All right, so there are some questions here in the chat which I will come to but here in class There were a few questions. I'll try and address it first one is how to have strong faith Right, how to? Yeah, that's the second question. Okay, so how to have strong faith So for faith we need an anchor Okay For example, if again coming back to the building you usually have some strong pillars That the building's weight rests on isn't it? So if I want to have strong faith I Need an anchor of the word of God and the The person of God in my life. So Without that I can read I can read this whole course and I can develop my faith, but it won't be strong Because I'm not connected to the word The word has not become a part of me Okay, so if I want strong faith, I need to dwell in the word That's the only way to get strong faith and in my relationship with Jesus Okay, then I can have very strong faith. So if you look at somebody like Apostle Paul He took three missionary journeys you read about the life of Paul very interesting how he went Into very difficult places people were opposing him so many things happened They beat him up so many things happened, but his faith was not shaken Right. How can you get this kind of faith? You need to be in the world You need to have a strong relationship with God and Another thing that I can add to this list is the baptism in the Holy Spirit the third thing That makes a very big difference because when you read about The disciples when Jesus was being crucified you find that they were also scared. They were also weak They were not determined But something changed in the acts of the Apostles they all became so powerful No one by one they all started stepping out. There was Peter John, you know Then you read about the new ones like Barnabas Paul what made the difference in their lives the baptism in the Holy Spirit Okay, so these are all elements which kind of add to our faith and we can keep our faith strengthen when we have these You know additions as well. Okay, but otherwise the simple answer to your question is word of God Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Okay second How to have faith in a very difficult time? Same thing if you have strong faith if you develop strong faith Then you can stand even in a tough time. I already mentioned about Apostle Paul. How he stood You know in the midst of opposition So as long as you have strong faith in your heart you may have a lot of Doubts in your mind, but you should not let that affect you You have to carry the faith in your heart and say for example, Abraham God has promised he is going to have a son, but 25 years you can imagine all the thoughts that may have gone through his mind Is it going to happen? Is it did I hear correct? Doubts questions, but what does the faith in the heart say it will happen? Right. So in a tough time, you need to carry strong faith. Then you can live through that season without Shaking brother. What is the third question something you said third? Mustard seed. Yeah, so he said why did God choose mustard seed as an example?  So maybe Jesus is trying to help us understand. You can start small But it can grow very large Okay, so that could be the Bible doesn't have any scripture that says that is a reason but I'm just Sharing my view. Okay. I hope it's helpful. Okay. Let's move on. It's good to ask questions because Then you You know, we're able to settle these matters in our hearts now coming here to the chat There are a couple of questions By Nadel. He says what is the meaning of God has given to everyone a measure of faith? And how is it different or similar to the gift of faith? Okay, so Nadel the measure of faith is simply You see when we talk about You know the grace of God the gift of God that he gives us we operate by faith We cannot operate without faith So the grace of God in my life will operate the gifts of God in my life will operate on the basis of my faith Okay, so if I don't have faith, they will not operate therefore God does give us a measure of faith to start with Okay, so that is what the measure of faith is and Nadel and God has given it to us But then the gift of faith gift of faith is just a gift It's one of the gifts and I think we discussed about it last time in first Corinthians 12 when you Read through the nine gifts. There is one gift known as the gift of faith. So that is different. It's just a gift Okay, which Operates at certain times, but a measure of faith is something that we begin with To operate in all the gifts. I hope that makes it clear for you The next thing that he says is you spoke about George Muller who took care of children Simply by trusting God for daily provision Now was it with the measure of faith or gift of faith with which he trusted God to provide? Okay, that's an interesting question. So I can only give you my personal view Okay, so my personal view is as I told you these are two separate things measure of faith is what we carry and we have to Make it grow but gift of faith comes and goes because it's a gift It just comes in that moment when we need it because it's a gift So it could have been it could have been both is what I feel Nadell George Miller because he was depending on God for everything He must have already had a good like a strong faith or a big measure of faith at this point and He could even have received a gift of faith from God to Receive that answer at that time. So it could be a combination of the two is what I feel Okay, moving to the next question. He says Is there any slight difference between faith? Hope and trust Okay, faith hope and trust So faith and faith hope and trust, you know, if you just look at it in the English language, they're kind of Overlapping terms faith hope right and trust around the same meaning You know, we would attribute to them. So faith is to believe Through faith we believe but in the English language hope is It may happen. It may not happen. For example, I hope it rains today In English when I say that it means it could rain. It may not rain Okay, trust is similar to faith when you're putting your your believing Regarding something so in the English, this is how the meaning comes but we will study later in the Bible Hope has a different meaning and a very connected meaning to faith. So in the You know in the Greek language when you use you when you look at the word hope, it's It's almost like faith When you know, we say that I hope things hoped for Things hoped for a very sure in the Greek language. It's not maybe maybe it will rain Maybe it won't rain. That's an English but in the Greek when you use the term hope It means very similar to faith meaning. It's sure It's very sure. Okay. All right. So Nadel, I hope it helps you I know it's like a play of words. So I just gave you whatever little bit of clarity I have Shall we move on? Oh There's another question Okay Or a comment one second brother. I'll just come to you Sanjay says George Miller came from a wealthy family, but he left everything Like Francis of a CC to totally depend on God's word and his promises it requires faith for that Yeah, that's true. That's true. Sanjay. Thank you for adding that Piece of information. It's really helpful. Yes, brother. You have another question or something? Okay, so I can share the answer to this But it may be a little elaborate and not necessarily fitting into our subject for now So maybe I can share with you later and we will proceed with our content for now. Is that fine? Okay, great. So let's continue here We talked about faith and we understood You know how Faith really operates and in the last class I touched upon the sovereignty of God and said that God is able to do whatever he likes He's a good God. That's why he does good things, but he can do whatever he likes Okay, so then as a believer we said so much about faith measure of faith Your faith grows exceedingly faith is like a muscle make it grow Why do you need if God can do whatever he wants? Let him do whatever he wants. Why should I have faith, right? Is that a right position? Is that a right position? No, and we will try to answer why that's not the right position so the way God has chosen for faith to operate is With the existence of his sovereignty He can do whatever he wants, but at the same time he tells us Have faith if you read about the life of Jesus So many times Jesus will refer to the term faith. He'll say great faith you know never seen faith like this or Have faith like a mustard seed, you know, you can move the mountains or you would find that He'll rebuke people. Where is your faith? So much Jesus is talking about faith but why Why is it needed? God is all powerful He can just decide I'll do this. I'll bless this person or I'll bless that person or you know, I'll make that person a strong Another person I'll make them rich. God can do right Then why how why should my faith even matter if God can do anything that he wants? That is something that we battle with however, we find that there is a wonderful combination of God being all powerful and God wanting faith from man So I'll give you a homework. You can all go and read Hebrews chapter 11 Okay, write it down Hebrews chapter 11 Go back and meditate. Okay, don't just read reading is you just quickly go through what is meditate? You think about it. You read and you think about it Read actually the word meditate has to do with reading loudly So read listen to your own voice. Think about it, right say it meditate In that passage, there are so many names. You'll find many names Abraham Sarah, you know, you will find able You will find What are the other names David? Samson so many names are there. Why are the names there in that passage? Because in Hebrews chapter 11 the writer talks about faith These are all men and women who had faith and God did something marvelous through their lives So if God was somebody who wanted to overrule over all means No matter what we want Passing a judgment to say this is what should be done Right if that was the case God would never tell us to have faith But you find that all these people when they had faith God worked with them and Wonderful things took place Even Joshua we said we refer to his name in the past sessions the walls of Jericho Joshua had faith and God told him unusual. I'm going to bring down the walls. He Trusted God and the walls came down. So we find that God Has worked through the faith of men and women. So it's not like he Does his own thing and our faith doesn't matter. It's not like that because throughout we see so many people when they had faith mighty things took place now Right Now moving on Yeah, so we have addressed this now. We've understood all this now. Why is there? Why is it like this God being sovereign and him wanting us to have faith Because God has established it that way Okay, God is the one who established it that way now the second thing is There are there are times that God can work independently without depending on our faith Okay, so it happens especially when it comes to the world events For example at the time when Jesus was born, we don't know how many people really believed That the son of God will be born But God did not need to depend on the faith of men in his calendar in his timeline He knew that Jesus should be born at this time. So he acted sovereignly He did not depend on the faith of man or in other words. He acted independent of man's faith, okay, so it is There are times when God works independent of the faith of man now the other reason why There is the sovereignty of God as well as the need for faith is because God wants us to engage Okay, so God wants us to involve And I have talked about this in the prayer prayer and intercession where I said that God Has fully deputized man on the earth. So when man prays God works So there is a core labouring or a partnership that God establishes with man in the same way when it comes to faith God wants us to have faith He can do but he will depend on our faith. It's very difficult to Accept this that he's such a great God Why does he need my faith? Isn't it? But he wants us to engage with him and Look at the beauty of this. God wants to do great things, but when we carry faith Independent of who we are right. I'm not reading the scriptures here, but you can go back and read it. It says Independent of our gender you can be a man. You can be a woman. You can be young You can be old you can be from any nation you can be from any tribe any tongue anybody anybody But if you have faith You can engage with God and God will work on our behalf and God wants everyone to participate Isn't that beautiful that God gives us an opportunity? Anyone with faith can engage with God and be part of the purposes of God and that's how God has made it Right, so it's really beautiful how he enables us to serve him now another reason why we we You know see the sovereignty and faith we recognize that You know God has meant it this way But he has also given certain boundaries For example, we talk so much about faith, right? And I have also heard stories of people who have done foolish things With faith, you know as the reason or faith as the basis for their decisions But there are boundaries Faith yes faith is real faith is active But we cannot stretch it beyond its boundaries for example You know if there are plans of God for the earth for the world If we have faith that they will change it won't work and I gave you one example I think you know the Lord the Bible says there is going to be the second coming of Christ and all the world events That are going to take place till you know that the thousand years and so many things are there in the Bible Now if we say God, please change it I have faith that you're going to change it or you're going to change the plan of salvation It won't work because I'm using my faith in an area which is outside the boundary Did you all understand so we need to understand yes God is sovereign Yes, my faith works But there are all these other factors that I need to keep in mind and only operate where faith should work For example, you know if I if I'm foolish and if I just say You know it maybe it's raining and I say no it'll stop and I'm not going to use the umbrella If I catch a cold and a fever. It's my foolishness. I could have easily just taken an umbrella, right?  And you break your bones But then in those moments people say but what about faith the Bible says if you have faith like a mustard seed You can move the mountains correct. It does say but we need to operate You know in the in the fullness of what the scriptures have to say you can't just Randomly apply anywhere and everywhere and say that it will work. It will work, right? We shouldn't do that Right, so if there is this this whole understanding of the boundaries and when we attempt to do something In the wrong realm, it generally doesn't work. So I've heard you know, unfortunately, I've heard stories of Even some missionaries who have taken like I heard this I Don't know when it happened, but it was quite You know widely talked about at that point that some people said Jesus walked on water. So we will also walk on water and some missionaries did this, right? And they tried walking on some very strong stream and they all died. I'm not it's a real story Okay, so things like this when we Use the truth of God's word, but they're not Understanding it in its proper context and we stretch it and you know do all kinds of things that is not faith Yeah, that is not faith. So that's how we must understand it But yes, there is God's sovereignty and my faith, but I need to know how these two work together I cannot knock on a door, which will not open. Okay, so boundaries We'll have to understand that and especially when it comes to God's purpose and God's plan for the world and how things are going to unfold Those are places where we cannot use personal faith to change matters. Okay now moving on the next point regarding sovereignty and faith is there will be times which When we will not understand We won't understand see right now, what am I teaching you? I'm teaching all of us that faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen So have faith have faith in God if you have faith mountains will move right you be here Faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God all this is there But sometimes there is the realm of mystery meaning We may find that there is a person who has no faith But they get healed We may find that you know, there is a person they have no faith But they get blessed and then we are searching the Bible. Where is it? God you said have faith They have no faith. How come they are blessed? How come they are healed? Mysterious, I'm not able to understand. Where is it in the Bible? But you see sometimes God works like that. He doesn't owe us any explanations He's a good God. He can do whatever he wants. Thank God. He does any good things, right? But sometimes he goes beyond our understanding and he may move Right and do amazing things Even without faith So those are exceptions. We call it like the realm of mystery things that we don't understand. It's okay We don't have to understand everything Whatever we can understand whatever we are meant to understand Let us understand but when there are things that happen independent of our personal faith But dependent on God's sovereignty God's grace God's mercy. No God's love We should just let it be. Okay. God you're doing this. We can't stop you. You do it, right? So we need to be accepting of some of these things which are very much in line with the word But only thing we are not able to explain it. How can God do this? How can God bless them? They don't deserve it, but who are we to say that somebody deserves You know this or that. God has been gracious to all of us. Okay, so that is how we look at it Yeah, so I hope that we have some regarding sovereignty and Personal faith any questions regarding this? Please feel free. No question is a wrong question Okay, so yes, yes brother. How why does? Yeah, so that's what I'm talking about. That's what I said God is almighty but this is the Dynamics meaning This is how he has designed Okay, now why that that only God can tell you But I can only tell you that this is how it has been designed. So these these Both this God being all powerful and us having faith It works together Okay, fine. All right. So if there are no more questions, we can proceed All right, we'll go to the third chapter here, which is about the life of Jesus and the different occasions when Jesus ministered to people and he commented about their faith or he saw people Engaging in faith or the lack of it So we're gonna read about the faith and the ministry of the Lord Jesus So as I've been saying If God is sovereign and everything is under his control he does whatever he wants to do then we shouldn't be talking about faith But Jesus was the one who spoke so much about faith So we understand that there is a need for every man and woman to carry faith in their hearts Okay, so that it ever it was Jesus who? Had faith in God and who spoke and told us to have faith in God. Now. Let us read one passage. Okay, Mark 11 verse 23 and 24 Mark 11 Versus 23 and 24 Okay, great. So see that who's teaching about faith. Who's this? Who's explaining all this? Jesus, so Jesus is the one who is telling us how faith operates Right, and he says if you believe in your heart and you say to the mountain, you know Be removed it'll happen. You will have whatever you say, but go to verse 22 22 Asapu, can you read that please? Good. What did Jesus tell the people? Have what? Faith right have faith in God. So it who told us have faith Mark 11 22 what did he say have faith in God Because God knows the value of faith and that's why he's telling us have faith in God Okay, can you tell yourself? Can we do that exercise everyone tell yourself? Tell your name, okay, and say Nancy have faith in God. Can you tell that to yourself? Don't tell me tell yourself Everybody online as well Okay, very nice. So Mark 11 22 don't forget Jesus said have faith in God Because if you have faith in God So many things can change can transform That is why he's saying have faith Okay, start with faith Great things will happen in our lives. So don't forget this Mark 11 22 tell yourself often Hey, have faith in God. Why are you so scared? You know why are you in unbelief make yourself up and say don't worry have faith in God God is there he will do okay So this is the way in which we need to encourage ourselves on the basis of God's word It was Jesus who taught us about faith. It was Jesus who said have faith in God And that is why it is right to talk about faith even though You know, there is this aspect of the sovereignty of God. Okay, so now let's move on When we think about Jesus In this passage Mark 11 Jesus said have faith in God now some may question Is it applicable now? You know, he told 2,000 years ago. Maybe it's outdated Right nowadays what the file expires the program expires. You have to use the most updated. So should we update what Jesus said? Jesus said have faith in God Do we need a new version now? Are you sure? Okay, you're right because the Bible says Jesus Christ the same Yesterday today and forever which simply means that God has not changed his mind He told those times. He told the disciples have faith. You know today what he's telling all of us same thing Have faith in God because when we have faith like those people who are listed in Hebrews 11 Don't worry about listing your name, right? We should not worry so much about being listed, but In our journey with the Lord, we will see day to day. We'll see wonderful things because of faith Okay, now look at the You know the journey of Jesus and How he responded to faith? So we see that Jesus recognized Recognized meaning recognize means what identify? So, how do we identify? something right on the basis of You know the symptoms like how a pastor Jakes was telling us the other day that There are some conditions in which it's easy to diagnose when there are certain symptoms Okay, but how is it that Jesus recognized faith? Spiritually right God is a spirit and God recognizes he can sense When there is faith and in that way, you know, we See here that Jesus was able to sense faith when he found it So there are incidents like I told us about the Roman centurion.  He said assuredly I say to you I have not found such great faith not even in Israel Okay, so it looks like I have not found faith means what I was looking I Never found it anywhere meaning God was always looking There is faith. Can I find one person who has faith? And now he's telling this man. I never found but your faith great Great is your faith. So you see Jesus is Demonstrating that God recognizes faith, you know So when he I think about it like this that when God is looking at us all our hearts It's like, you know, how you have some radar system You can kind of think of it like that way right something red in our hearts So it's only those things that he can pick up. He can sense it and say, oh Here faith is there. Okay, their faith is that faith is here. We can do something But when there is no faith, we're not giving God anything to work with Okay, though it sounds Crazy that we have to give God something but Jesus only told us that when we have faith He will work and so over here. We are seeing that Jesus recognized even today What is God looking for in each of our hearts? faith He recognizes faith and he also responded wherever there was faith Jesus responded. He said, okay You know, you have faith so take this there was one incident in Matthew 9 when four friends brought a paralytic man but in this situation Jesus saw that, you know, they had faith and so That man was healed So what was the basis on which Jesus is healing all these people? Faith so he recognized is there faith? Okay, take your healing again There was a woman who came to Jesus Who had bleeding in her body? She got healed. Why on the basis of what? Faith she carried faith in her heart. Okay, so when there was faith healing happened So Jesus recognizes and this woman it's a very interesting story that She touched in a crowd How is it sometimes, you know, when we are Traveling and it's too crowded. Maybe a train sometimes, you know, we tend to rub against each other, right? So there were lots of people who may have rubbed against Jesus But he stopped when this woman touched you can imagine Jesus 10-15 people have just you know, sort of bumped into you and you never stopped for them Why did you stop for this one woman? Because he said wait virtue has gone out of me She touched him with faith. You got it. That's what Jesus recognized even today When all of us are there, what is God looking for? Where is faith? Where can I find faith when there is where there is faith? There is a release right of the promises of God of the grace of God of the anointing of God the presence of God Everything happens. Why there is faith and faith sort of begins to Unfold the works of God. So that is how Jesus worked even back then and there was a woman She is from Canaan. She comes to Jesus in Matthew 15 and her child is Oppressed by demons and she just cries out to Jesus. She says Jesus deliver my child needs to be delivered And even over there, right Jesus tells her The the bread is only for the children, right? But she says Lord even the dogs eat the crumb and She kind of asks for a miracle. The reason why she does that is because she's not a Jewess So when Jesus walked on the earth at that time according to the covenant Covenant, okay, you will have a class on covenants According to the covenant the blessings the healings were only supposed to go to The descendants of Abraham that is the Jews. So this lady who came to Jesus in Matthew 7 15 She's a Canaanite. She's outside the covenant. So she's begging Jesus. She's saying my child is oppressed Jesus Do something and he says I'm sorry. The bread is only for the children, which means the promises are for the Jews But she says even the dogs eat the crumbs and Jesus is so impressed He's like wow, you know, you're outside the covenant, but you're still Believing that I can do something for you. Take your miracle, right? So it's almost like something that was set Even in the covenant Jesus went around it to release the deliverance to that Canaanite woman and What he told that woman was he told her In Matthew 15 28 Oh woman Great is your faith Great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire She's not even part of the covenant, but she got it. She got the deliverance through her faith So a woman who carried great faith and she had a desire. What was her desire? What was a desire that her daughter will be free, right? That was her desire Jesus gave it Faith is the substance of things hoped for So we are hoping for some things But do we have faith for it? She had faith. She was hoping she was desiring my child should be free and Jesus she comes and begs Jesus, but more than begging No, Jesus is not impressed by her begging. He doesn't say oh, you're begging me so much.  Okay, let me bless you. He never commented on that. He never commented on the begging But he commented on her faith and said great is your faith. You know what impressed me about you Lady great is your faith take Let it be to you as you desire So the Bible is showing us that faith Truly can touch God's heart Jesus recognized faith and Jesus responded to faith. So do we want God to respond? God will respond when there is Faith in our hearts. Okay. All right. So let's move on. We can look at a few more things Okay, now the second section here says Jesus asked people if they had faith in order to receive In Matthew 9 there is this incident where Blind men came to Jesus Okay, and Jesus said to them. Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to him. Yes, Lord Then you know, he touched their eyes and said according to your faith, let it be to you Now again, we can ask the question. What is the need for Jesus to ask blind men? Whether they believe He can do a miracle, right? He knows you can see they're already blind But still Jesus is checking He's checking faith is there or not, you know, usually Okay, I'll not go to that. It's another complete concept, but Jesus is checking for faith only if there is faith. He says, okay, according to your faith Let it be done for you. So what is the faith that these blind men had? What was their faith? Yeah, Jesus you are able to heal us So Thank God, they believed that Jesus can fully heal my blindness Then what happened? He said, okay, whatever you have believed according to your faith Did you believe that you take that? According to your faith, let it be done for you now He asked in another incident here a man whose son was demon possessed Again mark 9 verses 23 and 24 Jesus said to him if you can believe All things are possible to him who believes Jesus can do it, but he is making a demand of this man and he's saying I want something from you What is that? I want you to have faith Only if you have faith, this will work.  If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes Verse 24, immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe Help my unbelief. So Jesus is making a demand for faith In the hearts of people before ministering to them. So same thing today You we can imagine Jesus asking us What do you want me to do for you? Do you believe? Do you believe he may ask us the question? What would be our answer? Do we believe or do we not believe right? So it's between Jesus and you so you can talk to him about it But you know we find that Jesus is He wants to see faith He recognized and responded to faith, but he's also asking for faith Okay, only then he's working in people's lives. Then what else? Jesus even encouraged people to have faith in very difficult circumstances, so there is this person known as Jairus in Mark chapter 5 and He had a daughter who was dying So he had faith that Jesus can heal her He comes to Jesus and he says Jesus my daughter, you know, she's not well and all and the people around Suddenly they tell him no point Jairus forget it. The daughter is already dead Think about it. It must have been so Devastating at that moment to think that oh no, I came for healing but she already died Okay, so how is the situation it's terrible Healing was bad enough. They were in need of healing but now the child is dead but in the situation Jesus speaks to this man in Mark 5 verse 36 as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken He said to the ruler of the synagogue do not be afraid only believe So even in that situation When the child is dead Jesus is encouraging faith and he's saying it looks so dead that it looks impossible. What can happen in this? You know scenario Nothing good can come out of it. Child is already dead, but Jesus is telling that man. Do you believe only believe? Okay, don't worry. Don't worry about the situation. Even if the child is dead, you believe, right? And he encouraged faith only believe what where his words do not be afraid only believe How beautiful think about that Jesus speaking those words to our hearts today and saying do not be afraid only believe It might be a you know, tough financial situation tough Family situation health situation It may be you know something in the ministry. We are struggling and we're saying Lord. I cannot see what to do It seems impossible. How how can I you know manage this? These are the words of Jesus Do not be afraid only believe Right and we know what happened when Jairus believed his daughter was raised from the dead. It's one of those ins Resurrections that the Lord Jesus Perform and later even Lazarus Lazarus was in the tomb and This time the situation is worse because the scriptures tell us in John 11 verse 39 Yeah, Jesus said take away the stone Martha the sister of him Who was dead said to him Lord by this time there is a stench For he has been dead four days Okay, so it's worse right Jairus's daughter just died here Lazarus is in the tomb for four days and he's stinking So Martha is telling Jesus Forget it It's over Right, it's over four times four days. He's already in the tomb Jesus. Don't even try What is Jesus's response verse 40 Jesus said to her? Did I not say to you that if you would believe You would see the glory of God. You see how Jesus speaks so different. Isn't it earlier to Jairus He said do not be afraid Only believe to Martha. He's saying did I not say to you that if you would Believe you would see the glory of God. So don't look at the hopelessness If you look at circumstances the natural You know Setting we'll say yeah, it's so hopeless even God can't help me But we should not speak like that because in both these situations Jesus said can you believe if you can believe I can do something for you No matter how hopeless the situation seems alright, so Even this morning. I just pray that God will stir up that faith in our hearts. He's looking for faith Jesus recognizes and responds to faith According to your faith let it be done for you. Do you believe that I can do this for you? These are the questions that Jesus asks us now. Let me look at the chat here Okay, so Daniel is saying is it the confession from those blind men which made Jesus to heal them or where they having faith within them before itself, so usually we say Daniel that When we speak it's it's an it's a expression or a Confession of our faith. So obviously they had faith in their hearts on the basis of which they spoke Okay, so I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah, that's what I want to say Is that all right, okay, great. Thank you fine So let's close off with the word of prayer here I want to request somebody from the online batch to please pray aloud. Can you please do that for us? Yeah, could you kindly unmute and pray a brief prayer? All right. I'm just gonna Ask Sam. Sam. Can you I can? Ok, Nisha. Yeah, ok Nisha, please go ahead Yes Father, we just thank you for the treasures that you are sharing with us We thank you that God it is your intention to build faith like the faith that you admire Jesus and I thank you that for every one of us God nothing is impossible because you are the God who justifies and Makes our faith see flesh. We just thank you for the precious lessons We've learned and God I just pray that each of us would rise up with a new form of faith today Build us up in you Lord to be people that you who's faith you admire Thank you for Passing Nancy and for the lesson that you have imparted to each of us. Thank you Jesus and your precious name We ask all these things. Amen Amen, amen. Thank you, Nisha. Thank you everyone. Yeah Continue to have faith have faith in God. So we'll close off for now. We'll meet in the next session Bye for now and have a good day of this


Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and a very special welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and it is Saturday, so it's grocery haul day. I shopped at two stores this week, found some new food finds, protein food finds that I'm really excited about, picked up my staples and got some really good things for the week. So if you're excited, keep this video a big thumbs up, subscribe, turn your bell on because I do a grocery haul every Saturday and I actually upload five videos every single week. Check out the description box down below where you will find nutrition coaching, highly, highly recommend personalized macros and calories that is how I lost and maintained my 140 pound weight loss as well as one-on-one coaching for questions, accountability, or to talk with me directly. Links and discounts to my favorite things and my Facebook group are also down in that description box. So let's jump into this week's grocery haul. So for this week's groceries, I shopped at both Sprouts and my local Walmart. So let me show you what I picked up. Starting with Sprouts, I grabbed these because they were on sale for 99 cents. These are the tailgate edition seven-layer dip chips from the Kettle brand. They sound really good. So I'm wondering if they're going to be kind of taco flavored, you know, like a taco seven-layer dip. So I thought 99 cents couldn't pass it up. And then I did get Troy the good, crisp company, original crinkle cut chips for his chips and dip. They didn't have a whole lot of reduced meat at Sprouts but they did have this roast for $12.77. This is a three and a half pound, this is a three and a half pound roast. That is an amazing deal. And you know how much we love throwing roast in our crock pot. This is normally almost $20. So that was a killer price. And then I got some Chia Smash. They actually had their Chia Smash on coupon.  So I did get the little packets. They have buy one, get one free packets. So I did two strawberry and one raspberry. You could only do one by one, get one. So I just paid extra for the raspberry. I am heading to Atlanta here in less than, in about a week and a half. And I'm gonna take these with me so that I can top my yogurt with them. So I have all the Chia Smash vibes even on my trip. And then they also had $2 off of the full-size Chia Smash, only one though. And they're $6.99 each at Sprouts.  So that made one of them only $4.99. That's a really, really good deal. I typically buy my Chia Smash on Amazon. It comes in a six-pack, six different flavors. I'll link it down below in case you don't have a Sprouts near you. But if you do, there is a $2 off coupon on one Chia Smash. They also had a coupon on these garden bars. So I did buy one of these when I took my big hike up the mountain and they are incredible. They're so, so good. So since they were on coupon, I got two more. So I did one strawberry banana and one mixed berry. Nice clean ingredients. They're 80 calories apiece, seven grams of fiber, 22 carbohydrate and one gram of protein. So just a good fruit on the go. Similar to a fruit leather. Again, I'm going to take these on my trip. And then this was a new food find. These are brand new into Sprouts. These are from the one brand. So one makes a bar, the one bar. And these are the one puffs. So they had a spicy one and a cheddar one. 150 calories, 14 grams of protein, three net carbs and they're like little cheese puffs. So I'm excited about that. I mean, any way I can get in some extra protein is amazing. And again, I'm going to take these on my trip. I did grab a Caesar salad kit because we have been on a major salad kit and I got my favorite chicken at Walmart. So I'm going to make some Caesar salad and then lots of produce. So I have two small packs of blueberries. These were two for five. I got Troy some more cantaloupe on sale for $3. He loves this. He eats this so quickly. So I picked that up for him. I needed mushrooms for a dinner recipe. And then we like to have mushrooms on hand for dip or just to add to other meals. I did get some more mini peppers. This is for a recipe that you'll be seeing in Wednesdays what I eat in a day. And same with some fresh green beans. I needed that for that recipe as well. So that is everything from Sprouts. Let's jump into Walmart. So first thing I needed was some chai tea bags for my meal prep. We were completely out of Parmesan cheese. So I picked up another one of the shredded Parmesan. And speaking of cheese, I got a quite a bit more cheese as well. So I got some part skim mozzarella. This is for a recipe. Provolone cheese also for a dinner recipe. I will be sharing what I'm making for dinners and what you'll see in meal prep right after the grocery haul. And then I was completely out of my favorite cheese which is the Sargento reduced fat pepper jack. This tastes just like regular cheese.  I love, love, love it. I also got my favorite hash browns. You already know I love my breakfast bowls. And this is when I got diced potatoes with onions. I've never seen this. I've seen the diced potatoes with peppers and onions and then the shredded, but I've never seen it just with onions. So I grabbed that. I'm excited to try that out. I did get quite a bit of milk. I needed whole milk for a recipe and then Troy will drink whatever's left. And then the typical two gallons of 1% for him for the week. I'm going to be making roast beef slider. So I grabbed some deli roast beef. And for those sliders, I needed horseradish. Man, horseradish sauce is really high in calories and points. So I just grabbed this. It's just regular horseradish and it's only 10 calories. Then I grabbed the blueberry muffin for Troy. He's heading out with his dad today. So I thought he could take that with him. And then I needed some sausage for my dinner recipe, the one you'll see in Wednesdays, what I eat in a day. So I got two different kinds. So for me, I got the Gilbert's bourbon apple chicken sausage. I love these. Love these with every fiber of my soul. There are 120 calories with 12 grams of protein. And then for Troy, I just got some regular smoked sausage. I needed turkey pepperoni for my lunch meal prep. And then I saw this on sale and the Kevin's brand is really good. Nice high quality ingredients. So I saw that they had the honey garlic beef on sale for $8 and 41 cents. 150 calories for five ounces. So that's a lot and it has 20 grams of protein. So I grabbed that. I thought we could have this for dinner along with the Bob Evans mashed potatoes and make like a beef mashed potato and veggie dinner. Obviously I got my real good chicken. This is the main reason I went to Walmart instead of my local fries or my local Kroger store.  I've looked online and my Costco's in my area don't carry them. So I'm going to keep looking but for now Walmart is the place. And then I got the little Sarah Lee, sweet Hawaiian slider rolls for those roast beef sliders. I got Troy a vegetable tray per his request. You guys know he loves his veggies and dip. And then I also picked up one more salad kit. I thought about it once I got to Walmart. I did go to Sprouts first that I should have grabbed two because I love the Caesar salad kit with the real good nuggets. It's my favorite. It's a great way for me to get in my veggies. And I really liked this one from Ravel and it was about $1.25 less than it sprouts at Walmart. So I grabbed that. I needed broccoli for a dinner recipe and then I had this little fruit and cheese tray for $3. Grapes, a couple kinds of apples and some cheese. I love apples and cheese and grapes and cheese together. So I thought we would definitely eat that. I also picked up a 24 pack of Diet Coke and some Gatorade Zero for Troy. So that is everything from Walmart and Sprouts for the week. Let's go ahead and jump into my meal plan and what you'll be seeing in Wednesdays, what I eat in a day. So here's what's on my menu for the week. So tonight, out to dinner. Tomorrow I'm going to make up some spaghetti and then on Monday I'm doing a sheet pan sausage and vegetables. You guys will see that video in Wednesdays. What I eat in a day. Tuesday's leftovers. Wednesday I'm doing roast beef sliders. That's what I bought the little buns and roast beef for. And then Thursday and Friday are leftover nights. And here's what you'll see in Monday's meal prep. So for Monday, for breakfast I'm going to make chai, breakfast quinoa. I'm so excited about this. For lunch I'm doing a pizza casserole. And then for a snack I'm making oatmeal protein bars. I've really been liking having protein bars, protein balls. Things like that on hand. Super easy snacks, portable. And this recipe sounds incredible. So stay tuned on Monday for all three recipes. Thank you for joining me for this week's grocery haul. I hope you enjoyed seeing everything I picked up from Sprouts and Walmart. I definitely need to do a Costco or Sam's Club run. I would love to go to Trader Joe's. So they'll probably be a massive haul coming your way in the next couple of weeks.  Again, subscribe, turn your bell on so you never miss any videos. And don't forget to check out the description box for nutrition coaching. Links and discounts to my favorite things. And come join our Facebook group. We would love to have you. Thank you for watching. Happy Saturday and I'll see you in tomorrow's video. Bye.


led by Prime Minister Eir Lapid, at this moment, is signing a deal that will delineate the country's maritime borders with Lebanon. That's despite the fact that the two countries are in a technical state war. So how and why is this all happening now? What does it all mean? Just days ahead, truly, of Israel's fifth election within the last three and a half years. Now, just some of the questions we'll address here in the coming half hour and beyond. But first, here's some from Prime Minister Lapid, just a short while ago. I'm very happy to open this special cabinet meeting to authorize the historic agreement on the maritime border with Lebanon. It's a major achievement for the state of Israel, for the government of Israel. This is an agreement that strengthens our security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats from the north. There's a consensus, a rare consensus, among the entire security establishment about the need for this agreement, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, IDF, National Security Agency, all of them believe this is a good agreement for the state of Israel and its needs. It's a diplomatic achievement, not every day an enemy recognizes an agreement with Israel, with the United States and France, providing guarantees to this agreement. This is also an economic agreement. Yesterday, we began extracting gas for providing gas and also from the Kana rig in Lebanon, the money will come in. And while this deal is being signed this hour, we're joined in the studio by our Defense Correspondent Jonathan Regiv, as well as Amir Owen, Defense and Government Commentator and Shai Bazaar, Political Strategist, Consultant, Former Media Director, Spokesperson for Benjamin and Yahoo. Thank you all for being with us here again, it's a big development, certainly, and head of the elections here. Amir, I'll come to you first with a broad perspective on the issues, whether we go political, security. On this deal, first of all, good deal, bad deal, it's not a no deal, we know they're doing something here. But where does this lie on the spectrum of for Israel? It's a very good deal. You may remember from 400 years ago that a British scholar coined the expression Pennywise and Pound Foolish, this is the exact opposite. The critics who nibble at various clauses and the fine print missed a big picture. And the big picture is that Israel and Lebanon are sweeping away a sore spot in the relationship. Now in 1949, in the armistice agreements, Israel and Syria, for instance, also Israel and Egypt, kept some issues to be solved later, the militarized areas, Mount Scopus with Jordan and others. And these points always raised conflicts later. Now if Israel and Lebanon can set aside their maritime dispute, and if Lebanon now has a lot to lose by abrogating the agreement, and all the other arguments regarding Hezbollah and Iran, no need to cover that, it's all for the good. And obviously, if both countries want outside investments, they want energy companies, they want superpower involvement, in this case, United States, but also France, which is not a superpower. They've got to settle the issues though around this, it's hard to make those big deals. It's all to the good. Yeah, with something unresolved. The glaring fact though tries we're just ahead of elections here, and not everyone is cheering this deal today. I mean, we're here, fine, Lapid talked about, you know, the quote-unquote consensus around this, just being nothing but a positive deal. Political opposition is saying something else right now, just ahead of elections. They're calling it capitulation to the enemy, essentially, you know, on certain terms. Where does Benjamin Netanyahu take this now, just ahead of elections? I can imagine that if Benjamin Netanyahu would be the one who signed this agreement, he would be very happy with this. But as you said, it's political days, and we are in the middle of another, yes, election cycle in Israel, and politicians before... Can't you just remember, yes, this is actually happening again. They are not very happy to give some gifts to their opponents when they are running for elections. So, of course, he has lots of criticism on this agreement, but it's interesting to see that he started with this very harsh criticism, but then he backed off because I think he got it by the polls and everything, that the public opinion in Israel are not being convinced by his argument when you have all the defense intelligence establishments, as Prime Minister Lapid just said, supporting this agreement. When people look and say, okay, it's going to be a good thing for us because we're going to have a gas from the Mediterranean, they just started to extract it, I believe, today or yesterday, but also the Lebanese are going to have gas for them, and we want them to have something to lose, and also morally, we want them to flourish. We are not happy to see them starving, and they are really starving. I understood the Salah Baniz said, I wish we would live in Gaza, it's better situation than us. So we want them to flourish, we want them to have energy and food, and if it's going to be good for both sides, and as you said, we are still in enemies, it's good for everybody. And I said again, I believe that if Netanyahu would be Prime Minister today, I believe, I cannot guarantee, he would sign some agreement, very happy. He stopped saying that he's going to cancel it, yes, he's back in power. Right, he hasn't gone that far, and as you say, you may soften that rhetoric a little bit in the coming days. Tahran on the security front, though, in a mere touch on this now, sort of giving the countries here in war footing, and certainly with all the tension that's been there between Hezbollah and Israel, this gives Hezbollah perhaps, and I talk about Hezbollah in terms of looking at Lebanon, the power broker they are out there, something to lose in case of a conflict here, or is there another side to this that's worried about actually empowering Hezbollah by providing some sort of infrastructure to them, economic viability? I would say both. First, does it give Hezbollah something to lose? Yes, because it gives the Lebanese state something to lose. Lebanon may, we do not know what's under the Kanarig, but there may be gas there, which would be very beneficial for Lebanon, who's literally starving, as was said here, and needs this energy. So yes, it would give Lebanon and Hezbollah something to lose, and they would think again before starting a war, they're already thinking about that. It's no coincidence that the northern border has been nearly completely quiet for 16 years. Israeli deterrence is working, and here we have another brick in the Israeli deterrence. But does this empower Hezbollah? Absolutely, because this maritime issue has been disputed for years, for years. And now Hezbollah can come and say, why did the Zionists come and sign their agreement? Now, it came because we threatened them, because of our resistance, because we sent our drones there. Those drones were not sent there to attack, those drones were sent as a message. We threatened them, we did not shoot a bullet, and they capitulated. That's the message Hezbollah would give to the Lebanese people. Therefore, I think both are correct, is the Lebanese state gaining from this? Yes, is Hezbollah gaining from this? Also, yes. We are not sure, but these people are believing the message from Hezbollah. They understood that, two months ago, they were all against this agreement together with Iran, and suddenly they are for it because they see that there are no other options, because Lebanon is needed. Well, Niahu actually take this line as well, that, hey, they threaten the gas rig, I believe in the first days of the peace reign as Prime Minister. They flew these drones at the gas rig. Amir, is there a connection there between the threats and the fact that now we're reaching a deal after years of negotiation? No, there is little to no connection. Yes, there is mutual deterrence between Israel and Hezbollah. As far as attacking targets within Lebanon goes, and even as far as killing Lebanese operatives of Hezbollah outside of Lebanon, in Syria, for instance. But it does not apply to this particular dispute. And it may surprise you to learn that in the Israeli defense establishment, Hassan Nasrallah now is now perceived to be a stabilizing force within Lebanon if they were given the choice. A remarkable statement, but as Jonathan highlighted, a lot of years to support that. Yes, but right now, given the choice of killing him, if he pops out of his bunker or not, they would not, because in this particular instance, Nasrallah acted more as a Lebanese than as a Shiite. We're stepping out for a short break, you know what, Shabadak, at Jonathan Reagan's stay with us. We'll be right back after a short break here, continue covering the subject.