Philippians 1 verse 12 to 14, the title of the message today is Blessings in Disguise. Blessings in Disguise. Perhaps you heard the story of what happened a number of years ago. There was a shipwreck and the lone survivor of the shipwreck was washed up on the shore of a small uninhabited island. There he was, all alone on this small island. And he was a Christian, he was a believer, and so he began to pray, Lord, please, please send someone to rescue me. Lord, please, send someone to rescue me. And day after day he would look out to the horizon to see if anyone was coming to rescue him and no one, and no one, and no one, and no one. Well, after a while he took some driftwood and he built a little hut in which he could live, in which he could store the few possessions he had left and out in front of the hut he built a little fire to keep himself warm. One day when he was out scavenging for food, when he came back to his hut, oh no, this can't be. No, no Lord. He looked and his hut was on fire. Evidently the wind blew some of the embers from his fire into the hut. His hut was fully engulfed in flames and there was smoke ascending up to the heavens and he dropped down on his knees. And he just began to cry out to God, God, I don't get it. I don't get it. Day after day after day I am praying for you to send someone to rescue me. And now my hut catches on fire, this just isn't right. Well, the next day when he woke up he heard the sound of someone's voice saying, hello, hello? Is there anyone here? Does somebody need help? And when he woke up he looked and he saw a ship right near the shore and there was someone who had come ashore and there was a man saying, do you need help? He said, yes, yes, yes, I've been waiting for someone to come and rescue you with me. He said, I just have one question for you. He said, how did you know that I was here? And the guy said, well, that was easy. We saw your smoke signal. His hut catching on fire, the smoke is sending up to the heavens. It gave off a signal so that people who were far away could see he was there. What he thought was the absolute worst thing in his life was actually the best thing. What he thought was a bad thing was a God thing. His hut catching on fire was an answer to his prayers. It was actually part of the plan and purpose of God to work in his life. His hut catching on fire was a blessing in disguise. Have you ever felt like your hut is on fire? Maybe as we gather here today, you feel like your life is on fire. Maybe you're in some difficult circumstance or trial or trouble, and you're wondering why, Lord, what in the world is going on? Well, I'm here to tell you today, the Bible says that God works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are the call according to his purpose. And if there's anyone who knew that for sure, it was the apostle Paul because he wrote those words. And if there's any place in all of the writings of Paul where you see how God works all things together for good, where you see how a bad thing could be a God thing, where you see how a blessing can sometimes come in disguise. It's in Philippians chapter 1 verse 12 to 14. Now, to understand the words that we're going to study there, you need to have a little bit of background to Paul's relationship to the people he's writing to, to Paul's relationship to the church at Philippi. Because if there's any church that should have known, God works all things together for good, it was the church at Philippi. If there's any church that should have known God's blessings come in disguise, it was the church at Philippi because that is how the church at Philippi got started. Perhaps you remember the story you maybe have read it in the book of Acts in Acts chapter 16. The apostle Paul was on his second missionary journey. He and Silas and Luke and Timothy, they were traveling through what's now modern Turkey. They were traveling through an area called Galatia. And they want to go down to the south into what's called Asia Minor, but the Bible says the spirit forbade them. The Holy Spirit said no. So they decided that we're going to try to go up to the north to an area called Bithynia. And again, the Holy Spirit forbade them. The Holy Spirit said no. Now that ought to be puzzling to you because Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. And so here they are trying to go and preach the gospel. And yet the Holy Spirit says no, not there. And no, not there. You see, God not only works in our lives through open doors. He works in our lives through closed doors. Sometimes he closes a door. You might be so bummed out. You might be so disappointed by it. But sometimes he closes a door because he has another door for you. And that's where he wants you to go. The door closed in the south. The door closed in the north. So they just kept going straight ahead. And they came to this city called Troas. It's right on the Aegean Sea, right on the coast of the Aegean Sea. And right across the top of the Aegean Sea is the country of Greece. Northern Greece then was called Macedonia. Southern Greece was called Achaia. And here they are in Troas and Paul has a vision. There's a man of Macedonia. There's a man dressed up like a Philippian. And he's saying come over here and help us. Come over here and help us. And Paul knows it's the open door. It's God's leading. So they get on a ship. They go across the Aegean Sea. They come to the city of Philippi. It's a huge, gentile city. Almost all Gentiles. And it says, Paul on the Sabbath day he went by the riverside. The riverside. I thought on the Sabbath you should go to the synagogue. Well, there was no synagogue in Philippi. To have a synagogue you had to have what was called a Minion, 10 Jewish men. And there were not even 10 Jewish men in the city of Philippi. Paul knew if there were any Jews in the city of Philippi, they're going to be by the riverside. You ask why? Because Psalm 137 says, by the rivers of Babylon we wept. Wherever the Jews went, if there was no synagogue, they tried to find a riverside, and that's where they would gather for prayer. So Paul knowing if there's any Jews, they're going to be by the riverside. He goes down there and there's a handful of Jews. And he preaches the gospel to them. And a woman named Lydia, she gets saved in her whole household and invites Paul to stay with them. You know what? I believe Lydia never would have been saved unless God closed the door for Paul to go to Asia Minor. She never would have got saved unless God closed the door for them to go to Bytenia. It's because God closed doors, and it might have seemed confusing to Paul, that he opened another door and the first church in Europe would start. Well Paul's staying with Lydia and he and Silas every day, they're going to this place of prayer, and there's a demon-possessed slave girl that's following them. Her masters who own her, they're making up fortune by having her foretell the future. And as she's following Paul and Silas every day, the Bible says Paul is annoyed. He's disturbed. He is troubled. Why? Because here is this young lady who is bound by Satan and it grieved Paul. It troubled Paul. Are you troubled when you see young people bound by Satan? Does it grieve your heart when you see young people bound by drugs or bound by alcohol or bound by pornography or bound by sex or bound by material things? Does it grieve you? It grieved Paul. He bothered him and he prayed and the demon came out. The girl was set free. And I believe if we pray, God can set young people free today who are bound. Well that girl no doubt was happy. But the guys who owned her were not happy because now they couldn't make money off of her fortune telling anymore and so they dragged Paul and Silas before the authorities. And the Bible says that they are beaten with rods and put in stocks in the inner prison. Now beaten with rods, that's a form of physical torture and punishment. What they would do is they would take these small birch branches. They would tie them together in a bundle. Then they would take a person. They would strip off their shirt. They would tie their hands to some sort of post and then they would take this stack of rods of birch branches and whack, whack, whack.  This happened to Paul and Silas. And then it says they were put in the stocks in the inner prison. Stocks, not usually what you would think. Sometimes we hear the word stocks and we think English stocks used to hold people. You stick your hand on your hands through and all that. That's not what it's talking about. Those stocks were not to hold people. Those stocks were to torture people. What they would do, there was a series of settings on them and they would stretch your arms and your legs to the furthest most extremities so that your muscles would begin to cramp. And you were in aching, throbbing pain. And here, listen, here is Paul and here is Silas. Their backs beating with rods in the inner prison. They're in stocks. You talk about your hut on fire. Why, Lord? We went through the door, you opened. We were preaching the gospel. We weren't sinning. We weren't doing anything wrong.  Why, God? But I tell you, dear ones, God works all things together for good. He has a plan and a purpose that is far beyond the moment. And at midnight, Paul and Silas says they were singing hymns and praising God, just worshiping the Lord. And there was a great earthquake so that the chains of all of the prisoners were broken. And the Philippian jailer, he wakes up and he thinks, wow, all the prisoners have escaped and the sentence, if any Roman soldier led a prisoner escape, was a death sentence. So he just pulls out his sword.  And Paul says, stop! And Paul preaches the gospel to him and the Philippian jailer says, what must I do to be saved? And the Bible says the Philippian jailer and his whole family got saved that night. But you know that never would have happened. Unless God closed the door to go down south and closed the door to go in the north. That never would have happened if Paul and Silas were not beaten with rods put in the stocks in the inner prison. God was working something. That's how the Church of Philippi got started. So if there's any church that should have known God's blessings often come in disguise that what looks like a bad thing can be a God thing. It was the Church of Philippi. But as Paul writes to them, the text we want to look at in the book of Philippians, the situation for Paul is now changed. About 10 years have gone by and Paul's in a very difficult situation and the people in Philippi have heard about it. They're so concerned about Paul. They're really troubled about what he's going through. They've heard he's imprisoned in Rome and so what they do is they take up a collection and offering, they give it to one of their leaders, the Aphrodite. He goes all the way to give it to Paul and tell them all the Philippians, they're so concerned about you. So Paul, who knows, God works all things together for good. He writes them back a letter and the key part of the letter is the section we want to look at in chapter 1 verse 12 to 14. Here's what Paul writes to them from his imprisonment in Rome. Here's what he says. But I want you to know, brother, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. What I thought was going to stop the gospel has actually propelled the gospel so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ and most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Now, what's he talking about here? He says, now, I want you to know the things that have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Pray tell, pray tell what happened to him that furthered the gospel. Well, after he left Philippi on his second missionary journey when the church got started there in the Philippian jail, he went on down to the city of Athens, the largest city in Greece. He went down to Corinth, started a church there, and then shot across the Aegean Sea to a city called Ephesus. You guys are studying Ephesians on Sunday morning. Paul took one look around and thought, oh man, this is a key city. He goes back to Antioch where he started his missionary journey. They regroup. He makes a beeline to go back to Ephesus and he spends two years there. Paul had learned the strategy given to him by God, and that is go where the people are. Go to the cities. And so here he's reaching this key city in Ephesus. He continues on his third missionary journey. He goes all the way back to the city of Jerusalem and all the way he's thinking city, city, city, city. And he's thinking, if I could just reach the largest city in the world, the city of Rome, then the gospel would go everywhere. He wrote in Romans chapter 1 of verse 11, he says, I long to come and see you and preach the gospel. So as he goes back to Jerusalem, he has this longing on his heart to go to the largest city in the world, the city of Rome. And no doubt he was starting to make plans about how he could get to Rome. But the Bible says in Proverbs 19 verse 21, many are the plans of a man's heart. But it's the purpose of the Lord. His ways are not our ways. It's the purpose of the Lord that will prevail. Paul did get to Rome, but not how he ever imagined he would get there. Paul, being a good Jew, he went to worship in the temple. And he went up into the temple. There were a group of Jews who didn't like Paul. They were angry that Paul was preaching salvation by grace through faith. And so they falsely accused him of taking a Gentile into forbidden areas of the temple. The Gentile's name was Trophimus. Paul didn't do it. He was totally innocent. But they trumped up charges against him so that the apostle Paul was arrested. He was taken into the fortress of Antonio right there by the temple on the temple mount.  I think about that for a moment. I've had people mad at me, but nobody ever wanted to kill me.  You talk about hot on fire. Well, it comes to the attention of the Roman authorities. They think we've got to get Paul out of here. So they transfer him 80 miles up the coast on the coast of the land of Israel to a place called Caesarea. And once Paul gets there, he appears before a Roman leader. His name is Felix. Felix hears the case, the situation, and he realizes this guy hasn't done anything wrong. No way. But he thinks he might be able to get a bribe so he leaves Paul imprisoned there for two years. Do you think maybe in quiet moments of discouragement that Paul might have thought, why, Lord, I don't get this? I don't understand this. All I've been doing is serving you so faithfully. And now I'm stuck in this stinking, filthy prison for two years I'm here. I don't understand. Well, after two years there's a change in leadership there and a man, Festus, comes and Paul appears before Festus and as then he says those famous words, I appeal to Caesar. And so Paul is put on a ship and he is sent to the city of Rome. Paul's going to get to Rome, but not how he thinks. While the ship is on the way to Rome, it encounters a terrible storm, so bad that the ship is shipwrecked on an island called Malta.  And the next day the Apostle Paul is such a servant. He, the great Apostle Paul, is up early in the morning gathering firewood to keep people warm and as he's gathering firewood, all of a sudden out of the wood comes a poisonous snake and latches onto his hand. He goes from bad to worse, to worse, to worse than worse.  God protected him and that got the attention of all of the people on the island of Malta and all of a sudden they started to listen to him and he preached the gospel and all these people started getting saved. The leader of the people on Malta, his name was Publius and Publius' father was sick and when Publius saw all these people getting healed as Paul was praying, he brought his father to Paul, Paul praised for the leader's father and Publius' father, he is healed, God's supernaturally miraculous, so he heals him and the gospel starts to go even further. But that never would have happened unless Paul was falsely accused. That never would have happened unless Paul spent all that time in that prison in Caesarea. What might have seemed like a bad thing was a God thing. There were some people on Malta who needed to know God and God had a plan far beyond what Paul could ever have imagined because God needed him to go into a storm so he could be at the right place at the right time to share the gospel with those people. Well, eventually, Paul gets on another ship and he does end up in that great city of Rome. He had longed to go to Rome and he got to Rome. How much did it cost Paul to get to Rome? Nothing. A free trip. All expenses paid by the Roman government. Is God? Paul would have had to pay his own way but now Rome pays his own way. And when he gets there, he begins to share the gospel. He's not put in a jail, he's not put in a prison but as we'll see, he's in a rented house, chained to a Roman soldier and the people come to the house and as they're coming to the house, Paul begins to preach to them and teach to them and so Paul writes. He says, Philippians, you're all bummed out that I'm here. Let me tell you this. I want you to know the things that have happened to me, they actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. They're a blessing in disguise. God was working all along. You may not know it but God had a plan far beyond what you can imagine. And he says this, oh I like this, verse 13.  What's he talking about here? What was going on? This is amazing. As I told you, when Paul finally got to Rome, they didn't put him in a prison, they didn't put him in a jail cell. He was in a house, a rented house, but he was chained to a Roman soldier 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days in a year. And the soldiers that were guarding Paul were part of the palace guard. The palace guard, Praetorian guard, that was 10,000 of the most elite soldiers. That group was established by Caesar Augustus. They got twice the pay of other soldiers because it was their job to guard the most famous and important people in society. It was their job to guard the most notorious or famous prisoners, and so Paul being so well known, he gets assigned these guards. And they would come in four to six hour shifts, they would be chained to the apostle Paul 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And as they're chained to Paul, and people are coming to where Paul is, Paul is preaching the gospel. Guess who's listening? The soldiers? Oh, I totally love it. One has to ask the question, who is really the prisoner? Paul or the soldiers? And soldier after soldier they're hearing the gospel and then what's all the people leave? It's just Paul and that soldier, one on one. And no doubt he began to say to them things like, do you know what? There was a Roman centurion who stood at the cross of Jesus and said, surely this is the son of God. And what happened is Paul began to lead one soldier to Christ, another soldier to Christ, soldier after soldier after soldier after soldier started coming to Christ. And these soldiers, their headquarters was in the palace. And so what would happen is they would go back to the palace and I imagine in my mind's eye they would go into the barracks there and one of the soldiers who had just come to faith in Christ, they would walk in the room and maybe they were singing, I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, down in my heart. And people are like, what are you so happy about? So there was this guy Paul and he told me about Jesus. This Roman centurion, surely he was the son of God. I gave my life to him. And now I have a piece that passes understanding and the other soldiers are like, well, man, I want that too. And so soldiers start leading other soldiers to Christ and revival starts breaking out among the palace guard. Check it out. It would be like you going online and seeing the headline as you went online, revival breaks out at the Pentagon. How could you get revival to break out at the Pentagon? You couldn't do it on your own. What was going on was the genius of God. It was the plan of God. Paul never could have dreamed this up. But God was working. But even more than that, some of these soldiers who were changing the apostle Paul who started giving their life to Christ after they were unchained from Paul, Paul wasn't the only one they guarded. Many of them went back to the palace and were guarding members of the family of Caesar. Check it out. Flip the page for most of you in your Bible in chapter 4 verse 22 of Philippians. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. Again, I imagine in my mind's eye, one of the soldiers goes into the palace. Maybe he's guarding the son of the Caesar. Maybe he's guarding the daughter of the Caesar. And he walks into the room. It's in my mind's eye. I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.  Oh, let me tell you. There's this man, Paul. He told me about Jesus. And Jesus has changed my life and he can change your life. And all of a sudden soldiers start leading people in Caesar's family to faith in Christ. Now you not only have revival breaking out in the Pentagon, you got revival breaking out in the White House. How could you plan that on your own? How could you dream up such an idea? This was a God thing. So in Philippians chapter 1 verse 13, Paul says, so that what has happened has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest, to everyone else, everyone in the city of Rome is talking about it. Did you hear what's going on in the palace guard? Did you hear what's going on in Caesar's family? Oh, this was the goodness of God. This was a blessing in disguise. Paul never could have orchestrated this on his own. And what was happening, listen, what was happening was not only impacting the unbelievers. It started impacting all of the Christians in Rome. Verse 14, he says, And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. When all of the rest of the Christians saw that God was working in Paul's life, that what seemed like a bad thing was a God thing. It was an opportunity for them. They took courage and they said, well, maybe God can work in my circumstance and my situation and use me as we gather today. I asked you, what situation do you feel imprisoned in? You feel imprisoned in a job and you wish you could get out of that job because you just don't like that job. Is it possible that God has put you there? Because what's going to happen is somebody you're working with is going to come to faith in Jesus Christ and spend eternity in heaven with God forever. Are you willing to be stuck in a job you don't like for a while so that someone can spend forever in heaven? What situation do you feel imprisoned in? Is it possible that God has allowed you to be in that circumstance because other Christians are going to look at you and be encouraged that you still have faith in the Lord, that you still believe in Him, that you still trust in Him. It is possible. God works all things together for good. Not all things are good, but He and only He somehow can work them together for good so that what seems like a bad thing ends up being a God thing. Disappointment are sometimes God's appointment. A number of years ago I came across a beautiful poem. I like it so much. It's based on a wonderful idea. No one said you could take the word disappointment and if you just changed the first letter of the word disappointment from a D to an H, then all of a sudden disappointment becomes His appointment. I like that. Here's what they wrote. I like it so much. Disappointment? No. His appointment changed one letter then I see that the thwarting of my purpose is God's better choice for me. His appointment must be blessing though it may come in disguise for the end from the beginning open to His wisdom lies. Disappointment? No. His appointment is the Lord's who loves me best, understands and knows me fully who my faith and love would test for like earthly loving parent He rejoices when He knows that His child accepts unquestioned all that from His wisdom flows. Disappointment? No. His appointment. No good thing will He withhold from denials often we gather treasures of His love untold. Well He knows each broken purpose leads to fuller deeper trust and the end of all His dealings proves our God is wise and just. The last verse. Disappointment? No. His appointment. Lord I take it then as such, like the clay in hands of the potter yielding holy to Thy touch all my life's plan is Thy molding not one single choice be mine. Let me answer. Insurrender. Not my will. As I was praying about what to share with you the Lord just whispered in my heart He said go over there to Chino Valley and remind all those precious people that I work all things together together. I do. Go over there and remind them that bad things can be God things. Go over there and remind them that disappointments are often His appointments. Go over there and remind them that blessings they often come in the skies.


If this is pain and this is inflammation, you don't need to make all the inflammation go away to get rid of the pain. You just have to reduce it enough, say, to stop pushing on your sciatic nerve to make the pain go away. At least that's what we told Leni's mom when she came to us desperate, trying to relieve some of her frequent back pain. So here are three anti-inflammatory drinks to reduce inflammation just enough and get you healthy again. The first one is a variation of the green juice that we make in our house every day. This one is made to fight inflammation and is a little sweeter. The next is a warm one that you can sip on instead of a coffee or tea in the morning. And the last is one that tastes fruity and exciting and a little different and it tastes kind of like something that you would get at a spa. So first up, we're making anti-inflammatory green juice. Why? Because so many people suffer from inflammation and problems associated with inflammation and cause it's yummy. All right, sorry about how rusty I am talking to the camera there. I haven't been on camera for like a year at this point. So maybe I'll sleep more next time. But we're making an anti-inflammatory green juice here. It is two cups of water, one cup of spinach, one cup of kale, a cup of grapes. These can be fresh or frozen, a tablespoon of chia seeds, one cup of pineapple. We like to use the cores of the pineapple. They have extra nutrients and they're not great for us. Teaspoon of fresh ginger or powdered ginger, whatever you've got. One slice of lemon peeled and about one and a half cups of ice. Put the top on, ramp it up to 10. You're gonna run this for about a minute or so. And then towards the end, you want to turn it all the way down to level one for about 15 seconds to get all those bubbles out. Pineapple is notoriously a frothy ingredient. Like I said at the beginning, this is a variation of the green juice that we make every day. This one has both pineapple and grapes, which we don't include in our daily blend. These are both very good for inflammation. They also make your juice very sweet. It's sweet, which is good for people that are new to green juice. It's easy, kids love it, but if you're wanting a different green juice, that's less sweet, our everyday green juice is that. This keeps in your fridge for one to two days. Remember, it's not pasteurized, so if you're sensitive, drink it on the first day. And we're not doctors, we're not nutritionists, but if you ask us how much of this you should drink a day, we would say try to go for 12 ounces, and if you love it, this guy's a limit. Hey, if you guys appreciate videos like this, hit that thumbs up. It helps serve it to people that wouldn't normally find us, and it really helps. Thanks. Next up. So we're making a morning anti-inflammatory drink that's warm like instead of having a cup of coffee. So it's a green tea, turmeric, and then the base is gonna be oat milk because oats also are an anti-inflammatory, I know. So we'll take 12 ounces of green tea. You can find a regular or a decap version. Eight ounces of warm or hot water, a fourth of a cup of oats. We use organic rolled oats, and then a tablespoon of turmeric. If you're new to turmeric, you can always do less. So I was trying to keep this recipe as simple as possible because I know people that are suffering from inflammation are just looking for something easy and a quick fix. But in this case, that did not work. It's disgusting. This did not taste good with only these four ingredients. So we're kind of gonna rewind here and you can add any of these extra ingredients and it will taste better. If you add them all, it will taste very, very good. So this is our golden milk latte added ingredients to this basic one that we just made. So you can add a teaspoon of coconut oil, a half a teaspoon of vanilla, one date, a half a teaspoon of cinnamon, pepper, and ginger. The pepper seems like a strange ingredient, but it's actually helpful in the absorption of the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric and ginger. So a crack of pepper really helps. You don't need to use all of those ingredients, but if you have any of those on hand, it will make this taste a lot better. So you're gonna put the top on. If you've got presets, put it on your soup setting or turn it up to variable speed 10 for five minutes. If you don't have a Vitamix, no problem, just blend this in any blender for a minute and then transfer it either to the stove or the microwave. We're gonna take a quick look at the steam that comes out when you do a hot blend, everyone's favorite part of a hot blend. So the steam comes out of the top, meaning your drink is toasty, and we kind of missed it, Lenny. When you're serving this, sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top. It makes it look pretty, but it also tastes a lot better. Turmeric will stain your container. The best way we've found to fix that is to just put it outside in the sunshine. Doesn't have to be a warm day, it still works. All right, this is the last anti-inflammatory drink before I have to go and pick up our toddler at daycare. So this is an anti-inflammatory smoothie. Berries and cherries and beets. Berries are one of the best anti-inflammatories, like the number one thing on anti-inflammatory lists usually, so. Cherry berry beet drink. Clearly we don't have a clever name for this smoothie yet, so if you've got a clever idea, why don't you leave it in the comments for us. So we're gonna start with two cups of water, one gigantic steamed and peeled beet for two medium ones, a cup of frozen cherries, and a cup of frozen strawberries. Just those four ingredients, super easy. Put the top on, blend it for about 30 seconds. We liked this a lot as is. We tried it later adding both ginger and lemon and liked it best with a little bit of ginger added. So if you've got ginger on hand, throw that into. All right, guys, these are three simple ideas that we feel like you'll be able to make and that you'll really like the taste of that should really help with your inflammation. Remember that you don't have to completely remove inflammation to make it make a huge difference in your life. We put Lenny's mom on a strict diet of anti-inflammatory foods for the past few weeks and she is doing so much better. She picked up our three year old easily this weekend. It makes a huge, huge difference. So guys, if you like videos like this, hit the thumbs up. Remember to subscribe to our channel. We'll see you in the next one. Thanks for watching. Bye guys.


You guys ready to have some fun in Monet Cafe Studio? Have you ever tried the 10 minute painting game? Well it is an easy and fun way to loosen up your work. It's also a great way to discover new subject matter and paint things you may have never painted before. Beginners are going to love this tutorial. The products are very affordable. Alright, are you ready? Come on into the studio and let's go. But first, just a quick little celebration to say thank you subscribers. Monet Cafe just reached 100,000 plus subscribers. God bless you all. So here's the rules. I'm calling this game reference image roulette. And the reason I'm calling it that is because we're going to randomly choose reference images to paint from and then give ourselves only 10 minutes to paint them. Or 15. I did 10. But I've already made it easy for you. I have gathered a collection of reference images from unsplash.com. I made an album. I'll have a link in the description of this video. You can of course follow along with the paintings that I'm doing in this. But if you want to try it yourself, what you're going to do is you're going to use something or any way to randomly choose a number. I use something called a random number generator. I'll have a link for that in the description too. And there's 81 images in this album. And you just use the random number generator. It picks a number for you and you count down to that image. Now they're kind of hard to count because they're not right across from each other. So just do your best. And no matter what the image is, even if it's something you're not comfortable with, give it a try. And this is not a goal to have this fabulous painting. It's to get you to loosen up. And I had so much fun with these. I've done it before with not these parameters. But this is really great. I think it's going to help you grow as an artist and give yourself a timer and just go for it. Now, if you're a patron of mine on my Patreon page, I know you're going to share your results in the homework album. So I cannot wait to see what you do with these fun, crazy fast paintings that are sketchy and loose. All right. Let me talk about the products now. Here's some great news about these products. They're very affordable and a great way for beginners to get started. I like using this Kansan XL Sand Grain Surface. It comes in other colors as well. Now it's not a sanded surface. If you're familiar with pastel surfaces, it's a sand grain. It has a little texture to it. But I find it's perfect for studies and exercises like this. The pastels that I chose for this lesson are Prismacolor New Pastels. Again, very affordable for the beginner pastel artist. One of the reasons I chose them is because, you know, I just have them loosely arranged by color. But I knew I needed to be able to grab a color fast and not go find pastels. I only have 10 minutes, right? So this was the perfect choice for me. I also like these because they're not as dusty if you're worried about pastel dust. And they're great for traveling and taking along with you for painting as well. I've already made it very easy for you to find reference images. I created an album with an unsplash.com. I called the album Sketchy Style. It is the theme this month. And I have 81 photos in this album. And I may have to go back and paint those lovebirds. They're so cute. But let me show you how I chose my images randomly. I use this random number generator online. Put in one to 81 because that's how many photos there are. And then you click Generate. And whatever number you get, you just count in the album until you get to that particular photo. And the first time I did it for this particular first painting, it was number 81, which happens to be this cute little hamster at the very tail end of the album, which made me very happy. I love hamsters. And then set a timer for 10 minutes. Whatever timer you have, I used one on the computer that made an alarm. And now it's time to paint my little guy. I named him Chester. I don't know why. I'm going to talk you through my little 10 minute sketch. And this very first one will be all real time. You're going to see the real 10 minutes. So I like to, especially when doing animals, is just to get a basic form. I'm trying to just get the feeling of the form of the animal. And he is almost a circle.  And then I was just getting in general shapes of some of his legs. And I redefined things as I sketch. And if you want to get good at sketching, you know what you have to do. I'm going to tell you the trick. Sketch a lot. Okay. That sounds like, oh, I didn't want that answer, but it really is the only way to get better. And I'll say that for me, one of the strongest things you can learn when it comes to sketching is learning to identify proportions and spatial relationships. For example, consider his ears. And if you look at the reference image and you come down all the way down to his feet, you can see that to our left, his foot on the left, is a little outside of where that ear is just outside of it. And on the right, the foot is almost underneath the ear. And with respect to the little hands, they are, both of them are a little closer to the foot on the right. I just learned to constantly compare and contrast where things are in relation to other things on the hamster's body or whatever you're painting. So I got in a little nose. I think that's where it's going to be. And I keep everything really loose to begin with. And I got things pretty much in the right spot to begin with, with this hamster. But notice his hands. I sketched them in with the gray pastel just like as little, almost like little squares. And I didn't bother with painting his little teeny fingers. You don't want to get caught up on all that detail and hamster's hands and feet are so delicate. So I'm just giving it a little shape and I'll just kind of suggest that at the end. And one of the things that this 10 minute sketching game will do for you is it will force you to keep it pretty simple. I mean I am taking a little bit of time getting some of the elements features right on the hamster. But if I got over detailed with painting in those fingers and everything, I know I can't do it. My 10 minutes are going to be up. So it forces you to paint and sketch in a way that's really going to strengthen your paintings when you go to create a more serious piece. This is how we're supposed to work anyway. We're supposed to keep it simple. We're supposed to block things in. And often when we start a serious painting, we get overly hung up on detail when it's really best to take this type of approach when initially getting in your sketch or initial stages of your painting. And one thing, a huge thing I find that this will do is it will cause your painting to have life and gesture and movement and energy. Which for me is the definition of beautiful art. You guys probably know I lean towards Impressionism. Now notice that I'm adding this pretty blue. It's not a bright blue. It's just kind of a soft, easy, a bit more neutral blue. And what I'm doing is I'm looking for the areas that perhaps are a little bit more in shadow. If you examine the reference image of the hamster, you can pretty quickly see, especially if you squint your eyes, where the light source is coming from. It's coming from the left side, which you can tell because the left side of his body is almost white. And the right side of his body is more in shadow. And notice I'm getting a light value now to kind of get that idea of light on the right side of his body, or left side, right side of his body, left side of our screen. And you may wonder why I would use blue. When I was first painting, I would have tried to find a darker brown. I would probably know, okay, that's in shadow, it's darker. Let me just use a brown like this for the whole side of his body. But I've learned over the years that what makes art exciting and beautiful is color. And we don't have to stay bound by the reference image when we're creating a painting. We can break out our artistic license and use it in ways that will really bring some color, energy, and life to what we're painting. And I find that blues and purples are great colors to use for shadows. I actually even like using greens for shadows sometimes, especially in portraits. And thank you guys, I've had quite a few of you asking if I would do some portrait tutorials. And whenever I've done them in the past, those are my videos that don't get as many views. I think we just have a lot of landscape nuts on this channel that really like landscape painting, which I do as well. But I happen to love portrait work. So leave me a comment if you would like to see maybe a few more portrait tutorials. I am going to be providing some for my patrons as well. Now I'm using some pinks. Notice here's another way I'm pushing the boundaries of color. Again, early on in my art career, I would have tried this. This hamster would have been brown, all different shades of brown. And I've learned over the years that I can take a color like a brown and I can use the same value that works, meaning the lightness or the darkness, but push it to one of the ends on the color wheel. Brown is orange basically, it's just a darker orange. But we could cool it off a bit by moving it a little towards the cooler pink side and choose pink values that work in the same area that we would have used that brown. And all of this, if it sounds confusing, it just gets easier the more you do it. That's what I found happened with me is that I didn't learn all of these things. I would hear a tutorial and get a little overwhelmed like that's so much to learn. Take one thing, like for example, maybe just start trying to use more blues or purples in the shadows of things.  It's just second nature. And that only comes with painting a lot, which is another point as to why these 10-minute studies are great. I think the value in these is just going to enhance your art and also you're going to have some fun, which isn't that what we like about art anyway? I always recommend to try to get back to how it was when we were a kid. When you were little, if you had some, I don't know if you were like I was, you probably were if you're on this channel, just so attracted to color. My favorite presence by far were art supplies for any birthday present. And I would just grab some art supplies or a coloring book and I didn't worry about the rules. I just started having fun. And so we have to remember to embrace that as well. Yes, there are some rules. So, you know, learn a few things, practice them, but just paint for the joy of it as well. I want to stress again that I only used Prismacolor new pastels for this little hamster. You can even see the color number there. I think it's 293 on this particular stick. And I did have the 96 set that I'm working from. However, they do have smaller sets of new pastels. I know that sometimes when you're getting started, you may not have the budget. That's how it was when I got started. That's still how it is to tell you the truth. I'm very blessed that I have some art manufacturers and retailers that offer me product to do product videos. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to afford all of these pastel products that I have. So I do understand that. That's why I'm often trying to give you guys budget friendly supplies and tutorials. Oh, and by the way, thank you to so many of you who have made comments saying that you like my voice. Some of you have even said you relax to it. Put it on when you're going to sleep or resting or something. And I love that. I think it must be the mom and me, even though my boys, my three boys are men now. I was just the constant storyteller and I loved telling stories in a theatrical way. So thank you for those comments. I wonder sometimes if I'm just going on and on and on too much, but apparently you guys kind of like that. All right, little Chester's coming along. Now let me talk about these hands. Remember how I said I don't want to give him too much detail. I just made those little gray shapes to begin with to know where they were. Now I'm focusing more on the value than the individual fingers. There's some shadow in between his fingers and there's some shadow darker areas in between his toes. So I'm just getting a little bit of a darker magenta in the areas that look like it's a little darker. And I'm just adding a little lighter kind of a pink color to the tops where the light would be hitting. And a little bit more shadow underneath his body where his feet are. And that's pretty much all you need. I do give some highlights to the fingers as well. As I said in the intro, I'm really looking forward to see what my patrons do from my Patreon page. That's one of the beauties of my Patreon page to me is that I love seeing the work from my art family. But if you're not a patron and you want to recreate from this and share it, tag me. If you share on Facebook, tag me at the art of Susan Jenkins. And on Instagram, you can tag me at Susan Jenkins Artist. That way it'll pop up. I'll be able to see what you do. And now just a few little highlights on Sweet Little Chester's fingers. And I want to show you how I protect these. You can get a piece of tracing paper and some artist tape and just cover it up and then go on to the next page. Before moving on to painting number two, would you please like this video? Leave me a comment and by all means please subscribe. Also, if you'd like some of the extra content I'm always talking about on my Patreon page, it's easy to become a patron. It's only $5 a month. You can cancel at any time and you get all of the extra goodies. The remaining paintings will be sped up here on the Monet Cafe version. Full content again is over on my Patreon page. But I thought you might like to just see them. I again randomly chose one of the images. I happen to really like this yellow field of flowers, sunflowers. And it's the same concept as the first painting. I gave myself a 10 minute timer. I get in a really loose sketch to suggest the trees and the bands of rows that the sunflowers are growing in. Getting in some nice colors for the sky, the mountain, the background trees. And I add the darker elements to the deeper parts of the rows, keeping it really suggestive, especially as things move to the right. You notice as things get further away, they just get less descriptive and detailed. So the right side and the backside of that painting is just really going to be very loose. I wanted to get in a few suggestions of the foreground sunflowers. And because I had to work so fast, I don't have time to really paint sunflowers. So I just got some of the dark centers and gave a little indication of some of the highlights on the sunflowers and keeping it super energetic, loose and fun. Now I really want to go back and create a full, more serious piece of this particular image. These make for great references for future paintings, just your sketches. So this one was really fun. And now time to move on to the next one. Now this next subject matter happened to fall randomly on a subject I don't, I don't think I've ever painted any cactus before. And so I didn't cheat. I stayed with the rules of the game. But this time I did pre-choose some of my Prismacolor new pastels. It made it a lot easier to just move along with a subject matter that's a little more complicated like this. I wanted to give myself every advantage I could. So pre-choosing some of these colors really helped. Over on my Patreon page, I go over some of the reasoning as to why I chose these colors. Now unfortunately, I forgot to turn my camera on. That's why I was shaking my fist there. And I was close to my 10 minute mark already. So I decided just to go ahead and paint some more just so I could have some footage to share. But I'm glad I did. I got in some really nice cool and warm colors for the cactus. And now I've slowed it down to real time just to add these beautiful pink blooms. And you know, I'm a Florida girl. Well, my whole family's from the mountains of North Carolina. So I'm very familiar with the mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains. And they don't look like these mountains, these red rock mountains with the cactus. And I have, I don't think I've ever painted a scene like this. So that is definitely one of the advantages of this game. And it made me realize I would love to paint more scenes like this. Probably never would have tried it if I had not played this reference image roulette. So in typical fashion, I like to add my darks in first often. And now I'm going to add some of the highlights onto the sides of these pink flowers. I felt like these cacti, it's hard for me to say the plural cacti are like an audience. Like they're looking out at the mountains in awe. And like they're literally like in a stadium looking out at a show of the beauty. This one was super fun for me and definitely a departure from my normal work. Now let's go on to painting number four. I randomly chose this beautiful red cardinal. And once again, I pre chose some pastels, but I did throw in a couple of reds you see there. These are Terry Ludwig pastels. They're very soft. And I went ahead and grabbed another little set. This is the Unison 30, I think it's the 30 half stick set. It had some nice reds in it as well. Now I know I am speeding it up for this version on the Monet Cafe channel. But I knew that I needed to get this bird right. And I was like, oh darn when this reference image came up. Again, I stayed with the rules. I didn't choose something else. I knew that the bird was going to take some time. And I wanted to get it right. I think I ended up spending about 15 minutes on this one. And I got my bird in. I got some beautiful reds and oranges. And one thing I loved about this exercise is it forced me to keep my background very loose. I find a loose background with a subject matter like this just adds to that painterly style. And it doesn't take away from the focal point, which is the bird. I wanted to add a little snow and my sweet little birdie is done. I hope you guys enjoyed this fast and furious reference image roulette. I hope you will try it again. If you're a patron of mine, I am really waiting anxiously to see what you do. So happy painting from me and sweet little Chester. And as always, God bless. Thank you again for all my subscribers hitting 100,000. It's truly a blessing and a goal that I had for a long time. All right. Goodbye. Love you guys.


Up to 20% of all cancers are linked to infections, particularly viruses, and the list of potentially carcinogenic infectious agents is growing. It could be great if we found a virus that contributed to breast cancer risk, because then we might have new ways to prevent and treat it. Currently, the dietary link between meat and dairy and breast cancer is considered a saturated fat effect. But there is a cancer-causing cow virus that infects the mammary gland cells of cows. Infectious virus is then released into the milk supply. And since most U.S. dairy herds are infected, scientists figured Americans are often exposed to this bovine leukemia virus. But we didn't have proof until 2003, 34 years after the virus was first identified. Early on, our best available tests failed to find antibodies to the virus in human blood. When our immune system is exposed to a virus, it creates antibodies to attack it. No antibodies, no exposure. So this led to the prevailing opinion that this virus poses no public health hazard. Those tests were state-of-the-art at the time, but extremely insensitive compared to more modern techniques of researchers decided to re-examine the issue now that we had better tests. So they took blood from about 250 people just to answer the question, do any humans have antibodies to bovine leukemia virus? And 191 of them did, 74%. Not that we should be surprised by then nearly 90% of American dairy herds were infected, and in the latest national survey, 100% of the big factory farms were infected when you test the milk coming out of those operations. So why isn't there an epidemic of udder cancer out there? We'll see, dairy cattle are hamburgered so young that there's not a lot of time for them to develop gross tumors, and that's how most women may be getting infected. Although pasteurization should knock out the virus, who hasn't eaten a pink in the middle burger at some point in their life? The bottom line is that the long-held assumption that bovine leukemia virus is not a public health hazard is no longer tenable. This whole field of investigation needs to be reopened with the next step determining whether humans are actively, actually infected. The presence of antibodies generally interpreted as an indicator of past or present infection, but theoretically, maybe we just made antibodies to dead virus we ate, virus that had been killed by cooking or pasteurization. Just because three quarters of us have been exposed doesn't mean we were actively infected with the virus. To prove that, we'd actually have to find the retrovirus actively stitched into our own DNA.  Why not just look at that tissue? Researchers did and in 2014 published their findings in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal and 44% of samples tested positive, proving for the first time that humans can be infected with bovine leukemia virus. The final step then is to determine if the virus is actually contributing to disease. In other words, are the bovine leukemia viruses were finding in human breast tissue, cancer-causing, or just harmless passengers? One way to figure that out is to see if the virus is more often present in those with breast cancer, but no one had ever looked for the virus in breast tissue from cancer victims until now. The presence of bovine leukemia virus DNA in breast tissues was strongly associated with diagnosed and confirmed breast cancer. As many as 37% of breast cancer cases may be attributable to BLV exposure. As many as 37% of human breast cancer cases may be attributable to exposure to bovine leukemia virus.


You know, I tend a lot of gatherings, interfaith gatherings, what not. A lot of Muslims will get up on stage and give their own kind of personal chafsir of the Qur'an. It's very common, for example, with Surah Al-Bakr, ayat number 62, right?  So this verse is quoted a lot, like, interfaith audiences. And people get the wrong idea that, you know, we're a perennialist type of religion, that you can believe whatever you want, and you're going to go to Jannah, it doesn't matter, and it's just a wrong understanding of the ayah. Because Allah on the last day says, man amana, this isn't a past tense. Whoever had already believed and became Muslim, that's one way of looking at it. Man amana is a conditional statement. Whoever should become Muslim in the future, right? So there's nuances in Arabic that people need to study, and they should tap into what the actual verse says about the Qur'an. So this is why the Sahaba and Qabi'in were actually very cautious about this type of chafsir.