wonderful to be here in Finland this afternoon and great to get a taste of some different weather coming from California. My name is Melanie and I founded the company Prellis Biologics and our tagline is that we are building life with light. And so I like to ask the question what is life made of? Life is made up of joy, interactions, experiences, friendships, and the families we build. But too often this is cut short. In fact right now it's worth this conference. Chances are there's a family having a meeting because a terrible diagnosis has been made and a loved one has limited options for the future. It's likely caused by one of these diseases, this diagnosis. The global population of kidney disease, the incidence of kidney disease is one in eight. That includes all of us in this room. One in eight people. We won't find out we have it until we're in our 50s or 60s and then our options are limited to. At the age of eight I was in one of these family meetings. My father was diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. This was a surprise and a man that had always taken care of his health. He approached a diagnosis with optimism and determination. He vowed it would not cut his life short and that he would live to an old age. He died two years ago due to complications that arise when type one and two diabetics daily inject themselves with insulin and sometimes don't get the diagnosis just quite right. He will never meet his grandchildren and they'll hear stories about him. He was a character. They won't hear his stories. This tragedy didn't just affect my family. Almost two billion people, actually over two billion people, are suffering from some form of progressive organ failure and they won't find out until they're in their middle age. This doesn't mean that we're doing a bad job as clinicians, physicians and researchers.  We're doing a great job.  And this is why I believe it's a critical medical challenge of the 21st century. In my research I studied how cells move and interact in tissues. We did long, long nights of analysis on videos just like this one that I took. And one day when I was doing that analysis I realized the high-power ultra-high-resolution microscope that I used, it was non-toxic to cells, could be reverse engineered and used as a printer. That we could build the building blocks for organs and tissues and most critically we might be able to build microvascular. Microvascular or capillaries are fundamental building block of organs and tissues. They're 5 to 10 micrometers in diameter and no tissue is without them. Right now human tissue engineering is stalled at sheets of thin cells. We cannot print anything thicker than two sheets of paper together because we need microvascular and capillaries. And this is why we get lots of nice promises from tissue engineering like noses and ears but nothing has circulation that's useful or functional. So these capillaries, they're responsible for faring oxygen and nutrients and removing waste. And some of the larger organs like kidney, liver and lungs and the critical ones, they also play a functional role in absorption and filtration. In fact in our lungs we absorb oxygen through a single cell layer. So that means we have to get that absolutely right if we're going to print organs and tissues. Another challenge in printing organs and tissues is that there is a theoretical threshold for a functional solid organ and that is around a billion cells. We need to print those and place them in three dimensions in a way that's functional. That is a big challenge. So 3D printing has taken on this challenge but it has a critical problem, that is speed versus resolution. If you're going really fast with 3D printing your resolution is going to be low. Anyone who's done manufacturing knows this.   So extrusion printing is kind of the first way people have tried this. But the resolution is so low it's only 50 microns that we can't create functional microbasculature so we can't build organs and it's just it's too slow it's out of the question. So if we took a laser similar to the one I was using for imaging and we pinpoint raster scanned it around, sure it's a little faster but it would literally take years to produce a single centimeter of tissue with one micron resolution. If we project the laser as a sheet it will take days to weeks to produce a single centimeter of tissue with blood flow. This is way too long to build an organ. The fundamental inside of our company is that we're using 3D holographic projection printing. This decouples speed from resolution. We are projecting the entire image at once in 3D and wherever that laser light shines we're curing a biometrics around cells. And with a high enough laser power we can print a centimeter cubed of tissue in a matter of minutes. This is the back end of our laser system here. What you're seeing is a projection of a hologram. It's no longer a single laser beam it's been distributed over a wide area. On the other side of the screen you're watching microvascular being printed. The center image here or the center circle here is a lumen of a vasculature system that's about seven microns in diameter. Around it we are capturing cells that will settle down and produce a blood vessel. The tube that we're printing we're looking at at end on it's about 250 microns long. We can print several of these. The cells live for days. We can make them porous non porous. Anything you can put into a CAD file we can print. But how do we go from this to a full organ? That requires data. So we've partnered with another San Francisco based company called 3Scan. And they can provide microvascular data that goes down to one micron resolution. We then take this data. We clean it up. We can annotate, validate it, and then produce a CAD file that we feed into our holographic printing system. And this is what we did with this cubic structure here that we took from mouse brain. This is the vasculature system in a brain. And we went ahead and printed it. It took one of our engineers about an afternoon. And so we can recreate three dimensional structures very very quickly. The mission of our company is to become an alternative to organ donation. It's a big mission. But right now patients when they go to their doctor or a transplant center are usually told they're not a candidate for a wait list. If they do make it on a wait list they often have years to wait and they don't last. We plan to interface directly with transplant centers and provide organs within four months of a patient visiting their doctor or on demand in cases of acute injuries such as toxicity or poisoning. How will we do this? We'll take a tissue biopsy. This is our general map here. Grow and differentiate the cells. Print the organ. Functionally tested and send it back to the transplant center. I found this company last October with Dr. Noelle Mullen. She's an expert in stem cell and developmental biology. I got my degree in physiology and biophysics with a specialty in laser imaging. We built our team. We have a full team of eight people right now with several optical engineers and we've got a lot of momentum behind us. One of the most interesting questions I got as a founder is when I first started this company a friend of mine asked me how will the world be different if you succeed? And I think that's a really important question for every founder to ask themselves. And so Noelle and I thought about it for a while and we realized that if we succeed our great grandchildren will hear our stories and not because they're able to read about it or see it transcribed but because they will be able to ask us themselves. Thank you guys. We're Pella's Biologics.


Hey everyone. We have four big stories for you today. We're actually going to spend a lot of it talking about Microsoft versus Sony. So stay tuned for that. It's going to be our final topic today but it's going to make up a majority of today's video. Before we get into this news, however, I want to thank our new subscribers that subscribed just yesterday in Joe Schmo, Stephen Arroyo, and Mario Dima Troba. Thank you so much for subscribing and because you subscribed this month you've actually been entered to win a $20 eShop gift card. That's right. All new subscribers in the month of August get entered for an opportunity to win a $20 eShop gift card. If you would like to see your name shouted out and be entered to win that eShop gift card, I would just appreciate if you would subscribe to the channel if you're not already. And don't worry. I didn't forget about everybody else. All of our subscribers actually get an opportunity to win something this month. We're giving away a $300 item that's really, really awesome. And yeah, we have a link to go enter that down in the pinned comment and the description. Now let's get into our first story today and that is Kirby's Dream Buffet. We now have a release date for this game mysteriously announced last month without one and they announced it technically at Kirby's 30th anniversary concert out in Japan. It is coming out on August 17th and it looks like it's going to be $14.99. The release date has now been shared by Nintendo of America and Europe as well. Pricing in for some reason Nintendo of America at the time of recording this hasn't really been revealed but based on pricing in other regions it's probably going to be $14.99 on the eShop. So that's cool. It's nice to have a nice release date for Kirby's Dream Buffet. The new footage obviously looks pretty good and I want to just hop right into our next story. And that next story is that Thymisia from team 17 is coming to Nintendo Switch on August 18th. Wow. That's a really, really big action RPG. Unfortunately, it's the cloud version. The game does feature Corvus, a masked and mysterious protagonist who incidentally can turn into a raven battling the forces of evil and spilling onto the streets of Hermes, a kingdom on the brink of total ruin by the looks of it. To help combat these plague-ridden foes, Corvus has an intricate plague weapon system which will let you customize your build to match your play style. Chain combos together and generally dodge and stab your way to victory in your creepy plague doctor getup. They don't mention Dark Souls in this official blurb, but those unforgiving enemies and the game's focus on combat and unrelenting bleakness certainly give a soul-easy-in feel to them. This definitely has a sort of Souls-like feel. I have no idea if the game is going to be any good, but it's the cloud version on Switch which is unfortunate. It is a next gen I believe only title. I think PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. So hey, I guess that's one way to get it on Switch. Cloud versions just irk me a little bit sometimes. I'd rather have the game than not, but I don't know. Sometimes the cloud versions work out fine, but then sometimes we get Kingdom Hearts and it's an embarrassment. Nintendo of America is unfortunately facing another workplace complaint. If you remember back in April, someone filed with the National Labor Relations Board claiming that Nintendo was preventing them from unionizing and some of the complaints that led to them wanting to unionize had to do with the treatment of contract employees, treating them unfairly, or promising advancement opportunities that don't actually exist, and a whole bunch of other stuff working in poor conditions and having unrealistic demands put upon them. The same sort of labor complaints we see at many other companies. We talked about this at length back in April, but there really hasn't been anything updated since then beyond some former employees coming out and verifying some of that stuff. Well, a new complaint has been filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday against Nintendo, and yes, they're hiring firm Ashton Carter, so this complaint is lodged against both, and it alleges that the companies establish coercive rules and in some way retaliated, discharged, or disciplined a worker for engaging in protected activities with others. Now, for it to be a protected activity, it has to be something that by law cannot be punishable. One aspect that this might be, and I give credit to Eric from the Nintendo Prime Podcast for mentioning this, Mike Perez as well, you know, you can't actually fire someone for discussing wages. It is often frowned upon at many, many workplaces to discuss wages. This is because they don't want you to know that you're making more or less than other employees because that could cause issues. However, in the United States, it's a legally protected right that even at work, you can discuss your wages with fellow employees. So this is obviously just a shot in the dark at one possibility of a legally protected activity that they're participating with other people in the workplace in sharing wage information. It is protected by law. So you can't be fired for it. You can't be disciplined for it. You can't have wage reductions or anything else because you did this even if the company doesn't want you to do it. So that's just one possibility. Obviously, it's a shot in the dark. There could be other legally protected rights as well happening in this circumstance. But yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see what if anything comes of this. Obviously, we haven't heard much since the April complaint. Now we have this. And what is clear, and you know, Doug Bowser has responded a little bit, is that there does seem to be a little bit of issues with some of the contract employees at least being disgruntled for one reason or another. And possibly that Nintendo of America is maybe not giving them the fairest of treatments, or maybe it's not even on them. Maybe it's on Ashton Carter, not giving them the fairest of treatments or clearly explaining the job before they sign on. I know that a lot of people will argue contract employees aren't actually employees of the company, but they are legally called contract employees. They still work and represent the company and they still have Nintendo on their paychecks. So yes, they are technically still employees just because you're a contract worker doesn't change that. It just means that you're temporary, right?  You have a contract. It's got terms that last for a certain long time. And then at the end of that contract, you know, both parties have to decide to renew. So anyways, it's just a complaint. I wanted to throw it out there. You know, get your guys's thoughts on that. Now we get to today's big story because we've known for a while that Microsoft was trying to buy Activision Blizzard for $79 billion. And we knew that it was going to take a long time for this to get approved. And obviously here in the United States, we were focusing on getting approved by the Federal Trade Commission or the FTC, but Microsoft actually needs to get this approved by 20 different regulation groups in different countries. So even if the FTC, which does look like it's going to approve of the sale, approves of it, it doesn't mean the sale goes through. It also needs to be approved by the European Union. And it actually looks like it's going to be approved by the European Union. But that's just two. There's actually 18 other places that needs to be approved. And if even one of those places denies it, then the acquisition cannot go through. Now it's very rare that the 18 other places will go against the FTC and European Union's rulings, but still they have to go through the regulation process. Now this is fine. This is just normal for any acquisition. Now there's one interesting aspect to this because we normally don't hear much out of these meetings. A lot of things are redacted and or just not shared publicly outside of one area. In Brazil, they keep all of these investigations, transgressions and debates public. Now there will be a number of redacted information, of course, in these public documents, but they believe in complete transparency with the people of their country and they hide nothing besides obviously very, very specific company redacted information that's private information about specific companies. So because of this, we actually have gotten a deep look at what's happening behind the scenes. And it appears that the only company in the world upset about this is Sony. Sony is actively trying to block this acquisition. And Microsoft has a specific response to them. Let's get into these nitty gritty details. I'll provide a link to the breakdown. And they and through there they have a link to all the legal documents and the questions being asked. Well, let's just go through this breakdown because this is wild. It's basically Sony versus Microsoft, the ultimate console war. So other AAA third party studios don't seem to see any competitive issues when they were asked all these questions. And they all listed franchises that compete at very high levels with the top Activision Blizzard games including World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, and Call of Duty, which is at the center of Sony's argument. Top tech companies like Google and Apple don't really care about this at all. And they decided gaming is far too large for this to even put a dent in the competitive nature. However, Sony absolutely is trying to block this acquisition and they are going all in. They say from a development slash publication perspective, game development typically involves an early stage that is neutral in relation to the platform before the game is adapted for one or more specific platforms. They believe that all games compete for engagement of the player. Players choose their gaming platform based on pricing, technical features, and available game types. The available content is the main factor for the player to choose a platform. They say that there are few barriers to entry in game development in publishing for PC. That only one developer can create an indie game and distribute it online but creating a high and AAA game like Activision's Call of Duty requires a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of employees. They say that apart from Activision, there are few developers and publishers capable of producing AAA games such as EA with FIFA, Take 2 and Rockstar with Grand Theft Auto, and Epic Games with Fortnite. These games tend to be long running franchises with big budgets, multi-year development cycles, and very supportive followers. Despite all of that, Sony believes that none of these developers could create a franchise to rival Activision's Call of Duty, which stands out as a gaming category on its own. That's why they believe that Call of Duty is so popular that it influences users' choices of console. In fact, their network of loyal users is so ingrained that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, they would not be able to create a rival. They talk about the time, money, and number of employees, millions of followers, sales, and other data points related to Call of Duty to show how it's a very unique franchise that cannot be replaced. They agree that subscription services compete with game purchases for a one-time fee, but they think that the lowest upfront cost of subscription services could be anti-competitive in relation to publishers who recoup the significant investments in games by selling them for an upfront fee. They also think that this could harm consumers by reducing the quality of the games. They say that over the past five years, Game Pass has grown to capture approximately 60 to 70% of the global subscription service market and that market share is even greater in Brazil, where the Game Pass represents roughly 70 to 80% of PC subscription service market. They believe that it would take several years for a competitor, even with substantial investments, to create a rival effective to Game Pass. Call of Duty represents an important revenue stream for PlayStation and they do provide the data, but the data has been redacted and it's one of Sony's interactive entertainment's biggest sources of revenue from third parties. Now, Sony is making a lot of claims here that no one can compete with Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, and Game Pass is anti-competitive. Microsoft obviously did not like this and they responded and said, and this is in the documents, only one third party, Sony, presented materially different opinions than the applicants and other third parties consulted by SG, which is the initials for Brazil's group. Sony is isolated in this understanding and curiously even contradicts itself in response to the letter, as will be detailed below. Sony's public statements on subscription games and its responses to SG's letter are clear. Sony does not want attractive subscription services to threaten its dominance in the digital distribution market for console games. In other words, Sony rails against the introduction of new monetization models capable of challenging its business model. Stating that Call of Duty has a loyal following is a premise from which does not follow from the conclusion that the game is a gaming category per se. Sony's own PlayStation incidentally has an established base of loyal players. Such a finding, however, does not lead to the conclusion that PlayStation, or any branded product with loyal customers, is a separate market from all other consoles. Extrapolating from such a finding to the extreme conclusion that Call of Duty is a category of gaming per se is simply unjustifiable under any quantitative or qualitative analysis. Microsoft also added some additional claims on why Sony is wrong stating that it's not part of Microsoft's strategy to remove content from players and Call of Duty will still be on PlayStation as a paid title. Data shows that players see subscription services as only one way to pay for games. Sony's claim ignores the dynamic nature of subscription services and the fact that Sony actually has its own subscription service too. There are numerous other game distribution channels and subscription services, many of which include content that isn't available on Xbox. Microsoft also claims that arranging exclusivity deals has been at the heart of Sony's strategy to strengthen its position in the games industry and that as well as having its own first party exclusives, it also has exclusivity deals with third party publishers. Notably for this sale to be approved, obviously it needs to be approved by all 20 regulating bodies. Now it's not really shocking to see that Sony is the main proponent trying to block this and nobody else really seems to have an issue with it. Sony does obviously see a significant portion of revenue from Call of Duty every single year as maybe the top third party published game on their platform in terms of revenue, both shared revenue from game sales and obviously all the microtransactions and DLC and everything else. I kind of look at this as an interesting perspective of Sony the old guard versus Microsoft the new guard where Microsoft is trying to do something new and Sony just doesn't like it. It's really interesting because Sony has already spoken at link publicly about how they can't make a competitor or game pass. They just can't. Which they could but it would require a type of sacrifice that requires a lot of money and sunk costs that a lot of companies really can't afford to do. Microsoft obviously can, but so could other companies and there are other subscription services. It is true that game pass is probably the biggest of them of course. So I do find this to be quite fascinating that Sony and Microsoft are essentially going at each other in a legal way because Sony really really does not want the Activision Blizzard acquisition to go through. They view nothing positive from it because even if the games stay on PlayStation, Sony is extremely afraid that they will lose some of their consumer base to game pass because it would become day and date on game pass and there's lots of accusations in these documents that Sony is actually blocking some games from coming to game pass because it views game pass as too much of a competitor. So they're paying companies to not put their games on game pass not to block them from Microsoft but to not have them on game pass. I find that to be a rather fascinating take and it shows at least bare minimum because let's say the regulators approve all of this anyways. It shows bare minimum that Sony is deathly afraid of what game pass is doing and that is very strange for a company that has a very strong market of its own. They should be pretty confident in what they're doing and be making strides if not to compete with game pass to at least maybe make game pass not be this defining element that's going to make people leave. It just kind of sounds like Microsoft has a really really cool idea. Sony is jealous of that idea and so we want to block everything. This seems to go well beyond just Activision Blizzard but Sony being really really salty over game passes existence. So I find this to be rather interesting. I want to know your guys' thoughts obviously and all this down in the comments below. This is literally the ultimate console war. This is you know get rid of the friendliness of Sony congratulating success of game pass and Microsoft congratulating Sony on the success of PlayStation 5 and this is beyond the public statements. This is what the companies are really doing to each other behind the scenes. Microsoft is trying to get this sale approved and really pushing game pass and Sony hates game pass and hates that this sale is even on the table because they're worried about losing revenue themselves.  Of course Microsoft significantly bigger than Sony but it is funny watching these two gaming divisions at least go at it behind the scenes and as a innocent bystander as a Nintendo fan it's whatever. You know I play on Xbox and PlayStation and Switch and I'm just going to play the games where I want to play them and I do love game pass. So yeah if Call of Duty was on game pass I'd probably be more likely to start playing Call of Duty again because right now I don't buy Call of Duty hardly ever. So anyways folks let me know what you think about this down in the comments below. I am Nathaniel Roppeljanz from Nintendo Prime and I want to thank you guys for tuning in. By the way today's entry uh today's code for another 20 entries today's giveaway is Switch. Let's switch it up everyone. Peace out.


Hi guys, we're gonna do a little show and tell before we do anything So this month in explorations of me we're gonna be talking about when something bad happens something horrible Whether it's minor and mild or completely devastated. How do you devastating? How do you handle it? Can you easily make a A positive out of a negative or is it more difficult for you or do you just not even try So for me, of course If you've been following me for a while you number one probably recognize this journal I went and grabbed it off the shelves in the other room. I Don't necessarily handle net negative things well and things bad that happened well My first tendency is to overeat to be perfectly honest and frank and I Try to do art instead. It's one of the reasons I started picking up creativity years ago My poor husband when he first met me had no idea. I did anything creative for the poor guy 30 some years later and yeah Poor guy. I had set it aside for years when I met him Then I was just doing so did sewing and needle crafts and I had just set it aside put it in a closet and Hadn't gone back to it at all. I didn't go back to being creative until I Later in life Around the time probably that we got married is when I seriously got into doing some things that it was sewing mixed media and journaling I probably started picking up around Maybe 2008 This is My first YouTube video is in 2012 Anyway, this is a video journal from a video series here on YouTube that I've done Called negativity Smackdown now before you see this video. I am going to try to Make sure I put the videos from this series into a playlist if I haven't already because honestly at the point of filling this I don't remember I in 2012 Got hurt on the job at work. I was a merchandiser and team lead for a greeting card company and Through no fault of theirs or mine. I got hurt on the job So anyway, the short story is I'm not able to do that job anymore I now have asthma and I've had surgery on one of my shoulders It's going through that process of getting hurt Coming to the realization. You can't do what you I did love my job. Let me say this first of all I love a good greeting card. I loved my job. I loved being a merchandiser Maybe a team lead not so much, but I loved being a merchant merchandiser I loved being on the account doing my job and Doing it In a lot of cases the accounts would let you in before the stores opened And meant sometimes you had to be outside at 4 a.m. But it was really Nice to get in and get your job done and get out in the peace and quiet of that time of the morning I really enjoyed the job very much. I Miss it and you will occasionally if you're shopping with me and we pass by a greeting card department see me Unable to help myself but walk by and push the cards down if they're poking up. I just can't help it anyway So this journal was done during the process that I was going through at that time of getting hurt Realizing I couldn't do my job the whole process of dealing with workman's comp and doctors and getting a proper diagnosis and proper medication the whole thing if Any of you who've been through that, you know, the whole thing is super stressful And I've done videos on this journal now This journal is just a composition notebook. It is nothing special. I love this one. I wish I had a cleaning fairy It's nothing special. It's just a regular composition notebook made out of binder paper I do have two pages glued together I start off each page by journaling out the negative Whatever it is that's bothering me I just fill up two pages and I write it out and Sometimes write it out and then go back and write it out some more And then I turn the negative into a positive and tried to find a positive and mess it positive message in each negative thing or negative Yeah, negative thing that happened or a thing that was bothering me and I think I did a pretty good job. I really loved the whole process It was very satisfying. It really did the job and I Do still when things are bothering me do what's called daily pages Daily pages for me at least are a separate notebook that's downstairs that I write three pages and it's not quite this big but I write three pages in Without paying attention to spelling or grammar. It's just like one really continually Long run-on sentence and just write out what's on my mind. What's on my thoughts, especially when things are bothering me Some of these pages have ended up on postcards that I use for the Etsy shop like this one and the one prior So anyway this and despite the fact that I've waxed the pages you can hear that they're just sticking just a little bit If this was a really satisfying process and to be honest, I don't know that I've ever done a Full comprehensive flip of this journal. It's possible. I did. I don't know. I finished it so long ago I honestly don't remember And you could see each page completely new and unique and different the pieces and parts and paint that I used on it Depending honestly on what was on my table at the time Whatever had landed on my table or was this within easy easy reach is that that's what I used It was a very organic process for me and as I was writing again. I tried really hard to find The positive message I was trying to tell myself in the negative thing that happened or the negative thoughts I was having like this one keep moving forward. Just keep moving forward Turn you can turn your dreams into reality, but do But do you want to So I would definitely encourage you to have some sort of journal like this In your space if you're in our journal or that you can what you don't have to show it to the world I said that negativity smackdown which those of you who've been following the process know morphed into something with clay in collaboration with Cindy utter that now is Explorations of me she was doing something similar to this and we decided to merge the two together That's how explorations of me came along So anyway, I really would encourage you to have in our journal like this That you can work in that you can work out the negative try to find the positive message or the silver lining and whatever it is It's happened sometimes there isn't one and sometimes you just need to work out that negative shit You need to just get it out of your head. So it doesn't clog up your brain and For me, that's what the daily writing pages that are downstairs is about it when I have things Especially in my head that there's not going to be any pretty outcome about or that at least I'm not clear about it I do have three daily pages and I do try to do them daily. I've been bad about that lately But I do try to do them lately. Oh Yeah, this one I used Something on it no matter what I do. It's gonna always be sticky. So that's that's the thing So there's a piece of wax paper here This was again, this was a really fun Journal to work on and each page was worked out in random And as you can see the pages got, you know, your journal gets curly, right? Well, I just Did this Curl it back on itself I do that with a lot of my journals because at some point It gets too puffy. I do think this took me Over a year to finish This one the message underneath just really needed blotting out obviously because I Blotted out most of the page. It is fun to go back here and look and see what's in here. I Should probably add some more wax to some of these Again, the pages were done at random where I might do one here in the back of the journal at one point And then I would flip to the front and do one that I'd go to the middle and do one They were done at random. They weren't done in order and I just opened it to a page that felt right and Then I worked with that and whatever was going on at that time, whatever emotion was going on. I Did most of the work on camera. I guess that's it and I've kept the journal I Know some people do journals like this and then they burn them to get rid of the negative energy I kept the journal because for me it was about working through whatever the negative thing was again and finding that positive message in it So this would be one way I would suggest that you work To find the positive message in whatever the negative thing is it happened has happened because there usually is one We just don't always see it right away And I say usually maybe not always but usually Unless it's a horrible catastrophic Thing and I know some people that's happened to lately and my heart's heart and prayers go out to them Anyway, we are going to practice with doing a Negativity Smackdown type of journal page in my large delusions journal now I'm gonna fast forward through the process as you're watching me do this think about doing one of these for yourself And maybe even going back and replaying some of the old explorations of me prompts and maybe you want to use some of the prompts to Help you with your own negativity Smackdown journal I will again link the playlist for this journal and the videos I can find on YouTube all or most of it was done on YouTube So I will link it in the description below if there's not a playlist. I'll make one and Yeah, let's get to it. Shall we? Okay, this was a lot of fun getting back to my old days of journaling And doing something like this. I love this. So the image For the page came off of An anniversary card I bought for my husband We do buy cards for each other. No, we don't keep them not generally You know like most people they just get tossed in the trash at some point unless I can find a piece to read Isn't a journal then it's sort of my way of preserving it and this came in a package of wish stickers It came this morning and it says to the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world and If you could read through my messy journaling in the background, I was writing about feeling sometimes like Insignificant basically and that in some situations around some groups of people it doesn't really matter if I'm there or not They don't really give a crap But that's not really true and when it comes to certain things It may not be about the group of people caring that I'm there But maybe it's just about one person caring that I'm there I may not feel like I matter, but I do matter And it it's fun to you know work out of those feelings and find that again positive in that horrible situation in that negative situation abusing yourself and Not taking care of yourself isn't going to make a bad situation better. It's only going to make it worse so You know if your way of coping is having a bar of chocolate go have a bar of chocolate It's better than doing something more destructive But see about working it out in an art journal or and doing a negativity smackdown page or maybe you can Do some daily pages of writing every day For as long as you feel like you need to and maybe that will help Try something and if you have other suggestions of our other ways for people to work through Whatever negative situation they're finding themselves in or they're finding them that whether it's mentally or physically or some Financially or some other way Maybe you all have suggestions of ways other than art journaling that people can try put them in the comments below We would love to hear all of the other teachers this month their videos are linked in the description below So please go check them out and show them some love Check out the negativity smackdown playlist if you haven't seen it before because you might really like it and get some ideas Don't forget to like share and subscribe Check out my link tree list of links for places that you can find me on social media to follow me and see what I'm up to every day Art wise especially I do post every day You can also find ways to support me and the free content here on Facebook and Here on YouTube and over on Facebook and all of that is in the link tree list of links My happy mail addresses down there, too. Should you choose to send me some happy mail? I'm always up for that The most important thing is to go out and have a great day Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it, and I'll see you later. Bye guys


The United Kingdom government has launched a new urban climate action program to support cities and regions in developing countries most impacted by climate change to accelerate their transition to net zero. Backed with £27.5 million, the program will support cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America to take action to tackle climate change and create a sustainable future by helping them to become carbon neutral by 2050 and to prepare low-carbon infrastructure projects. The program also will help cities like Lagos, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur and Bogota to develop low-emission public transport systems, renewable energy generation, sustainable waste management, new climate smart building codes and climate risk planning. While joining us to discuss this is Celestina Acuberi, he's the national coordinator of GUNI Solidarity Forum and of course also who will be joining us later Dr. Peter Mayday, he's the river state commissioner for energy and natural resources. Thank you very much Mr. Acuberi for joining us. Thank you for having me, good evening. So everybody, the whole world has been watching Glasgow as world leaders have been talking about climate change, how real it has become even in 2021. It looks more like it's becoming a bit more realistic but you obviously are in the thick of it. We've seen a lot of environmental degradation happen in your locality and it seems to be not just about oil spills but we're also having particulate matter in the air in your area. So how real is climate change to you and what are you doing in your locality to educate people about it? Well, it is more here because every time it rains, unlike before, if it rains now, there will be no space in Portugal, everywhere it's flooded, everywhere it's flooded. The first people are now carrying their fishing net on the street, as you can tell you are serious and on our own, because of our particular experience in Ogoni land, we've been mitigating and training people on adaptation measures, strategies, even before this whole thing. So those who are not surviving environmental disaster are those that will be caught unprepared but for the Ogoni judging from what we've gone through, we've seen quite a lot of it and we've been doing the little we can in the absence of money to mitigate. The people who are just like you, who are in the front line of extreme weather like you have said, the floodings that come and other issues, some of them are saying that these world leaders, every time they meet for this climate change talks, that they have just a tea party of sorts, they talk about it and they really do not match that talk with the kind of action that needs to be seen in terms of cutting emissions, in terms of planning and making accommodations for how fast the climate change issues are catching up with us in the rest of the world. And I'm wondering why do you think that these are world leaders, including our president who was also part of this event, why do you think that there's a lot of foot dragging in terms of dealing with these issues other than just talking about it and making very worded and interesting statements? This is not the first time they are making statements, I have attended quite a good number of the calls and although we are not allowed inside but we have our outside movement but all the agreements that have been boarded in Paris, Copenhagen, no one has been supported so they don't make the statement, they sign, they come back and nothing is done, they merely live studies, so the conventions and agreements that they sign and it was in Africa and other foreign nations and continent because they don't have what it takes to curb emissions, they don't have the resources to develop electric cars, they don't have resources to build houses that can produce electricity for the use of the home and I'm giving outside, well the money they say that they will give to them to help them mitigate and adapt, nobody is giving them a dime and if you follow the pattern of this so-called developed nations and the white men, you see that from slavery to actual colonization and taking over the whole territory so now what we know and neo-colonizing, you see that they have not been sincere at all, they have not been sincere, they don't work at all so you don't even believe them, they don't believe me, they are the people destroying our continent, destroying our environment, destroying everything we have, that's a hefty allegation That's true, I did read a report that said that Africa actually contributes less than the highest emitters in the world which would be pointing to the U.S. and China but then we suffer the most but let me push this question to Dr. Peter Mayday, Dr. Mayday, thank you very much for joining us, it's interesting what Mr. Baburi has said, there's more talk about how we can deal with the issue of climate change, how we can cut emissions but we never really get to the action part, we're still flaring gas every day in Nigeria here, river state is still facing the issue of the soot, I was there two weeks ago and every single time I got to take a shower it was like I was working in a coal store or something like I was producing charcoal, these are issues that need to be addressed, we're not supposed to be waiting for the U.S. and China to help us, we need to start from where we stand, what is the river state government doing in terms of cutting these types of emissions, especially the ones that might end up causing cancerous diseases in the future? Well thank you for having me and I know that my brother Akubari has been able to make a lot of explanation to the issues, now you know the issue of environmental protection which is exactly the practice of protecting the natural environment, it's not just for a country to do or a state but it also has a situation where individuals have to play, families have to play, communities have to play as well as the country or the world, so it may, you agree with me that what we are passing through or we are seeing in river state today is a situation where the country we find ourselves in has failed to enforce rules so that operators will be able to operate by the rules, a situation where a company would prefer to fair gas and pay dependency than to be able to put in place gas utilization plan that be able to reposition our environment such that our environment can be able to be friendly and such that we will not have issues of climate change, before now people actually look at climate change as the issue that maybe only developed countries like America and China would be able to do but the reality now is on us, we've seen a situation where we find ourselves where the effects of climate change is beginning to rain down on us, just as Akubari said the issue of flooding, the issue of depletion of the ozone layout has actually exposed our environment to effects of global warming and so in that case we're seeing a situation where right now in November we're still having excessive rainfall in river state which was not the case yesterday, so coming back to what river state is doing I have to let you understand that everything that has to do with the oil and gas activities in Nigeria is on the exclusive legislative list of government and because it's on the exclusive legislative list of government it is behoved on the federal government to provide what would be able to contain the SSCs of the IOCs and the NOCs. As much as this is the job of the federal government because you see I'm not in any way holding brief for the federal government too but it's very easy for states to pass the ball to the federal government, yes they have the right to do certain, make certain laws but if your people are suffering for example Dr Mayday your family members are suffering as a result of something that your father and your mother could could effect a change that could help those your children why would you not be going to your father to make to do whatever it takes for them to make that change happen why not why do you sit down and just keep complaining to everyone who visits your sick children that oh this is my father's doing why wouldn't you take the step and this is what the state governments do in every single thing not even about climate change not about not just about IOCs and you know how they take laws into their hands the fact that governments sit back and complain it actually just it worries me and I'm wondering why can't the governments push especially like I want to say it again the suit in a river state is is getting bad by the day and nothing is done I was one of the people who were pushing for this you know we campaigned against this suit for it the emissions to reduce but it keeps going out in the air every day because the state governments are still making excuses that the federal government needs to come to their rescue why can't the states make a move well I don't know what you mean by the state making move it it shows us if what I said does not make any meaning to you I'm telling you the problem the problem is that there is a fiscal terrorism that is listen to me listen to me there's a problem the IOC everything on the exclusive list of government belongs to federal government and this suit we're talking of is an admission from the IOCs and these are all companies that are domiciled in river state operating for federal government so what do you want the state to do now let me tell you specifically it is it is your domain it is your domain do you want to answer the question for yourself I'm just asking because you asked me a question I'm trying to answer don't indict my state don't do that allow me to answer your question you're asking what the state is doing I'm trying to lay the background to let you understand that the problem is that I'm listening the issue is from the emission of the IOCs and the state is constrained to be the extent to which you can drag the IOC for example as the commission of ending river state I have written several little all the tank firms in river state for a meeting and they tell me they will not come they're not responsible to me they're responsible to DPR what do you mean by that now let me tell you as we speak we are preparing now to host the national council on hydrocarbon river state government is hosting it from 15th to the 19th all the oil majors everything that has to do with hydrocarbon and oil and gas related activity will be done in river state and we are making a case for the environmental degradation we're having in our state you are aware of several the gunners that were executed because they raised their voice that environmental degradation is our problem well it's 2021 for no such reason so as a state we are doing our own bit by sensitizing our people we are doing our own bit by ensuring that we reduce artisanary refinery as a state we are doing our very best to engage with federal government to see what we can do the reports that rivers the government set up the team they have submitted the report in a bid to implement the report we are doing our very best to see that whatever we do in river state today before you do any investment in river state today in the oil and gas sector it must be a green okay investment in the oil and gas sector not a brand investment okay one last question doctor made it just before you just before we round up do you think i know that you're a government person right now and you're speaking for the river state government but i'm gonna ask this question you're saying that the government is doing its best fair good and fair is that best good enough as we speak i asked you the question i asked earlier on because i was wondering it's not enough to write letters if you feel that you yourself you the governor and everybody who lives in that state your health will be at risk in three four five years is talking enough and that best that you're making reference to is it enough well my dear brother you cannot give what you don't have a media sister you cannot give what you don't have like i told you the effort of river state government now to host the national council hydrocarbon that is the highest decision making and policy making body in anything that has to do with oil and gas in Nigeria we're hosting this program now so that we draw the attention of everybody from the minister to everybody in Nigeria to the situation we're passing through in river states river state government accepted to host it it's an effort in the right direction within the period these people here they will be real to the situation to see what we are saying and i'm also saying that there is need for a gas utilization plan anybody that would do any investment today in the oil and gas in river state you must submit the gas in a system plan such that you don't tell us that you are going to flare gas and pay penalty to federal government so federal government is comfortable taking the penalty and allow us to suffer so we are drawing the attention the collaborative effort the individuals need to play their role the community need to play their role the government of the state need to play their role local government need to play their role and federal government need to play their role in isolation all right federal government so that we can achieve a cleaner environment i would like to be part of that event so don't don't forget to email me because i want to be there and witness that event and i want to see the case that the river state government will make uh thank you very much dr pizza mayday for being part of the conversation mr mr celestina pulberry thank you so much for being part of the conversation thank you all all right well thank you all for staying with us we will take a quick break now to bring you the highlights of the week and when we return i will say my goodbyes most symbols most evil boys will you look at high pop now as a savior because it's like agitation that is very common in the whole southeast nigeria the agitation that is common is that they look at them as being excluded from the government they look at them as being marginalized and they are eliminated they look at themselves when you think about number of states number of local government areas and many things rules and road infrastructure job opportunities a lot of other things so when compared to what is happening in some other zones they'll they get frustrated it is that frustration that is now they try to agitate against it i think we need to come together now and ask me to be our dear state forward what we call the spirit of anambra the state we love we need to come together and now stop talking about you lost i won blah blah blah let's talk about how to move forward let the best man win and the best man should serve everybody in anambra state because what anambra is going to be better security wise we want our daughters to come back home and do their traditional marriages we want to have our sons to come back home and do their young festival we don't want people to be shot dead i think it's in mollywood and i also want the media to be understood in their correspondence they should not hide information about crime that when people can have the true picture but what you saw on saturday if you're just a stranger that is not the anambra we know now we are seeing the senator from from southwest the prison that's why she could be and legal state and other states perhaps anambra state and perhaps even benwood state anywhere or even found should be added to the ngdc commission it's it's ridiculous and it makes no sense of who we are and what we stand for and we recommend the senators of the south south particularly the deputy senate president senator geosecobo and the other senator for standing firmly against that that's that of marches and taxation of being it is it is an attempt to continue to take for granted the people of the manger delta region the ngdc was specifically created to address issues of degradation issues of environmental pollution issues of the poverty in the mangy delta the state governors are doing what they are doing because the federal government have actually allowed it you know we have a system just like uh doctor damu has said we had a system where the governors go to abuja every other day cap in hand begging for resources so they are not looking inward the everything is connected to the to the center and i think it is the federal government that has enabled this yes we we have we have to soften the advantages of the civil war and um i think the biggest problem is military intervention in our politics because that was actually what has created the entire problem when the army took over the centralized governor not because it was good for nigeria but because it was convenient for them to stay in control with decentralized power it took a very easy but the secretary to central to work because naturally the local government will have a role to play the state government will have a role to play and maybe the civil society to not emphasize more on strengthening the the government at the state level and the local government what we hope you enjoyed the whole package this week i am mary ana konau see you on monday on plus politics don't forget to follow us on our youtube yes you can follow us on both our youtube accounts plus tb africa and plus tb africa lifestyle for all our programs have a good evening


A former governor of Aquibem State, Gatswyl Akbabiou has been elected as the president for the 10th Senate. Akbabiou polled 63 votes to defeat his contender, Abdulaziz Jari, a former governor of Zamfara State who secured 46 votes. The voting, which started around 8.45 am at the floor of the Senate, was coordinated by the clock of the House. Akbabiou was immediately sworn in after he was announced winner of the election. A senator representing Canemnos, Baral Gibran, also emerged as the deputy Senate president unopposed. Total number of votes cast, 109, absent me, abstain me, Abdulaziz Jari scored 46 votes. Gatswyl Akbabiou scored 63 votes. Therefore, Senator-elect Gatswyl Akbabiou, who has received the highest number of votes, is hereby declared and returned president of the Senate. Senator Gatswyl Akbabiou, commander of the other of the Niger, do solemnly swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the federal republic of Nigeria and that I will preserve and defend the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria so I help you God.


The focus of this morning's class is assurance, and I'm going to spend, you know, our time basically going through the chapter in our confession of faith, chapter 18, the assurance of salvation, but I wanted to start with a quote from a sermon that Charles Spurgeon preached on the topic. And if you just Google Spurgeon Full Assurance, you can get the whole sermon, which I recommend. In fact, it would probably be good for me to just read you the whole sermon as opposed to telling you what I've got to say, but assurance of salvation. A well-grounded assurance is the most active worker in the field, the most valiant warrior in the battle, and the most patient sufferer in the furnace. There are none so active as the assured. Let a tree be planted in this soil and watered with this river, and its bows will bend with fruit. Confidence of success stimulates exertion, joy and faith removes sorrows, and realizing assurance overcomes all difficulties. Like the sword of Goliath, we may say of assurance there is none like it, give it me. Who cares for deaths or devils when he can read his title clear? What matters the tempest without when there is calm within? Assurance puts the heart in heaven and moves the feet to heaven. So this assurance that Spurgeon speaks of and that we can have is something that was central to the Reformation. And the reason for that is that Roman Catholic doctrine and teaching had basically taken this away, removed it from people. And when the Reformers began to reestablish this doctrine and retake this promise of the Bible that Christians can have a clear and certain assurance of salvation, the Catholics struck back and the Council of Trent, which was 460 some years ago, declared, let's see, Council of Trent, justification was declared to be offered upon the basis of human cooperation with divine grace as opposed to the Protestant doctrine of passive reception of grace. Understanding the Protestant faith alone doctrine to be one of simple human confidence and divine mercy, the Council rejected the vain confidence of the Protestants stating that no one can know who has received the grace of God. Furthermore, the Council affirmed against Protestant doctrine that the grace of God can be forfeited through mortal sin. So they issued a decree at the Council of Trent basically saying that if anyone says that justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works, but that said works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof, let him be accursed, basically. So if you believed, I mean this is still Roman Catholic doctrine, it hasn't changed, it's been affirmed repeatedly over centuries, I guess. You were accursed if you believed that you could have assurance of salvation. That's pretty extreme, I mean. So over the past couple of weeks I've been reading a book called The Whole Christ and in it Sinclair Ferguson says the Reformation was born out of the womb of the rediscovery of certitude. So this is a central issue to understand and to study out and in fact you have a duty as a Christian to work this out for yourself and working out your own salvation with fear and trembling includes understanding assurance. So let's look at, I wanted to just bring you one more thing from from Spurgeon and that sermon which I was reading actually on the way over here. It says only conceive my brethren if the Roman Catholic could get the full assurance of salvation surely the cardinals would hardly find money enough to buy their red hats. For where were purgatory then? Purgatory is an impossibility of full assurance be possible. If a man himself, if a man knows himself to be saved then he is not to be troubled with a silly fear about waiting in the intermediate state to be purified with fire before he can enter into heaven. So Spurgeon is very direct and critical and you know I mean if you read actually what the Confession says about the Pope himself it's pretty strong language just calls him the Antichrist. But so looking at chapter 18 of the assurance of grace and salvation I'm going to be going basically through some notes in this book which is Sam Waldron's exposition on the 1689. If you don't have the 1689 you know that's something you need to spend some time with and to work through all of the sections and look at the proof texts and you know come to working knowledge of you know what the 1689 says it is our confession of faith and so it's very helpful it's very helpful. So in the first section of this chapter 18 on the assurance of grace and salvation I'm just going to read the first part of it here he's addressing two sides of this issue of assurance. One the possibility of hypocrites having a false assurance that they're converted when they should not have any and then the reality that you can actually have assurance. Although temporary believers and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and state of salvation which hope of theirs shall perish yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him in sincerity endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace the state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God which hope shall never make them ashamed. So I mean what we're being taught here would somebody mind grabbing me a bottle of water out of the fridge over there thank you is that the normal life of a Christian can be one of assurance of salvation it's not you know this unattainable impossible kind of thing and so as we go to the lesson today we're going to understand that there are all kinds of hindrances and you know ways that our assurance can be shaken and restored and those kinds of things but thank you very much. The normal life of a Christian is to be able to have this joy of knowing that we are saved and in the lesson that we normally use in the essentials class there are a couple of verses that point us to this this reality one is 2nd Timothy 1 12 but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me and in 2nd Timothy 4 6 through 8 he says for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing so you know Paul is not saying that you know because I am an apostle and you know I have this certainty I'm special and he's saying all who have loved his appearing or who look forward to his appearing who rejoice that he appeared can have the same confidence that Paul has look at 1st John 2 3 and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments so it is a reality we can know that we have come to know him look at 1st John 5 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life you know sometimes when we read scripture things are not clear and plain to us but you know it's been said that the main things are the plain things and this is pretty plain I mean you can know so the 1689 in the second section speaks of a genuine assurance as being infallible that while you can have a hypocrite who is you has a false assurance a genuine Christian can have a genuine assurance that is a certain thing that you can get past the point of constantly questioning whether you're actually converted or not you can have a certain assurance and so in the second part of this chapter of the confession it says this certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope but an infallible assurance of faith founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the gospel and also on the inward evidence of those graces of the spirit unto which promises are made and on the testimony of the spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are children of God and as a fruit thereof keeping the heart both humble and holy so what does that tell us then our three what are the three things that he's pointing to there give us this infallible assurance that we can have anybody Brenda that's that's certainly the where he starts um Waldron in his book says it's the first the first root um and um the blood and righteousness of Christ are the content of the promises such promises provide a basis for an infallible assurance for even the chief of sinners the absolutely free and gracious promises of salvation revealed in the gospel are the exclusive fountain of and central basis for such an assurance what what what's the next one right what what what do some of those look like yeah or anybody in first peter i'm sorry second peter one versus four to eleven you know he speaks of some of these things i'm going to start with verse three his divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self control and self control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love for if these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins therefore brothers be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election for if you practice these qualities you will never you will never fall for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior jesus christ so peter wouldn't be telling us this if it weren't doable right but it's also true that apart from the spirit of god working in you these things are impossible um you have um you know a responsibility a duty to um obey this command to um to pray to study to um to pursue this kind of assurance that he's talking about that that is is achievable for us um so then there's a third thing so there's the the certain promises of god the the grace of god that we see at work in our lives and what's the third one does anybody bring their 1689 michael how would you say that works anybody want to add to that three is the spirit of god um testifying with us ben um this thank you yeah spirit that's good thank you that's helpful um the basis for this comes from roman's eight um 816 and we're going to talk about this more but roman's 816 says the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god and if children then heirs heirs of god and fellow heirs with christ provided we suffer with him in order that we also be that we may also be glorified with him talks crawl so that's more sort of that second basis which is the grace of god working in us yeah yeah so there are a couple of things that um you know i i read in this book the whole christ that i they're kind of long quotes but they're helpful um sinclair fergusson quoted um um a couple of people who are addressing this topic um john owen um whom you've all heard of before um gives this uh analogy i guess you'd call it um the quote is now sometimes the soul because it has somewhat remaining in it of the principle that it had in its old condition is put to question whether it be a child of god or no and there upon as in a thing of greatest importance puts its claim with all the evidences that it hath to make good its title the spirit comes and bears witness in this case an illusion it is to judicial proceedings in point of titles and evidences the judge being set the person concerned lays his claim produces his evidences and pleads them his adversaries endeavoring all that in them lies to invalidate them and disannol his plea and to cast him in his claim in the midst of the trial a person this is the spirit in the midst of the trial a person of known and approved integrity comes into the court and gives testimony fully and directly on behalf of the claimer which stops the mouth of all its adversaries and fills the man that pleaded with joy and satisfaction so it is in this case the soul by the power of its own conscience is brought before the law of god there a man puts in his plea that he is a child of god that he belongs to god's family and for this end produces all his evidences everything whereby faith gives him an interest in god satan in the meantime opposes with all his might sin and law assist him many flaws are found in his evidences the truth of them all is questioned the soul hangs and suspends as to the issue and in the midst of the plea and contest the comforter comes and by a word of promise or otherwise overpowers the heart with a comfortable persuasion and bears down all objections that his plea is good and that he is a child of god the spirit bears witness to us when our spirits are pleading their right and title he comes in and bears witness on our side at the same time enabling us to put forth acts of filial obedience kind and childlike so i thought i think that's a helpful way to consider you in your struggles and end your doubts and you know your your travails that come from real hindrances that we experience in our christian life you know there's an always a time that you know you do something and you think well how could i even be saved and think that way or how could i even be saved and do that um and you know you struggle um when you're struggling the spirit of god can come alongside you and comfort you oliver so you're so recap that for me yeah yeah um waldron makes an interesting point about these things at the end of his discussion of this section of the 1689 um which i wasn't sure whether to get into or not but i think i will i'll just read it to you um each of the three roots of assurance mentioned here is crucial devastating error will result whenever any one of them is denied or depreciated the devaluing of the first root the promises of salvation turns the second into legalism so if you are relying on your performance looking at what you are convincing yourself is the spirit of god working in you and you are not relying primarily and looking first to christ then you are you you're going into toward legalism um the not the denial of the second root the marks of grace the denial that the second root the marks of grace has any connection with assurance turns the first and third into easy believism so you know you say i believe in the spirit is it working me but you're a drunkard an adulterer and a murderer at heart you uh are in another ditch and then the denial of the third the testimony of the spirit turns the first and second into rationalism so you you have really more just kind of an intellectual um agreement with the facts of christ and um you know you you're living a moral life but there isn't a relationship of dependence that you have on the spirit of god um so it turns it into just sort of an exercise um so i wanted to also read this quote from bb warfield that ferguson included in his book on this issue um and again this is the testimony of the spirit and one of the reasons i'm sort of camping out on this more is because i mean i think it's it's you know we can look and and see the the the blood and righteousness of christ and and i know that that's true and hold on to that and you know we can also we can see the um grace of god you know working in our lives and changing us but this issue of how the spirit testifies with us is not as um evident i guess not as simple to understand um so warfield said of this he said it is not intended as a substitute for the testimony of the spirit or to be more precise of signs of signs and marks but as an enhancement of it its object is not to assure a man who has no signs that he is a child of god but to assure him who has signs but is too timid to draw so great an inference from so small a premise that he is a child of god and to give him thus not merely a human but a divine basis for his assurance it is in a word not a substitute for the proper evidence of our child's ship but a divine enhancement of that evidence a man who has none of the marks of a christian is not entitled to believe himself to be a christian only those who are being led by the spirit of god or children of god but a man who has all the marks of being a christian may fall short of his privilege of assurance it is to such that the witness of the spirit is super added not to take the place of the evidence of signs but to enhance their effect and raise it to a higher plane not to produce an irrational unjustified conviction but to produce a higher and more stable conviction than he would be all unaided able to draw not to supply the lack of evidence but to cure a disease of the mind which will not profit fully by the evidence so those three things the third part of this chapter in the 1689 looks at the difficulty of attaining assurance the provision for attaining assurance and the duty of attaining assurance and i'm just going to read part of this it says the main point of the confession in this section is that it is not every christian's experience saving faith and infallible assurance are not so much the same thing that you cannot have one without the other so i think we probably know people who you know we believe are christians because of their own testimony the the life that we see them living and yet they themselves you know have a constant battle a struggle with assurance in the whole christ furgusson points to some issues that are caused difficulty for us in assurance because he says there's a section in his book he talks about the enemies of christians assurance and these are helpful there are three that he lists one is our native tendency to drift toward self-righteousness from the fact that our salvation is all of grace and even our active participation in its reception is both the fruit of grace and although active non-contributory to the salvation itself last sunday in essentials class i was recalling to the group something one of the brothers here told me long ago when i first came to this church um oh actually he was just praying and but you know this was the first place i'd ever been where groups of men got together and prayed together it was such a joy you know to to experience that i'd never ever been in a church where people did that but one of the one of his prayers was that we would not not allow ourselves to get into a state of mind where we are relying on our works that our reliance is on christ uh our you know the the change that we see in our life is a helpful thing for for as a source of assurance as we've talked about but um the problem there are many problems with it but when you start drifting toward this well man i'm doing really well now you know i haven't gotten drunk in 60 days and um you know whatever it might be uh where you're you're you're you're you're like you i've arrived um you'll fall and and you know the issue is you would start putting your reliance on your works and then you stumble and fall and then you go back to having no assurance um it's it's i mean it's the sovereignty of god that it works that way right i mean when you sin your your assurance should be shaken on some in some sense um it should cause you to repent but so so don't go there like don't rely on your performance um in another part of this book uh fergensen fergensen says um the key to the enjoyment of assurance is that our assurance is that he is a great savior and that he is ours um that christ is everything um it's not our assurance is not found and based on our sanctification the difficult so there's a second point that um um enemies of christian assurance the difficulty some christians have in believing that they are freely justified by the father who in his love sent his son for them um when grace no longer reaches back into the very fountain head then deep and suspicious thoughts of god the father develop an assurance is no longer possible fergensen speaks of a he says you they may have been nurtured in a womb of preaching that has portrayed christ as one who by his sacrifice persuades a wrathful father to pardon us in view of what christ is done um as if the only quality that god the father has is wrath that's not how you should view god the father god the father we know through christ and then a third enemy of assurance is um understanding arriving at an understanding the justify justification is both final and complete like you will never be more justified than you are when you were first justified um you know you you you can get yourself into a mindset of well you know i've got a i've got to do something more and something more and something more to preserve my justification um that's not that's not the way it works so did we read that third section let's see all right the infallible this infallible assurance death i'm sorry mine has the dots and the vows and so forth but um this infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it yet being enabled by the spirit to know the things which are freely given him of god he may without extraordinary revelation in the right use of means attain their unto and therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the holy spirit in love and thankfulness to god and in strength and cheerfulness and the duties of obedience the proper fruits of this assurance so far is it from inclining men to looseness um so again you you you have a duty and a responsibility as a christian to work through this so that you don't live your whole life sort of floundering on on the issue of whether you're saved toria thank you and and so it's a it's a you know the issue is not to become presumptuous about that right um the the mercies of god are new every morning but that doesn't give you license to live however you wish um and every time i think about that i think about you know the catholic um confessional booth where i grew up in latin america and i i didn't have any clue in the world what a genuine christian looked like but i i there were many catholics whose mindset was well you know i'm gonna go i'm gonna go confess my sins and it's okay you know whatever as long as i go and confess them um so in this in this means of grace this is a this is a for for you to grow in your faith for you to know god better for you to have the kind of assurance that we're talking about you need to be practicing the means of grace you have a responsibility you know i think of some of the analogies that were used here uh in the past and one of them was you know you're not floating down lazy river you know straight to heaven that's that's not the christian life um in this book the whole christ there's a section where um ferguson talks about what john says to us um about the moral characteristics in the life of the believer that encourage assurance one of them is obedience to the commands of god when he quotes john 14 i think it is we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments whoever says i know him and does not keep his commandments as a liar and does not know him um john stresses that genuine assurance will go hand in hand with authentic commandment keeping to him law and love are not antithetical they are in laws faith works by love love expresses itself in obedience the obedience of faith attests the reality of faith so so you have no um right to have any assurance if you're living a life that is just loose you know that that isn't concerned with the glory of god and honoring god and proclaiming god um and you know we do that by the way that we live not just with our mouths genuine faith faith attests itself in righteous living um john teaches us that we are confirmed in the reality of our regeneration by the fruits produced in us by the spirit um assurance is confirmed by not sinning a radical breach with sin is the inevitable concomitant of the life in christ and the evidence that assures us of faith we know that everyone who has been born of god does not keep on sinning and another moral characteristic in the life of the believer that encourages assurance is walking in love whoever loves has been born of god and knows god um so you know these evidences and and you know availing yourself of the means of grace by being here prayer reading your bible listening to the preaching um the lord supper the baptism um services that we have where we hear the testimonies of how people's lives have been radically changed and and they glorify god um in that those are all you know critical things to consider when you're thinking about assurance and the the last thing I wanted to um the the fourth section of the of the confession in this chapter is um oops lost my place true believers may have the assurance of their salvation diverse ways shaken diminished and intermittent as by negligence in preserving of it by falling into some special sin which wounded the conscience and grievous the spirit by some sudden or vehement temptation by gods withdrawing the light of his countenance and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and have no light yet are they never destitute of the seed of god and life of faith that love of christ and the brethren that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty out of which by the operation of the spirit this assurance may in due time be revived and by which in the meantime they are preserved from utter despair um and in the essentials class the last section um speaks of you know the uh well let me turn to it it takes me lots of notes to the the the fight for assurance does the christian have any part in their assurance or lack thereof and so that's what that's what we've been talking about and um the the you know the the uh and i think it's in eastern europe christians are referred to as repenters you know they say they don't say are you a christian are you are you a repenter well um i'm not sure that that's necessarily a good thing but it does speak to the the issue of you know um the necessity of repentance as as being part of your daily life uh in prayer and communion with lord and um you know not just uh holding on to the promises of christ um um confessing your sin before christ and and uh you know he is he's a forgiving uh god who um restored uh even david you know whose assurance was rightly you know terribly shaken um david said let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities create in me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me restore me to the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit then i will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you deliver me from blood guiltiness oh god oh god of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness um um so keep short accounts with god um you go a few days without praying without devotions and you're going to find yourself rationalizing sin and you know justifying yourself and and you know you just end up in a rack so don't do that um let's pray father in heaven thank you for um just the joy that we can know uh through christ in you and um we just are amazed at your kindness toward us we pray that you'll find our worship acceptable this morning in jesus name amen