, but ongoing is versus time-limited, so. Permit. Sometimes it's called standing. Standing, standing, I like that. Yes, but they're not doing work until they have to. Right, I like that. I like that standing is very nice. And. We're in the mode of making things up as we go. We're doing an awesome job. And so we remove the term of appointment and then my question is associated with the chair's reference. Do we wanna clarify that it's, now that I'm reading it again in a slightly different format, that it's chairs of the select board, planning board? Yes. So it's always the chairs unless they send somebody else. Unless they designate. Should we, I guess we have to approve the charge and then the SMA? That's the right order of events. Usually what we do. Usually what we do. It says yes, we voted the second one. It's one of those chicken and egg kind of problems, but anyway. Yes, it is. So if there are not other edits that people can think of, I would take a motion. Somewhere here. It's that motion sheet. To adopt the rental appeals board charge as amended. And there's a second. It's there for the discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And that's unanimous. And so, the second piece would be this special municipal employee status. Do you want to do a little quick reminder to the general public about that? Of course, without that. Oh, that's why there's all this material in there. But there is a fairly lengthy description of it in our packet. Yes. So basically, if you're on a committee, you can't ever, unless you have a special municipal employee status, you really can't represent to any other committee. And so, if you're someone who has, in normal cases where we worry about is you're someone who has clients in town that you might need to represent before another board. And this is somewhat different because it's already chairs of boards, but it seems just more appropriate to go ahead and call them special municipal employees so that no one has any confusion about the fact that they're supposed to be serving multiple roles. Would you like to make a motion? I move to grant the Rental Appeals Board special municipal employee status effective immediately. Is there further discussion? Well, just to add for people who might not know, and what Ms. Brewer said about special municipal employee, because our conflict of interest sizes are appropriately strict. In either status, that member cannot present in front of their own board. But it's like if you weren't totally unrelated matter before, say, the AGCOM, if you didn't have the SME status, you could potentially be in conflict. So it's very broad and this allows, especially in a smaller community where people do wear multiple hats. But just to be clear, you still can't for your own board. Which is just complicated because it's not the same as doing the work of your own board in this case. And so whereas the example you gave is entirely appropriate for other bodies. So it's an odd sort of situation, but it seemed better to go ahead and squeeze it under SME than to not this community, this variations of the select board have over time pulled in and expanded the number of committees that are covered by SME status. And I am always in favor of expanding the number because it encourages participation by more members of our community. And there are still very strict rules and people, if they ever have any question, there are people who have thought about applying for committees who have said, I may have too many clients here where I may end up with a direct interest and therefore I still wouldn't be able to do it even with SME status. So I just wait until I'm retired or I change jobs and that's entirely appropriate. So thank you. I think that makes sense. For the discussion? And so would it make more sense, however, instead of saying effective immediately, which I guess I've never done before, we should go ahead and say effective now because- You said that in your motion? Yes. 226, 18 as opposed to immediately because the odd thing is we're not having to make the secret step of appointing people. Usually we approve the charge and then sometime later we appoint the members. In this case, we're done already. Right. So effective immediately or 226? Whatever works. It'll be effective after tonight. Right, exactly. But if the rental appeal had to be called together tomorrow and we should make sure that on the bottom of the charge it shows what date we voted the charge because again, footers change and we don't have a particularly permanent template associated with committees. So we say the date we approve the charge was 226 and the SME is also effective 226, whereas that has not always been the case. There have been charges that are much older that then get SME status much later. All right. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. In that she is. Thank you. All right. Let's go take care of that. I think next we have a committee board appointment for NC Gilbert to the Board of Health through 6.30, 2020. I think it's just a confirmation of the manager's appointment. I think in our packet there might even have been the... Wait, we don't have them. We do have a motion, number five. Yes, we do have a motion and so unless someone wants to add something else regarding this particular appointment. I just want to say that we had two really excellent candidates for this position and I've talked with the other person that I'm not recommending but have talked to her and she's very eager to serve in some capacity for the town if not on the Board of Health and something else and so it's just, I think Ms. Krueger and I both felt it's just remarkable in this community how many talented people are out there who are willing to provide their service to the town. I will move to confirm the town manager's appointment of Nancy Gilbert to the Board of Health through June 30th, 2020. And there's a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. So thank you and congratulations to Ms. Gilbert. So next, I believe we have remaining on our consent calendar, one item, which is a special alcohol license at the top of campus incorporated at UMass on 427. So, somewhere. It's been there somewhere. I think I've heard of it by myself. A question. Yes, please go right ahead. I won't hold this up because it just needs to be done but in future it would be helpful if we would clarify and I know this is just expecting people to fill things out but I don't know what that means. I'm assuming that means outside but when we say plaza area and we don't usually license outside premises. I mean that's atypical for us. They're usually confined within walls. I'm not saying it's a problem. I would just like to be clear when they apply in future as to whether or not they're doing something inside or outside. I hope people enjoy the outdoor weather and do nice things with one day licenses but and that of course will be. I see. But do you see my point? I mean I don't know what the plaza area is at the Fine Arts Center. I mean I can guess but.  Right. How far does it extend? It gets to you but. Because normally we think of things as being one of the ways you control the event is that it's within an actual building envelope not wandering all over the place. And that's before graduation so the students will still be here. And so we don't, we have open container laws. We don't want to conflict with those. I'm confused. So if staff slash chief Livingstone could follow up with making sure we understand what they asked for. You can find out where it is. That would be helpful. You can bring this back if you'd like. Do you want to take the motion or do we want to wait? I actually want to know if it's outside. If I can, if we can wait because we can because it's April 27th. I'm just not sure precedent-wise. I mean we might be totally fine with it. I'm just trying to understand and draw a picture or something. I mean what are you, are you talking about in the back where the pond is? Are you talking about in the front at the Haggis Mall? What are you talking about as the Plaza? And it may be that there's an art exhibit because they put art right there coming outside. Or is it courting off in some way? How will they manage people that are at that event versus somebody walking around close with an open container? How will they manage it? So if we could have that postponed, that would be really helpful. Because we won't have to, we won't be forever away. Right. I mean, they're going to get it. Well, there's time for that. So I believe as far as particular items. We did all the motions, I think. We did all the motions. And so I believe we're now into the town manager. OK. Thank you. Interesting. First off, I wanted to remind or tell you and you know already that the school district has taken proactive steps in addressing school safety issues in light of the recent shooting in Florida. And it was good for them. The president of the union, along with the superintendent, wrote a joint letter to all the staff when they came back offering assistance if there were any issues. And encouraged them to be sensitive in their conversations. Because obviously, in a place like that, there's going to be a lot of concern. And I think it was really smart for them to be proactive and be on top of this going in. And speaking of school safety at the request of the school committee, we will be placed in an officer at the Crocker Farm School on Election Day in terms of the police department did a threat assessment. And they felt like the other two locations where we have polling locations could be secured in a good way. And Crocker Farm was the one place where people had to walk through the school and that the officer on site there would be useful. And that seemed to be the request of the principal and the superintendent and the school committee, in fact. And I'll put more of this in writing to you next time. The assessors, if you recall, there's the opportunity to appeal your assessment. We had 38 residential appeals and 10 commercial appeals. And of the 10 commercial appeals, five were for large apartment complexes. And that was not a surprise to us. And because those values of those properties went up 28% based on the market, the 38 residential property appeals were about average. There's nothing unusual in that number. Today, the North Amherst Library project, the committee that we have reviewing the proposals for that, not the proposals, but the architects who want to do the work, they initially narrowed the group down from five to three. And then they interviewed three of the groups today. And I'll be looking at that at their assessment of those three architectural firms shortly. And also, along those same lines, the food security, social services, RFP went out. We received two proposals back. And we'll be reviewing those as well. We have a small group. I didn't write down that. Nate Malloy, Julie Thetterman, and Marta from the school. Yes, from the schools who are on the review committee for that. We received notice today from the Amherst Housing Authority of the vacancy that you're all well aware of, unfortunately. And so we have, I'm sure if it wound up on your desk or not, but OK, so you do. So we received it today. And we sort of put together, since this happened fairly recently, we sort of mimicked what we did in the past. So something for you to look at, we picked a date of April 2 for the, but we can, I think what I'd suggest is that we look at this at your agenda-setting meeting tomorrow morning at 10 when we talk about this to see how that fits in on our general calendar, if that's the right date to have this joint meeting with them or not. So that'll be tomorrow. But just to sort of lining that up, this election between you and the Housing Authority come together there to elect a new person. We'll just give in the timeframe. We'll happen after the annual election. And it was too late to put it on the actual election. So that's why we will be doing it this way. The, I want to update you on health insurance. We continue to work with our insurance advisory committee, which is made up of 14 people, which includes representatives from the municipal retirees, the teacher retirees, and then every collective bargaining unit in the town and the school, and includes representatives from the town of Pelham as well, because we provide health insurance to the regional school districts, to the elementary schools, to Pelham, and to municipal employees. We continue to work with this group in a very cooperative way, and trying to get to an agreement where everybody feels like it's a good solution going forward. The goal is to achieve a level of predictability going forward in the next two or three years. There are some complicating collective bargaining issues that we cannot address at the table, but people have certain rights under their collective bargaining agreement. So we will continue to work this. At a certain point, we may have to bring additional recommendations to you and to the regional school committee. But at this point, we're really looking forward to a meeting on March 6th as we continue to work on this. And people have been very willing and cooperative and it's been a good process, but the clock is ticking, and so we need to make decisions because once we look at July 1, we have to start taking, we implement it on June 1, a month in advance of it, and then we have to give people adequate time to choose the plan that they wanna be on, and also to educate people about the options available to them, and also to give Blue Cross time to enroll people. So everybody has a card in their pocket when the new year begins. So that's the goal. And we're putting a lot of time into this and looking at lots of different options as people request us to look at different options. We continue to do that. So that's moving forward. You'll hear more about that every week probably. We were fortunate to receive a technical assistance grant from the District Local Technical Assistance from the Pioneer Valley Planning Association. Yes, and so what we requested was to do a bike and pedestrian network plan and to map out where our sidewalks and bike paths are, and so PVPA will, PVT, PVPA, you know what I got it. PVPC. PVPPC, I get one of them, commission. We'll throw some of this up there. We'll be doing this work for us, and there's a small 5% match which we will match with an in-kind services. And so I'm excited about this because they'll look at our current planning documents, review all of our street and bike plans, and then help us sort of conceptualize how we can make sure all these things are able to connect. And this is, I think, one of the things that the TAC has been involved with, so this will really support directly their work. And so the only, so I'm excited about that. We just received notice of that. What's the dollar? You know, they don't. Okay, if you don't know, never mind. $20,000. It's good. In services, yeah. Yes, we have a $1,000 match. Then the other thing that has come up, I just honestly can't remember if we talk about it here, was the idea of having signs of, say, vote today at our polling locations and other places in town. So the legal women voters have an initiative to put their signs up, which have their logo on it. I was hesitant to encourage that, even though it's a great idea because they want to have these signs out to encourage people to vote. I didn't want to do anything that was different this year to feel like anybody was influencing anything, so I want to bring it to your attention, to see what you thought we could bring, pretty quickly turn around, have some signs made up that say, vote today, town-sponsored signs that would be placed at certain locations. I wanted to get your read on things first before I did that, if you thought that it was something that you, many communities do this already. They put these signs out, and my sense is that we could say vote Tuesday on it as well and you put it out the Wednesday before the election. I think sometimes when you put signs out to say vote, your vote matters or something, people sort of forget about it. The idea is that let people know to vote on this day because this is the day to vote or to vote coming Tuesday. So I just want to get your read on it. If so, I'd pull together everything. Now it's fine. Oh, so I just taped my vote? I'll stick around, I guess I'm in the mood, but I think getting people to vote is great, and I'm not sure how that would be influencing a side in a particular, because you don't know who you're getting to vote who might have just forgotten. It might be a good thing to start now and do forward. It's not because a particular content is up right now. So I think always trying to encourage voting participation is a good thing and that also kind of comports with our values and tried to do that. We haven't had this particular request before, but I'm trying to see what would be wrong with doing it, but Ms. Brewer looks like she might know. Is that what you like? That's very funny. And the reason I bring it up today is because time's right. If we're gonna do it, we need to do it. So we all know rules about public resources, blah, blah, blah, blah, and all those details. And like you say, other towns do things and get in trouble too, but this isn't one of those things. This appears to be one of those things that is clear cut that you're allowed to say. You cannot say, remember to go vote on question one, sponsored by the town of Amherst. So that would be perfect. Exactly, don't forget, there's a race for town meeting members today, but we can certainly say vote. I like the idea of saying vote Tuesday because if you put it up too far ahead of time and then people get confused, and you drive through Hadley, as we all do at some point or another, and since there's only a place to vote right there at the intersection, it says vote today on a sandwich board and it's like, oh, that's really useful to people to be reminded of that on their way to work the night before and the next morning. So I think it sounds incredibly useful. I think it is incredibly simple. It's vote Tuesday and I can't think of anything else that needs to go on the sign, but and I do think it should be separate from the league as an active leave member. First of all, we depend too much on the league to take care of us for things like this. Also, they don't always know where all the signs are. And so instead of collecting them off people's portraits, they can put theirs up too because theirs are non-partisan as well, the more the merrier, but they just say, what else would they say, vote Tuesday? Town election Tuesday or something like that? I think they should just say vote Tuesday because the most primaries and most general elections are on Tuesdays and our town election is almost always on, again, almost always. Could we have some identifier like the town logo or something so you know that it was put up by the town? It wasn't just a student group who decided to do this thing. Not the flag. I refused to do it. Oh no, I didn't, no. Town logo, right. Logo. The letterhead type. Not the town flag. Right, not the town flag, not the American flag, not the Commonwealth's flag, but the letterhead logo for that. The one no one knows what the symbol is. Exactly, but they recognize it as being the town mayor's logo. Official, that's official. Well, also the other thing is by being identified as the town, there are things we as the town can do as far as putting things in the public way that are distinct from what others can do relative to the public way and relative to what might be construed as a political sign, which it isn't. It's a sign to encourage people to vote. Civic engagement sign. So you're planning to put one in the common. That's what you're saying? No, I'm not saying that at all. Because we don't let anybody else do that. No, no, I'm just saying that you have a point. The right-of-way is like next to the street is part, your right-of-way extends. People don't use any way, but they're not supposed to. So could we also just say that it would be the manager's discretion about locations? Yes, obviously, I don't want to personally get there, but I'm just, if per chance, that we're in a location that- I think that's a great idea. And after we do it once, we'll get a good idea of how many of them disappear, where people comment it on them, and then we'll see how it works for the next time, and then we'll be ready for the primary in September. So that sounds great, because I wouldn't want to just make it sound like it's just a town of Amherst election, but I like the idea of having the logo, so it's clear that we produced it, but it's for any Tuesday vote pretty much. It should be really good for the September primary, because that's how to cycle. So at that point, do we mind a day after Labor Day? Yeah, that's bad. Great, that's all I have. That was all you had. So now we're on to member reports. It's kind of a quiet week with the school vacation. A lot of meetings didn't happen, because we, as a town, generally don't meet during those time periods. So I've kind of given you a little bit of a report myself. The ag commission did meet, and they had some guests, and they asked them if they might be willing to serve. So there may be some CAF applications coming our way relative to that, and they did support the idea of the agricultural use meters, and we had to speak broadly about any sort of financial question, which we spent a fair amount of time talking about tonight, but didn't have much for particulars on that, but we're obviously supportive of that as well because it helps promote and encourage agriculture in town. I don't remember what else they discussed in their meeting. They got a report from the Farmers' Market Manager about the coming year, which we got. So I think that's it for me as far as member reports. So I don't know if I'm trying to recall if there's anything else, but if anyone else has anything, yes. Just to ask you a question, did AgCom decide to do anything about either decreasing their core, potentially decreasing their form as opposed to decreasing their measure, their membership, or one or the other? Yes. They had conversations about that, and so I think that their staff liaison is going to look into pursuing changes to membership counts. So one thing I found in looking up the state law relative to Ag Commissions is that by state law, seven is the maximum, although we have nine. I don't know if we did a homeroom petition to go to nine, but so there were also some potential refinement of the language of who's eligible to be on the AgCom that they were wanting to explore. Although, again, state law has some things to say about that. So I think there's some due diligence going on in the background relative to that, but they were open to the idea of reducing membership a little bit, and then potentially they were thinking about broadening who might be allowed on, and so putting both of those into some motions for town meetings, so we will likely see that come forward. But there's some, like I said, some due diligence that's being chased at this moment about how that would work, yes. Just to belabor the point a little bit, to really be clear on what was the previous town meeting action that got us to where we are, because we started out with a farm committee before agriculture, because we're always so forward thinking before the state came up with that. As I recollect, we had our own farm committee, which we then turned into an official Ag commission, and so that may be part of why we were able to do what we did, or we just did it anyway because we're immersed, and that's what we do, but to know what that wording was in addition to what the state wording is, so that we capture the spirit of both in order to accomplish our goals, that would be helpful because I know that people don't always like looking up those old pieces of paper, but that's not cool. Yes, so what we have explicitly voted by virtue of town meeting versus, and how that compares to and puts us in conflict with or not the state law around that, that's part of what, regardless if there's a conflict, we'll have to resolve that at a minimum, but also if there's ways we can fit those together neatly. Because there's actually three pieces, at least. The Master General Law, the annual town meeting action, that whatever the most recent one was that turned us into an ag com, there probably wasn't another one after that, but I can't swear to it. And then what our charge document says, because sometimes those three things are not as clearly as related as you might imagine, so. So we will chase all those. Something fun for an annual town meeting. Does anyone else, Ms. Krueger? I'm going to leave any adult use marijuana dates from Ms. Brewer, but we did have a campus community coalition meeting last week, and they passed out this flyer, and there were extras, and so I brought a bunch back and asked that it be in the packet, and then, amazingly, we got it on our desk tonight, and we got it in our packet. The one in the packet was stapled to something else that really kind of had to do with the CCC, but it had nothing to do with this, so I don't know why that happened. And I wanted you to know that our very own Ms. Brewer is one of the fourth diamond down local police chiefs and municipal leaders, and I have emailed Eric Bielin and said, why don't you say the names of those local officials? But he did not. I guess that wasn't as exciting as the other people, but he knows who they are, and he could have listed them. But maybe Ms. Brewer will want to say some more, but this is something that the municipal strategies, subcommittee of our CCC has been talking about, and Heather Warner from Spiffy and Eric Biel, said UMass is an exact title, but a community liaison position. I've been working on it, so just so people who are listening to me ramble on the Alcohol Retailers and Municipal Leaders Forum Monday, March 19, 2018, it starts at 9 and goes to 11.30. It's at the old chapel at UMass, which always makes it even nicer. And registration is free, which you can do by email or phone. So I gather this is probably in our electronic packet now. So I wanted to just let you know why that was in there. I also went to a Transportation Advisory Committee meeting last week, and that was informative. They are kind of working away, and it seems like they're getting clear on some of their priorities. They were excited about the District Local Technical Assistance Grant that Mr. Bachmann just told us about. I also went to a zoning subcommittee meeting last week and got kind of a preview of what they're working on for zoning articles that we'll be reviewing when we do our article review for Springtown meeting. I'm not going to go into them, what they are, unless you want to know. And Mr. Steinberg and I have been working with Mr. Bachmann on a potential revision to the zero energy bylaw. I'm working with some of the petitioners. And I think that's been productive. It's actually been a fair amount of work, because we're on a pretty accelerated timeline. But so far, we continue to collaborate productively. So I think that's what I've been doing. And it was nice to have a somewhat quieter week last week, because a lot of people weren't around. And that's all I can think of, so that's my report. OK, thank you. Ms. Brewer? I have a question, actually. I'm really sorry. What did you say was the last thing we're still working with Mr. Steinberg on? I totally missed the topic. The zero energy. Thank you. You just blanked out when you got to that point. OK, great. Which is not cool. Well, because I knew we also got a piece of paper on our desk tonight, which was a memo about. Oh, I forgot that. That's amazing. Oh, I'm thanking you. So that's why I was thinking you were actually mentioned that, and I'm spaced it out. But it wasn't in my bulleted list to keep me from forgetting things. So I thought it was going to be letterhead, but not with the draft taken off. But it might as well, because it's not on our agenda for tonight. But we wanted you to have this something. Mr. Steinberg and I worked on and had Mr. Bachmann review. So we had been asked if there was a way to simplify the number of interviews that we were doing for committee members. And this is a set of ideas. It kind of relates to the agcom appointment. And if there were some appropriately interested members, potentially just the select word liaison could do an interview or a phone interview, or maybe in conjunction with the chair, and we wouldn't need to do the full team thing. And it gives some criteria for how to make that decision. So I'd suggest you look at this, and then it will be on. We'll formalize it and put it as an agenda item. Agenda item. Yeah, just to get your thoughts. Otherwise, I can't really talk about it. Thank you for reminding me, Ms. Brewer, since I meant to tell you about it. So I'm going to suggest, when I'm on agenda setting tomorrow, that we do take the word draft off of it, because it's not a draft. No, it's a mistake. Not a draft. It's not the new proposal. It's just a report right now.  It says attached, and there wasn't an attachment. So do we have that available? OK, so will that be available? We'll fix that. That's what I'm trying to get at. Probably not. Since we never see at agenda setting what we're actually putting in the packet only, speak of what we're putting in the packet, I was just trying to understand that. That's something we. Yeah, probably not. We would expect to have available? An attachment. Because it says there's an attachment. No, we're going to update the language. So not to be mysterious. We tried to do a cut of some committees that would have like the full tilt and some not, just to help decide. And it didn't seem appropriate to actually attach that kind of a list right now. And so that should not do a meeting? No, I think not. OK. I think the word attached will be removed. So let's take out the words as attached and take out the word draft, but still republish it as February 8th as a memo. Or you could update it from whatever date. So I think the manager's office will turn this into Mr. Bachlemann knows the change. So I think it's better to leave the list a little fluid. I just don't want people looking for an attachment. No, you found it. I said it's wrong. We're going to take it out. This was a prior iteration. It's all good. You know that was still in there. You take away the attachment and you forget to take the word out. That's right. Thank you for remembering. Other reports? So yes, as I am now one of the famous municipal leaders. See, the nice thing about that is just like pretty much anybody could share. They'd be fine. Or you could just sign that to go. And that works out really nicely. But the reason I was invited was because I served on one of the many working groups that was under Treasurer Deb Goldberg's alcohol task force. And when I last looked when Mr. Beall confirmed this with me a couple weeks ago, the final recommendations of the various working groups were gathered together by the people on the actual task force and submitted to Ms. Goldberg. But that's never been uploaded to the website as far as I can tell. Only an intermediate report from last August. So yes, the Commonwealth at work. And so I can't really tell you to go look at it because I don't know what it says myself. So yeah, so that was an interesting experience. And so I'll be interested to hear it because there are other local people that also were on separate working groups who are going to be associated with this meeting as well. So in addition to all the other thousands of things we'll talk about. The other thing is because it was so nice of Ms. Kruger to let me speak of marijuana because it's such our favorite topic in our packet. There was the email, which is not particularly beautiful, but went to the Cannabis Control Commission at six minutes before their deadline on the 15th. Because we'd previously written to them, we have testified in front of them numerous times. They know us by now. But we wanted to follow up on some items. And I am incredibly pleased to report that as of today, due to, I'm sure, Amherst Memo, as opposed to all the state agencies that came down on them, including Governor Baker's office themselves, that they are postponing action on delivery only services and postponing action on cafes, basically, social consumption locations. Because it was just getting way too, which as I said in this email, it was just getting too complicated. And that doesn't mean they're putting it off forever. And I was actually quite encouraged to see that the gist of the conversation seems to be that in order to meet the social justice issues that we all voted for this thing for in the first place, that they would potentially be looking at rolling it out with a special group. No pun. Yes, exactly. To give people priority, as was intended, when they started writing the regulations for those particular things. And that, for example, a craft cooperative would potentially be allowed as a delivery service once they do start doing it, as opposed to just anybody can set up shop as a delivery service. So it seems like the best of both worlds. It's pushed off a little bit. And it's put into the giving special precedence to communities that are especially impacted. Now, they haven't quite clarified what that's going to look like in terms of who qualifies under those rules. But that's obviously something they're working on in the rags. And then they're going to have to come up with more details on. But it's one of those things that I do feel like we're actually, we are making an impact, even if it turns out that it was perhaps not us that convinced them to make that decision. But we certainly were the people that, by us going and talking to them about the fact that we're in support of doing this, we're not anti. We're just trying to figure out how to do it well. And I think that that's making something of an impression. Just remind us of the deadline they're up against, and which I think they're going to say they're going to. They're going to say they're going to issue a March 9th for it, because March 15th is their deadline. And they're meeting basically all this week to try and sort out their details. So that will be very interesting to see how those details do, in fact, come up. And then we do have items that we know are going to be mostly zoning items, as far as I can tell at this point, associated with our trying to predict the future, associated with what they're doing. But then hopefully we can word, there've already been a couple of hearings on potential zoning amendments before town meeting that will probably be more. And they will hopefully be worded well enough that depending on what the regs actually say before we sign the warrant, the words can all magically come together to make sense about what we're trying to proactively do to make sure this is implemented in a safe and reasonable way in Amherst. So we have continuing things that are going to be happening associated with that. There will be additional warrant articles associated with that. Let's see now. That's it. Well, Mr. Chair, that reminds me. What happened? We had that discussion about the request to come before us. That'll come up at agenda setting? OK. All right. Just not forget about it. Anything, Mr. Walsh? I do have one other thing that I definitely want to mention, that Wednesday, February 28th, at 7 PM in this room, the Amherst Center Recreation Working Group is wanting public participation in a process regarding the master plan for recreation fields in the center of town. So we want anybody and everybody that has any interest in those to come down and offer their opinions. The folks at Weston and Sampson, who we've hired to help us out with that, are going to be here to talk about those things. And so we're trying to get the word out and get folks to come and talk about that. This reminds me, just relative to the grant that you were just talking about, and not that they're completely overlapping, but there are some when you start talking about sidewalks and you start talking about recreation downtown and thinking about how those can be complementary processes, just that I would encourage the PVPC people to have some conversations perhaps with the Weston and Sampson folks just to coordinate around, because there could be sort of activity paths that involve streets and sidewalks that exist in town. So you have PVTA hearings? PVTA hearings are coming up. They are, let's see, next week. Oh, OK. So it's early March. And they're on the website. I know, I just think. The 6th is 1 and the 7th or 8th, I forget. It's almost back to you. We'll always talk about PVTA. I know. We haven't met. And I did thank you for reminding me of that though, because those sessions where they want public comment, again, relative to changes to both routes and rates are coming. There'll be an on-campus meeting one day and a meeting at the bank center the other day. And again, we want to encourage people to come and hear about what's being discussed. And offer their feedback to PVTA around those issues. Will you be able to go to those or one of those? I believe so. I'm going to double check my counter. But I believe I won't be able to go to the one on campus, I don't think, because I think it's a little more in the middle of the day. But the one that is at the bank center, I believe I can make. I believe I've kind of set aside time to do that. So I will try to attend and hear firsthand. I know, people at the TAC meeting were very interested in those dates. Yes. So I appreciate staff making sure that got up on the website. That was helpful. So I think that's the last of what I had, now that I've forgotten those things. So just to double check, the fields meeting, for some reason, I had my calendar for Tuesday. So it's Wednesday. It's the 28th. Good. I'm just making sure. Excellent. And of course, it's posted as a meeting of the center work group. So it's this week. That is this week. It is day after tomorrow. And I have a question about the MMA legislative breakfast. Palmer, really? That's as close as we can get this year, it looks like. So that's even further. So I mean, unless there's some. I ignored that email. What was it? They have a nice candy shop. The first one's Friday morning. One of the very first ones is Friday morning. Palmer seems to be the technically closest. It's another option to go to the spring and fall legislative breakfast, where they give us the update as to what's going on. It's also going to be one of our last opportunities to see some of our reps potentially, given how many retirements are happening, depending on who's showing up for that particular issue. But for that particular event, because they always run a couple of them on each of those days. And so I'm not sure who's going to Palmer. But are any of us going to Palmer? Am I going to Palmer? I'll buy myself. I will go to Palmer. I'll buy myself on Friday if I have to. But let me know if anybody else wants to go. I cannot do Friday, but. I know that other people have to hike when it's here or in Northampton or Belcher Town. But somehow that just feels further than usual, because it's not within our four towns or exact neighbors. My calendar says it's the Indian holiday of Holly. I'm slightly busy throwing colored powders around. And it's also the day that afternoon is when you and I are going to that event for dial self, for the youth engagement summit thing. Yeah. It'll be fun. It'll be fun. Because it'll be high school kids. Exactly. They'll be interesting, I'm sure. I haven't decided. Well, let me know, because I'm planning to go. Planning to take the day off work, because between the beginning and the end, I don't have another option. Lunch in the middle, let's go. I know you're going anyway. Yeah. Yeah, I won't drive. I'll take the bus. OK. Any other reports or comments at all? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. I'll move that we adjourn. Is there a second? All those in favor? Welcome home, sir. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Perfect. Absolutely fair. You're on your way. I'm nervous. I am on my way. All those in favor, please. We're adjourned at 9.51. I was trying to check the time, and I held it down too long. Has it ever said that before? I don't think it's ever said that before.


I've been assigned chapter 4 of Ephesians, and I've chosen as my text the last half of the chapter. I'd like to read it, and then I'd like to come back and talk about it. Ephesians chapter 4 beginning in verse 17, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all in cleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Over the last few months our church has seen a number of our young men join our nation's military. These were kids who wore saggy jeans, and sloppy t-shirts, and their ball caps backwards. I mean their chief goal in life was to put wide tires on their pickup truck. But something happens to these young men. On their first trip home after their enlistment they come to church dressed in their army service uniform, or navy whites, or marine corps dressed blues. Their beret is perched nobly on their head. Their sailors cap is perfectly cocked, and they're sending a message. These young men are letting us know that they're not the same snotty boys they used to be, that they've changed, that they've enrolled in a cause greater than themselves. They're now under new command. There's a new purpose, a new calling governing their life. They've put away childish things, and they're becoming a man. And they show it by putting on that uniform. And I like how they make a point of it. I mean these young men have walked into our church a thousand times before, but that first morning back in that uniform, it's different. I mean their walk is more upright. Their head is held higher. It's a declaration to the folks who've known them before. I am not the same. After the service when I greet these guys, I always ask them, hey, is it true that women like a man in uniform? And these guys will bashfully, you know, they'll kind of nod and I'll say, yeah, it's true. But here's what I want to say to us today. Women loves a man in uniform, for you two have enlisted in a cause, a purpose greater than yourself. As we've been learning, we're not the same. In Christ, we're chosen and forgiven and adopted and accepted and sealed by the Holy Spirit. We're to walk worthy of this new identity. A new calling requires new conduct. The changes that Jesus makes inwardly should be expressed outwardly. Our enlistment in Christ comes with a uniform that's woven of attitudes and behaviors fitting a man of God. You see, this is how a Christian man grows. He puts on what reinforces who he is in Christ, and he puts off what undermines that identity.  He puts on new perspectives. He takes off old habits. He's all about putting on and putting off until he walks more uprightly, until he holds his head up higher. You see, a Christian man is proud to wear the uniform and to tell the world that he's not the same. And this is what Ephesians 4 is all about. The chapter is the Christian's Dressed Blues. It's the life that putting on and putting off produces. Just speaking, a Christian man needs to be a sharp-dressed man. In the words of ZZ Top, with a little of my own ad-libbing, heaven is just crazy about a sharp-dressed man. God wants you and I to be men in uniform. Let's dive in, verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Actually, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they walk, how they put one foot in front of the other. I read not too long ago about a professor at Skidmore College in New York who did some research into the language of walking. She linked certain motor skills with personality traits. A waddle indicates a person who's independent, a person who drags his feet, is frustrated. On tiptoes, that signals an insecurity. A stride exudes confidence. A shuffle shouts laziness. Obviously, it's not an exact science. I mean, you have to take into account corns and blisters and ingrown toenails and saddle sores and jock itch and hemorrhoids. That all has an effect. But generally speaking, your gait is a gateway to your character. And this is especially true spiritually. Of course, when Paul speaks of a person's walk, he's not thinking of their motor skills but their lifestyle. It's not how they move their feet, but it's how they move through life. It's about how they see themselves and how they treat others and how they navigate life. Most importantly, it's about how they relate to God. And the first thing that Paul says is we should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. In the Old Testament from God's vantage point, there were only two categories of people. Jews and Gentiles, which was everyone other than Jews. But with the coming of the Gospel, a third race was born. Like their friends and relatives, the Ephesian believers were Gentiles but of a different breed. They were now Christians spiritually. They were born again. They now had a new nature, a new love, a new hope, a new power, new ties with a new community. They were no longer like the rest of the Gentiles. What if I went out and spent big bucks to purchase a pure-bred dog with an impeccable pedigree? He had papers and a bloodline. He was registered with the Canine Society. Would I let that dog run with the pack, hang out with the high in 57s, the mongrel dogs? Of course not. You don't treat a registered dog like the rest of the dogs. And this is how Paul sees us as Christians, hey, you're pure-bred. You've been given a new nature through the Holy Spirit, new love and loyalties govern your life. Hey, we're also a part of an exclusive bloodline, are we not? We have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And we're registered now in heaven, in the Lamb's Book of Life. Hey, you got papers and you didn't even know it. We're not like the rest of the Gentiles.  Don't walk as the rest of the Gentiles. Hey, this is why the excuse, well, everybody else is doing it. That's why that excuse is so lame. But we're not like everybody else. We're of a different stock, bought at the highest price.  Other dogs get fleas, why can't I? Who needs fresh water? Let me just sip out of the toilet bowl.  When they go out and roll in the world's dirt, hey, we don't realize how special we are. You see, believers and unbelievers, they walk differently. And as a Christian, we need to stop walking like everybody else. And in the next few verses, Paul tells us how. First he gives us some walking styles to avoid. In verse 17, he says, don't walk in the futility of your mind. In other words, don't be empty-headed. This is how they heathen walk. You see, a person without Christ is void of any overarching direction for their life. They're on a wild goose chase, but there's no goose. They're always searching, but never finding. Hey, without Jesus, people are like pinballs. They just bounce from paddle to paddle to paddle. Their life has no master plan. Like the bumper sticker, don't follow me, I'm lost too. A life that's empty-headed, that has no transcendent purpose, will also be a cold and empty-hearted life. C.S. Lewis described the Christless world as a land where it is winter all year long, but never Christmas. There's nothing meaningful to break up the bleak. Oh, our world, it isn't short on pleasures and their promises.  In verse 22, Paul refers to them as deceitful pleasures. The pleasures of this world, they promise peace and joy and community, but they inevitably disappoint. Apart from Jesus, nothing satisfies and fills the hollowness. You see, the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened. Imagine living like blindfolded, earn a thick fog, unable to see clearly. You know, a lot in life can blur our vision. Alcoholics, they want more. Sex addicts want different. Both forms of dependency will blur a normal logic, will warp a man's perspective. Even anger obscures our judgment. Recently I read where a man drives 20 miles per hour faster when he's mad. Revenge and jealousy also distort our outlook and cause rash decisions. Oh, it's scary to think how many impulsive choices are made without any forethought at all. Actually, any form of sin will blur our understanding. Why? For sin separates us from God. Notice what Paul says in verse 18, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Hey, turn your back on God and the lights go out. Morally and spiritually, our heart becomes blind. Alienated from God, you're like a pilot who loses his instruments in flight. He has no bearings now, no communication with the tower. He's disoriented, he's destined to crash. For a person without God, life is a jigsaw puzzle with no box top. You have no idea what the completed puzzle should look like. Life doesn't make sense. Sin keeps us from the Lord and in the dark, but that's only sin's beginning. For we're told in verse 19, the being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to walk all uncleanness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Sin also creates a spiritual callousness, a hardness. In high school, I played so much basketball the bottoms of my feet for one big callous. My feet were so tough you could prick them with a pin and I couldn't feel it. And what had happened to the soles of my feet can also occur in the human soul. We can harden our hearts over and over until we're past feeling. We're no longer touched by the needs around us. Our conscience becomes muted. We grow deaf and insensitive to the calling and convicting whispers of the Holy Spirit. Here's a poem by Lois Cheney. Once a boy cheated on a test. He got a good grade and passed the course. He told his friends, I had no choice. Later as a man, he took a job that denied another's need. But the money was good and he had a family to think of. And he told a friend, I had no choice. Later the man denied his calling and chose a different role that made him famous. And he became well thought of. And he told a friend, I had no choice. Later the man reviewed his life before God, the Almighty God. He shrugged his shoulders as he told God, I had no choice. And God said to the man as he turned his back and walked away, I have no choice. A life blurred by sin and alienated from God and ignorant and blind to the truth of God grows more and more callous until one day that life is judged by God. Paul says a callous life has been given over to lewdness and uncleanness and greediness.  They sin for shock effect, to attract attention, or to sell tickets, or to make money. This is the person who makes no attempt to hide their sin. It's flaunted. It's outed. They push the limits of decency. Here's a Miley Cyrus attitude. A person out to prove just how crash she can be, just how crash she wants to be, she can be it. This is the gambler who steals money from his own family. This is the addict who hits the street for a fix. This is the hothead who makes a scene or hits his wife. His problem is no longer a secret. He's now out of control. Consequences are no longer a deterrent. And this is the way the rest of the Gentiles walk. It's a slippery slope, turning from God to blurring the lines, to hardening your heart to living in shame. And yet, verse 20, breathes some hope. But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, as Christians, we know better than to walk down this path. Instead, when we sin, we repent. We stay open to God. We keep our heart soft for repentance. We avoid what's shameful. This is how we've learned Christ. You got to love the language here. Understand, this is exclusively Christian lingo. No one would ever say, as you have learned Buddha or learned Mohammed. I mean, I can learn the teachings of Buddha, but how can I learn Buddha? He's been dead for 2,500 years. This is a reminder that Christianity isn't just following a creed or a code or a set conduct. No, we follow Christ. Paul is writing to a people who are living 600 miles in 30 years from Jesus' crucifixion. And yet, they knew the living Lord. They'd been taught by Christ. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus. It's His life in me. Only Christians can say, we've learned Christ. And Jesus has taught us a better way to walk. Verse 22, He says, put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust.  You'll be proud of the uniform. And you'll show it by putting off old lusts and putting on new habits. You'll dress in attitudes of faith and humility and holiness. This is what Paul tells us in verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Like those young soldiers who returned to our church in their service uniforms, a Christian man sees himself differently. He's taken on a new identity and he's now re-sifting every thought and aligning it with who he is in Christ.  You're a new creation on the inside. Spiritual, you are born again. And with this new birth comes new loves, new desires. On the inside, we're new. But on the outside, our thoughts and our language and our habits in many ways still reflect the old life. Jesus changes us on the inside, but now we need to put on the uniform, the godly garb that says to both us and the world that we're not the same.  Patterns can be difficult to break. I mean, the lag time on what happens to us when we become Christians and when it shows up in our conduct and in our character can be painfully slow. For years, I drove a car with a standard transmission and when I changed to an automatic, it took me months to stop reaching for the stick. I mean, some habits linger even after the reason for them has long since passed. And this is true in our outlook and in our behavior. This is why we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. You know, I'm amazed at how quickly the young men from our church change when they put on that uniform. That 18 year old recruit who returns to church sporting his new uni, he's yet to see combat. He's far from a seasoned soldier. Man, when he puts on that uniform, he puts on all that comes with it, the tradition, the training, the camaraderie, the sacrifices that other men who've worn that uniform have made, the sacrifices that he's prepared to make one day. Hey, is it the man who makes the uniform or is it the uniform that makes the man? Maybe it's a little bit of both. And the same occurs spiritually. Jesus changes us from the inside out, yet when we adopt a new identity and put on the uniform and see ourselves in Christ, hey, we're inspired to live out what the spirit has put in. Realize the instant you're saved, the very moment you're saved, colossal changes occur inside of you. You literally pass from death to life, but often you don't feel those changes until you start putting off old habits and putting on new habits. Jesus died to give us a new identity, but like a raw recruit, it's putting on that uniform that keeps us and helps us feel like the man of God that we now are. When we affirm indeed what's happened in spirit, our lives begin to take a new shape. Hey, you recall when Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, the man had been dead for four days. His corpse was decomposed and Mary warned by this time he stinketh. I love that verse. Yet when Jesus called Lazarus front and center, the corpse obeyed. Lazarus bounced out into the mouth of the grave, standing there still encased in his shroud. He had new life, but he was still wearing those grave clothes. And man, this is our portrait. When Jesus saves us, he raises us to new life, but we're still wearing that old identity and those old attitudes that went with it. We need to put off the old and we need to put on the new. We need to see ourselves in Christ. We need to swap grave clothes for grace clothes. I love the story of Augustine. Before he became a Christian, he was a wild child. He lived with a woman and bore a son out of wedlock. One day after his conversion, his former mistress saw him on the street and ran after him shouting, Augustine, it is I, it is I. That's when the new believer Augustine, he took off in the opposite direction, shouting, yes, but it is not I, it is not I. He had put off the old man and he had put on a new man. He was renewed in the spirit of his mind, realized the power of this putting off and this putting on. Each time I think or act, it carves a rut into my personality so that it becomes easier to think or act in that way again. Over time, the rut becomes larger and larger until it takes over. Rather than shape my thoughts, it's now a channel for those thoughts. One day I wake up and I find that the rut is now the rudder. It's been said we first make our habits, then our habits make us. The job of putting off and putting on is ditching those old habits, developing new habits when this is done repeatedly, it creates a new identity in you and me. And in these last eight verses of chapter four, Paul gives the Ephesians habits in which to dress. Verse 25. Therefore, putting away lying that each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, but we are members of one another. Notice it's putting away lying, but then it's putting on honesty. It's not just taking off a wrong attitude, but it's adopting a right attitude. Honesty is part of a Christian man's uniform. Once a farmer wanted to stop folks from stealing watermelons from his field, so he posted a sign out near the gate that read, one of these melons is poisonous. The plan, though, backfired. A few days later, his sign was replaced by one that read two of these melons are poisonous. Because the farmer didn't know which was the second melon, he lost his whole crop. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive. Honesty is always the best policy. And notice the reason Paul gives for honest relationships. He says, for we are members of one another. Hey, if we come clean before God and he's willing to accept us just as we are, then we should be able to open up to each other and extend that same acceptance. Since the Garden of Eden, mankind has tried to hide his sin. Adam and Eve launched a fig leaf cover up. But God wants us to come out into the open, out from the bushes, out from our hiding, and be honest about what we've done. And when we come clean, God can cleanse us. And here's another positive habit to put on, verse 26. Be angry and do not sin. Notice we're commanded here to be angry. For some of us, that comes as quite a surprise that there is an appropriate kind of anger that has its place. I mean, think of Jesus. He was perfect and he still got angry. The anger of Jesus boiled over in the synagogue at Capernaum. He wanted to heal a man with a crippled hand, but legalistic Jews forbid healing on the Sabbath day. And Jesus got angry that they put law above love, that they put tradition above people. Mark 3, verse five tells us, so when Jesus had looked around at them in anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, stretch out your hand.  Jesus also got angry in the temple. Twice he ran out the money changers. Once Jesus did it with his bare knuckles. The other time he used a homemade whip. And for years I had this all wrong. I thought Jesus just sort of got caught up in a moment, reached for whatever was available. It could have been a broom or a stick, just happened to be a whip. But go back and read John chapter two carefully. The Bible says he made a whip of cords. Imagine Jesus, he's sitting over in the corner of the temple, he's weaving this whip as he eyeballs those crooked priests. His blood is boiling, his hands are clenching. Hot molten rage is bubbling up within him. Jesus knows this is about to go ballistic. This is gonna turn ugly. Hey, this isn't the spur of a moment reaction. Realize, our Lord Jesus cleans the temple in a premeditated act of aggression. This idea that God wants believers to be wallflowers and namby pambies couldn't be further from the truth. There's nothing spiritual about being sissy. God wants Christian men tempered with appropriate passion. Hey, Jesus takes away my sin, not my backbone. When it comes to unrighteousness and hypocrisy and injustice, especially my own, we need to get mad. We should get angry and then use that passion for good. It's interesting, we get angry when we're mistreated, but Jesus loved his enemies. They nailed him to the cross, but rather than angry, he prayed for their forgiveness. No, Jesus always got angry for the right reasons at the right time with the right people. It was Aristotle who said anyone can become angry, but to be angry with the right person to the right degree at the right time for the right reason and in the right way, this is not easy. Be angry and do not sin. And then verse 26 tells us, do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Be angry at sin and passionate for truth, but at the end of the day, settle your differences. And if you can't settle it immediately, turn that righteous anger over to God.  You know, most forest fires start with a simple spark, just a smoldering ash. It could have easily been put out, but it was given time to flame up and it burned out of control. And the same is true with anger. Don't let it smolder. Hey, it'll flare up and it'll do great damage. This is why Jesus said in Matthew five, agree with your adversary quickly. In marriage or in friendship or at church, let unresolved anger linger and somebody will eventually get burned. And then we're told, nor give place to the devil. Literally reads, don't give the devil an opportunity. Years ago, my wife, Kathy, got a phone call promising us a free prize if we allowed a salesman to drop by the house and give us a sales pitch for his vacuum cleaner and the seller. The only catch was that both spouses had to be home. Well, I hate sales pitches. I'd rather get the root canal. Yet somehow Kathy taught me into it. But I was determined. I told her no matter how good a salesman he was, there's no way I got no money for a vacuum cleaner. No way, Jose. And I'll never forget this guy. This was the super salesman. And his vacuum man, according to him, I could cook my meals, change my oil, rock my kids to sleep at night. And I'll never forget it at the end of his spiel. I was getting out my checkbook. Kathy had to stop me from buying it. And Satan too is a super salesman. If he can get just one foot in the door, he's got you. He can sell you. Realized Satan has no code of ethics. He'll lie. He'll exaggerate. He'll tell you what you want to hear. If he can just get you interested enough to listen to him, he's got you. Just start toying with temptation. Just start nibbling at his bait. Sadly, he's got you hooked. This is why when Satan knocks on your door, you need to let Jesus answer. Don't give the devil an opportunity. You know, I've heard men say, man, I have this terrible problem with lust. Whenever I pick up a Playboy magazine, oh really? Man, I struggle with alcohol. Every time I walk into a bar, my oh my, how naive can we be? As those football guys on ESPN like to say, come on, man. If you don't want to sin, stop flirting with temptation. If you're gonna put on the new man and put off the old man, you can't afford to give place to the devil. So you see, here's the uniform. It's shaping up for us. Honesty, appropriate anger, an avoidance of temptation. But there's more, verse 28 tells us, to put off, let him who stole still no longer, then to put on, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, with his good. He may have something to give him who has need. Again, it's not just stop stealing, it's get a job, learn to work hard, make enough money to bless others, even give a tithe through the work of God. How about that? A Christian goes from burglar to blesser, from the thrill of the heist to the thrill of the help. Walk like Jesus walked and you'll take joy in giving, not just giving.  What is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. You know, whenever I travel to other parts of the country, it doesn't take long for folks to figure out that I'm from the South. And y'all know why, open my mouth and out comes a Southern accent. And it should be just as easy for folks to identify you and me as Christians. Where as soon as we open our mouths, they should know we're full of grace, that our words are coated with grace, that we speak encouraging words. Rather than corrupt, let your conversations build up. And in verse 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Partnership with the Holy Spirit is a big part of the Christian's uniform. To build a new identity in Christ, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. And the last thing we would ever wanna do is grieve and we're quenching. You know, quenching the Spirit is to neglect what God desires. It's a failure to cooperate. Whereas grieving the Spirit is to do what God forbids. It's our disobedience and both sins are serious and need to be avoided. Notice though this word grieve, it's a love word. I don't have to love you for you to make me mad or angry or disappointed or impatient. But the only a person I love can grieve me. Grief is a womb to the heart. And it's because the Holy Spirit loves us so much and has such high hopes for us. That we can cause him great grief by our unwillingness to follow his lead.  Nothing grieves God's Spirit more than when his people refuse to get along. When they get bitter toward each other and speak slanderous words. Notice this list begins with the word bitterness, a long standing resentment, a deep seated hatred is what causes our problems. Most of our bad attitudes begin with unresolved bitterness. Reminds me of the artist Leonardo da Vinci working on his famous painting, The Last Supper. Da Vinci had a falling out with a fellow painter in town and he retaliated by painting the man's face in the face of Judas. Everyone at the time knew this man. And Leonardo's artistry would immortalize him as a diabolical traitor. But when Leonardo tried to then paint the face of Jesus he hit a creative wall, artist block. His vision left him. It wasn't until he had gone back and erased the face of his enemy that his inspiration returned so that he could paint the face of Jesus. And if we wanna see Jesus face to face the first thing we need to do is to put off bitterness, wrath, clamor, evil speaking and be kind to one another, Paul tells us. Kindness is treating each other with grace with undeserved favor. And it's being gracious to others that reinforces the grace that I've received. This helps us to put on Christ just as it does to be tenderhearted. Jesus was God. And yet he wanted to know and to share our plight. Thus God became a man. He got down on our level. And he did so as an example. Oh, it's easy to judge your brother until we've walked a mile in his shoes. When we get a different picture when we become sensitive to his situation. Well, are you wearing the uniform this morning? Honesty, righteous anger, avoiding temptation, hard work, generosity, healthy speech, partnership with the Holy Spirit, kindness, tenderheartedness. And then finally, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Forgiveness is also a huge part of the uniform. One year the men of our church, we went white water rafting down the wild in Willy Shatuga River. And during a lull on the river, some of the guys in our boat wanted to start a water fight with one of the other boats. But our God, he was reluctant. He didn't want to stir up any friction, cause any sore feelings. That's when my pal Tracy, he shouted out, I don't worry, those guys are Christians. They got to forgive us. And I'm not sure about Tracy's application, but his theology was right on. How can a Christian not forgive a brother when Jesus has so abundantly forgiven him? If Paul had left off these last seven words and Ephesians four, then we could find a loophole. We could find a rationale to hold on to a grudge, to remain bitter and not forgive. We would read it, forgiving one another, but, or if, or unless he, or until, or when, or once, or after. But the last phrase of this verse removes all our excuses. Forgiving, even as God in Christ forgave you. As a new you in Christ, you should forgive others just as fully and just as freely as Jesus has forgiven you. Well, I want to end with a quote. John Knox said this about Jesus. "'Other gods have been as devoutly worshiped, but no other God has been so devoutly loved. Worshipers of Jesus love him so much, they want to be like him, and so they put on and they put on and they dress like Jesus. A true Christian man is proud to wear the uniform. Let's not walk like the rest of the Gentiles. Let's put on Christ and let this world know that we belong to Jesus."


Hi everyone Sean with jaspys case breaks calm here doing 2020 bowman's best baseball eight box case break Pick your team number three from jaspys case breaks calm Released yesterday really nice stuff excited to see it again so everything ships There is no Minnesota twins spot all twins cards are donated. There's no twins autos There could be numbered there could be parallels stuff like that all of that's going to be donated So no randomizer. There's no nothing on that four autographs per box eight boxes. We're looking for 32 different autographs here Hopefully some really nice low numbered and great names like these two guys So here we go Here is our list last bottom mojo Paul Townsend Yankees and White socks I Need my uh my utensils And then hand me like two of them of course John Oh, thanks, man. I got it. Thanks you Yeah, you too John You and everybody have a fantastic Christmas Eve today and Christmas And all that other good stuff Wherever you may be whatever you may be doing. I hope you're all safe happy and Healthy, you know there is Jack and the most sought-after one There's a Zion and LeBron Oh, yeah, I know I was actually surprised I was like, huh, what is this what stuff going on? confused World was ending Another sign of the apocalypse, but just turns out it was rain rain in Southern California Some people down here act like that's an apocalyptic event It's not Yeah, unfortunately We were we were all told when we were either born here or moved here that it would never rain, but it's definitely too late Steven It's definitely too late it was too late in 2016 When they passed on both to Shawn Watson and Patrick That sucks, right Yeah, right John people are walking outside. They're like, oh my god, what is this? After we're wear real shoes with where my toes are not covered Riding riding angry angry letters to Gavin Newsom Fix the weather. What do you mean graded? Oh get traded Honestly Only way I could ever see that happening The only way I could ever see him get traded because I think I'm pretty sure his his contract that he signed has a no trade So it would have to be approved by him no matter what But the only way I see that happening is let's say that Kansas City builds like this superstar roster of players Let's say like Travis Kelsey. Obviously. He's really good, right? But then he ends up in the I was on there earlier I was trying I was trying to remember what your Instagram name was so that I can message you It's all good, man. I'm gonna be on there late tonight as well. So sorry. I wasn't able to get to you today, but I Can see the only way I can see Patrick belongs to the trade is it? Let's say everybody else gets really really expensive on the team and they're no longer able to afford Fielding a overly competitive team, right? And then at some point his contract down the line becomes Not the uber contract that it is but more of a that's a pretty high contract awesome, right? Becomes You know more of like a it's a high it's an expensive contract, but not like oh my god Men over backwards type thing, right? Then I could see him if the chiefs aren't able to feel a competitive team anymore if they really fall off the cliff Then I can see him potentially, you know being moved to a team that has a Plethora of other stuff, but other than that honestly, there's no way it's happening But Brendan, I don't I don't see I don't see him having a fallout with the owner because one Let's be honest as much as as a Chargers fan.  Like he seems like somebody you'd want to introduce, you know everybody to and just be like Yeah, he's pretty great but Remember he's also He's also part-owner owner now of the Kansas City Royals So I'm sure he can now kind of appreciate the things that an owner even though It's probably more in name than in action at all with the Royals I'm sure he can kind of Appreciate a little bit of that aspect and what owners have to deal with Or the financial strain or this or that weird to say financial strain when the guy just signed a half a billion dollar contract, but You know, there's still a cost cost balance analysis that has to be run on, you know, a billion dollar organizations, too. Oh 100% you mean like Jim Ursay from the Colts that guy Just so dumb. I don't understand how people like him have not and What's his name James Dolan from the Knicks how? Owners like that have not had their franchises taken away from them What up Jack? How are you man? Thanks you guys for hanging out and Merry Christmas Eve everybody put me on the DL guys It's over with I'm out Gavin Lux Dodgers Brian Lutz Carter Keeboom Gold franchise 2020 33 out of 50 Washington, Courtney Bishop and our first auto Max Muncie Green to 99 also for the Dodgers and Brian Lutz Louise Robert Chicago White Sox Paul Townsend last spot mojo Hey, Susie Lazzardo purple to 250 going to the A's and Chris Walker Brendan, that's so cool. Oh, that's right Brendan. Merry Christmas, buddy Brendan's and good old Melbourne Are you stead of the keto for the Reds Kurt disser Ronald Acuna, Jr. There you go Starting off with a bang braves Ryan Cason There you go, man You know what's funny Jack somebody mentioned it yesterday They're like hey the new the new hockey schedule should make this year really interesting with the fact that it's like it's like back-to-backs and Then I just saw I just saw the Devils posted Posted their their little their four games in a row against the the giant I mean the the Rangers and it said What did say it said NHL Asked asked for violence and they're gonna get it and I was like or something like that They posted on Twitter and I saw that they were playing four games back-to-back And I was like this is gonna be fantastic if that happens across the league for rivalries It's gonna be so much fun This might be the greatest hockey season of all time as long as everybody can stay healthy Dylan Dingler refractor auto Detroit Tigers Eric Craig Brendan McKay Tampa Bay Rays Eric Bailey Gavin Lux refractor for the Dodgers Brian Lutz. I like this look of this set. That's super cool Pete Alonzo atomic refractor For the Mets Armando Montero Spencer Torkelson refractor for the Tigers Eric Craig and our fourth Otter auto Carter Keeboom for the Nationals and Courtney Bishop Nico Horner rookie refractor Cubs Eric Ames Jorge Salaire blue to 150 for the Royals Rick Conza Hobbs play Vancouver Three games in a row in the first week. It's gonna be super cool. I Like when they said back-to-back, so I was like, okay. Well, I mean I was like the angels typically would play against the Kings in Staple Center and then you know right afterwards Kings would come play here but now That I see what it is. I was like, oh, this is gonna be cool. Honestly, Jack if they make that happen That's huge for them But I think that's even bigger for for Chicago. That guy's good Louise Robert White Sox Paul Townsend Atomic Juan Soto for Washington and Courtney Bishop and first auto box to Trent Grisham San Diego Padres Steven Elliott Spencer Torkelson atomic refractor as well Detroit Tigers Eric Craig Ari Stena Sikino rookie refractor Reds Kurt disser Louise Robert power producers refractor Chicago White Sox Paul Townsend and our second auto Everson Perrera For the New York Yankees Paul Townsend last spot mojo Hans if it's sold out, it's gonna break tonight. Yeah, if you look at the schedule I'm just waiting on I got to go through orders and figure out what the schedule is tonight Brendan McKay Tampa Bay Rays Eric Bailey You're hearing Dodger Steven.  Hey, Susie Lizardo auto Oakland days Chris Walker Chris Bryant purple to 250 for the Cubbies Eric Ainge Louise Robert refractor rookie again for the White Sox Paul Townsend Gavin Lux franchise favorites refractor for the Dodgers Brian Lutz and Nick Gonzalez refractor auto Pittsburgh Pirates seventh overall pick Darren McKenzie He's good. Ari Stena Sikino for the Reds Kurt disser Jason Dominguez Yankees Paul Townsend last spot mojo. I mean That'd be a good pairing to Jack, but I don't know man I I honestly don't think I don't know what the Phillies Dean I think Bryce Harper kind of leveraged them out of being competitive Nick Solak rookie auto to 150 for the Rangers Nathaniel Smith Nick Gonzalez again seventh overall pick Pirates Darren McKenzie Jesus Steven. That's so dumb That team already is the next great thing franchise favorites negative Christian Pache For the Braves Ryan Kasin. I don't know what the rarity is on those, but they look super cool I like it a lot Sean Murphy out of 50 for the Oakland days Chris Walker Nico Horner Cubbies Eric Ainge Heston Kirstad purple to 250 for the Orioles Nick Coba and Atomic refractor Nick Gonzalez again for the Pirates Darren McKenzie Everson Ferrera auto for the Yankees Paul Townsend last spot mojo Louise Robert franchise rookie For the White Sox Paul Townsend last spot mojo and Jordan Alvarez rookie refractor for the Astros and Jared Moerling Well, what are you talking about Ray? What about Luke Connard? Christian yellow to Tomic refractor Going to the Brewers Gens McLeese and Our first auto Bryce Jarvis for the Diamondbacks Eric Craig Ari Stettis Aquino For the Reds Kurt disser Jordan Alvarez power producers refractor Astros Jared Moerling and Antonio Cabello auto for the Yankees Paul Townsend It looks just like a Jason Dominguez Emerson Hancock to 99 for the Mariners Patrick Cologne 35 premium stock I'm not even sure Ray No clue man It's so new that you might have to wait a little bit to see when one other one hits the market You're Don Alvarez Houston Astros Jared Moerling Kyle Lewis Mariners Patrick Cologne and Adley Rushman Baltimore Orioles Nick Coba auto there nice Jorge Alfaro atomic refractor Going to the Marlins Brandon Morocco and Boba Shet rookie refractor Blue Jays Justin Fuller might trout atomic refractor auto two out of 25 Los Angeles Angels Jason Stowe Jason as an Angels fan. I hope you're a fellow Angels fan Congratulations, man Holy Jesus eBay one-of-one here you add the two to the 25 you get 27 Jersey number eBay one-of-one Jason Don't ever put this on eBay if you want to sell it. Let me know. I would I would really really liked I Beed myself to Jason. Don't worry. I can't Jack. I can't we are on a heater If you guys didn't see the stuff that we pulled last night, especially late night We are on a tear. Let's just keep it going I'm not gonna lie for a second there. I honestly thought it was Matt Tice You get so you get so ingrained with seeing MT and the Angels. I Thought it was Matt Tice There's the first half That is awesome, man, I think that might that might deserve a picture after this break Maybe just maybe I think I think Mike trout makes the cut. I don't think Hawaii was called the rainbow wars or more I thought they were just the Warriors. I still take a picture Listen just to cover my basis Jack if for some reason he ever decides not want to play for the Angels again and he leads the team or You know, he holds out or does something It's like anti-Angel, but good for Mike trout. That's important Mike trout Thousand percent if he decides to go play for another team I will root for him and I will root against that team Unless it's the Padres and in that case go Padres all the way Padres are my anel team. I might if it was a Dodger if Mike trout was a Dodger I might take the picture a little bit off center. You know what I mean? Just a little bit more God Jack.    I'd like to get up there and visit Hang out sometimes What up Tyler? How are you man? Merry Christmas Eve to you. I hope everybody's Happy healthy and safe. You got all three of those. You're doing pretty well You got two of them It'll still It'll still work Yeah the turf or Honestly Brendan, it's not even you don't even need you don't even need a Garbage can legitimately all you need is like absolute success There are people honestly Brendan that do not like Mike crowd You know why because of his success all they'll do is be like well, he hasn't done anything He's got zero playoff wins, you know, what's his record in the playoffs?  Okay, unless it's golf Tennis, it's not an individual sport Team championships don't count for one person, you know, I mean especially in baseball football all that other stuff You're in this for Patrick Bailey Jason, I hope I find you a Patrick Bailey That's awesome How cool is that you go Patrick Bailey Patrick Bailey fishing and you end up with a trout. Well, good luck everybody Brewstar Gratterall rookie Otto to 150 for the Dodgers Brian Lutz Ari Stettis Aquino franchise 2020 For the Reds Kurt disser Robert Flosson Get used to that auto. He's really good Oakland days Chris Walker Gavin Luxe franchise 2020 Dodgers Brian Lutz Jason Dominguez, look at this case New York Yankees Paul Townsend last spot mojo It's only fair You hosted Bailey for USA baseball. That's pretty cool, Jason. That is pretty cool Jordan Yamamoto to 150 for the Marlins Brandon, Morocco and Jordan Alvarez rookie atomic refractor Houston Astros Jared Moerling You imagine this for a personal box by the way Robert Floss and Anna Jason Dominguez auto and take it Nico Horner Cubs Eric Ainge Jesus Luzardo rookie Otto for the A's Chris Walker Boba Shet franchise 2020 for the Blue Jays Justin Fuller and Nico Horner franchise favorites rookie Cubs Eric Ainge Ray, it's pretty fantastic. I will say Jordan Alvarez franchise favorites Astros Jared Moerling Jordan Yamamoto rookie Otto for the Marlins and Brandon, Morocco Jordan Alvarez again and again for the Houston Astros and Jared Moerling, Nico Horner Cubs Eric Ainge Gavin Luxe Dodgers Brian Lutz Max Meyer number three overall pick for the Marlins Brandon, Morocco Kyle Lewis Mariners Patrick Cologne and Gavin Luxe Gold to 50 for the Dodgers Brian Lutz What's up, Mike? How are you? Yeah, tonight late again Jordan Alvarez again for the Astros Jared Moerling Nick York atomic refractor Red Sox I Coppola and how about another Max Meyer third overall pick Marlins Brandon, Morocco Louise Robert atomic refractor Chicago, White Sox Paul Townsend. There you go, Paul Brendan McKay rookie refractor Ray's Eric Bailey Boba Shet Blue Jays Justin Fuller crazy box. This is a really good case artist Dennis Aquino power producers refractor for the Reds Kurt Disser and Patrick Bailey auto for the San Francisco Giants Jason Stubb. Oh, well, there you go Patrick Bailey There you go, Jason It's only fair we trade now So grizzled. How are you? Nice box for the Marlins there Four autos three of them Marlins two of them their number three overall pick. It's crazy Jason. I can't believe that man Well, I was here trying to get a Patrick Bailey auto Louise Robert White Sox Paul Townsend artist Dennis Aquino for the Reds Kurt Disser Jake Rogers to 150 for the Tigers Eric Craig Brewstar Gratterall to 99 for the Dodgers Brian Lutz Brendan McKay for the Rays Eric Bailey Justin Lang auto for the Padres and Stephen Elliott Later, Brandon. Have a good one, man. Thanks for stopping in and Merry Christmas to you Have fun down in Australia Brendan McKay for the Rays Eric Bailey And Jason Dominguez negative franchise 2020 that is super cool-looking. I Actually really like that black jersey with a white pinstripe Yankees make it happen. That's pretty cool Yankees Paul Townsend Casey Schmidt For the Giants Jason Stowe Brendan McKay For the Rays Eric Bailey and a salacy atomic refractor for the Royals and Rick Kanza Nick York Auto franchise favorites auto 250 for the Red Sox I Coppola Kyle Lewis blue to 150. That's really nice team color matching Mariners Patrick Cologne Igor check your email. I'm When I go through orders, I'll call out your name, but I got a hundred orders to go through Just check your email. You would have got an email confirmation from us on any order you placed That's gonna be quicker than me Doing it as I go through a hundred orders And I'll be faster if you do it too Read Debt Merse for the Angels number 11 overall pick. This is another good one for you Jason. I like him He's a should be the most MLB ready-picture Whit Maryfield Kansas City Royals Rick Kanza Kyle Lewis rookie refractor Mariners Patrick Cologne There you go, Jason. I like it Dustin May rookie auto for the Dodgers Brian Lutz Heston Kirstad purple to 250 Orioles Nick Coba and Bryce Harper atomic refractor Going to the Fils and Matt Dalia and Nick Solak auto for the Texas Rangers Nathaniel Smith Niko Horner cups Eric Ainge and there you go That'll do it very nice break That was 2020 Bowman's best baseball eight box case break pick your team number three from jaskiescasebreaks.com. I'm Sean jaskiescasebreaks.com. Thanks for hanging out. I'll see you next time


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When I was in the eighth grade, Randall Dunn came into the morning assembly where all the boys congregated and told us a sad story. Randall Dunn was the first black head monitor student body president in the 200-year history of our school. He was a three-sport varsity athlete, fantastic grades, awesome dude. Everybody loved him, including the admissions department at Brown. But when he was in the dorm the night before, one of the white boys had said to him, well, we know that you're head monitor and all this stuff. But really the reason why you got into Brown is because you're black. Sociologists call this sort of thing a microaggression. When a white person says intended or unintended to a black person, what ultimately means you are of lesser value, lesser worth, lesser intelligence. This isn't exactly as bad as someone sticking a gun in your face because you're wearing a hoodie, but ultimately the experience undergirding both of those forms of racism is the same, the idea that the black mind and the black body are lesser. And these sort of things happen all the time. I was at a writer's retreat in Italy, this Auguste thing that you had to apply to get into. And then Helen Vendler came, Harvard poetry professor. The other professors there told me she was kind of rude. So I wasn't totally surprised when the first time we were alone to talk, the second question out of her mouth was, how did you get here? And what she was saying, thank you, what she was saying was, I don't understand how a young black person could qualify to be at the same writer's retreat as me. So can you please explain it to me? I want to see your resume. And if I had explained it to her, that would have tacitly suggested, well, you have the right to ask me to see my resume and you don't, Helen Vendler. So when she said, how did you get here? I said, by plane. But we know that these sorts of ideas are in people's minds all the time, even if they're not verbalized. Elizabeth Alexander, who read an original poem at Barack Obama's inauguration and is a Yale poetry professor, told me that she knows as she moves throughout the world, people are constantly underestimating her intelligence. She can feel it, she sees it, she knows it. And a lot of us experience this. So what do we do? Well, there's three things that we can do to deal with this. First, we have to remember that race is a social construct. There is no biological difference between the black mind and the white mind. Science rejects the concept of race. And more than that, the mind, we each have an equal ability to build and grow the mind throughout our lives. So when we travel, when we think deeply, when we read, when we write, we are building our mind and we all have the ability to grow our minds as long as we're on the earth. The second thing we can do, when we encounter a situation where there aren't that many people who look like us, we can look for existence-proof role models. People who went before us who succeeded. So you're not wearing the entire race on your shoulders as you're trying to get through something, you're dealing with the difficult part of the learning curve that everybody would encounter. No, others have succeeded before me. I know I can get through this. One thing that we have to do is maintain a private view of ourselves as brilliant and beautiful and badass. And that functions as a sort of mental armor to protect us. So when people say, hey, you didn't deserve to get into brown. You don't deserve to be at my writer's retreat. You already have this armor protecting you saying, no, I know you're wrong. I know my worth and my value. I saw an interesting example of this once when I went to Kanye West's house. He was working on his, he was promoting his first album. I was writing about him for Rolling Stone and I went into his house and there's this gigantic poster of Kanye on the wall.  And he says, hey, I have to cheer for me before anyone else can cheer for me. I said, that's pretty good. It's indicative of the ego maniacal Kanye we would get later on, but it's still instructive. There's a lesson there for all of us.  That's tacky. But do make sure that there's a poster of yourself on the wall in your mind. Thank you.