Abstract hyphen thebaeca fruits were used to synthesize spherical erbium oxide nanoparticles, HT-R203NPS. These particles exhibited a crystalline structure, with a crystallite size of 7.5 nanometers, and a bound gap of 5.25EV. The physical chemical and morphological properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy, SAED, and HRTEM. The nanoparticles showed strong antioxidative activity and inhibitory effects against glucosidase and amylase enzymes. Furthermore, they also demonstrated significant hypoglycemic effects in diabetic mice. This article was authored by Hamza El Sayed Ahmed Mohamed, Ali Talha Khalil, Kaulah Khiri, and others.


Dear friends, these past years have presented us with many complex food security challenges. We have had three years of a pandemic on the top of the economic downturns, conflicts and war, the climate crisis, interrupted international supply chains, increased inequities, and rising food prices among others, all confirming how interconnected our economies and lives are. Rising food prices affected all of us, but the impact failed the most by the vulnerable and by the countries already experiencing a food crisis. Today, 3.1 billion people around the world still cannot afford a health diet. Hunger continues to rise, and it has affected 828 million people in 2021, an increase of about 46 million people since 2020, and 150 million since 2019. Farming and nutritious are leading to loss of lives and put at risk at the highest future for our children. Catastrophic short-term events are developing into protracted crises with overlapping challenges which over time are leaving an increased number of the people behind. Now, more than ever, we need to harness the power of solidarity and collective action. Our agri-food systems hold great potential for a more equitable and prosperous future. As we are interlinked to the many areas of our lives and economy, from agriculture to the natural resources, to energy, to health, and many more, agriculture is among the most cost-effective humanitarian interventions. To honor our pledges, to leave no one behind, it is critical that we transform our agri-food system to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, a better life for all. We need to empower the most vulnerable, increased small-scale producers by investing in global agri-food systems. This means improved access to the training incentives, science, data, technology, and innovation so that small holders can be at the center of this transformation. We need to design rural employment and services and to end the child labor. While fostering gender equality and supporting rural and indigenous peoples who are the custodians of much of the age biodiversity, at the same time, governments need to provide timely and well-tagged social protection programs that protect the most of the fragile. We need to support the countries at the risk of the hunger, malnutrition, and farming. Having them to transform agri-food systems, funding humanitarian appeal, and boosting resilience. Great priority must be given to the increase in local nutritious food production and preserving natural resources. The FAO strategy framework 2022-31 prioritized this transformation across all our work in support of the 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals. The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit and other multilateral initiatives have initiated the dialogues and the pathways putting agri-food system transformation higher on the global agenda. FAO continues to support implementation of the national pathways for transformation by hosting the UN Food Systems Summit follow-up coordination hub on behalf of the UN system. Dear friends, let this world food day be a reminder of the need to accelerate this effort and strive for a future where no one is left behind. And while everyone has access to the house and affordable food, let us work better together to build a new era of the home for everyone, everywhere. And thank you.


Next question is from Imoi 5 What are some of the best workout tips for using resistance bands? Don't allow the bands to sit in the sun and dry out. Mm-hmm. What happened to you? Do they snap on you or what? I think everybody's had a band snap on them. Don't let your trainer put it around you and then have you run with it. Yeah. Yeah, that's always a good Have you guys ever smacked a client with the broken band? It came back actually I was I was doing that as as a trainer and it Broke, but it got me so it came back and it hit me in the ribs I had like the biggest welten bruise for a couple weeks Dude, I hit one of my older male clients right in the pills. Oh, yeah, right in the pills hard last time he resorted He stopped after that So okay, so it's funny the funny thing about resistance bands. This is very interesting You know, we have a bit of a unique perspective because we've been in the fitness space Professionally in the gym space for for two decades or over two decades, right? So you see Trends and what becomes favorable and unfavorable and I bands probably I can't think of another tool that went from Nobody respected at all to becoming extremely valuable and a relatively short period of time When I first started working out you you couldn't you wouldn't catch a single lifter Using bands if they did they would be made fun of for the rest of your lives Was it West Side barbell that popularized? They yes power lifting Coaches were the ones that started started popularizing bands because well what happened was a lot of these coaches We're studying the the lifting techniques and workout programs of eastern block lifters former Soviet Union Nations and remember when that when the iron curtain came down All of their information became available to us and these countries had like funding massive funding from the Communist regime because it was a source of pride right that their athletes, you know did stuff So they studied all kinds of different lifting techniques and one thing that they discovered was variable resistance Was extremely effective at building strength a very very effective at building it makes the strength curve It mimics the strength curve So what I'm talking about is and our coaches over here saw this read this and the smart ones applied it and then you know They became dominant so a strength curve is this right when you're doing a squat for example You're not the same strength throughout the whole squat Most of us are strongest at the top of the squat and weakest at the bottom of a squat So imagine when you're doing a heavy squat Where are you most likely to not be able to lift the weight? Where are you most likely to be able to lift the most amount of weight right at the top? You're the strongest at the bottom of the weakest now the problem with free weights Or most machines or any other piece of equipment is that the very the equipment's excuse me The resistance is pretty consistent. So if I'm squatting 300 pounds whether I'm at the top of the squat or the bottom of the squat It's 300 pounds what a band does when I attach bands to the side of the bar and attach them down to an anchor So let's say I tie them to the squat rack at the bottom up at the so they're on the barbell And they're at the bottom of the squat rack what a band does is it gives you more resistance at the top and less resistance at the bottom Because when you have a band the further you stretch it out the harder the resistance becomes and the when it's barely stretched out The resistance is very easily excuse me very easy So when you're squatting with bands Now you have 300 pounds on the bar But you have let's say an additional 100 pounds of resistance at the top of the squat But at the bottom it's only maybe 20 pounds of resistance and it gradually increases So you're it's not like a huge demand all at once. No, and this resistance trains your muscles through Their natural strength curve and it's true. It's incredible for strength gains That's my second favorite way to use resistance bands. My first favorite way is with the trigger session trigger sessions work They actually work better with bands than they do with weights I think it's because bands don't cause as much damage to muscle And a trigger session you'll find that in maps anabolic but for those of you who don't have the program Here's how you can apply a trigger session get yourself a pair of bands on your days off Do light Exercises and movements for about 10 minutes two or three times during the day for maybe three or four of your target body parts So let's say it's your shoulders your triceps your biceps and your back So you're gonna do band exercises for each of those get a little bit of a pump And just send a small muscle-building signal, but really what you're doing is your facilitating recovery Improving mobility improving blood flow and it turbo charges the results you get from your workouts That's my favorite way to speak. I'm done. Are we are we sold out still? Do you know? I Haven't seen a box come through in a while from our bands or do we have them? I haven't seen us come through as soon as we list them. They're gone. No, I know it's been crazy right now I the my favorite part about resistance band is just the convenience of them You know anybody who's been training in a gym long enough Knows that like when you're inside of a gym one of the most versatile machines out there are the cable machines You know because you can move the the anchoring point and you can move your Contours to your body and so you could do all these great You could do a full-body extra routine with one cable machine like our free-motion machine really well Good bands are the same way Especially if you I mean the ones that we saw have like the different anchor points I could put at the bottom of a door the side of a door at the top of the door and so I can create all kinds of different angles And I could do a full-body routine and I could carry it around in this little pouch So I I love it for that like of course what Sal saying for my advanced lifters or listeners I think bands and chains are great tools to break through plateaus and to improve strength gains But for the masses and for most people I just think it's one of those things that you should you should have Like everybody should just have a set of like good band like a Basic set of bands for that time that you're gonna work out inside a hotel or that time you're gonna be at a park or that time That you're just gonna you want to get a little bit of exercise in and you can get a really nice workout Yeah, I really got into bands. I was thinking back when I was in college and I there was a physical therapy clinic like on site and you know after after workouts I would kind of go in there and and discuss things with them and they would work all with rubber bands They they would treat everybody's rubber bands. They were fantastic for rehabilitation You know exercises and that's when I started actually using them a lot more and started to actually superset them You know in combo with with dumbbells or barbells and I saw some some pretty awesome gains as a result Yeah, I I love bands. I discovered them not that long ago Maybe you know, I want to say eight years ago. It's actually a long time ago But you know, I've been working out for so long. It seems like it was recent and ever since I discovered them So they were like they were they were game change Adam Do you remember one of the first maybe the first workout you and I ever had together? Do you remember you came to my studio my wellness facility and you and I did a deadlift? Yeah, work out this wrong. So I will be crushed. Yeah, I have I've video of that. Yeah, oh you do Yeah, yeah, we we don't show me because we were all jack. I know I was I think I was like We were banded up on like 315 and I was pulling it like it was butter Yeah, so what I was gonna say is here's another this is an advanced tip So if you're a beginner intermediate, this probably won't benefit you But if you're an advanced lifter, this is brilliant another good thing about the band is I can change where it's pulling from to emphasize different Different angles of a lift, so I'll give you an example So Adam and I we were doing deadlifts that day together now One of the things about a deadlift is you have to you want to be able to pull back You want to create the force that you're trying to create with the deadlift is not just to lift the weight up But rather to kind of lift it back at the same time lock out to lock it out So what we did is we attached the bands to the bar and then in front of us on the on the on the cage That way we have to really emphasize that pullback at the top You do a few sets of that and then take the bands off watch your form It primes that movement and gives you better technique with your lift You could do this with a lot of different exercises


Ladies and gentlemen, to welcome to New Orleans and to pay tribute to the great president, President Reagan, who is... I think one of the most exciting things to President Reagan and Nancy when they got into this podium will be to see the young people down here in front. Ladies and gentlemen, Ellie the Elephant, body crawl for the sheriff's deputies, among the most talented drivers in the world are those tractor drivers who can pull these big floats through the crowds of Mardi Gras and never scrape offender. Then we see the precision drill team of Joseph Clark High School. Now I tell you that Mardi Gras begins every year on January 6th, also called Kings Night and continues until the day before Ash Wednesday, almost every night and every weekend for at least three or four weeks prior to that season. That is just a little tiny sample of what we do every year during Mardi Gras season. Imagine 15, 20, 30 floats sometimes passing through crowded streets and everybody turns out for Mardi Gras. Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the president and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. The beginning of an exciting four days, seven and a half years ago you gave America a new beginning and it's only appropriate that we finally give you your gavel. Can't wait till next week's meeting with the Democratic congressional leadership.


Good evening, friends of the creaking door. This is your host, bidding you enter the inner sanctum. Come in, come in. And now for tonight's tortured tantrum.  Can't happen, huh? Okay, Bob, hang on and we'll demonstrate. We're in an ancient cemetery hidden in a lost valley somewhere outside an old New England town. The stone face of a mortillium reads 1790. Behind its iron door the ancient dead sleep-in-sealed vault. Beside the dead, trapped in the mortillium is a man. He's haggard, glassy-eyed, like a man suspended between life and death. The man rallies his dying energies to tear at the door, to break his hand in the final desperate attempt at escape. I gotta get out of here! I gotta get out of here! Not good! Not good! Get out of here. Broke. Without a dime in the world. Exactly the way I began. Exactly the way I began. Six weeks ago, I came to this jerk-water town of Hillcrest to claim a worthless white elephant. A state called Highgate. It's been in my family since the Battle of Punker Hill. I was the missing heir. Finding me cost the trust these more money than the estate was worth. That's the picture, Mr. Lyon. The biggest state, but the land's been neglected too long and the buildings are about ready to fall down. The inheritance raised your hopes, honey. I'm sorry. What about cash? Other properties? Stocks, maybe? No, the tax collector sees what little there was for arrears. There isn't a cash penny in sight for you, young fella, unless your chance to run into your grandfather is brutal. My great-grandfather? Yeah, your great-grandfather, Daniel Zanger. Folks around here say, oh, Daniel assaulted a pile away and walks the halls of Highgate watching it and waiting for the right to send it to come along. Wait a minute.  I'm just repeating local buggy-man talk. According to old records here in Hillcrest, your great-grandfather was a man of fearful omens and properties. You're not saying he had supernatural powers. The records, indeed, he had. There's a paper in the fires that accuses old Daniel Zanger of consulting with the devil. And there's another paper ordering his execution for the same thing. My great-grandfather was put to death? We're to believe the records, yes. What did you mean by that remark, waiting for the right descendant to come along? Oh, legend. The old Daniel Zanger, for his money, would keep until an avenging descendant came along. But don't you go get no ideas, young fella. Now, there's anything I can do for you. Yeah, there is. From the missing-air 20 bucks, huh? I'll leave train fare out of here. The train out of Hillcrest would have been the smart play. What curiosity got the better of me? I wanted to see Highgate once. Just out of town, I hitchhiked part of the way, and I looked at the rest of the way with a storm threatening. Highgate was more rundown than words could describe. I stood outside, watching the shadows pile around that big heap of junk. They had a look about it. This once had pulled you in. You were shot away forever. Before I knew it, I was heading inside, as if I couldn't help myself. But it wasn't pulling. I was being pushed in, as if there were someone at my back. I was inside, and the door bang shut. It was the wind, I told myself. The door had been open, and the wind had blown it closed. I had a feeling that I wasn't alone. I felt a presence near me, pushing me toward a sputtering yellow light in a square library room. No. Who? Who are you? They brought us. There wouldn't be Peter's anger, then. I'm Ted Lyon. What are you doing here? At the moment, making notes from the town librarian. What are those books you got there? The remnants of Daniel Zenger's personal library. There are many fascinating writings here. My great-grandfather's writings, you said? Yes. In addition to his other reputed talents, Daniel Zenger was a prolific penman. What do the manuscripts say? I can't tell. It's it. The language is English, but much of it is an old obscure dialect. No need to examine and interpret them. That is, if you have no addiction... No, I haven't. You can make a bundle of that stuff. Take it along with you and dope out what it says on one condition. One condition? Uh-huh. That you tell me what it says first. I dropped around to see the old librarian the next night. The shades were down. The library hours were over. Old Hillary Waters let me in. Space seemed to be burning with excitement. I've made an amazing discovery. The most amazing discovery. Your great-grandfather was put to death. Oh, that's no discovery. Don't interrupt, please. I have documentary proof that Daniel Zenger was a man of extraordinary vision and prophecy. And I present my proof. First tell me, was he rich? From all indications, fabulously rich. He accumulated a princely fortune. And he did what with it? I cannot say. But that is of minor importance. It is the remarkable scope of his prophecies I am principally interested in. OK, Spillard, what are the prophecies? In these manuscripts, written in the 18th century in about the year 1790, Daniel Zenger predicted Napoleon's defeated Waterloo, our civil war between the states and the rise of Abraham Lincoln, and the first and second world wars. You're kidding. I'm honest. There were other remarkable predictions. Your... What name? The state of England, a lion. Four generations removed and Daniel Zenger. Yeah? What about it? This obscure passage I came across in his book of predictions. In the fourth generation, a lion will come to the crest of the hill. And then, over high gate, what are you eyeing me for? Me? You're thinking the references to me? Yes. I must think that a lion, that is you plainly, theodore lion, and you're the fourth generation. And the crest of the hill is hill crest. This town, and you're the master of high gate now. What did the rest of it say? He will first silence the waters, then capture the jewel from the king. Thirdly, after seven days of wanton darkness, he will bring a tiny stone into the earth, and the flame of the sky will show him the four keys. There's a final line. Really?  Funny change had come over the old librarian. He looked as if he'd run out of the room if I wasn't standing right smack between him and the door. I started toward him slowly. That prophecy you read to me, if there's any truth in it, it means that if I complete the three steps referred to in those clues, I'll reach a certain four keys and lay my hands on a fortune. Yes, yes. It purports to me, Ned. That's not quibble, huh? It means just that period. Now, boiling certain words down, words like silence, capture, and fling. The three steps mean three murders. Believe me. It is madness to accept or even interpret them literally. Let's get the weasel talk. It boils down to those three murders, doesn't it? No. Liar. First, he will silence the waters. That's you. Hillary Waters? I must first silence you. No. That's insane. You can't run away, old man. I've got to silence you. The chair came down on his skull and he dropped it. And my thumb on his windpipe for a couple of minutes. Eh. And I'd satisfied the first clue to a princely ransom. I'd silence the waters. He will silence the waters. Is there anybody around whose name is stream, flood, lake, or maybe river? Old librarian Waters had a look in the book and the prophecy tells his name's muddy waters now. A lion will reign over the high gate. Eh. If our hectic hero keeps on exterminating quite old scholars, I predict a lion will take it on the land. Let's verify my prediction, shall we? Okay, lion roar. I crapped old Hillary Waters on a chair at his desk. There wasn't a tell-tale mark on him. He looked as if his heart had backed up on him while he was pouring over his books. I moved into high gate. Old Daniel Zenger's second clue burning in my brain. He will capture the jewel from the king. What did it mean? Couldn't even begin to figure it out. All I could do was wait. And watch. Month drag by. And one night at the railroad, he called. I watched the signal fly go up. Watching the trains roar by and sometimes stopped was a way of getting a peek at the world outside of Hillcrest. I watched a girl get off. Young. Made up and dolled up in a style that yelled for a second look. She looked like my world. A big town, bright lights, fast talk. I moved toward her like a guy in the desert starts with a pitcher of water. The funny thing is she was coming right at me too. Could you direct me to the nearest hotel, handsome? I could even carry your bag there for a price. A local Wolfman? What's the price? Smile. Okay, now pick up the bag. I'm said lying. You? Ruby Meyers. Your business in Hillcrest? What are you, the local DA? I'm just a guy with time on his hands. I'm an advancing. Advance agent? Ballyhoo. I nail up posters, hire a local hall and I start the promotion and publicity going. It's really a man's job, but we women do it better. Well, you publicize it. Slogger Conlon, the middle-weight prize fighter. Conlon's barnstorming, putting on exhibition bouts. He'll be here Friday night. Well, what are you doing after working hours? It's between now and Friday night. Oh, I haven't thought about it yet. Got any suggestions? Honey, sister, I got a million. Before the end of the week, we knew each other a whole lot better. Walks, dancers, movies. There was someone behind me pushing me. As close to her as I could get. You're as nervous as a cat tonight. What's eating you? Nothing. Uh, what are you doodling? Doodling? Yeah, you've been scribbling at them mindedly for an hour. Well, let's see it. We'll capture the jewel from the king. That's a funny doodle. What does it mean? Nothing, nothing. The line I read from the poem somewhere, maybe. Um, Ted. What? We, um, we gotta break it up after tonight. I'm, um, I'm somebody's girl. In love with Slugger Conlon? No. Then why brush me off? Well, I've got to. The king's crazy jealous of me. If he saw you around, he'd be murdered. Did you say the king? Did you call Slugger Conlon the king? That's his nickname. Well, what's wrong? Nothing, nothing. The idea of losing you, that's all. Ruby. Yeah? Just came to me. Ruby is a precious jewel. Oh, now you're making with a sweet talk again. Come on, jewel. Let's have a last dance before the king claims you. Capture the jewel from the king. Second clue in the prophecy had been right under my nose for a week, but I hadn't seen it. When Conlon came in one day ahead of his party, I was right there at the deep of waiting for it. Ruby was back at the hotel, freshening up for her boyfriend. Slugger Conlon? That's me, kid. I'm Ted Lyon. Uh, I represent the town athletic committee. Uh, welcome to Hillcrest. Oh, thanks, kid. If I can take a shower, it's taking a flop in this sweet town. My car's over there. Parley and I'll drive you to a hotel. There you go. The town's all head up about the exhibition spot. King? You know my nickname, huh? I put on a show, just everybody turned out a buck 65 ahead. Hey, uh, how far to town is it? Another half mile. What are you stopping for? A flat tire. There's a break for you. I'm gonna load up this town. Well, where do you keep your jack? Don't bother worrying about the jack, Conlon. Hey, I don't see no flat. Say, what gives? What's a gun for? You, King. Is this a stick up? I haven't got a plot nickel, kid. Turn around. Sure. But you won't find a sound on me, I'll tell you. The King was dead. Had buried him in abandoned quarry, baggage in awe. His party arrived the next day. He stooped over why Slugger Conlon hadn't showed up, and then they left the following Monday. Nobody thought of making a search for him, checking with a railroad. Luck was with me. The King had pulled more than one disappearing act before, and his crowd was used to it. The party left, but the duel stayed. A week later, I married her. Where are we? Honeymoon, Hanson. In Highgate. We'll spend seven days there, alone. Thirdly, after seven days of darkness and want. There was only one way of interpreting the third clue in the prophecy. I closed Highgate to the world, and I settled down to seven days of darkness and famine. With slow agony. Without it, I'd never find the four keys. Without it, a lion could never sit with a ransom in his feet. The first ruby resisted. Soon she began to suspect that she'd married a crazy man. Ted, Ted, I've got to get out of here. Go stick for seven days. No, not even seven more minutes. I'm kidding. I'm here right now. Go stick it out, I said. Go stick it out. I'll have to chain you to the floor. You're mad. No food, no daylight. The same was dark. But seven days passed. I was ready for the next clue. He will fling a tarnished stone into the earth, and a flame in the sky will show him the four keys. Fling a tarnished stone into the earth. What did it mean? Ruby, come outside, Ruby, into the daylight. Ruby, I'll make all this up to you. All this suffering, I swear I will, Ruby. I'll sit with a ransom at my feet, and you'll sit right beside me, and there'll be gold and trinkets. No.  What do you mean? Watching me burn. That's it. Starving with my body dying by inches, but my mind was alive. I could think.  He will capture a jewel from the king. I figured out what that meant. Better stop talking, Ruby. He tried to stop me. King. Slugger Conlin. I know why he never showed up that night. You met him and killed him. Ruby stood there pale and beat up looking, accusing me. The clothes were ragged. It lived in them for seven days and seven nights. A hard illusion of beauty was gone. Hunger had aged her seven years. The jewel had lost her sparkle. The tarnish of the misspent and wasted life was all over. There was a voice behind me. The voice of someone whose hands were pushing me toward Ruby. Pushing me toward the fourth clue in the prophecy. It was old Daniel Zanker. No.  I didn't know then, Ruby, that you were the jewel and the tarnish stone both. No, you're trying to resist, Ruby. I'm too, too tired. My fingers on your throat for just a little while. It won't hurt. Too much. She hung limply in my arms and I flung her to the earth. And then there was a flame in the sky. A lightning spear. It seemed to fix in the sky, pointing like an arrow on an illuminated map. The flame in the sky will show him the four keys. I followed the arrow across the countryside. There was a wind behind me pushing the arm. Old Daniel Zanker was behind me driving me. I reached an ancient cemetery that was hidden in the Lost Valley. Then the flame was gone from the sky. And in front of me was a mausoleum. It stayed on its stone face red, 1790. Under it was a family name, Key. The door was unlocked. I turned the knob and opened it. And the wind slammed it shut behind me. The iron door had a knob on the outside only. There was no knob on the inside. I'm in here now. Trapped. Too weak to move. Hearing voices. The dead are all around me waiting for me to close my eyes and join them. What is Conlon Ruby? I'm in here to stay. You answered my feet. Gold coin. I think it's a go back to the time of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh. The lights are going out for me. I want them good to me now. Sit with a ransom at his feet. And the winds will seal him from the wrath of...  Now there's an industrious lion for you. He built his own cage.  A piflicated prophet named Penny Packer once said, Lions in scorn cages shouldn't prowl predictions.  But some fellas won't do for a buck. Kind of brings a moral popping out of a wide crack in my brain.  Fan out on a horizontal line. Before all you can get is vertical transportation.  Inner sanctum has been brought to you through the facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service, the voice of information and education.


The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, recorded an income of 160.06 billion Naira last year, marking a 343% more than the 36.15 billion Naira income it recorded the previous year. Announcing its 2020 audited financial report in a virtual platform, managing director of NSIA Uche Oji said despite the challenges of COVID-19, NSIA had a strong year. He attributed the strong performance to NSIA's investment in international capital markets, improved contribution from subsidiaries and affiliates, and exchanged gain from foreign currency positions. The NSIA income came from the devaluation gain of 51 billion Naira and core income of 109 billion Naira compared to 33.07 billion Naira in 2019.


Follow-up emails and all that and I still do the doorknob, you know, I still do the cold calling. I still really Yeah, yeah, like for example, like I never stopped, you know, I have like 80% of my business is referrals Yeah, you know 8085 is is referrals and everything else and through social media But I don't stop the basics, you know the basics continue growing your business What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of road to 10,000 10,000 agents if you guys are wondering. I'm with my guy Juan Carlos. I'm not even gonna try to say his last name And we're with our buddy here Roop, what's up, buddy? What's up, man? How you guys doing? Thank you Ricky and Juan for having me on It's an honor. Thank you guys. Yeah, a hundred percent man. Where are you? Where are you located here in New York, Westchester, New York? Nice nice. Oh man. Yes, sir. Well, yeah, you know just tell us a little bit I guess man.  So Tell us a little bit about what you do man, how long you've been selling and kind of what you're into So I've been in the business for seven years now. I started seven years ago a funny story I tell a story all the time.  I'm so, you know been in business for seven years. I'm an investor as well. I flip homes. I develop houses I work with a lot of investors myself and yeah, man So seven years and this is where I'm at, you know, and the first quarter so far 2021, you know I already closed about 15 to 20 million dollars, you know on the road to do about a hundred million Practically, you know, I have a team as well, you know, I have not really a team But I have like another agent that works for me a buyer's agent slash listing agent And then I have a transaction coordinator and assistant Roop, you're pretty young for the for the people listening on the podcast. You can't see him How old are you? I'm 28 years old. I started when I was 2021 around that age right right right in college and then when I when I graduated That's when I decided hit what the hell am I doing? I am not gonna become a doctor, you know Bio chem degree now. I got a real estate degree by just learning on the go Yeah, man, we share that in common. I have a bio degree as well and I'm putting it to good use selling real estate, right? Exactly, exactly. What kind of properties do you sell up there? What's your niche? So when I started then you said I had was it was more single family and multi-family houses out in the Bronx And Westchester County the average price point at that point at that time was 300 to 500 now We're in 2021 prices have increased as you know market is absolutely crazy You know now the price point that I'm working at is starting around like 600 and more a single family house But I've now dominated the luxury market. So I've hit the luxury market really hard in Westchester County I told myself in 2021. I was nothing but million dollar homes and that's what I've been doing so far So, you know knock on what has been going well, you know, my volume is the game, right? That's why I always say yeah Wearing a business where it's predominantly dominated by older agents, right? You go into your neighborhood and you have some agents I've been selling there for 20 25 years. How are you competing with these agents who own so much of the market share and have been there for agents? So that's a good question Like, you know, a lot of people do ask me that like, you know, especially in the luxury market, you know You have people have been living in these neighborhoods like they're the wives are like home state like stay home moms, you know But their their husbands are builders or they're in like in the hedge fund world Especially here in Westchester. The way I've been dominating that market is by like social media man I've been I've been hitting the social media very very hard people in my neighborhood like people in the area in Westchester County Now that the generations have changed is a lot become a younger dominance, you know, they have found me there You know, it's like it's funny like I'm gonna tell you guys a story 1090 ma marinec avenue that I just sold in white planes New York for a million three fifty the way they found me Was because of their daughter and their daughter found me through Instagram, you know And their daughter said listen This is the guy you need to list your house with and I went on with three other agents, you know I went with Julia B. Sotheby's from like she's a top agent in their office doing nothing but luxury A compass agent and then a hula hands Lawrence agent that's out here That's really top in the luxury market, but they want me because I'm a lot younger I dominate the social media market and the way I just I guess market these homes It's not your typical to throw in the MLS, you know or do like your post the postcards I didn't know there's a just listen just sold in the neighborhood So they really really like that and I got the house sold in the day. So which was awesome. What's your favorite platform? Um, Instagram Instagram Instagram for the younger people um, and then for fate like the younger crowd I would mean by like 18 to like 28 and it's funny though when I say ricky you just made the cutoff man I'm still in the game, bro The reason I say that and people they people laugh at me why you target like the 18 year olds is because they have a huge Decision making when it comes down to with their parents, you know They kind of like talk to them and tell like listen like stop taking like these senior citizens and Try and get the your home sold when you want the most money got to hire someone young And this is the person to go for and then facebook is more for like the 30 and up, you know And I dominate the facebook world as well lengthen. Um, I use lengthen but more for like just networking Um, I don't really try to sell myself on lengthen and I you know, I try tiktok man I don't know like i'm verified on tiktok and all that. I just don't use it I don't know. I just can't get into it. I don't like dancing. I don't think I could do the whole dancing thing Shout out to john lahara though He's crushing it on there.  Yeah 100 man. Yeah, all the different platforms So yeah, I mean i'm on every platform. I'm with tiktok I just kind of like repurpose other content and just kind of dump it there I did get kind of like focused on it for a second and I had some videos You know do some cool things and I got up to you know, almost 100,000 followers and stuff But like yeah, I just work creativity on that end Yeah, you have to like use the app and like get really into and spend a lot of time on it That's the thing you gotta spend a lot of time on that one to really make it work And I don't really have a lot of time so but it's a good place to just dump some content So I got some guys that are making some really good content for me and you know I put it there and you know it it gets some views and I'm kind of like whatever It's just another place to do something and kind of try to yeah, that's what I did You know, that's what I did like that's why I have like my own media team You know like I have my own videographer photographer that kind of like follows me around He's on salary base and I decided that I need that I think that's a very big thing and that's a value that brings my agents that join the team as well Right because they struggle with the whole content creating things, you know, I'm good with the ideas But you need somebody shooting you at all times that can help you manage that, right? So that's why I have Steve my guy that works with me. He does all my content creating We have a whole list every week. I use YouTube now I'd actually start getting paid from YouTube, which is awesome I started vlogging on there talking about real estate talking about lifestyle and showing Show casing my properties, which is awesome So it's definitely been a benefit on using YouTube as well I think YouTube is probably one of like the underrated platforms till this day Because now a lot of people try to dominate that right and once I got control of it and understood it And try, you know, creating really quality content It kind of sold, you know, so I'm continuing doing that as well by putting blogs out there every week Check me out if you haven't loop sing Subscribe and like That'll be awesome I think uh, we'll put your we'll put your YouTube and all your stuff in the in the description and stuff, but Like uh, like YouTube for me It makes a lot of sense for like a market like yours, right where like it's a huge market. I'm in Alabama Okay, by the way, like nobody's nobody's rushing to move to Alabama and stuff like the people moving The people moving in my market are already in Alabama. They're just moving from one part of the state to the other Uh, so like I don't know that like the youtube thing. I think it's great for the bigger cities Right because people are searching. There's a lot of traffic Like houses in new york or in west, right? Yeah, and had nor la or miami And so you have a lot of traffic. Uh, I you know, I got a big YouTube channel for my coaching But I have a little channel for like real estate too and I tried that I went that route for a little while I just couldn't quite crack the code because there's just not enough traffic of people searching for properties in my market Kind of deal But what I want to do is kind of understand Before one takes this whole thing a different direction Like social media people are always like agents really want to know like what like how do you crack? How do you hack that? How do you crack the code for like what exactly?   So you make a post right and then what? saying like that so um I kind of tell I kind of tell this to a lot of people that enter the business is like you know people people get confused when they When they think about instagram like they say hey, I got to keep posting houses or I got to just Say for sale for sale for sale for sale and honestly speaking that becomes very tiring Right a lot of people don't even want to see that what they do want to see Is you you know, they want to see like your personal lifestyle They want to see who you are you need to mix it up. So I recommend posting three times a week Um, and if you're posting your your homes for sale, I recommend doing that But I honestly would do it just on my story. I wouldn't really focus that on my feed If you have a business page And it's strictly just say for example like the legacy group, which is my team's name on that page alone I'll just post my listings, but on my personal page I'll post what I'm doing on a daily basis what listing appointments. I'm going on How many how many homes I'm showing and this is all on my story base You know, so when you're posting a post you want to be able to make a description That you could connect with your audience So I think it's really coming down to who your audience is So that way they can keep interacting with you Because they're going to see your success no matter what right? So instead of just saying hey for sale this for sale that Showcase a little bit about yourself showcase like who your family is showcase what you like You know where you go showcase the city that you live in You know, I think that really helps because that shows people like listen this guy is not just You know a typical realtor. He's not just a salesy person.    I'm posting cool things in my post now. What you know, like I'm So yeah, you can definitely You could definitely pay for the ads on instagram and pick like I would use like the marker Like where your area is in a 30 mile radius or like if there's a if there's a certain niche They are like a market that you want to tap into so for example, I'll give you an example in westchester county Scarsville, new york, right? I'll put I'll drop a pin there And I'll say I just want to market it to that radius, you know So that that way people continue to see it and a lot of people get like baffled like they're like they get scared Like oh, I'm going to spend so much money For them to see and honestly, you don't you could spend 10 dollars a day or 15 dollars a day, you know Until you start seeing more traction you see you start seeing more leads and you could spend more and more money You know, so when you're spending this money, what's the goal? Like you spend the money.   That's like my biggest fear in the business when when that happens I feel like you should even be in the business anymore You know because then you're just not doing what you need to do and that's selling yourself, right? So People should always when they see, you know one and they see one they could they should only be connecting one to real estate You know when they see me, they should only be connecting me to real estate and you yourself as well, right? um, my question is gonna say man I'll just say ricky like you with you like I wanted to ask you like when I when I when I searched you up and everything And want to tell me I'm hopping on this podcast and everything which is I first of all again. Thank you so much for having me on Um, how did you do it? You know like you were the number one agent?  I was 20 and uh, there was no facebook or anything nothing YouTube wasn't even around like this was back in the caveman like dark ages and stuff and There was barely mls literally barely mls The guys before me the the older guys were telling me how they had to like There was this book that came out every month and that was literally their mls They wedded on that book and by then half the stuff was sold But that was how they kind of kept up with what's for sale But they networked with each other like they would tell each other what had they had coming up And all the agents would kind of have this networking group. They would call when they had listings and stuff But um mls was like a game changer like mls What you don't understand is brazil is 30 years behind us technologically like they have they don't even have county records They don't even know what's sold for what?  No mls is like The reason why i'm able to sell 100 properties a year to be honest with you if i wasn't one of these other countries You know i could probably do it, but man would it be tough right mls indicates to everybody And so you know got to be appreciate where we are man to be in america to be in the real estate industry where we are But to answer your question if for me it was all phone calls direct mail and email that's all i could do That's all there was to do you know and then because of that And the fact that my space came along and basically Didn't work You know i kind of ignored facebook because it was like okay. Here's another my space And then i kind of i know i ignored it literally for like A decade You know i'm saying and yeah i just continue to make calls and do my direct mail and do my email And what i realized was my weekly email that i do It was really the foundation of everything that i still do with my real estate business now I have a business where i've built such a brand That in 2017 i quit doing everything but the weekly email and i still knock down 100 deals every year just passively through repeats and referrals and referrals or referrals so Everybody has their own journey man of like how you do it and You know, um, you know what strategies work for them and what their strengths and weaknesses are You just got to do what works for you and do it at a high level You know and build that database up.  To to continue to grow that brand like do you do anything outside of social media? Yeah, so um social media is just an add-on i go back to the basics You know i started with the basics So i have a i still use top producer I know people laugh at me when i use top producer like what the hell you're using but i haven't changed it Um, so when i get a lead in for example and to keep following up with them I have like their date of birth their their home anniversary their emails their phone number And i keep them in a plan so For example, if i had like a great conversation with you And i sold the house to you and we and we did awesome I'll put you in a gold plan and if i did you know what like i'm gonna stay in touch with you every two months You'll get like a weekly email for me or like a every other month like an email for me This is about random things like my newsletter and etc telling you about the market And then if i had it like a great relationship with you But it probably wasn't like you know, I feel like you're the type of guy There's like to be bothered all the time, you know I have you in a silver plan right and that silver plan would stay in touch with you every three to six months You know and it would like reach out to you for your birthday your home anniversary your kid's birthday and etc And then the the last plan is a bronze plan like I like we I sold your house You and I still like each other, but I know you don't you like that type of person like listen I'm don't keep selling me like I'm I got you you know type of thing I reach out to like every eight months or every seven months, you know like or every four months You know like depending on the person so Um, I have this I have all these plans in my in my crm and I continue to do that follow-up emails and all that And I still do the door knocking, you know, I still do the cold calling. I still really Yeah, yeah, like for example, like I never stopped, you know, I have like 80 percent of my business is referrals Yeah, you know 80 85 is is referrals and everything else and through social media But I don't stop the basics, you know the basics continue growing your business, you know like cold call I cold call my marketplace.  I'll cold I would cold call them You know, I still I still cold call my expires the fizz bowls the first for sale by owners the expire list Um, and I I tell my team the same thing. I tell them like listen I like door knocking cold calling sending your mailers they always work You always go back to the basis because I always say you don't need to you don't need to keep reinventing the wheel The wheels are already invented for you And listen that that was a smart idea because those people will never forget you as the guy who said hey This guy got me a free pizza. I'm gonna call him for anything real estate as opposed to the other person What do you do for us? You know so pretty smart move Yeah, and I was and I always follow up with them, you know till this day, you know Like my family they own Indian restaurants, you know So like I didn't they like I it's funny because when I reach out to him Hey, do you guys like Indian food and I'll say 99 percent of the same people say yes, you know I'm like all right great like getting around me, you know And like they love that, you know, and they they always call me like hey like I just got a lead in large month That's a two million dollar house for me just saying hey go to my family's restaurant Or go to my friend's restaurant, you know and have dinner on me type of thing So just like you have to think outside the box in order for you to in order for you to gain something You have to give something right you can always just ask ask ask you have to give as well And I and I highly believe in that so That's awesome and guys let's let's go back to the whole topic with uh MLS's and and property exposure like outside of the us What do you guys think is the future of global MLS's you think that's a reality sometime in the future? No time soon. No time soon. I don't think so. I mean you'd have to be My goodness. I mean because you have to understand the infrastructure you have to have in place You have to have a code of ethics that people buy into Then they're going to stand by this code of ethics because it means that when you get a listing It's mandatory that you put it in MLS Otherwise you don't have an MLS people are you know I'm saying it's not really an MLS And so you have to have a code of ethics that everybody lives by In those particular countries and then you have to have brokerages actually buy into that code of ethics And want to spend the money to be part of this organization That's going to hold this and and run this I mean you talking about some serious. I mean it's not like okay We're just going to do a global website and people can just put their listings on there It's not the same thing. You know what? I mean There's a code of ethics behind it and I think that's the part of the puzzle Because I was like I went to brazil and I really this is when I first realized this I went there and spoke at our forum brazil And I and I realized this and I was like wow what an opportunity You know to build an MLS for them or all kinds of technological things you could do over there And the more and more I got to thinking about and talking to agents. I was like there is out there. I mean It would be like a lifelong mission You know To put that together. That's my thoughts I agree about it. We don't even have a national MLS like everything is so subdivided So it's like yeah, it's not enough to do over here imagine over there I think but but I think I think maybe in the future It might not be a global MLS, but I think like the major cities of world would have a MLS like they can all sell from like new york la Uh florida, you know, like I feel like those three big say especially in the united states Um, you know, I think and even even in like like say for example, like london or canada, you know, like I feel like we might have like those type of like MLS is like as one But I don't see having like a huge global MLS like if you want india or china or like brazil in it. I don't that's never gonna happen There's too many rules But I feel like everything else like the major cities of the world that sell a lot of real estate and they're we're always talking about it I feel like one day in the future that will happen, right? Because right now I do a lot of off market Right and there's things like You don't need to necessarily put it on the MLS to sell You know, but I have I guess I there's like there's like people coming with apps like crazy that you can join You could throw an off market listing on there. It could be an agent out in la saying hey Oh, I see you have this crazy listing. I have a buyer for you. I'm gonna send them your way I don't give me a 25 or 30 percent referral fee, you know so That that's working right now, you know, like there's a thing called pocket listings You know, I throw some of my stuff on there, you know Just because if I can't throw in the MLS come out of my like sellers like listen I don't want it on the actual MLS, you know For whatever reason that they may they might have but you it doesn't mean you can't sell it off the market So when I see things like that, I'm like, oh, maybe this could happen And uh, like and for example, like the three four major cities of the world or something like that Um, those are just my thoughts but I look at instagram.  Boom.   So that's awesome and listen rup. Thank you so much for coming on today What's the best way for people to actually get in contact with you and reach out to you? Uh, follow me on instagram. I am rup sing Um, and on facebook at rup sing. So anything really might win my name on it, you know So, uh, I'm kind of like the only rup sing that's kind of out there on instagram and stuff So it's not really hard to find so and thank you so much for having me on guys. I really really appreciate your time Yeah, yeah for sure man. Enjoy chatting with for a bit. Let's stay in touch. Yeah, we'll definitely talk guys. Thank you so much All right guys talk soon. Take care. All right. Bye


Good morning and welcome. Thank you for connecting as we continue in our study of a few books of the Bible today We will look at The epistles written by Apostle Peter. We'll start with first Peter. Let's begin with a word of prayer Okay, anyone on the call if you could kindly Begin us start out with a word of prayer that would be really nice and then we can go into the study Thank you because you are your mighty God Thank you for your powerful resurrection Be done glorified in the name of Jesus Love commit our lecture today into your buoyancy. I will commit our lecture into your hands and the rest of our student further Let your power of always pray fellow knows the name of Jesus Thank you because you're wonderful. Let your power of resurrection follow us in the name of Jesus as we study your word Father let your world be impact in our lives in Jesus name. We pray Amen Amen. Thank you. Thank you brother success Okay, let's get into I Know there's a question comment on the chat. I will address it at the end of the class But for now, let's just get into our study So coming to the writings of Peter And first Peter the authorship of the Epistles is by Peter and that's pretty clear. There's no ambiguity as We had in the book of Hebrews where we were wondering who the writer could have been But this is quite clear that Peter has written because he begins by saying Apostle Peter and Apostle of Jesus Christ. So that was the standard way of writing letters and So Peter is the author of the book Now we can also recognize that Peter probably Took the help of Silas so Peter wrote this letter with the help of Silas. Why we may ask the reason could be that he was but a fisherman and in comparison to a Learned person like Apostle Paul. He was not so much of an author or a writer So he may have needed some support to actually write out these letters and When we look at the content, I'm giving you a very broad Summary and outline We we see that the content Contains some important doctrines It also contains some instructions for the right kind of Christian life that one must live and there is emphasis on duties as well In relationships in the settings where God has placed us. How must we behave? How how must we? Live the Christian life. So These are the themes that run through the epistles. So we have doctrines. We have Christian life and we have duties So there are two Epistles we are only talking About the first episode for now, we will go to the second episode in the second episode There is more of a warning Regarding false prophets and false ministers of God and the second book talks of Themes similar to the book of Jude. So Jude and second Peter are quite similar They carry warnings but the first episode has Teachings about doctrines Christian life and duties. Now when was This book actually written we can date it to as early as 67 to 69 AD Around the time when some of the apostles were still alive and they were being martyred So this is an early book just like Jude. It's an early book How do we know because in the Greek Present tense that the book is written in there are references to temple sacrifices and temple practices. So then we know that Destruction of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem happened in AD 70 So this has to be before because the temple still existed and you know, we we can therefore Confidently state that it's an early book and it was written before the destruction of the temple So the date would be somewhere between 67 to 69 AD Looking at the literary form of this episode. It is a letter It's a letter. So it has an introduction Salutation goes on into the body of the letter and closes off with the greetings And thanksgiving blessings towards the end of the letter. Now, who was it written to? it was written to the people that Peter ministered to and These people were spread out in the region of Asia Minor. So it was not Necessarily to one particular church but to a region That had people believers whom Peter had Ministered to earlier and the category of the believers as we saw in the book of Hebrews he was primarily addressing the persecuted Jews and therefore he Talked so much about temple practices and there were there was terminology that they were aware of that came from their understanding of the early books of the Bible, but in the writings of Peter It's easy to understand for both the Jews and the Gentiles and he addressed it to both the categories of people Who had become believers during those times? So now we could ask the question. What is the purpose of the letter? There must be some purpose why he wrote So He wanted to teach the believers just the way James also wanted to teach the believers about the right way to relate with one another and You know, how how one must manage their Speech how one must speak rightly so there are Certain instructions that James wanted to bring to the people of the congregation for Peter it was about Instructing them to live a righteous life instructing them to live Godly life in the midst of persecution because Peter knew that They were already under persecution, you know, right from the book of Acts when he made his first sermon the First few chapters we see that they were taken to stand before the council And so persecution was very much there And persecution was increasing people had spread out because of persecution Even now he's speaking to the dispersion of the believers in the Asia Minor region Persecution is there, but he anticipated a heightening of the persecution under the rule of Emperor Nero and so he wanted to prepare the hearts of the people About the right kind of Christian life that they must live in the midst of the rising persecution so that is the purpose of him writing the letter and we see that as He talks about persecution as he talks about bearing up under the pressure of persecution Just like the writer of the Hebrews Hebrews 12 We know that the writer says looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith So Jesus is our example and our pattern Peter does the same thing He wants us to focus in on Jesus because unless we imitate the life of Christ We would not know how we must live our lives So the life of Jesus is our best example of how we must live even when we are Not Accepted even when we are mocked for our faith even when we are going through opposition and difficulties on Account of our faith. So Jesus is the example that Peter also points us to so let's begin with chapter 1 now As we've been doing lately. I would request us to please go ahead and read out the entire chapter the chapter does have 25 verses so a good thing to do would probably be To read half One person can read half the chapter and another person the remaining half so 12 verses for the first person and 13 verses for the second person. So Yeah, students on our call if you could kindly Unmute and read these two sections. We will move on from there First verse one Okay, Rosalind. Yes, you can continue and the brother Lubega you can pick up the same Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia elect according to the full knowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Grace to you and peace be multiplied Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy Has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation Ready to be revealed in the last time In this you greatly rejoice Though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials That the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes Though it is tested by fire may be found to praise Maybe found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ Whom having not seen you love Though now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with joy Inexpressible and full of glory Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls of this salvation The prophets have inquired and searched carefully Who prophesied of the grace that would come to you Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating When he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow to them It was revealed that not to themselves But to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you Through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven Things angels desire to look into Amen Therefore grind up the loins of your mind Be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children not Confirming yourself to the former last as in your ignorance But as he who called you is holy you also be holy in your conduct Because it's written be holy for I am holy and if You call on the father Who without partiality judges according to each one's work Conduct yourself throughout the time of your so joining here in fear Knowing that you were not redeemed with Corruptible things like silver or gold From your aimless conduct received by traditions from your fathers But with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamp without blemish and without sport He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world But was manifest in these last times for you who through him Believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the script the script in sincere love of The brethren love one another free Favourently with a pure heart having been born again not of corruptible seed Seed but incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides forever Because all fresh is as grass and the glory of man as flower of the grass The grass with us and if its flowers falls away But the word of God endures forever now This is the word which by the gospel was preached to you amen Amen. Thank you. Thank you rather Loupega Let's now go ahead and we will understand what we have read here as we could see Initially, you know, there is a greeting and then there is a definite Pointing to the identity of the believer who the believer really is and calling the believer to a heavenly perspective in the midst of what they are going through here on earth and then He goes on to emphasizing a holy living that is evident as You know in this world. So not just in in our Spiritual sense to be wholly sanctified by God but in our behavior in our lifestyle how that must actually come through and then he Reminds us about the power of the word of God. So that broadly Covers the themes the running through chapter one, but we will look at it in a little bit more of detail So the introduction the name of Peter is mentioned and his calling is mentioned. So it's nice to know that Peter had come to the understanding of what God wanted for him to do and Peter knew that he had an apostolic calling and he's boldly Declaring that and saying Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was sent by Christ Jesus. That's what an apostle is One who is sent from someone else and so by Jesus Peter was sent as an Apostle and he says to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and with India. So these regions are in Asia Minor and the dispersion simply means Those are those who are spread out. They are spread out and the pilgrims is usually a term Referred to a stranger who comes from a foreign land or a city seeking a religious encounter, you know or They have a religious agenda in mind where they want to go and worship. So they are strangers Who have come to worship And he's calling the believers as pilgrims In keeping with the reality that though we are here on earth though We are in the world.  He says you are pilgrims. We know that Apostle Paul talks about it He says we are truly citizens of heaven. We are citizens of heaven and there are other terms we find in the writings of Paul where The believer is seen as an ambassador of Christ. We are representatives of a heavenly kingdom and That is why even Peter is calling the believers as pilgrims. He's saying this is not our permanent place we are from heaven we are born of God and There is also what we call as Sojourning or journeying here on earth and that's what pilgrims do. They are journeying With their with their spiritual agenda in mind and that is who we are as believers We need to have a Greater heavenly perspective now This does not mean that we should be earthly unwise There is an APC publication as well that talks about being spiritually minded and earthly wise and Jesus told us that You know, we must be sharp as Serpents but harmless as dumb so wisdom in our earthly living is equally important But we recognize our identity. We are born of God and therefore that must take precedence That we are actually Of the kingdom of God we belong to a spiritual kingdom more than anything else now verse 2 He says elect according to the fore knowledge of God the father in sanctification of the spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ grace to you and peace be multiplied So he is Proclaiming the position of the believer again. He earlier said you are pilgrims now He's saying you are elect. What does elect mean elect comes from the Greek term Eclectos which means chosen or picked up we have been picked up by God now I know we can go into the argument of you know pre Predestination and all of that but we have already established that predestination doesn't mean that God has Chosen some and eliminated the others from being part of his family That's not what predestination means because the same Bible also talks about whosoever Shall believe whosoever will will come and so it's a choice That has been given salvation is a choice and then one makes that choice, you know, we we Can come into this category of the elect, but then the choice is open to everyone. So the elect meaning the chosen are The you the believers they are called by the Lord. Why are they being called as chosen because it's a special calling it's a special calling and We must recognize it. It's a privilege To be part of the family of God and the kingdom of God So we are the elect and he again talks about for knowledge of God the father simply means that God already knew Who would make that choice? Not that, you know, God Intentionally pushed some people into the choice and some outside. That's that's not what it means So God knew who would make that choice to come into his family in sanctification of the spirit It shows us that there is a work of purification that the Holy Spirit does in us, you know, when we read about The baptism in the Holy Spirit, we know This John the Baptist, you know, he refers to it as the There is one who who is coming after me who's greater than me who will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. He says so spirit Sanctification of the spirit and John the Baptist said Holy Spirit and fire so there is a connection of the Holy Spirit baptism and fire and we know that the The work of fire is purification and fire will burn up the chaff So there is a work of cleansing that the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer when we heal to the Holy Spirit and Much more when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit that the Fleshly parts of us will be burnt up Which is why, you know, we also Encourage to pray in the spirit to be filled with the spirit to walk in the spirit because there is a sanctification that We will experience as we are yielding ourselves to the work of the spirit. So he's talking about what The position of the believer and the work of God in the life of a believer and in this case through the spirit of God sanctification takes place in us by the spirit of God and he says for the obedience and Sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So he simply is talking about Believers consecrating themselves Walking in the ways of the Lord committing themselves to what God calls them to do and he is talking about Sprinkling of blood. What is the meaning of that? You know, sprinkling of blood is also a term That was closely associated with cleansing. It was closely associated with dedication Consecration because we know sprinkling was usually done at the time of establishing covenants in the Old Testament sprinkling was done at the time of Dedicating someone for a godly purpose such as Aaron and his sons They were dedicated to be high priests and at that time sprinkling was done. So they were ordained ordination is You know another process in which we see the sprinkling of the blood and Basically purification and even in some of the rituals of the cleansing of the leper Sprinkling was was done. And so the understanding is a cleansing again cleansing of the believer So here we are we understand our identity in Christ and we understand what God is doing in us So he's doing a work of cleansing. He's doing a work of preparing us as the chosen of the Lord We are being sanctified.  I mean tell me who doesn't want grace Who doesn't want peace, you know, we we want more of it all the time because grace enables to do what God calls us to do And every day, you know, as a believer as a person in the ministry, I'm sure, you know We are praying these prayers and saying Lord, please give me more grace You know to do what you're calling me to do a more peace who doesn't want more peace We want Shalom wholeness a spirit soul and body the abundance of Christ in our lives So he's blessing the people the believers and he's saying come on May you have more grace may you have more peace and we can make that a prayer and say yes, Lord We want more grace more peace in our lives And why is he using this a form of salutation because we see those in the Greek culture and You know, you would notice that even towards the end of his writing He'll say increase in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ So that that was cultural in the Greek and Jewish culture And so in the Greek more of grace they would talk about grace in the Jewish They would talk more about Shalom and so he's combining the two and he is blessing the believers And then he goes on to talk about the greatness of our God and you know This is blessed be the garden father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time so You see we mentioned that he's going to talk about persecution and how to be ready for persecution but there is something about being rooted in our identity being rooted in who we are in Christ and Seems like even Peter understood the value of that where he's reminding the believer time and again Don't you know you are of God? Don't you know you are cleansed and now he's saying Don't you know you are born of God you're begotten God has begotten us and he's also bringing a spark of hope Okay, because he's talking about resurrection and we've just we've just worshiped the Lord Easter Sunday or resurrection Sunday as many of us call it and you know it's it's such great hope to know that our God is alive and It's all about hope resurrection is about life. It's about hope and Even before he talks about persecution. He's reminding the believer. Hey, don't you know that Jesus rose from the dead and Have hope in in our hearts the struggles that we are going through the deadness that Jesus Experience was not the end he rose from the dead and that shows us that No matter what struggles we were we are going to face There is hope at the end of a dark tunnel and that is our calling No, that is the hope with which every believer lives. He says living hope Through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a it's a positive note on which the letter is starting and and You know every reason for the believers to be excited because our gospel is about life Our gospel is about hope and our gospel is about the victory that our God has won over Every destruction of the enemy and again another note a high note to Causes to rejoice. He says don't you know, there is an inheritance waiting for you Even when we go through all these struggles in in our lives, don't worry There is something ahead of us, which is so beautiful. Remember even in the book of Hebrews. That's what we were told Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith We are looking forward to something and because we are looking forward to something and during what we are going through right now becomes You know, it makes it makes sense to to not Be grumbling to not give up Because there's something I had of us, which is much more beautiful. So again a note of hope He gave us hope by talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ now He's saying there is an inheritance and what kind of inheritance so beautiful. He says incorruptible undefiled which means that it is it is You know incorruptible stands for something which will not be destroyed undefiled stands for something which is pure and God is giving us that kind of an inheritance and he also says it will not fade away and to Add to our joy reserved in heaven for you, which means nobody else will take it away So these are all things that should make us happy as believers Resurrection of Christ. There is something I can look forward to the reward of God waiting for me And so, you know, God is keeping us God is helping us So keep your faith in God. That's the point that he's trying to drive home here now in the following section again, there's encouragement because he knows that trouble times Are happening right now more trouble times to come So he encourages them to hold on to their faith and let's see what he says about that faith No, he says You greatly rejoice though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials That the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes Though it is tested by fire may be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ Okay, so he is reminding the believer and he's saying look Though we go through all kinds of trials there is Something precious that we carry and that is our faith and he's saying Genuineness of our faith, you know that real faith that trusts in God that hopes in God he is Reminding us that it is more precious than gold and He says that perishes because in the culmination of things We know that gold is a precious metal and it doesn't get corroded right like we depend on gold like yeah Okay, it's one of those precious metals that we can rely on It's it's way better than all the other metals that exist But we know that at the end of time the whole earth will be Reformed as we saw in the book of Hebrews where God will just even the heavens God is just gonna roll it away Like a cloak so even when those things disappear the so-called precious things of the world There is something That remains and we carry that. What is that our faith? Genuine faith in God. He says it's more precious More precious than the precious gold Which may not even last right and when when we are tested when we go through all kinds of trials now Let's be clear when we talk about tests in scripture. We are not talking about God putting us through sickness Okay, we're not talking about you know God intentionally putting us through Some form of oppression does sickness happen to believe as it does it does You know oppression of the evil one happened to believe as it does But God is not intentionally putting it on us and we have to be very clear about that So when he says trials Tests trials there there are there are Things that we go through where you know our faith gets proved So one classic test that we can go back to is of course the test that Abraham went through when you know He was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac the only son He had waited for him his his his life is about waiting for that that promise child and here He's going through a test where God is saying okay. Come on How about you sacrifice your son Isaac and look at the the faith of Abraham? We lead in the book of Romans that he he had faith in God, right? He was a man of faith We read in the book of Hebrews that he even believed that God could raise him from the dead and the promise of God will never be Lost and so that is the precious faith and God commended it way You know hundreds of years after Abraham lived and died. He's gone But God is talking about the faith of Abraham because that's how much God, you know Loves faith faith pleases God and the genuineness of our faith is what the Lord wants So if we can if we can have faith in our difficult times in our tests trials Mostly to do with you know oppositions that come our way Persecutions that come our way We know how can we go through all this and he still keep our faith because we have a heavenly perspective all the things in the world yet today we are going through it, but Ultimately, you know, our faith will remain ultimately. There is a reward. We are waiting for and God himself will Preserve us and in that last portion there of verse 8 He says Though now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls So there will come a time where no we are going to walk into the fullness of these things right now We may not See Jesus face-to-face, but with the hope of all these things which are yet to come We are rejoicing a joy inexpressible and full of glory. Sometimes we've got to ask ourselves, you know, I do do we really Experience that right now and we carry that joy that rejoicing in our hearts Today it's there and tomorrow it'll be greater when we see our Lord Jesus Christ face-to-face So he's basically we could say giving perspective to the believer. Come on believer You're actually not of this earth. So don't worry. These trials are temporary now moving on to verse 10 here He says of this salvation. He's talking about salvation, which the believers are experiencing But he's saying the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you So he's reminding the believers look right now. We are carrying something precious But do we understand that even those who spoke about these things? We have all these mighty prophets of God Jeremiah Isaiah, you know Ezekiel You have the Micah Zechariah talk about all the prophets of God and even in their writings in their prophetic words. No, we can see the the Direction they're pointing to Christ. They're pointing to the ultimate fulfillment, which would be the Lord Jesus Christ We've talked about this in the book of Hebrews, right that Everything that happened before was just a shadow of the actual fulfillment that happened in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. So even when these prophets were speaking They had no idea of the fullness of the salvation that you and I would taste Right now and we right now are so blessed because they only knew bits and pieces Right, but the actual things were revealed in the New Testament So there are a couple of references Ephesians 3 verses 4 to 6 and 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 10 It also Tell us that the prophets did not fully understand the work of the gospel as revealed to us right now in the New Testament, so it's a privilege. We now have a privilege with us and You know, they talk they talked about the sufferings of Christ the glories that would follow and Not in wholeness. They did not know everything fully, but they gave us some Pointers towards that Okay, great. So that's like the essence of those scriptures still was 12 and Because of this because of what we have because of the great hope that we have because of the inheritance that we have that We are looking forward to the fact that we can rejoice right now in all these things He says therefore therefore therefore what you know, whenever there is a word therefore we have to look at the previous parts of Scripture what has been written and Then we continue from there. That's why the word therefore So because we are so blessed He says gird up the loyals of your mind So that also tells us like make up your mind because when we go through challenges when we go through struggles delays when we go through Disappointments discouragements of some sort the tendency is to lose hope Which is why we saw the writer to the Hebrews. He encourages them so much And and tells them look We were we only had the shadow now you have the real deal and though you're going through persecution You need to realize that what you have is too great. It's too mighty Okay, so encouragement why and remember he kept saying again and again like don't give up Don't give up. I know you're not of those who will give up so When we go through trials, it has a tendency to bring us down and In our minds we have to be clear in our minds We need this established that you know our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are not going to lose hope because of all the things that we just saw our identity our future our you know current You know access to God and and the status that we have in Christ right now We we can rejoice in those things and be settled be very very clear in our minds not to give up and He also right now we will see that there is a call to holy living in the scriptures that follow You know from from verse 14 He says as obedient children not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance But as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written be holy for I am holy So he says look now we spoke about all these grand things that our identity is in Christ and all But how do we live it out? There is a life that must show it which is where a Sanctified life comes into the picture holiness comes into the picture We know even in the moves of God we we've seen the restorative moves of God from the 1400s and There is a period where you know God The holiness movement that we talked about the holiness movement where God restored I think it's the 1700s where sanctification became the theme in the church where people understood Yeah, God has done so much for us. We are in Christ now But there's also got to be a life which is an evidence of this inner transformation that has taken place so holy living is a Requirement for the believers and he charges us by What has been stated? You know by God that be holy for I am holy God wants us to be holy Why did Jesus come? Jesus came To give to empower us the sin of the power of sin over our lives is broken So now we are empowered to live holy.  But that's not how God works God always gives us a means He makes it possible for us to live that life and so when there is an instruction of God For example over here be holy We as believers shouldn't say oh, it's too high a call. I can't do it if we couldn't do it God would never tell us to do that It's because we can that there is that instruction be holy for I am holy we are empowered We are empowered by the sacrifice of Jesus. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit on our lives We can live holy and he also know here. He's stating are not conforming yourselves to formalists So you see there is has to be a distinction between who we were to who we are in our lifestyle in the Outflow of our life today that there isn't a change then, you know, that's that's Really sad that we are professing Christ But there's no difference between how we used to live When we were in the world and now that we are in Christ Jesus so even later on we'll see Peter talk referring to this and saying How can we Have the formalists how can we so to the flesh, you know and reply if it can't happen how can we Have a lifestyle that is yielded to the flesh and you know, we are saying we are godly people No, the life has to show the inward transformation must show from the out working So that is something that he is calling us to holy living holy living Yeah, we are in Christ But let that show in our lives and the same thing continues in The following section here He says and if you call on the father who without partiality judges according to each one's work Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless Conduct received by tradition from your fathers But where the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot So what is these emphasis conduct yourselves like that conduct yourselves in a way? that you now belong to Christ and also there's a nice Point we can take from here. He says what did the blood of Jesus do for us? You know, we must speak of what the blood of Jesus did for us, isn't it? So here we understand that the blood of Jesus it Redeemed us from aimless conduct Received through tradition that simply means if there are patterns of evil if there are Patterns of the flesh if there are ungodly patterns in our in our, you know, like our fathers our traditions and We say that hey, I can't change because that's how we've always been that's how my family is That's what we are known for but when we are in Christ There is something that the blood of Jesus has done. We are being told we are redeemed from our aimless conduct passed on through tradition So let's say for example if there is Anger right in in the family line Now I don't have to be that kind of an angry person full of rage Anymore because yeah, maybe all my forefathers had it Aimless conduct. They had it Everyone has received it. So, you know, so they speak But what's the difference for me? The blood of Jesus has redeemed me from every aimless conduct received by tradition from my father's Okay, so that's good news. So then is holy living possible? Very much because we are saying even the blood of Jesus has empowered us to live that holy life in Christ Jesus All this God has done for us and then you know, he just goes on we see he goes on to talk about the the word of God which end yours which lasts and You know something that we must hold on to so what I'll do is I think I'll just stop here. Maybe I'll revisit From verse 20 and we will pick up tomorrow For right now, I will just have a couple of minutes for discussion if there is In relation to the subject and then we'll pray and close I'll take up this question after the call. Please. Yes. Yes, brother. No, baby I I'm sorry to disturb. I have a problem. I don't know whether it is with my computer for a while now every time I send my my assignment using Google doc it doesn't accept I have to write it in a In a word It's the rule different ways and then when I try to paste it again in a word It really comes when they have they are together. So that's why I for lately I have been sending PDF but when I was Trying to answer the other statement I saw it is reading that I should only send it to me in a word Okay, yeah, so if you've already done it, it's fine because I know today I think the online students we have it as did the deadline so it's fine if you've already gone ahead and Submitted the PDF or going to submit the PDF for this time But in the future if you have a problem like this, please write us and write me a note I will re-send the assignment to you. So sometimes that works. I don't know why You know, this this issue happens on Google Classroom, but the solution to that is I Can re-send the assignment to you with a fresh Google doc and you can write into that This happens has happened since like now it is two years. It has But you madam it is happening to me Sure, so we'll check that up bigger if it's happening only to you and Consistently in all courses and there must be some problem the settings So we'll find out because one of it happens once in a while it happens to some students Thank you. Okay fine. So no problem for now Yes, yes, brother success I'm having a My last semester there's some courses that Which And I was when they posted the results I Was the thing that I did not do the course I did not write the exam which I wrote the exam So I don't know how is that it's going to be possible So I even after that I still went back to E-Leni and registered the course and He mailed me that I should take my exam I went there clicked on the right exam. The team was taking me back. It was not displaying exam as exam Page for me to be able to write the exam because artist nothing That is only about two courses there, which I have done before I didn't know why they did see but I registered on E-Leni so that I can be able to do my Graduates I can be able to graduate both is T. It's not display. So what do I do in such case? Yeah, so see the Success I will mute you if you don't mind because my voice is echoing Yeah, it's just for ease of hearing Yeah, so on Elon One needs to complete the previous sections and only then Elon will unlock the Next section. So if it's not opening for us It's likely that some portion is left out in the previous video lectures or You know knowledge Knowledge checks or some of the assessments that were given for us. So that could be the issue so you will have to go and review a success and Once you have gone over all the sections thoroughly But Elon will automatically unlock the assignment to you. So this is what you would need to do Please take time to review if something is left out. So that might be the the Issue over there. So what we'll do is let's just close off with the word of prayer and then You know, I can address the question that Subashish has here on the call I just want to request one of us in the class to please pray Let's pray Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful day for the gift of life You've given us and the gift of salvation that you've given us Lord. We thank you We know that Lord who you code us for a purpose and we are also at ABC Bible college for a purpose Lord as we are in the eve of our Lectures and the eve of our classes Lord we call upon your blessing to bless both those who are In the faculty as our lecturers and all those of us who are students Lord Together energy the zeal and the will to complete what has to be completed so that we can graduate in peace not in pieces And if we happen to be graduating tears, let them be tears of joy. I do pray in the name of the Father It's on the Holy Spirit. Amen Amen. Thank you brother Lupega. Thank you appreciate you praying for us