building up of her assurance of salvation, which had previously been an area of struggle. Another man reported that through tongues the Holy Spirit took away some habits that would have been hard to do by himself, such as smoking cigarettes. One evening, after work, he lit up a cigarette. “All at once,” he told, “that cigarette tasted so lousy it made me sick. I thought it was because I had a big cold in my head. I spit it out of my mouth – and I haven't touched one since. I tell you, the Lord just took that habit out of me by the roots. Man, when the Lord cleans you out, He really cleans you out good!”· Cathy and I have both experienced times in our lives when we've been attacked by irrational fears or phobias. At those times, when we have prayed in tongues, we've both experienced calming and peace as we did so.· Christensen again: “The edification which one experiences through the exercise of speaking in tongues is on a highly individual basis. Your own program of sanctification is tailor-made by the Holy Spirit according to your individual need, and according to the place He is preparing you for in the Body of Christ.”· I feel like the gift of tongues is like a box full of wonderful treasures for my own life and for others, and I want to do so more and more with the expectation of wondering what great thing the Holy Spirit wants to do in me, my circumstances, the lives of those I know, and even believers, unbelievers, leaders, and nations around the world that I don't even know!How can I receive my prayer language in tongues or become more fluent in using it?This is Bob Heil's testimony of his struggle to learn to use his prayer language from his book Lessons From the Furnace (p. 39-42). As a Lutheran pastor, Bob had been prayed for by a group of pastors to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and He had felt a strong feeling of faith and even a physical “electricity” sensation at that time from God as a confirmation that he had received it. But he had not started speaking in tongues. That night I was sound asleep at about two o'clock in the morning when the Lord came into the room. Again there was the sensation of electricity going through me – wave after wave of it. I awoke and could hardly breathe. I knew the Lord was standing there. I could not hear Him; I could not see Him or touch Him, but I knew He was there and that He wanted me to pray. I went into the living room in the dark and began to pray. I tried desperately to pray in tongues. There had been an earlier day when I had despised tongues, when I had said, “God, give me the Holy Spirit, but not tongues.” I had thought it was the kookiest thing I had ever heard of. But sudden conviction had come from God, and He had spoken to me.“Who are you to despise My gift?”I said, “Oh, Lord, I am sorry, but it is the least of all Your gifts.”The Lord replied, “Who told you it is the least of My gifts? The Scriptures do not say that. Besides, who are you that you think you deserve more than the least of My gifts?” I repented that instant.Now I was asking God to give me the gift of tongues. I did not want to miss any blessing from God. I knelt there in the dark crying out to God for the gift. I pointed to my mouth, saying, “Ah, ah.” But nothing came. Finally I said, “All right, God, then help me to pray in English. Guide my thoughts and help me to pour out my heart to You, for I must pray.” Suddenly my mind welled forth with thoughts and I poured them out to God.For almost two hours I was there on my knees in the living room. The prayer was in English, but now the Lord guided the thoughts! It was never repetitious, never hum-drum. What a blessing! It was rich and alive – the most powerful prayer session I had ever had.I could have prayed in tongues then, or in any of the weeks and months that followed, but I did not know how. Finally after four months of desperation I cried, “God, I give up. I just give up; I can't wait any longer. I will just make sounds to You. I will dedicate the sounds and you will have to put them together. I don't know how, but I have got to do something.” I began to make sounds and spoke what was about two sentences worth of sounds and stopped. I said, “No, that was only me,” and I did not do it again for several weeks.Again I became so hungry for the blessing. I yearned to pray in tongues, because I wanted every bit of edification I could get my hands on. So once again I decided to pray sounds to God. I began making these utterances and this time I went on for what was perhaps a few paragraphs. Then I stopped. I thought to myself, “Was that me or not?” It was enough to turn me off so that for several weeks I said nothing else in tongues.Finally I was at a regional convention of the Full Gospel Business Men. There was a great sermon that morning and I became so thrilled and happy. During the prayer time afterwards I made up my mind to just keep making sounds until something happened. It took about five minutes, but gradually I began to feel my heart break through. I grew bolder and began to trust more and more new sounds. I stopped worrying whether it was me or not. I had dedicated the language to God. It began to flow more and more and my heart began to rise like a rocket off the launching pad. My praise ascended to God.Ever since that day it has been sweet and beautiful. By dedicating new sounds to my baby prayer language, it quickly blossomed forth full-grown. Then I realized it had been there all along – just waiting for me to use it. Just as I prayed in English, I was to do the praying in tongues. God had not put it in my mind or my throat. He had put it in my spirit. Not only that, but I could use it whenever I wanted. It was God's gift and God does not take back His gifts. He says “His gifts and callings are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). If you have ever had it, you have still got it. Just open your heart and your mouth and pray to God in sounds. Leave the results and any correction up to Him.In teaching the Corinthian church about using tongues in the church meeting, Paul says a couple things that imply that the personal prayer language gift is available to all believers.1 Corinthians 14:5a - 5Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:18 - I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. The Lord promises us that when we sincerely and earnestly ask Him for a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, He will not disappoint us.Jeremiah 29:13-14a - 13"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity."Luke 11:13 - "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”Basically, to receive the gift of tongues we should sincerely ask for it. It's a good thing, and Jesus is encouraged us to believe confidently that our Father will give us the Holy Spirit and the good gifts that He may bring. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:31: "But earnestly desire the higher gifts," and as we read earlier, 1 Corinthians 14:1 echoes: "earnestly desire the spiritual gifts."If you've never prayed in tongues, what should you expect? Does the Holy Spirit possess you and you start speaking uncontrollably? No, it's generally a cooperative effort. Acts says that "they spoke in tongues as the Spirit enabled them."What should we do? A good word is "yield." John Bevere uses the imagery of wading into a gentle river or creek. You can fight to stand up straight and not be moved by the current, or you can relax, yield to it, and let it carry you along. It seems that a key part of cooperation with the Holy Spirit is surrender or yielding. It is saying "yes" to Him.I have been a believer in Jesus since I was very young, but I was never taught about the baptism of the Holy Spirit until I was a 5th-grader at Family Bible Camp here at COC. I remember that Leslie Barker taught us in the morning kids' lesson in the old fellowship building, and then the kids from here (perhaps Cathy included) gathered around my brother Tim and me and laid hands on us and prayed for us. They said that we should expect to pray in tongues, but I wasn't sure what it would be like or how to do it. I did believe it and expected to receive the gift, though. So during my growing up, I knew I had been baptized with the Spirit, and I prayed in tongues a little, but sometimes had doubts about whether I was really praying in the Spirit or if it was just me. Then, during the summer after I had just graduated from college, I was at summer camp here and Bob Heil had returned to preach at it. That night here in the chapel, he taught about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, sharing his own testimony and struggle about receiving the gift of tongues, and inviting anyone who hadn't ever prayed in tongues or had doubts about it to stay afterward, and he would get us praying in tongues. So a friend and I stayed in the chapel with Bob and others, and I remember kneeling in the back row as he told us to just start believing and yield our mouths to speak. I started speaking in tongues with great confidence, and at the same time I was overtaken by hilarious belly laughter, and so was my friend. I knew that this was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, not just me being silly. I was full of joy and realized that the Holy Spirit was reaffirming in me a confidence that, yes, He indeed had given me this gift and I should never again doubt it, but use it confidently. Praise the Lord!John 16:7 - 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. Ephesians 6:18 – And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. I sincerely believe that the devil greatly fears a Church who makes good use of the gift of tongues, so it's no wonder that he works in many ways to keep us from believing in it, or receiving it, or making use of it. Let's eagerly desire and pursue this gift in our lives and expectantly see what the Holy Spirit will do with it in our lives, our families, our church, and in the world around us!

Written and Vocals By: NICOLE - TAYAN Like, Add, Share, & Subscribe! Thank you:) Instagram @ iamnicoletayan I send blessings of peace, joy, and love!!! All rights reserved. Psalms Chapter 116 1I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. 2Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. 3The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. 4Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. 6The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. 7Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. 8For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 9I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. 10I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: 11I said in my haste, All men are liars. 12What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? 13I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. 14I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. 15Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. 16O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. 17I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. 18I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, 19In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.

2 Corinthians 13:1-14I. A Final Warning to the Corinthians – 1-4II. A Final Charge to the Corinthians – 5-10III. A Final Encouragement to the Corinthians – 11-14

Labor Of Love, Overcomer Movie Series Part 3For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name. Hebrews 6:10 For we never fail to remember your works of faith and labours of love and your persistent and unwavering hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father; Thessalonians 1:3 “This is what you are. This is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on and enjoyed throughout your life - your soul, your immortality, your life in others. This will be you-the you that enters the future and becomes a part of it.” ― Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” – Max DePreeYOU CAN TEACH WHAT YOU KNOW, BUT YOU CAN ONLY REPRODUCE WHAT YOU ARE.1 Timothy 1:1,2 1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,2To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.Being a spiritual father is not related to gender, and a woman can function as a spiritual father just as well as a man (Gal. 3:28). General Douglas MacArthur Was Named Father Of The Year In 1942“By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder — infinitely prouder — to be a father.A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still.What is a Spiritual Father? Spiritual Father is one that is used to reproduce spiritual children. 1 John 2:12 - 14 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. 14I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” What Do Spiritual Fathers/Mothers Do?I Corinthians 4:14 - 21, 14 “I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. 15Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. 18Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit? IMPLANT - my dear children.CLAIM - do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospelEXAMPLE - imitate meTEACH - what I teach everywhere in every church.DEMONSTRATE - kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. DISCIPLINE - Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit? General MacArthur’s Father’s Prayer“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and g

JEREMIAH 48:In yesterday’s reading, the Lord began giving oracles about different nations, with one chapter concerning Egypt and the next one about Philistia. Today we’ll hear about Moab. PROVERBS 9:Today’s chapter is the last of the thematic chapters at the beginning of this book. Lady Wisdom speaks, and we find that she is opposed by Lady [Folly/Stupidity]. 1JOHN 2:John continues to address us as his dear children, and tells us things that we must know in order to be on guard and remain in fellowship with the Father and the Son. GNT Translation notes:Jer. 48:13 [GNT Then the Moabites will be disillusioned with their god Chemosh, just as the Israelites were disillusioned with Bethel, a god in whom they trusted.//NLT 13 At last Moab will be ashamed of his idol Chemosh, as the people of Israel were ashamed of their gold calf at Bethel.]====Pro. 9:18 Her victims do not know that the people [who go to her house die//die who go to her house], that those who have already entered are now deep in the world of the dead.====1Jn. 2:5 But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can [know for sure//be sure] that we are in union with God:6 if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live [in the same way//just] as Jesus Christ [lived//did].8 However, the command I now write [to] you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.14 [So (let me emphasize)] I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know [God’s Son//him] who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One. NLT Translation notes:Pro. 9:7 Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.[I think we might as well let Lady Wisdom speak all the way through here.]11 [I,] Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.12 If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit.If you scorn [me,] wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.====1Jn. 2:6 Those who say they live in [unity, joined with] God should live their lives as Jesus did.9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates [his/a] Christian brother or sister,a that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves [his/another] brother[s and/or] sister[s] is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.11 But anyone who hates [his/another] brother[s and/or] sister[s] is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.12 I am writing to you who are [my dear//God’s] childrenbecause your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.14I have written to you who are [my/God’s] childrenbecause you know the Father.I have written to you who are mature in the faithbecause you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.I have written to you who are young in the faithbecause you are strong.God’s word lives in your hearts,and you have won your battle with the evil one.20 But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,and [that is why] all of you know the truth. 21 So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you [already] know the difference between truth and lies. 22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is [a follower of the/an] antichrist.

Wonderfully Made, Psalm 139 | Home Album Series | August 11, 2019Psalm 139:1 - 61You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.GOD MADE MY HIGH PLACES vs. 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: GOD MADE MY HELLISH PLACES vs. 8if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.“Make My Bed” – (Hebrew: yatsa'; to strew as a surface, to spread it out.)“Hell” – (Hebrew: she'owl; hades or the world of the dead - grave, pit.) Sin Always Causes Pain. Pain Always Seeks Pleasure.Pain Makes Truth Seem Irrelevant. GOD MADE MY HIDDEN PLACES vss. 9-10 [Hidden Brick Story]9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. You’re Only As Sick As Your Secrets. [Learned To Hide Things, Jen Testimony]“Wings” - means the edge or the extremity. “Uttermost” means the last or the end.“Lead” – Hebrew: nachah; to guide; by implication it means to transport (into exile, or as colonists).“Right Hand” – Speaks of the place of favor.“Hold” – Hebrew: achaz; to seize or hold in possession.Psalm 139: 13-16 13For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.aWonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15Nothing about me is hidden from you! I was secretly woven togetherout of human sight, 16but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your bookeverything about me.

The Graves Are Opening - Ezekiel 37:1-13 NIV1The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, y ou alone know.”4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”7So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lordsays: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.11Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”Matthew 27:51-54 51Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart, 52the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life. 53They left the graves, and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them. 54When the army officer and the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, “He really was the Son of God!”GRAVE CLOTHES & GRACE CLOTHESRomans 6 New Life Version (NLV)What does this mean? Are we to keep on sinning so that God will give us more of His grace? 2No, not at all! We are dead to sin. How then can we keep on living in sin? 3All of us were baptized to show we belong to Christ. We were baptized first of all to show His death. 4We were buried in baptism as Christ was buried in death. As Christ was raised from the dead by the great power of God, so we will have new life also. 5If we have become one with Christ in His death, we will be one with Him in being raised from the dead to new life.

In this episode, Korean Congregation Pastor, Rev. John Kim preaches on 2 Kings 7:6-7 // 2019.07.14I. Kingdom VisionII. Second Coming of Jesus ChristIII. The Great CommissionIV. Power of the Holy SpiritV. Christian’s Identity as a PriestFellowship EChttp://www.fellowshipec.org | @fellowshipec

In this episode of Beneath the Subsurface we introduce our Geoscience and Data & Analytics intern teams for our summer internship program. Erica kicks off the episode with Jason and Sri talking about how the programs have come about and changed overtime here at TGS, how they select and recruit for the program, and the scope of the projects that the internships tackle this summer. Erica then spends time with both teams of interns discussing the experience in the program, what they’ve learned, and everything they’ll be taking away and applying back to their studies and upcoming careers. TABLE OF CONTENTS00:00 - Intro00:50 - Team Leader Segment with Jason and Sri01:09 - The Geoscience Internship Program04:42 - The Data & Analytics Internship Program07:29 - Advice for Program Applicants11:54 - Data & Analytics Intern Team Introductions13:32 - The D&A Summer Projects15:18 - Lessons Learned Pt. 117:20 - The TGS Internship Experience Pt. 120:24 - Future Careers21:41 - Advice for Future Interns & Reasons to Apply Pt. 124:34 - Valuable Take Aways Pt. 126:01 - Geoscience Intern Team Introductions28:36 - The Geoscience Summer Projects31:33 - Lessons Learned Pt. 233:14 - The TGS Internship Experience Pt. 234:12 - Advice for Future Interns & Reasons to Apply Pt. 239:28 - Valuable Take Aways Pt. 2EXPLORE MORE FROM THE EPISODEARLASSALT NET TGS DATA LIBRARYEPISODE TRANSCRIPTErica Conedera:00:12Hello and welcome to Beneath the Subsurface a podcast that explores the intersection of geoscience and technology. From the Software Development Department here at TGS, I'm your host, Erica Conedera. This time around, we'll be chatting with our newest batch of intrepid students in TGS' dynamic and immersive internship program. As you will hear, they are a diverse group of future innovators from around the world. They bring with them a wide range of skills and interests and work together to collaborate on exciting real world projects. We'll start our conversation today with a quick introduction from the leaders of our internship program. I'm here with Sri Kainkarayam, the data science lead and Jason Kegel with the geoscience team who heads up the geoscience intern program. And we're going to talk a little bit about the internship programs. Jason, how has this program changed in the last five years?Jason Kegel:01:09When we first started the program, I want to say 2013, 2014, it was out of the Calgary office in Canada. The interns there were mainly from some of our Calgary schools nearby. And then it started to grow 2014, 2015 to include some of our Texas schools, UT, Baylor, University of Houston. As it's grown, we've decided to add more projects and more sort of interesting work to the projects. We've also been able to bring on some of our original interns into roles within the company. So over the last five years, I'd say the biggest thing that's grown is the, the number of interns. So in Calgary, when this first started we had one intern and then that same intern came back a second year and we brought another one on. And then we got one in Houston. And then as that grew, we had a couple in Houston and a couple in Calgary.Jason: 02:09And then the past couple of years we've had four each year. So we had four last year and four this year. So we've really been able to sort of guide new projects around that to where we can really include their schoolwork and what they're doing in their university work with what we're doing here at TGS and hopefully build a sort of cohesive project for them to work on. And that's sort of the struggle with a lot of internship projects that we've done over the past years is to incorporate what they want to do as students and as interns and as their career grows, with what we'd like to see them do and encourage them to do within TGS.Erica:02:49Does that go into the consideration of which interns you end up picking, what their specialties are or what they're looking to do with what you need?Jason:02:58No, not necessarily, a lot of the times the interns, so for example, last year we were working very closely with a couple of schools that we wanted to bring data into. So some of our production data our Longbow group into with the University of Lafayette. So we were working really closely with a few professors out of that school and a few professors with UH. So we had recommendations from the professors themselves with students that they thought might work nicely with us with - in terms of their knowledge of data already and their knowledge of well log use and seismic, so they can kind of jump in running without having to learn too much in the beginning, without too much of a learning curve. So in aspects of that, and that's, that's more that we look for. So the, the professors we're working with, along with how long it will take them to, to get up and running with things.Jason:03:51Our current group of students is sort of a more advanced set of students who are working on their PhDs or in their later years of their master's degrees. So they've already seen a lot of these areas and worked with a lot of the data. So we do look for sort of more advanced students now, whereas when we first started the program, we were, we were happy to get anybody, some people that were not sure if they were going to be geoscientists, but you know, we're in the geoscience program with their bachelor's and that was okay too. I think we still got a lot out of having them here, working with us. but as we've grown, we've been putting them on more and more advanced projects and they've really been able to help out.Erica:04:29Cool, sounds like they've added a lot of value.Jason:04:30They definitely do. And it's nice to have sort of fresh faces around in the summertime and, and it really, really fills in for everybody that goes on vacation in the summer.Erica:04:39(Laughter) Right? Awesome.Jason:04:39The office doesn't seem so empty.Erica:04:42Awesome. So for the data analytics team, the internship program is new. I think this is your first batch of interns, correct Sri?Sri Kainkaryam:04:57Yes. So the data science team started sometime around November, 2017 so this is, although this has been our second summer, this is our first batch of interns that are projects, both, trying to test out novel algorithms, novel approaches, also try and apply ideas from high performance computing to building workflows, and also try and build sort of, user interfaces or ability to, deploy these for various users. So, there are broadly three buckets in which these projects fall into. And, it's an, it's, it was an interesting time looking for an intern because data science as, as a domain is, sits at the intersection of sort of three, broadly non intersecting sets, right? So geoscience, computing as well as machine learning or deep learning and folks having adequate background in all three of them, they sort of fit the -the mold of a good intern.Sri:06:02So it was in some sense was a little hard initially to try and find an intern. So I think we have a talented group of interns working on two of the broad offerings that we have right now. One of them is Salt Net, that is trying to interpret salt bodies from seismic images, and one is called ARLAS that is curve completion and aspects of petrophysics that can be done on, on wells that are available in an entire basin. So, it's, it's been four weeks into the internship program and the interns, the interns are pretty smart. They're motivated and it's been a fun experience so far.Erica:06:43Is it a 12 week program in total?Sri:06:46It's around a 12 week program. Some of them I think are here for a little longer than that. So, one of them is, trying to build a tensorflow port of our salt network flow because tensorflow community comes with a bunch of advantages such as, like, ability to deploy, it also comes with a JavaScript library called tensorflow JS that that makes it easy to do machine learning in the browser. So we want to make use of that infrastructure and the community built infrastructure. And that's one of the reasons why, one of the interns is spending time trying to build, trying to put our workflow in onto tensorflow.Erica:07:29So if you guys had some advice to give to people looking to get into the internship program, would you have anything you'd want to let them know?Sri:07:37So from the perspective of data science internships, given that how fast the field is moving, especially for students looking for data science internships in, in the space of oil and gas, the first and foremost thing is having an ability to understand various aspects, various various sources of data or aspects of data in the upstream domain. Because, just to give you an example, somebody who's worked on deep learning of natural images throughout, the moment you try and apply similar algorithms onto seismic images, it's a completely different domain. So, what are the, what are some of the assumptions that you can make? And that's where having a strong domain background really helps.Sri:08:30And I think the second thing that is, that's becoming very important in the marketplace right now is, is with, with platforms like GitHub or, you know, various open source projects. You can actually showcase your code. So pick a problem, learn a few, learn some approaches or try out some novel approaches, and put out the code out there. Put that on your resume because that adds a lot of weight, in your, in your ability to make a case for an internship rather than somebody who hasn't, who says, oh, I have, I have a strong programming background, but there's no way for somebody who's evaluating the person to see the code. So that these days has become a really strong advantage for, for a lot of students. So a couple of the students that are working with us this summer, they actually have active GitHub profiles where they've posted code, they've contributed code, various projects and so on. And as a consequence, like we looked at their profiles and backgrounds and like, oh, this is an obvious fit to our group and this person also has a background. A couple of them were like Ph.D students in geophysics, so it's an obvious fit for our team. So it was, it was all, it was a no-brainer for us to get them to come work with us this summer,Erica:09:53Jason?Jason:09:53On the geoscience side, it's, it's quite a bit different really. A lot of the students that are in university going for, for geoscience and wanting to go into the oil and gas industry have mainly just academic experience. So we really just want somebody that can sort of get up to speed quickly with sort of what an explorationist in an oil and gas company would do is look at essentially what we're bringing them in to do is what a sort of a mini, really quick exploration studies on basins where they don't have to go full on to drill a well, but they still need to have the ideas behind it where they can use the data, they have to evaluate an area and come up to speed quickly with, with getting those presentations out. So having really good presentation skills and having just a background enough to be able to learn on their own and pick up concepts quickly really helps. We see that a lot with, since we do get a lot of our interns through their advisors at different universities, that that really helps. But it also doesn't hinder it. We've also had lots of students that have applied, that have came from different universities where we don't know the advisors and it's just a matter of them going through the interview process and showcasing that they're, they're able to get to speed quickly. So, anybody can really go, go and do this type of work if they have the, the ability to learn.Erica:11:14Awesome.Sri:11:14I think that's an interesting point that Jason brought up. The ability to learn things fast and, sort of the ability to, appreciate various data sets and trying to understand and bring them together. I think that's a huge advantage for, for students. And based on my interaction with students in our group as well as Jason's group, I think TGS this summer has a fabulous group of interns.Erica:11:43Okay. Well thank you guys for talking to us about the internship program and we're very happy to talk to your respective groups and see what they have to say. Thank you.Sri:11:52Thank very much.Jason:11:53Thank you.Erica:11:56I'm sitting here with our first group of interns from the data and analytics group. To my left, we have Michael Turek from Florida State University. His major is computer science. He has a B.S. In computer science as an Undergrad. What are your career goals? What are you working towards?Michael Turek:12:15Yes. So part of me taking an internship here at TGS was to help figure that out. And so, well, you know, my interests rely mostly in machine learning and things like this. So something pretty, along those lines.Erica:12:31Awesome. Well we hope you, we'll help you figure that out. While you're here. Going around the table, we have Lingxiao Jia from the University of Wyoming. Your major is geophysics and you're working towards your PhD studying seismic imaging, migration and inversion. What kind of career are you working towards?Lingxiao Jia:12:50I plan to work as a Geoscientist in the oil and gas industry.Erica:12:56Awesome.Lingxiao:12:56Yeah, I like to do programming, so mostly on that.Erica:13:06Cool. All right. And then to my right, we had Deepthi Sen, from Texas A&M, majoring in petroleum engineering, working towards your PhD, studying reservoir engineering. What's your career goal, Ms. Deepthi?Deepthi Sen:13:21I'd like to, get a full time employment in the oil industry, preferably working on something related to machine learning in reservoir engineering. So yeah, that's why one of the reasons why I'm here too.Erica:13:33Awesome. Yeah. Oh, we're glad all of you are here. So can you guys describe for us, the projects you're working on? I'm not sure if you guys are all working on the same project or if you're working on different projects.Deepthi:13:45We are working on different projects. So right now I'm working on something which, involves clustering well logs, into good and bad, sections.Deepthi:13:57I use machine learning and a few algorithms that I use for my graduate research too.Erica:14:04Very cool. What's a bad section?Deepthi:14:07A bad section as in, there are certain depths at which, certain well logs behave erratically so we want, do not want to use that data, so we have to cluster it out. So, in order to do that manually for, you know, thousands of wells, it's impossible. So that's where machine learning comes into play.Erica:14:27Very cool. Very useful too. Lingxiao?Lingxiao:14:32I'll be working on using machine learning to do the recognition of geoscience features. For example, there could be faults, it could be picking horizons, could be recognizing salt domes, something like that.Erica:14:48Wow. Very complex and over my head. (Laughter) I'm sure it's very important though. And you, sir?Michael:14:57Yeah, so I'm working on translating the models that TGS' data analytics team uses to predict salt patches in the earth. So they use, they use models written in a module called Pi Torch and I'm converting that to tensorflow 2.0Erica:15:17Cool. Very cool. So what have you guys learned along the way so far? I know this is kind of the beginning for you, but-Michael:15:28Yeah, so it's, it's somewhat difficult to- so much, is kind of the answer to that question. But a lot of what I've learned boils down to more of the theory side of machine learning. Coming into the internship I didn't know a whole lot about the backend of machine learning, mostly just applying it. So learning how all these models work and why they work and things like that in terms of, the actual actually applying machine learning. That's what I've learned. I've also learned though, perhaps more importantly, working with a team and collaborating and things like that, which has been-Erica:16:10So hands on, real-world experience. What do you guys say to that? Ladies, I should say (Laughter) to my right.Deepthi:16:17So as I said, the research that I do is again, on machine learning. So I get to use similar algorithms to another, I would say facet of oil and gas. So I worked in reservoir engineering back in Grad school. Here I'm working on, petrophysics, so I kind of see how the same algorithms and same concepts can be applied in two different, areas, which is quite eye opening. Yeah. And apart from that I'm learning new algorithms and learning new math, which, I would think that's very important for, for my Grad school too, so, one good thing about TGS is that, they are quite, you know, they don't mind, publishing. So as a PhD student, that's very important to me. So that's one thing I look forward to too.Erica:17:08Yeah. Awesome.Lingxiao:17:10For me, it has helped me get a deeper understanding of how much, how machine learning works and how it could be applied to the field of Geo Sciences.Erica:17:20Cool. So talking about TGS more broadly, like as a culture, how would you say it's like working here, if someone were to ask you from school, what's it like working at TGS? What's that company like? What would you say?Deephti:17:36It's a very friendly atmosphere and, it is different from Grad School, in the sense that, I think Grad School, hours are more flexible than in an industry environment. But then, the focus is different and this is more, you know, I would think this more social than Grad school and, you know, being here, this is my first internship in the US, the environment is very friendly and you know, people look out for each other it's great.Erica:18:15Cool.Lingxiao:18:15Yeah. People here are so helpful and the, I have had a great time. I really enjoy this internship by far. Yeah.Erica:18:26Awesome.Michael:18:26It's wonderful. You're working in small teams and so you get to know everyone pretty well. It's very tight knit and those people are smart and very helpful kind people. It's, it's, it's wonderful.Erica:18:37Cool. Any surprises along the way? Anything you weren't expecting?Michael:18:44So, no, I wouldn't say there's anything that surprised me. I mean apart from the environment I had a much more perhaps rigid definition of, you know, you go to work and do your job and that's kind of that, but it's much more relaxed and that was, I guess, somewhat surprising.Erica:19:01Okay. I like that. Yeah. How bad the drive was maybe?Deepthi:19:06Yeah, I stay close by.Erica:19:09That's good. That's the way to do it. (Laughter) Yeah. What are you guys looking forward to for the remainder of your internships?Michael:19:17Yeah, so I'm looking forward since I'm rewriting these, these models and an interface for them, it'll be exciting to see them, how they perform and also to actually see the data and analytics team using them and hopefully finding them useful.Erica:19:31Yeah to see value for what you're working on. Absolutely.Deepthi:19:34So I'm about to finish the first part of my project, so I would like to wrap it up, you know, produce some good results and maybe get a publication out of it. And after that, yeah, I have a plan for what is to be done next, regarding the same, using the same similar approach but in a different setting. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to that.Erica:19:59Can you tell us what the different setting is or is that classified?Deepthi:20:03I'm not sure. (Laughter)Erica:20:05Right. We'll leave that one alone.Lingxiao:20:08So doing an internship here at TGS is an amazing adventure. I learn and discover new things everyday and I feel time passes very quickly, and everything is moving at a timely manner. So it's pretty good.Erica:20:24Nice. So I think we kind of touched upon how you guys are going to apply what you've learned here, at your careers as you go forward. Is there any particular job title that you guys think you're going to go towards?Deepthi:20:44Yeah. I probably will be going for a data scientist role, or I can say because of my background in reservoir engineering, I can go both on the data and science roles or the reservoir engineering roles. But yeah, from my experience here, I would, I think I would prefer to go to the data and data science roles because, there are like lots of opportunities out there and, the experience that I've gained here, I, I think it's going to be very helpful finding a full time position later on. Yeah.Lingxiao:21:18I could consider becoming a Geoscientist in the oil and gas or becoming a structural engineer because I have a programming background.Michael:21:32Yeah. I wouldn't say I have any career title I'm, I'm seeking out, but perhaps data scientist, but I'm not sure.Erica:21:41So what advice would you give to the interns who are going to be coming behind you?Michael:21:46Yeah. So probably to just build strong relationships with the team that you're in. Learn as much as you can, as deeply as you can.Deepthi:21:58Yeah. I would suggest that before coming in, you can go through, or if they have a set plan for you. In my case they did. So I had read up and you know, known what I'm going to work on so you can, you know, straight away start working on the project you have a rather than, you know, spend a lot of time, reading up those things that can happen before you start the internship. And yes, once you're here, it's, very important to like keep in touch, you know, meet the mentors every day or you know, update them so you have a clear path that you need to, yeah.Erica:22:44Lingxiao?Lingxiao:22:44I would suggest to go talk with people and you see what everyone is working on.Erica:22:51So learn, learn what other people are doing as well.Lingxiao:22:55Yeah.Erica:22:55That, yeah, that makes good sense. So why did you guys apply for the internships here?Michael:23:05So I applied, cause I was just looking for an internship and I had heard that, well I had heard that, (Laughter)Erica:23:14Honest.Michael:23:14(Laughter) I had heard good reviews from people who I respect and and I knew that they had a new data and analytics team doing machine learning, doing things with machine learning. That piqued my interest. And so I told them I was interested.Erica:23:28So kind of diverge off of that. So what programs are you guys using? Like actual hands on programs?Michael:23:36Yeah. So, programs for me are pretty, pretty simple. I use, a coding ID, visual Studio Code, and an Internet browser.Erica:23:43Whoa, okay.Michael:23:46I do that to do my work.Erica:23:47Google and a calculator, alright.Michael:23:49Yeah, pretty much.Erica:23:52Deepthi?Deepthi:23:52Uh, what was the question again?Erica:23:56What programs do you guys use?Deepthi:23:59Again, I guess we are in the process of making a program, so what I use is just Jupyter, it's very basic.Erica:23:59It's built on Python correct?Deepthi:23:59Yes, it is Python, I use Jupyter ID, and I'm in the process of making something useful from scratch.Erica:24:22So lastly, would you guys recommend a TGS internship to your fellow students?All:24:27Yes, definitely. Yes. Yes, yes. Yeah. Awesome. Yes.Erica:24:34Okay. So open question to the table. What are you going to take back to your program that you learned from your internship here? Starting with Michael to the left?Michael:24:42Yeah, so I'm learning a lot about machine learning and so in computer science that's obviously going to be a direct parallel. I can take that back. But I really think that what I'm learning most here that I'll take back is just how to collaborate with people, how to talk with people in a team and work in that way. I think that'll -Erica:25:05Life skills.Michael:25:11Yes.Erica:25:11Lingxiao?Lingxiao:25:11So, since machine learning in such a hot topic. Now, the work that I did here could be really extended into a project in my PhD research. So, yeah I'm currently working on that.Erica:25:28Awesome. Deepthi?Deepthi:25:29So right now we're working on a clustering of time series data. So my, one of the projects that I'm working, at my Grad school is also on time series data, and I think I might be able to, you know, use the insights that I gained from, from TGS, directly to my, research. So that's something that I'm looking forward to.Erica:25:52Awesome. Okay, well thank you guys for talking with us today and I guess we'll let you get back to work now.Michael:25:59Thank you for having us.Deepthi:26:00Thank you.Lingxiao:26:01Thank you.Erica:26:01And now our last group for this episode, the geoscience interns.Erica:26:08Going around the table clockwise, we have Sean Romito. You're from the University of Houston, majoring in geology. You are working towards your PhD and you are studying magnetic basement structure of the Caribbean plate, tectonostratigraphy of South Gabon and Camamu-Almada conjugate basins. I totally know what all of that means. What career are you working towards?Sean Romito:26:35Oh, hello. Thank you for having me. Definitely exploration Geoscientist, this is kind of where I've been propelling my career, ever since I started with a bachelor's and I've just kinda been stepping towards that goal.Erica:26:51Awesome. All right. Now we have Geoff Jackson from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Majoring in petroleum geology. Your program is a master's degree and you graduated last spring. Congratulations!Geoff Jackson:27:07Thank you!Erica:27:07You studied a prospect lead off of a salt dome in southern Louisiana, and you cannot give us any more details than that.Geoff:27:14Unfortunately yes.Erica:27:14Very mysterious. So what, what are your career goals?Geoff:27:19Uh, similar to Sean's I was going to say, I can probably speak for the group here, but we're all just trying to be geologists and getting on with an operator, going to say probably best case scenario.Erica:27:28Awesome. Next we have Hualing Zhang, from the University of Houston, majoring in geology, working towards a PhD. And you're studying structural analysis and gravity modeling in the Permian Basin in West Texas. And you are originally from Urumqi, Northwest China and you got interested in geology about traveling around. That is so cool. So is your career goal the same?Hualing:27:53Yeah, basically similar, I'm working towards a career goal in the oil industry. Yeah. Since, like, my dad is also a geologist. Yeah. He works in PetroChina. So yeah, that's also my career goal.Erica:28:08Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. All right. And lastly, Cahill Kelleghan from Colorado School of Mines, majoring in geology. You're working towards a Masters of science and geology, and you're studying sedimentology and basin analysis / modeling with your thesis being in the Delaware Basin. So career goals?Cahill:28:28I'm pretty similar. I like to be in exploration geology and I really like sedimentology. So yeah, just applied geo science.Erica:28:36Awesome. Cool. So can you describe for us the projects that you guys are working on this summer? Same project or different project?Sean:28:46TGS has kind of tasked us with, I'm putting together some potential prospects or ideas of places we can look and most of that's going to be happening, well, we think it'd be North America and North American basins. And so we've kind of gotten access to some of their pretty amazing software, access to a lot of different databases and kind of putting that all together for a big picture of something useful that they can hopefully use from our projects. So I don't know if you guys want to add anything.Geoff:29:15Yeah, I mean, for one thing with these projects that's been very helpful to leverage the software that TGS has, specifically Longbow and access to their wealth of onshore well data that they have there. So we've been kind of bringing all of that together to generate these areas where we think that we should move further into as a company.Hualing:29:40Yeah. Also the first two weeks we're like working separately. We each have a study area and it's just a information gathering and doing researches and moving forward. Right now we are working in pairs. So, me and Geoff, we are working on similar location and to do like a research in a more detailed way. Yeah.Erica:30:05So you guys mentioned the software programs you're using. So aside from Longbow, what other programs do you use?Cahill:30:14Um, a lot, a lot of work in Kingdom. But Longbow yeah. Longbow and Kingdom. I'd say probably the big two. Yeah. yeah.Sean:30:25Any, I mean, any time you talk about geology, Arc Gis is going to come up. So we've definitely been using that a lot as well.Erica:30:32Okay. And is that different than what you were familiar with, from school or is this the same training that you had?Sean:30:39Well, Longbow is completely different. You know, even looking at production data is not something that I, you know, geoscientists when we ever, we go through academia, we even get exposed to. We use Kingdom. But I think it's, it's more of on a limited basis. I've, I've really been able to work a lot with, the, the well interpretation suites here at TGS that I hadn't worked with before.Erica:31:03Cool. How do you, do you find that challenging or kind of a natural extension of what you are already working with?Sean:31:11I mean, I, yeah, challenging, interesting, different. The team here, the geoscience team here has been very helpful, with the different, features. I'd say there are bugs. Some people might say they're features with the Kingdom software. (Laughter) but I'd say challenging. Yeah, but, but in a good way, not, not as a, you know, wringing out your hands kind of way.Erica:31:33So what else have you guys learned besides Longbow?Geoff:31:37I think for me is just kind of seeing just like what a day-in and day-out sort of process is like. So like having worked in the field, I never walked, I've never worked in a corporate environment before, but just kind of seeing how teams integrate and work together, it's going to say I've never seen that portion before. And so for me it's been fun, you know, going from classroom and then getting the actual hands on application of what we learned in the classroom. That's what's been fun for me so far.Erica:32:01Anyone else agree? Agree, disagree?Sean:32:03I agree. Yeah. No, I mean another thing that I feel a lot of us, especially me and with my Phd projects, they're very wide scale. I'm not talking about basins, I'm talking about plates. And so it's been very rewarding to kind of zoom in. Even if we are still basin scale, that's a lot smaller than I'm used to. So I'm able to kind of get lost in the details more than I would in a very large scale study.Hualing:32:28I think also a good thing is we learn from each other. Like where were you working together? Yeah, we're getting familiar with the software and if any of us found something and others will get around and see what we found. And I think that's very important for us to learn.Erica:32:48Yeah, absolutely.Cahill:32:50Yeah, I think kind of going off that as well and we obviously us for come from different backgrounds in Geo Science and what we've worked in and we kinda bring those backgrounds and each of our own projects and we kind of can come together and help each other out in different areas that we might not be more experienced with, like certain, well log interpretations or mapping things, stuff like that. So, so yeah, it's, it is helpful to have a team.Geoff:33:14Good overlap.Erica:33:14What's it like working at TGS, culture wise? The people, the food?Sean:33:22(Laughter) well they treat us well hereGeoff:33:24I was gonna say no complaints there. Yeah, I mean getting started in know there's always a learning curve, but I mean I guess as much of a learning curve as there could be, you know, everyone around here has been as helpful as possibly could be, you know, to help make that climb that much less steep, if that's a good way of wording it. But that's kind of what I would think.Cahill: 33:43The food is definitely good. Healthy. I like it.Sean:33:45Can't complain about free lunches.Cahill:33:47Yeah. But, but I mean I think the culture here is really, everyone's been extremely nice and even just within the geoscience team, a lot of nice guys; Cian and Alex, they've been so helpful with any questions we have, whether it be geology related or software related, and we've had company outings already. Going on Top Golf is super fun. Everyone's very open to meeting different branches and whatnot. So that was really fun.Erica:34:12Why did you apply? Did it, for TGS' internship program in particular?Sean:34:17Well. Yeah. So, our professor, me and Hualing, we have the same, advisor at the University of Houston. Dr. Paul Mann. And he was actually the one that reached out to us because, James, the head of the Geoscience Department here, had reached out to him looking for good candidates. and he had asked us if we wanted to, to join up. We, we kind of, you know, we researched it. We, I was, I talked to James on the phone and it just seemed like something, so different from what I was doing at the moment that I felt like it was a great opportunity to jump back. And it, I have absolutely no regrets.Erica:34:54Awesome.Geoff:34:54Yeah, my story is pretty much the same thing. My thesis advisor was, was good friends with James K and so he reached out to me and saying, pretty much the same deal as him. Looked into you guys, obviously cause say Jason, I met you before. So that, and also, the interns from last year, I was going to say I was good friends with them too. So I knew what they did. And so, here I am.Erica:35:17Any surprises along the way? Anything that you weren't expecting that you've encountered during your time here?Cahill:35:25I guess one thing is, it shouldn't be surprising, but I'd always is that I'm working with really big data sets. There's always lots of errors you have to put up with. And even with the amazing technology we have, there's always, there's always a human aspect to it, that's always interesting, that we've dealt with in our data at least so far.Hualing:35:44I think for me it's the flexible working time and my, yeah, he didn't request a specific time to be here or like a specific time to leave. So that's like really helpful for my schedule that I can make adjustment along and try to see by what time range works best for me. Yeah.Geoff:36:08Yeah, that's definitely been nice. I feel, like you said having to commute from Spring. I was going to say, getting to come in maybe later or earlier as need be. It's always definitely nice to dodge that traffic.Erica:36:22What are you guys looking forward to working on for the remainder of your internship here?Geoff:36:27Well, I'm really excited to see the end product of what we're doing, especially because, we're going to be presenting it to upper management, and presenting it to our, our geoscience team as well. I think that's really going to help bringing it all together. Cause right now we know we're all working on our separate areas as well. I mean, we're still two teams in a certain area, but it's still very much our own work. And so that, that finish line I think is going to be where it all comes together and I see more bigger, I see a bigger picture than maybe I'm seeing right now.Geoff:36:57Yeah. I think one aspect that I like about is, it's not just busy work. You know, we're actually adding value to the company with an end result. Kind of like what Sean said.Erica: 37:06No making coffee?All:37:08(Laughter) Danggit. For ourselves, we make coffee for ourselves.Erica:37:14Um, what advice would you give to other students wanting to intern here?Cahill:37:20Say like, don't be afraid to get into anything that you're not experienced with. Whether it's geology or software related. Since coming here, I feel like you can learn a lot from a lot of different people and there's a lot of different backgrounds here and people are all open to helping you or talking about their passion and their little branch of geology or geoscience. And so I would say don't be afraid to ask questions and go up to random people and say, hey, what do you do here? And what are you into? Because chances are they're happy or passionate about their job and you can probably learn something from it.Geoff:37:54Yeah. Maybe to add onto those, don't feel like you have to know everything beforehand coming in. Cause I mean you're not, no one's gonna know everything. Kind of like what Cahill said, there's plenty of resources around. You don't feel afraid to ask. No. Everyone out here is more than willing to give their time to help you out for what you might have a problem with. And we've had that reiterated to us time and time again. So, I mean, it's been nice to know.Sean:38:17Hmm. And, I don't know if before we talked about how we got the internship, and I feel personal connections are the biggest, you know, it's not about going on a website and clicking apply. It's about going to the conferences and meeting people from TGS and they're extremely friendly. We've all seen that firsthand. So I'd definitely recommend, and I, I would recommend it as well that you would get an internship with TGS, but just go up and see them during conferences, talk to them, ask them about opportunities, say, Hey, what are you guys doing? Be interested. and even if you don't get something out of it, that's fine. You're still gonna make connection, connections and learn about where the industry's heading.Hualing:38:53Yeah, I definitely agree with Sean, cause I met Alex on with, the person, our geoscience group, we met during the AAPG meeting at San Antonio and I talked to him and, he talked to me about his project and what I may be expecting for my interns. I think that definitely helped. And yeah, when I first day, when I came here, I saw him as, hey, yeah, that's, yeah. I feel like familiar and yeah, I'm more easy to get along. Yeah.Erica:39:28What have you gained during your time here at TGS that you're gonna take with you as you continue your studies and your career?Sean:39:36Everything we just talked about. Yeah, no, I mean that, that's a good sum up question. So the, the connections we've made with all the people here, not just in the Geo science team, every, every other team that there has that there is at this company. All the skills that we're learning with these different programs, the different perspectives we're getting because we're looking at, again, not just geological data, we're looking at, these problems more holistically. All that and above, I think is what we're going to take with us.Cahill:40:02Yeah. I think, you pretty much nailed it on the head. It's seeing the, the geoscience in an actual industry application in its own way. It's a lot of different moving parts coming together for an end product that's ultimately valuable and generates business. And then seeing how that works, you know, if on a fundamental level that's, that's pretty interesting and being able to be a part of, it's pretty cool. So.Erica:40:27Well, awesome. Well, thank you guys for being here. Thank you for talking with us today, and we'll let you get back to work.

After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. 2For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent. 4I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began. 6“I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word. 7Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. 8For I gave them the words You gave Me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine. And glory has come to Me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are One. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name You gave Me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13“I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them. 14I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. 18As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. 22I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as we are One—23I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. 24“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world. 25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. 26I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.”

John 17: 1 - 26 After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. 2For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent. 4I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began. 6“I have revealed You to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word. 7Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. 8For I gave them the words You gave Me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine. And glory has come to Me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are One. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name You gave Me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13“I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them. 14I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. 18As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. 22I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as we are One—23I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. 24“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world. 25“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. 26I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.”

In this special Easter sermon, Pastor Brice teaches why we must kill sin in order to live the resurrected life. Easter Sunday:The Mortification of Sin and the Resurrected LifeRomans 6:1-14I. Christians are Immersed in Christ (2-4)II. Christians are Resurrected with Christ (5-7)III. Christians are Kept by Christ (8-11)

In this episode, Lead Pastor, Rev. John M. Chong preaches on Psalm 84 // 2019.04.14I. Our DesiresII. Our DesignIII. Our DelivererFellowship EChttp://www.fellowshipec.org | @fellowshipec

Though God’s wrath burned hot against his people for their sin of worshipping the golden calf, Moses interceded on their behalf, and “the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” In this sermon, learn how and why we are called to be people of intercessory prayer. A Journey of Deliverance: The Person of God IntercedesExodus 32:7-14I. Intercessory prayer is a way of expressing grace and mercyII. Intercessory prayer is a way of expressing humilityIII. Intercessory prayer is a way of confirming God’s providenceIV. Intercessory prayer is a way of softening the heart of man and subsiding the wrath of God

GETTING PAST PERSONAL FAILUREMy guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. Psalm 38:4…for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. Proverbs 24:16You made a short-sighted decision based on a short-term situation and ended up with long-term consequences and long-term misery. 1. YOUR BIGGEST SINS ARE NOT TOO BIG FOR GOD’S GRACE.If we confess our sins, (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Jeremiah 31:342. YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. YOU ARE WHO GOD SAYS YOU ARE.…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT3. YOU CAN’T CHANGE YOUR PAST, BUT CHRIST CAN CHANGE YOUR FUTURE!I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:12-15 NLT…for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. Proverbs 24:16Loving Lord God,I am made complete in the One who is completely God. I am possessed and embraced by the One in whose nature is fullness of life and hope and peace. In You, Christ Jesus, Holy One, I am now holy. In You, Christ Jesus, Peacemaker, I am now reconciled to God. In You, Christ Jesus, Mystery of God, I am now hidden. Only in You is found this truth beyond imagination, this love beyond reason, this grace beyond measure: God is not ashamed of me! What rest, what joy, what unspeakable wonder is mine to know that because I am in You, Lord Jesus, God is proud to call Himself my Father. Amen.Love you, my son.

In this sermon, Pastor Brice explains how the seventh commandment to not commit adultery is often broken, and teaches many ways we can become faithful husbands and wives.A Journey of Deliverance:The Faithful SpouseExodus 20:14I. How we break the 7th command A. Premarital sex B. Viewing pornography, elicit material, and lusting C. Self-Gratification D. Having multiple partners E. Emotional attachments to the opposite gender F. Emotional detachment from our spouseII. Steps we can take toward being a faithful spouse A. A faithful spouse commits to and practices abstinence before marriage B. A faithful spouse commits to regularly dating and wooing your spouse after marriage C. A faithful spouse commits to staying clean and healthy in mind and body D. A faithful spouse commits to regular and emotionally attached sex with your spouse E. A faithful spouse commits to dressing modestly F. A faithful spouse commits to loving and treating their spouse better than their children G. A faithful spouse abstains from relationships that might derail their marriage H. A faithful spouse reads books, articles, and other material about marriage and written by godly people I. A faithful spouse trusts in the Holy Spirit

Revelation 7:2–17    2Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: 512,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 612,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, 712,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, 812,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.    9After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”    13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15“Therefore they are before the throne of God,    and serve him day and night in his temple;    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 16They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;    the sun shall not strike them,    nor any scorching heat. 17For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,    and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Right after God's people are delivered from bondage in Egypt, as they begin to doubt God when Pharaoh's army pursues them, God's response through Moses is “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD...The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” In this sermon, Pastor Brice shows how God's path to victory is sometimes strange, but always in his control. A Journey of Deliverance:Out of EgyptExodus 13:17-14:14I. God’s path to victory is a predestined but strange pathII. God’s path to victory is the promised pathIII. God’s path to victory is a path protected by his presenceIV. God’s path to victory is a powerful path

JEREMIAH 48:In yesterday’s reading, the Lord began giving oracles about different nations, with one chapter concerning Egypt and the next one about Philistia. Today we’ll hear about Moab. PROVERBS 9:Today’s chapter is the last of the thematic chapters at the beginning of this book. Lady Wisdom speaks, and we find that she is opposed by Lady [Folly/Stupidity]. 1JOHN 2:John continues to address us as his dear children, and tells us things that we must know in order to be on guard and remain in fellowship with the Father and the Son. GNT Translation notes:Jer. 48:13 [GNT Then the Moabites will be disillusioned with their god Chemosh, just as the Israelites were disillusioned with Bethel, a god in whom they trusted.//NLT 13 At last Moab will be ashamed of his idol Chemosh, as the people of Israel were ashamed of their gold calf at Bethel.]====Pro. 9:18 Her victims do not know that the people [who go to her house die//die who go to her house], that those who have already entered are now deep in the world of the dead.====1Jn. 2:5 But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can [know for sure//be sure] that we are in union with God:6 if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live [in the same way//just] as Jesus Christ [lived//did].8 However, the command I now write [to] you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.14 [So (let me emphasize)] I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know [God’s Son//him] who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One. NLT Translation notes:Pro. 9:7 Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.[I think we might as well let Lady Wisdom speak all the way through here.]11 [I,] Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.12 If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit.If you scorn [me,] wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.====1Jn. 2:6 Those who say they live in [unity, joined with] God should live their lives as Jesus did.9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates [his/a] Christian brother or sister,a that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves [his/another] brother[s and/or] sister[s] is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.11 But anyone who hates [his/another] brother[s and/or] sister[s] is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.12 I am writing to you who are [my dear//God’s] childrenbecause your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.14I have written to you who are [my/God’s] childrenbecause you know the Father.I have written to you who are mature in the faithbecause you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.I have written to you who are young in the faithbecause you are strong.God’s word lives in your hearts,and you have won your battle with the evil one.20 But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,and [that is why] all of you know the truth. 21 So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you [already] know the difference between truth and lies. 22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is [a follower of the/an] antichrist.

Colossians 3:12–14I. The Ones Being Outfitted – 12aII. The Wardrobe, with Accessories – 12b-13III. The Finishing Outerwear – 14

DON’T LOOK BACK - Pastor David Rathel 07.15.18 Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Luke 17:32-33 Remember Lot’s wife! 33Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. Genesis 19:17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” Genesis 19:24-26 24Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Out Alive - Not Everybody Makes It Out Alive. Pain Greater Than Fear Become Behold - You Become What You Behold. Leave - You Can’t Leave Something While Staring At It. Anchors - Sin Always Creates Anchors That Stop Your Future. Farther Tyan Go Sin Longer Stay. Pay More Than Can Pay Forward - Forward Is The Fear. Forward Is The Answer. Fear Of Looking Forward. Ephesians 4:22-24 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Philippians 3:13-14 13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The Names and Titles of Jesus – Jesus the Good Shepherd Episode 98 This series of the names and titles of Jesus will give us a more in-depth understanding of Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the seventh in the series. The following is an outline. THE NAMES AND TITLES OF JESUS John 10 I Am the Good Shepherd I Am the True Shepherd I Am the Door Understanding the Shepherd His job was a dirty and dangerous one. Many times, all the shepherd had to fight off lions and other wild animals was a staff with a crook. He willingly put his life on the line for his flock. At night, he would put the flock in a makeshift pen that had only one way in and out. Day and night Communal pin in town He knew each one of his sheep—inspected them—he gave each one a name—He loved them like we love our pets—His sheep loved their shepherd They knew what he did for them and they knew his voice Abraham – Isaac – Jacob – Moses – David David the Shepherd Ps 78:70-72; He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds; 71From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs. He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. 72So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart And guided them with his skillful hands. The True Shepherd God was The Shepherd that all other shepherds of God’s people represented Ps 80: 1 Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth! The Messiah would be the True Shepherd Throughout the Old Testament, you have some promises of a shepherd yet to come Matthew 2:6, which is a quote from Micah 5 in the Old Testament:  And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you [Bethlehem] shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel (v. 2).  And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, [Who shall dwell secure? The sheep] for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD John 10:6 This figure of speech = not a Parable, a Parable is like something ie sower, hidden treasure etc.—Jesus is the door Jesus is The Good Shepherd. It is not just a figure of speech or a comparison, but a saying that is loaded with significance--the verbal equivalent of Jesus' signs. This picture is not so much an allusion of Ezekiel 34 as a development from it. Ezekiel 34:23-24 23“Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. 24And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD have spoken. Context of John 10: John chapters 9 and 10 belong  together The Pharisees self-appointed shepherds of God’s flock - were putting people out of the temple who believed in Jesus—plotted to kill Jesus – they tried to kill  him twice ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe, shepherds of Israel Ezk 34 Jer 32“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; All who came before Me are thieves and robbers a hired hand,…He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. John 10 10 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. • 7So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10The thief comes enters through Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and [a]have it abundantly. 11“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17For this reason the Father loves Me because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” I lay down My life for the sheep But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our [i]well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging, we are healed. 6All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way, But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. Isaiah 53 1 Peter 2:24-25 24and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 25For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. John 10 9A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words.20Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” 21Others were saying, “These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?” 22At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; 23it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. 24The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.26But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.” 31The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? 35If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may [f]know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” 39Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp. 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Share your response to this sermon in our Facebook group.Find us online at www.adventnyc.orgJoin us for worship any Sunday at 9am & 11am in English, and 12:30pm in Spanish.Readings for this SundayActs 1:15-17, 21-2615In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, 16“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus—17for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 21So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” 23So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.Psalm 11Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel | of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats | of the scornful! 2Their delight is in the law | of the Lord, and they meditate on God’s teaching | day and night. R 3They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that | do not wither; everything they | do shall prosper. 4It is not so | with the wicked; they are like chaff which the wind | blows away. 5Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when | judgment comes, nor the sinner in the council | of the righteous. 6For the Lord knows the way | of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall | be destroyed. R1 John 5:9-139If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. 10Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.John 17:6-19[Jesus prayed:] 6“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Psalm 139   1O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. 13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 15My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. 17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you. Our text today from the book of Psalms, Israel’s own ancient hymnbook, is one of my favorites, primarily because it offers us a vision of God that is profoundly intimate, one in which God sees us and knows us, in all of our complexity, in all of our goodness and badness, so to speak.  I often suggest using this text during a funeral or memorial service because verse 18 reminds us that God is with us, until the end, a reminder, surely that God was present the moment we are born and still with us, even at the end of life on this side of the veil. I’ve even included this text as one that will be used at my funeral service, all of which is written down in a detailed email about I’ve sent to Douglas, and which he has hopefully saved in his email program.  But I do sometimes wonder whether or not we are actually as welcoming to that truth, the truth of being known fully and completely by God, as we think we are.  Friedrich Nietzsche, the great atheist and German thinker of the 19th century, once complained that he found the idea of God knowing us, the idea of an omniscient God, an all knowing God, as revolting and an affront to human dignity– I mean, who wants a god who is a voyeur, meddling, and knowing all of us, including the things we don’t want to be known, by either human or the divine?  Is there no zone of privacy for us humans, a place where we can truly keep our own counsel, guard our own right to human aloneness?   I don’t think Nietzsche was trying to hide any especially awful secrets from us or God, or at least no more than any of us want to hide some things we’re not proud of from each other. But maybe he was pointing to the truth that we actually sometimes don’t want to be seen completely for who we are in total, because there are parts of that sum of us, the total of us, that aren’t pretty or easy to look at, by us or by others.   The quote from Martin Luther King’s book The Strength to Love hints at perhaps the reason why we humans don’t always want to be known – because to be known is to be shown and ultimately known to be imperfect, sometimes profoundly so.  King talks about the bridge between what we say and what we do, our profession and our practice, our noble ideas and the failure to actually live out those ideals.  “This strange dichotomy,” he writes, “this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage.”  As Paul writes in Romans, chapter 7, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  I have ideals, I have beliefs that I and others should act and be a certain way, and yet we just fail those ideals, we fail to act and be a certain way, over and over again – indeed, as both Paul and King write, it is a part of the human condition, this elemental hypocrisy that all of us share with each other, across all of humanity.  All of us are hypocrites, even our many of our heroes, including Martin Luther King, Jr, all of us fail our own words and our own ideals, and to be known by God is to have someone, something, some other, know that truth about us completely – this God not only knows the goodness we often practice before each other and that we practice before no human eyes, and that God also knows the badness we often practice before each other and that we also practice before no human eyes.   There is a story about a small-town prosecuting attorney that brings the point home to us, a judge who was calling his first witness to the stand in a trial, a grandmotherly, elderly woman. He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?”   She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a rising big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.” The lawyer was, of course, stunned. Not knowing what else to do he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?”  She again replied, “Why, yes I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, has been a real disappointment to me. He’s lazy, bigoted, he has a drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him.”   And you can imagine the laughter at this point, so the, the judge rapped the courtroom to silence with his gavel and called both lawyers to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, “If either of you asks her if she knows me, you’ll be jailed for contempt!”   Funny as that story is, and how frightful it may for many to know that God knowsus, I still want to make a case that this knowledge of us is a good thing, despite the hypocrisy it exposes in us. The psalmist, the writer of this text, really believes that we are known from the inside out, that the days of our lives are stretched out before God like a great map, where from the moment of sunrise to sunset, God knows what we will do before we even do it.  Our words, our getting up and our lying down, our everyday moments at the post office, the book we will read tomorrow, the television show we turned off years ago because it bored us to tears, the kiss and hug we will share with a loved one hours from now, on this particular day—each of those is known by God. One can argue the theological and philosophical problems with this kind of knowledge and over the God who knows our future before it actually happens, but that is what the psalmist arguing – that everything is known, including that which has not yet happened. This is a God who knows the present, the past, and the future, according to this ancient writer.  And the reason why we are so known, so intimately known is because the One who knows us is the One who created us, who formed us in our wombs, who loved us before even our parents did, who amidst the great work of scattering the stars, of molding the galaxies of the universe, of putting the song in the sparrow, also stopped to attend to your creation, to my creation—it seems to have mattered to the creator of our galaxy, of our universe, that you and I were worth paying attention to, when we were in our mother’s womb.  It is a level of intimacy, of particularity that is sometimes heart-stopping, really, and maybe even a little uncomfortable, to be known so deeply and so completely.    But I have to ask something, something that has been weighing on me since I’ve been sitting and mediating with this passage: do we REALLY believe it, that we are known, that God really does know us intimately, that nothing passes by the Divine gaze without God being acutely aware of it.  I ask that question because I think many of us spend our lives doing a lot of hiding—we spend our lives hiding from others, emotionally, sometimes even spiritually, or we spend our times hiding our beliefs and opinions about this or that issue.  We pretend to be people we are not, or to care when we do really do not care OR to not care when we deeply care about what is done to us or said about us.  We put on masks to hid ourselves, our opinions, our emotions, our hearts, sometimes even our joy, so that we will NOT be known by our friends, our family, strangers even.  And the reason why I think this is a spiritual matter is because some of us even think we can put on a mask before God, and that somehow we will fool the One who created both the mask and the one who wears the mask.  I’ve often said that salvation is the moment when we realize that God really does love us, and has been deeply in love with us even before we were a twinkle in our parent’s eyes.  But the problem is that we don’t live like we are loved by our creator, and so we don’t love as deeply and intimately and freely as the One who created us, who first loved us.  So too I think we often talk as if we believed that God knows us, but we don’t live that way—we moan and groan about being misunderstood, we think no one knows our pain, our struggles, even our joys—we live life as if we were alone, and no one gets us, understands us, believes in us.  In the end, we humans can only know each other so much, at least on this side of eternity, there are limits to how deeply we can make a home in each other’s hearts, but there is no limit, no mask, no moment that you and I are not completely understood, that we are not embraced, shadows and all—there is not a moment when we are not known, even to the core of those places we’ve hidden away from the world for years    And maybe that is what we are so scared of, why we put on the masks, and pretend to be people we think other people want us to be—that if God and others really knew our secret sins, our deepest shadows, that we would not be lovable anymore, by either our loved ones or even God.  We believe that lie because we really don’t believe that anyone could love us if they knew who we really were.  And yet, for most of us, we are not as bad, or sinful as we think we are, but, on the other hand, we are also not as good as we often credit ourselves as being.  We are really a mixture of shadow and light, maybe a reflection of the creation, the universe, the galaxies, the dust from which we were created.  Still, there are those difficult people who challenge us, to be honest, because their souls seem mostly shadow, if not completely shrouded in deep night.  My friend Patricia in Seattle is an officer who once worked in a prison that only dealt with people who were prosecuted for the worst of sexual crimes, people like serial rapists and habitual child molesters.  Now she works as a parole office with the same type of folks, but it hasn’t gotten to her over the years, working with this population.  So many times these men, and sometimes women, had themselves been preyed upon as children, and thus the cycle never ceases, the sins of the past being visited upon the present, the sins of the father being visited upon the children.  But here is the question: does God also know THESE men?   Does God see beyond the masks of these folks, who often manipulate the light in others to ultimately betray them?   Is there any light to draw out of hearts so shadowed with night?  I think the answer is that I can’t imagine that there isn’t, some light within them, even if I cannot see it, or we cannot see it, especially if we are to believe our psalmist this morning.  And if God can look at those hearts and souls so corrupted by sin and meanness and ruthlessness, and still love them, I suspect we too are loved by the same God who has looked into our less than perfect lives, and loved us, right where we are at.  When I was younger, I used to think that I wanted to be loved by someone who knew me, who knew me like I knew myself, maybe even more than I knew myself, when I was good in my better moments, and not so good in my worst—and who would still stick around despite my many imperfections, as I would do likewise with them.  I still think that is a good measure of love, of loving someone in their beauty and ugliness, of remaining present when they are not as good as they ought to be, and celebrating the moments in our lives when they are better than we ever thought imaginable.  But now I realize that I have always been loved that way, even before I found someone in my life who has taught me much about love and loyalty, I have always been known as deeply as I had wanted to be known—and I had been accepted and embraced and loved.  Now, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want you or me to work on our shadows, to seek paths in our lives that bring in more light to our souls and more light into the world, but in the journey towards bringing that light into our lives, God never gives up on us, and we probably ought not to give up on each other.  You know, this is a God who knows all of our business, as Mrs. Jones did with the prosecuting and the defense attorneys and is still madly in love with us.  Our passage actually ends with the psalmist being in wonder of this God who knows us so deeply, this God who thoughts are like grains of sand—uncountable.  With all that knowledge, with all that deep intimate knowledge of us, the good stuff and the bad stuff, we are still loved, and not despite the fact we are known by God, but actually because we actually are known by this God, for real.  That truth, that powerful pervasive truth can change our lives, because maybe then we can get a hint of how God sees us, the whole of us, and then maybe we will see what God sees, that we are worth loving, and that each of us is worth gambling on, because of the One who knew the long odds with us, and still thought it was worth being with us, right to the end, on the cross, with us until our dying breath.  “I try to count them,” these thoughts of us, and of God, the psalmist writes, “they are more than the sand.  I come to the end—I am still with you.”  Amen.      

No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets. Philippians 3:10-14 November 12, 2017 Philippians 3:10-14 KJV2000 10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if indeed I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. To be completely consumed… William Borden Six Words... No Reserves: “I Press On” ― Dioko No Retreats: “The Mark” ― Skopon No Regrets: “The Prize Of The Upward Calling” ― Brabeon / Kleseos “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” ― Socrates “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” ― Socrates “Get on fire for God and men will come and see you burn.” ― John Wesley “We need an outbreak of holy heartburn, when hearers shall be doers, when congregations shall go out from meetings to do things for God.” ― Vance Havner Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire. Let me not sink to be a clod; Make me thy fuel, Flame of God. ― Amy Carmichael

Luke 18:9-14: "He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' 13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.""

14I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; 15but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. 16By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.

Why Should We Pray in Tongues? - February 12, 2017 - Steve MillerThe past three weeks we've been focusing on declaring the Word. Today we're going to be reminded about a different aspect of declaring the Word that we don't always think of in that respect.Recently the Lord encouraged me: "You don't know the edification and the fruitfulness that comes from praying in tongues. You are a man (We are a congregation) who loves the Word. My Word flows like a fountain when you pray in tongues."Acts 2:4 - All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 10:44-46 Acts 19:6When we speak in tongues, who is speaking?It's a cooperative effort. When we speak in tongues we are declaring the Word of God. The words we speak are just the right ones, for they come from the Holy Spirit, our Helper.So when we speak in tongues, just what are we speaking?1 Corinthians 14:1-2 - Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. · When we speak in tongues, we speak to God.· Strong's: mustérion: a mystery, secret; in the NT: the counsels of God, once hidden but now revealed in the Gospel or some fact thereof; particular truths or details of the Christian revelation. · HELPS Word-studies: mystḗrion – mystery. In the Bible, a "mystery" is not something unknowable. Rather, it is what can only be known through revelation, i.e. because God reveals it. John 16:12-15 - 12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. · According to Jesus, one of the Holy Spirit's main purposes is to reveal truth to us.1 Corinthians 14:13-17It's reasonable to ask the Spirit to give you interpretation or understanding of the things you pray in tongues.It's definitely prayer, or communication with God.It can be thanksgiving and praise to God.It can be used in intercession.Ephesians 6:14 - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.David Pytches, in his book Spiritual Gifts in the Local Church, explains that the Bible shows at least three different types of the gift of tongues:1. The use of tongues where utterance is not understood by the speaker, but overheard by members of the public, and, without interpretation, understood by those whose own language it is. This is tongues used as a sign, like happened in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.2. The use of tongues in public worship.3. The use of tongues in private which needs no interpretation, though apparently this could be asked for.What are the benefits or fruit of praying in tongues?1 Corinthians 14:4 - The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself· You are built up, or edified (as in building a house), when you pray in tongues.· Jude 20 - But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy SpiritHow can I receive my prayer language in tongues or become more fluent in using it?Bob Heil's testimony of his struggle to learn to use his prayer language from his book Lessons From the Furnace (p. 39-42)1 Corinthians 14:5a - Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:18 - I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Jeremiah 29:13-14a - 13"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity."Luke 11:13 - "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”Basically, to receive the gift of tongues we should sincerely ask for it. It's a good thing, and Jesus is encouraged us to believe confidently that our Father will give us the Holy Spirit and the good gifts that He may bring. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:31: "But earnestly desire the higher gifts," and as we read earlier, 1 Corinthians 14:1 echoes: "earnestly desire the spiritual gifts."If you've never prayed in tongues, what should you expect? Does the Holy Spirit possess you and you start speaking uncontrollably? No, it's generally a cooperative effort. Acts says that "they spoke in tongues as the Spirit enabled them." We need to yield to the Holy Spirit. John Bevere uses the imagery of wading into a gentle river or creek. You can fight to stand up straight and not be moved by the current, or you can relax, yield to it, and let it carry you along.Take advantage of your advantage.John 16:7 - 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

“Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you!” 14I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 (ESV) “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models” Imitators of Paul 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Webster says… to imitate means to follow as a pattern, model, or example; to be or appear like Imitation Demands Right Talk and Power 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. “Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you”

“Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you!” 14I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 (ESV) “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models” Imitators of Paul 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Webster says… to imitate means to follow as a pattern, model, or example; to be or appear like Imitation Demands Right Talk and Power 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. “Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you”

“Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you!” 14I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 (ESV) “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models” Imitators of Paul 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Webster says… to imitate means to follow as a pattern, model, or example; to be or appear like Imitation Demands Right Talk and Power 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. “Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you”

“Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you!” 14I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Corinthians 4:14-21 (ESV) “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models” Imitators of Paul 16I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Webster says… to imitate means to follow as a pattern, model, or example; to be or appear like Imitation Demands Right Talk and Power 18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. “Your life is SO important to Jesus and everyone around you”

One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life. Psalm 27:4 Bottom Line: Do SOMETHING About One Thing, Instead Of NOTHING About Everything. NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS: They Are Too Vague: “I want to be in better shape!” Does this mean touching your toes or running a marathon? They Are Too Shallow: “I want to be a better person!” Better than who? Looking Around = Comparison Looking Inside = Character! There Are Too Many: “The one who aims at everything hits nothing.” What one thing If you only had one month to live? What one word on your tombstone? FINDING YOUR WORD: Get Specific: What kind of person do you hope to be by the end of 2016? Describe the characteristics of that person and the condition of their heart! Write every word down. Group and order them. Resist Regret: This year’s resolutions are often last year’s regrets. Don’t promise not to be what you’ve always been. Stay Future Focused: Stay focused on the vision of the person you believe God is calling you to be. There is no need to rush. Pray 21 Days - Create your list and narrow down that list into your One Word for 2016. The Word “Confession” In Greek = Homo Logeo: Same Speak - Speak The Same As God / Agree With God A One Word Prophetic Confession Spoken In Agreement With God About My Life! (Della) Ezekiel 37 NLT 9Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” 10So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army. 13When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. 14I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken!’”

1 Samuel 14:6-14I. He had a healthy respect for the sovereignty of GodII. He Had a helpful insight into the character of GodIII. He had a helpful discernment of the will of God