Hey everyone in this video where you can be talking about a very popular product and get a lot of questions about this What are options straddles and strangles? So if you're interested in this topic and want to learn about what they are How to use them when to use them why to use them and whether you should be a buyer or seller of options straddles and strangles Then you're gonna want to stick around and watch this video. So let's go Hey everyone, I'm Lilo founder of smart options seller comm and options Website to help you up your game as an option trader So as I said and you can see right here on the screen in front of you, let me move myself over here We're gonna be talk about Straddles and strangles today. We're gonna look at some definitions. We're gonna look at some option chains We're gonna look at some P&L charts we look some option graphs as well and We're gonna do some calculations and show you why and how to calculate options straddles and strangles Why you want to use them when to use them? And it is it more beneficial to be a buyer or seller of an options straddle and strang or strangled So let's just jump right in and talk about what they are and we will go from there So as I usually do I have these cheat sheets here the smart options seller guide to Straddles and strangles is what we do each week. So for those of you, you know, that may not know yet you know options come in two flavors calls and puts and Most of the time people use them for directional types of trades So if you're bullish on a stock you may buy a call option if you're bearish on a stock You may buy a put option and conversely you can be a seller as well So if you're bearish on a stock, you could sell a call option All right, if if you're bullish on a stock, you can sell a put option That's something that we do here at the smart ops and sell we specifically sell put options But there are times when you know, there's a stock out there You're looking at the stock chart and you're thinking you know what I think this stocks gonna move really big But I'm not sure which direction it may move in and you can use as a buyer You can buy an option straddle them or strangle that that could pay off for you if the stock moves big in either Direction so what you'll be doing as a buyer You'll be buying both the call option and a put option at the same time Hoping that the stock's gonna move big in one direction or another and if the stock does move far enough in The right time frame then you can be a winner as a buyer of an option straddle or strangle now on the other side As a seller you can sell an option straddle or strangle Which means you're gonna sell both the put and the call Hoping that the stock doesn't really go anywhere and the option values for each to put in the call gets smaller and smaller Meaning you can buy the whole straddle or strangle back and lock in a profit So there's two sides of the coin here Some people like to buy straddles because they just don't know where the stock's gonna go But some people like to sell straddles and strangles because they know the stock's not gonna go anywhere And they can make a profit by the time decay value of those option contracts So let's just talk about a little bit, you know what they are a Straddle is set up right here. I'm talking at the top line here a straddle set up where you can buy or sell The same strike prices using the same expiration date. So if the stock's at a hundred You're gonna use the 100 strike call and the 100 strike put and they're both gonna be using the same expiration date And and for a strangle you're typically going to use, you know An out of the money call and put option so if the stock's at a hundred you're gonna buy or sell the 110 call strike and the 90 put Call strike you can buy or sell that so we're gonna look at some some option charts to show you what that actually looks like When you buy or sell it So let's just talk a little bit about the risks and rewards here because some people don't understand, you know Why you would want to be a buyer or seller of each now as a buyer of an option Whether you buy a single option or spread or straddle or strangle when you're a buyer of an option you have unlimited reward potential To however high or however low the stock can go if you get that direction, right? Your reward is unlimited and your risk is capped and limited meaning whatever you pay for the option or options is That's the most that you can lose you can never lose more than what you pay for the options now on the flip side the seller of Option contracts have unlimited risk potential Meaning if the stock moves against you you have unlimited risk potential Which is not a great thing and you only have limited reward potential So whatever you sell the option for whether you sell one option or spread or straddle or strangle The most you can ever win when you sell an option is whatever you collected or whatever the option buyer paid you But you have unlimited risk. So you may be asking Why would someone want to have unlimited risk when trading options? Well, because a lot of the times the probability of winning is very high What we like to do with the smart ops sells we like to sell put options, but we know As a first stock it can't fall any further than zero So when we sell a put option what we're basically doing is obligating ourselves to buy a specific stock at a specific price And we know what our our maximum risk is the stock can't go any lower than zero So we know what what we can potentially lose on the upside We never ever ever sell naked call options Meaning we just never sell call option because the stock could go up forever and we have unlimited loss potential So if you're if you're thinking about selling straddles or strangles You want to be very very careful because your your risks and loss could be unlimited. So just want to get that out They're up front. Okay, so we're talking about, you know, so so most people would think well They just want to be a buyer But a lot of times buying options fails miserably like up to 95% of the time If you have no idea where the stock's gonna go or you choose the wrong expiration date You could be throwing good money after bad money Just trying to figure out where the stock's gonna go you buy straddle meaning you're gonna buy both call and a put and they both End up expiring worthless. You're gonna end up losing a lot of money So that's why people like to sell options because they have They're taking advantage of the these option buyers that have no clue about what they're doing So option selling does have its advantages. All right The one thing that you need to know is that if you're gonna buy a straddle or a strangle You have to have a catalyst for that and I'm right here You need to know that this stock is going to move and it's going to move fast and soon and that's the only reason why you would be a buyer of an option because If the stock doesn't move that options is gonna start wasting away and you're gonna start losing money The value of that option is gonna start decreasing as a and as the holder or the buyer of that option You're just gonna be holding on to something that's losing value So you want to make sure that you have some kind of catalyst that you know Somehow for some reason the stock's going to move and it's going to move quick And that's the reason why you want to buy options buy straddles whatever and we're gonna look at a scenario Where a lot of people end up buying straddles or strangles right before a stock announces their earnings because typically after Company announces earnings the stock will usually rise or fall pretty quickly That's why people will concentrate on buying straddles or strangles right before an earnings announcement We're gonna look at some numbers there as well. All right, so right down here buyers typically use a strategy for earnings But at the same time, there's always there's always a caveat here Before earnings comes out the volatility of those options start to increase meaning those option prices get a lot more Expensive because everybody's clamoring to buy puts and calls because they don't know which way the stock's gonna move after earnings So all that buying pressure increases the prices of those options and once the earnings announcements come out We know where the stock is gonna go all that volatility gets taken out of the options called volatility crush So all those high prices as an option buyer you paid right before earnings Gets deflated and all that value comes out regardless of where the stock moves all that volatility comes out So the option price is deflate after earnings. So you're you're fighting with that as well That's another reason why options sellers like to sell straddles and strangles because they like to take advantage of that volatility crush Okay, so if you bought an option for five dollars a contract right before earnings and then tomorrow when the earnings come out That option could be worth three dollars Just due to the fact that the announcement is now known and we know what the earnings are So you got to be careful of that as well. All right, and the other thing you can do is You can use a probability calculator to help you figure out, you know, what are the chances of the stock moving? you know to x-point higher or lower in the future based on the current volatility and You know the past movement of the stock and we'll pull up the calculator and show you that now lastly one thing I want to say here is that you know if you want to sell options You know because you want to take advantage of a stock not moving or you want to take advantage of that volatility crush Using iron condors is probably a safer strategy I should say condors are selling a call spread and a put spread at the same time You're taking advantage of a range of a stock moving in so that's another discussion for another day And lastly we're gonna use a website called option creator calm to show us You know what they the payoff graph looks like for a straddle and strangle, so let's just go on to the next phase here We're gonna look at let's open up a chart here. We're gonna look at Using Disney Walt Disney as our example. Okay, so typically What you would want to do you want to pick a stock? That has the potential to move really far really quickly in the near future now by looking at charts How do you do that? Well? Typically as I said you can do it right before earnings if you want because you know the stocks gonna move big One way or the other typically okay, or the other thing you can use if you see a stock kind of Not really going anywhere for a while you can see Disney has some good movement You know up and down but right here It has this little little period of congestion Meaning that the the range is that the stock trades in is getting tighter and tighter and that means Soon at some point the stock should explode higher or lower So you're banking on you're going through your charts and you're looking for charts that have like a consolidation period and Then you know eventually Disney's gonna explode one way higher or lower now That could be you know They could be waiting for Disney's earnings to come out or there's some other catalyst That it that Disney's gonna be making an announcement in the near future We just don't know what that is the other thing that you can look for on charts is something called a congestion pattern So we can draw this here and we can draw this here So that's typically what's called a congestion pattern where the stock kind of gets like I said in tighter and tighter ranges It creates this Triangle pattern which once it gets to the apex here it'll blast out higher or lower one way the other so a lot of People will look at charts they'll look for these congestion patterns and then they'll buy a straddle Hoping that the stock's gonna move really big one way or the other. Okay, so let's go to the option chain for Disney And take a look at some of the numbers How you figure out, you know, what a straddle will cost you or a strangle And whether you want to be a buyer or sell out of it. So we're in the interactive brokers option chain here I've got my Disney chart, uh, Disney option chain pulled up. We got put options on the right Call options on the left. Now these are leftover prices from yesterday's trading action April 14th 2023 And typically most people when they buy a straddle or strangle They use, you know, the at the money or near the money options So with Disney trading right around $100 a share What we would do is we go to the hundred strike So we got the hundred puts here and the hundred calls over here And we're going to use a you know use a an expiration Like three months in the future July 2023 97 days until that expiration Now if you're unsure about where the stock may be going You probably want to give yourself some more time for the stock to move because Disney can keep me andering, you know sideways for a while without any action So if you choose shorter term expiration options, those things are going to take decay real really fast on you And you're going to lose money quickly as an option buyer So as an option buyer, you want to probably give yourself a little more time for the stock to move So we're looking at, you know, these July options 100 puts are worth about, you know, $5.50 per contract and the 100 calls are worth about $6.70 per contract and you're going to be buying both of them as an option buyer So that's roughly $5.50 and $6.70 $12.20 per straddle So it's $1220 So the cost to you as an option buyer is $1220 and To buy the put and the call 100 strike. So at this point You know that Disney needs to move Either $12.20 higher or $12.20 lower in order for you just to break even as the option buyer Okay, so $12 higher is going to be $112 a share and $12 lower is going to be about $88 a share Do you think Disney can move $12 higher or lower in the next 97 days in order for you just to break even Okay, Disney needs to move farther than those levels in order you in order for you to start making money as the option buyer All right. So what we want to do is we want to take a look at We can go to Let's pull up a screen here. Okay. This is our free puts on ebook. We'll talk about that later We want to go to our option Chart here So I want to bring everyone up to speed on a website called option creator dot com You can see it up here option creator dot com good basic website To help you put in any kind of option strategy you want you can fill in the numbers here And it'll pump out the Graph right here. So I'm going to walk you through an example of how to create an option straddle Example, okay, we're talking about disney, but it doesn't really matter You can all you need is the numbers So the current stock price is 100 and we're going to buy here one contract of both the The call and the put at the 100 strike at the money 97 days to expiration We're going to use a volatility of roughly 30% That's typically where where disney's been trading and it's going to come up with the the option prices now in this case You can see the the full value of the call and the put added together is roughly $12 and 29 cents a little bit more expensive Than what we calculated at 12 20 Doesn't matter regardless So you come down here and it'll and once you hit enter after you put in all you can you can change all these numbers here, okay once you Type in a new number just hit enter and it'll adjust the chart below. So we scroll down So this is what a payoff graph of an option straddle looks like it looks like a v Okay, and at the apex of the v right here is the strike price 100 Okay, though your worst case scenario as an option straddle buyer is for the stock to finish that expiration Right at the strike price meaning right at 100 in this example If disney finishes at $100 at expiration 97 days from now Both the call and the put option will have a zero value It'll expire worthless and you'll lose the maximum you can lose which is the $1220 Now as you can see as the graph moves Up as the stock price goes down or as the stock price goes up You can see now your profit starts to get unlimited in either direction Okay, so you're hoping for disney to move your break even would be right around 112 112 and changes we discussed or 88 As we discussed so you can look at the prices down here at $88 The curve starts to move above the zero line meaning you're starting to move into profit above 112 or so Now you're starting to move into profit So you need to make sure that disney is going to move $12 or more than $12 in either direction in order for you to make money So you can see the graph here now the blue line is is today if you were execute the the trade today This is what your p&l would look like but at at expiration, which is what you really care about where Where you would make or lose money now you're going to lose money if If disney finishes between 88 to 112 dollars anywhere in between that level you're going to lose various amounts of various amounts of money Down in this range, but it has to get below 88 or above 112 in order for you to make money now a strangle We'll look at a strangle here. Strangle is just using slightly out of the money strike prices So here the the the call we use the 110 call The 110 call and we'll use the 90 put slightly out of the money hit enter Now you can see it's only four dollars and 88 cents roughly So it'll cost you 488 dollars strangle will cost less Because the stock is going to need to move further in order for you to make a profit as an option buyer As this strangle buyer. So if we scroll down to the chart here, you can see You can lose money in a bigger range between 90 If disney finishes between 90 and 110 in that $20 range on expiration You're going to lose the maximum you're going to lose the total amount that you put into the trade, which is 488 dollars Okay, and you can see where it starts to bend It'll cross that zero zero dollar amount at your break evens. So if the cost is 488 dollars, that's going to be Your break evens going to be 110, which is the strike price strike price, but plus 488 So 114 dollars and 88 cents is your break even on the upside And on the downside you take 90 minus 488, which is 85 thousand twelve cents roughly So disney has to fall below 85 dollars and change In order for you to make money or it has to get up to a Above 114 and change in order for you to start making money. So the strangle has a wider Area in order for you to make up a profit Disney has to move further in order for you to make a profit, but it'll cost you less So you have to decide do I want to pay more and but have a wider opportunity A wider area where I need disney to move in order to make money Or do I want to pay more in a straddle? But my my profit area Is easier to get to so you have to figure out what's better for you Now you can always change the strikes you can you can do the you know the 105 call And the 95 put Hit enter now it costs a little more, but you can see that your range of profitability um It gets smaller that means disney doesn't have to move as far in order for you to start making money So you have to figure out, you know, can disney really move that far? You know, am I buying something that has no chance of even occurring So on the flip side now, let me show you what it looks like for an option seller. So here we're going to sell And we're going to go back to the straddle We're going to do the hundred strikes. So as an option seller straddle seller You're going to collect the $1,220, but here's what your payoff diagram looks like If disney or the stock finishes at 100 at expiration, you're going to make the maximum which is $1,220 But if disney starts to move bigger in either direction You're you're starting to lose money Okay, unlimited amount of money at least As high as disney can go. We know disney can't go lower than zero dollars, but that still would be a massive loss For you even so So you have to be sure yourself as an option seller Do I think disney can move out of that $12 range higher or lower in the next 97 days? You know, that's something that you have to think about and so your probability zone is quite small You know between nine between 88 and 112 disney gets out of those either range You're going to start losing money in either direction. Okay, so let's look at the Let's look at the The strangle for the option seller Now as an option seller for a strangle you have a little bit wider probability zone Because disney has to move further in either direction in order before you start to lose money So now you have that uh area of about, you know, 114 to 85 before you start losing money still unlimited Losses on the either direction big moves in either direction. You're losing money as an option seller But now the question is, you know, what are the chances of that happening? What are the chances of disney moving that far in either direction? So that's where we go to the Probability calculator. Is this my probability calculator? Yep. Got it right here This is the smart option seller calm probability calculator. So we're we I filled in some of the numbers here disney at 997 days in the future and we'll look at We'll use the 30% volatility So here is where I put in the the upper and lower thresholds for the straddle Um, it was, you know, $87 and 80 cents on the downside, you know, we're using $12 and 20 cents as our Cost of the straddle. So you you you take $12 and 20 cents and add it to the 100 strike and take $12 and 20 cents And subtract it from the 100 strike. Okay, so that's 87 80 on the downside And 112 20 on the upside and when we hit go you're going to see here that The probability of disney in this case finishing below 87 80 is about a 20 probability And the chance of it finishing above 112 20 is is almost 23 Okay, so you as an option buyer or option seller you have to figure out is this 20 and 23 You know too little or too much for me To to take that trade as the option buyer is 20% Enough of a chance for you to say i'm willing to spend $1,220 to see if disney gets above or below these levels It's 20 20 and 20 and 23 sound like a good opportunity for you on the flip side For the option seller, there's only a 20 and 23 that disney will actually move out of that range So conversely you have an you know an eight you have about a 77 and an 80 chance of winning Because disney is not going to move out of that range So you'll make some money, you know some varying amounts of money depending on where disney finishes So as an option buyer you have 20 20 3% of winning option seller you have about a 77 78% to 80 percent chance of winning so you have to weigh out. Okay. Are those numbers good enough for me? And it's whatever you choose. So now before earnings, let's talk about the earnings opportunity here If you think that disney is going to explode one way or the other you can buy You can buy disney's straddle or strangle right before earnings and let's go back to the the option chain here Let's let's pretend that disney's earnings are coming out next week And we're going to the april 21 so six days from now. So next friday april 21st Now here's a a little trick to figure out, you know, how far the options market is basing or thinking that disney is going to move By this friday april 21st The best way you can do it is you look at the at the money straddle, which is the 100 strike put in call and it's worth about a dollar 37 here And you know, roughly a dollar 37 here for the calls as well. You add those two together. That's roughly two uh three dollars two dollars and 77 cents or something like that 2077 cents. That's that's how you calculate how much the option market thinks that disney is going to move by next friday Okay, two dollars and two dollars and 74 cents or two dollars and 75 cents The option market thinks that disney's going to move that far by next friday Do you think disney can move, you know, two dollars and seventy something cents by next friday? So that's what the at the money straddle is predicting. That's how you can use the market So if you think yeah, heck yeah, disney could move that far by next friday, then you can buy the straddle All right, so let's go quickly back to our our option calculator I just want to show you how that looks and you can get this information from the the oic website options education.org You can see the website right here. So, you know, what we did was Let's move this down to six days to expiration. Okay, this is your inputs are here. We've got a hundred dollar stock price hundred dollar strike price and days to expiration You can see a dollar 57 dollar 50. So we're talking this is okay a little bit different three dollar value here And you know, if you decide to buy that option straddle, let's let's bump this up because we know that Volatility is going to go up as earnings announcement gets closer So let's just say cost four dollars to buy that straddle two dollars for the call two dollars for the put You're paying four dollars But once earnings gets announced all of a sudden volatility drops down to 20 And now those You've lost a dollar on the call and a dollar on the put So you have to be aware of that volatility crush that I talked to you about Regardless of where Disney goes higher or lower The volatility is still going to come in and you're going to lose money just because of that drop in the volatility So you have to be aware of that if you're playing options or options straddles or strangles For expiration you have to be aware if you buy that option or that straddle of strangle right before earnings like the night before Before the market closes or whatever you're going to be You have to be aware that that volatility crush. So choose your options wisely. All right So I think that's it for the option straddle and strangle. Let's actually we can go to one more time The Option chain here. So how do you actually how do you actually buy or sell the straddles? Well, if you use interactive brokers, you know, there's a couple ways to do it You can actually go into the let's go back to july here. You can actually go into the strategy Builder Okay, and what you would do is you can click on The ask of the put and the ask price of the call and it'll set up this Straddle order right here It'll but you're not going to buy the 100 call on the 100 put And here it costs $12 and 15 cents per straddle, which is $1,215 Here's the chart little chart that I showed you about before or if you use the home screen like I do and I put in some of this numbers before you can actually go ahead and Create the straddle and strangle right here, which for some reason The strangle price is not showing up, but you can add the numbers here and it'll give you the full price All right, so there's a couple different ways that you can create it within interactive brokers All right, so that's all for me today I hope this has been helpful I hope it's giving you an idea of what straddles and strangles are all about You know whether you want to be a buyer seller, whether the probabilities are good for you How much it'll cost the p&l graphs The option charts, you know, you can use all these things to help you figure out whether you want to Be a buyer or seller as I said, let's go back to the The cheat sheet here if you're gonna if you're gonna sell these things You may want to consider the iron condors instead. These are double double It's a call spread and a put spread that you sell together You have locked in limited risk. So there's a little bit safer. All right, so lastly Let's go to our website smartopsonseller.com And I want to make sure everyone gets a free copy of our put song basics ebook That's what we concentrate on here at the smartopsonseller.com you can scroll down And put in your name and email address here. You do this at our website smartopsonseller.com All right, that's all for me today. Hope this has been helpful Leave me a comment Give me a thumbs up hit that like button subscribe if you wish send me an email. I will always answer All right, that's it for me today. This is lee lull signing off


A good understanding of probability and statistics is essential for any citizen of a free society if they want the society to remain free. And that's because if you don't understand probability and statistics, you'll be easily manipulated by those who do. And this includes people and organizing. Good citizens do not need to understand probability or statistics. So let's talk terms of probability. Remember, definitions are the whole of mathematics, all else is commentary. A random experiment is one whose outcomes are, in practice, unpredictable. For example, we might flip a coin and record whether it lands heads or tails. So we can't predict in advance how the coin will land. It's important to keep in mind that random doesn't mean reasonless. How the coin lands is going to be completely determined by the laws of physics and how the coin was flipped. But in practice we don't have enough information to be able to predict how the coin will land before it actually occurs, and that's why this is a random experiment. Or again, we might deal out five cards from a shuffled deck, and again, while the cards that we get are entirely determined by the order of the cards in the deck, we can't predict in advance what cards will be dealt. And if you think about it, this applies to pretty much anything that people do. The set of all possible outcomes is the sample space. Generally we limit the sample space to reasonable outcomes. If you flip a coin, the coin could land heads, land tails, be seized by an eagle and carried off to Canada, and maybe some other outcomes, but we'd probably limit the sample space to landing heads or landing tails. A set of some of the possible outcomes is called an event. The event occurs on one trial of a random experiment if any of its constituent outcomes is the result of the random experiment. Otherwise the event does not occur. And remember, to occur only one of the outcomes in the event needs to be the result of the random experiment. So for example, in a talk show, one audience member is selected to win a car. Is this a random experiment? If so, what are the possible outcomes and some possible events? Let's provide examples where the events occur or don't occur. So even if the game is rigged so that a specific audience member will win, we don't know who that will be, so we can treat the experiment as random. Now one possible sample space is someone wins a car. But this outcome always happens so the outcomes are no longer unpredictable and our experiment is not random. As we'll see later on, choosing the right sample space is extremely important. Since we're picking an audience member, the sample space could be the audience members. Whatever they are, we might list their names. And we could take any subset of these. For example, one event is the set F of female audience members. And another event might be G, the set of audience members over 50. So remember to occur only one of the outcomes in the event needs to be the result of the random experiment. So let's see what could make these events occur or not occur. So to make both events occur, we want a female audience member who's over 50. So if a female aged 57 won the car, both F and G occur. So what if a female aged 42 won the car? In that case, F occurred, the winner was a female, but G did not. They were not over 50. Now if we don't want F to occur, we need to pick a non-female audience member. So if a male aged 65 won the car, F did not occur, but G did because they were over 50. And for a male aged 47 won the car, F did not occur, and neither did G.


Hello there! It's Sandy Alnok with a Christmas in July project, learning how to paint a glass bubble with a cat in it. Today's video is somewhat related to a brand new class that I've just launched over on my website, link in the doobly-doo, all about painting Christmas berries. So it's a mini class with five lessons that I think you're going to enjoy. And today I'll be using a little bit of what was in the class, and I'll talk about it as we go. I'm starting out with a Colorado Craft Company stamp set. It's called Christmas Hats, so it's all kinds of critters wearing hats. And I'm going to make a bubble around the cat, and this is going to be my cat. It's a little black cat, and I've masked out the bottom part by not putting the ink on the stamp down there. I've created a circle and drawn in the little thing that holds the ornament at the top. I don't know what that little thing is called, but it's a cap that goes on the glass ornament. I'm going to begin by using a couple of different colors to just add some interest to the glassy portion. Very wet mixes, very, very wet. Lots and lots of water. And painting water outside the edges every time I add some color to it to make sure this stays really pale and moves a lot. And continue around with the blue, the gray, and the green, so I get just something interesting as opposed to just a big old blob of color. I was messing around here with what that highlight shape on the other side would be, because I didn't want to put windows on both sides and kept carving away until I was happy with it. And while that is drying, I decided I'd put some berries in this top section because the class has lots of berries and different kinds of leaves and things in it. And I'm using masking fluid. This is a masking fluid that has an orange tone to it so you can see where you've painted it, which is very helpful. And then started mixing color to use for the background. And the only reason for doing this is because it's a glass bubble and I want that bottom part to just stay white as if there's snow inside of the ornament and then if I have color around the outside of it then it looks like it's white by comparison because everything is in comparison to what's around it. So I'm just using a flat brush to paint that really soft color moving from blues to greens and just kind of messing around with the tones and letting them blend one into the other. They have to stay really wet in order to do this so you have to work quickly if you want to paint a big background like this.  It's a real easy way to add something that looks a little bit magical without painting a whole lot of craziness in it. And I'm letting them be messy, not really trying to make them be round. They can be, but most of the time when you see them in photographs, they're not really round. They're partial circles, that kind of thing. And in the class, we are going to be doing a bunch of masking for the berries and we'll be learning how to paint various kinds of greens to go with them and we'll be learning different techniques for creating different types of paintings that you could use for Christmas cards or you could use them for decorations or for journaling, all different kinds of things. And of course, you could change lessons like those into other seasons. So instead of doing winter ones, you can do spring berries and spring greens and that kind of thing and learn those techniques so that you can apply them at any time of year. But it is July, so it was time to add a Christmas class to my list, including a watercolor class. The reason for another watercolor class right now is because it is also World Watercolor Month. And during World Watercolor Month, I donate a portion of each class that's purchased to the International Children's Art Foundation. And that is going to help kids to have art supplies and training so they can learn to be artists just like the rest of us are. And I love every single time that July comes around, supporting that cause. And I have a goal set, a financial goal that I'm hoping to raise. So I thought another watercolor class right now might be good. Even if you're not ready to work on your Christmas cards yet, you might want to go get that one so that you can get it while it's on discount at the moment and also help the kids while you do. So we've painted the greens in the top and while that's drying, I thought I paint the cat. And the color that's in my palette right now for black is one that I think is going to be exiting. It's lunar black, which is a highly granulating black. And I like certain aspects of that. But when I'm just painting a black cat, some of the other colors that are built into that lunar black come out. So my cat looks a little bit on the pinkish-brownish side as opposed to blackish. So I don't know. I still haven't figured out what that last color is going to be. I keep changing my mind. But now I'm going to paint the berries into the area where I've removed that masking fluid, the thing that I use to pull it off with. You can get it off with your finger, but I used a rubber cement pickup. It's one that I've had since college. So it has been around the block to say the least. That sucker has served its time well because it was a long time ago that I was in college. I had used the masking fluid for making this string ribbon. It's like kind of a twine tie on it. And I don't know why I did that. I think I could have just painted this red right over top of it. I could have used a darker red and not really had to try to kiss up to those edges and try to make everything all perfecty. And it was a challenge.  Sometimes we don't do things that are the smartest thing, do we? I'm going to add in a little bit of darkness in that center and refine the shape of a little cap on the ornament itself and a couple of the berries. Add in a few more strands of some greenery in there, a little bit more pine. And once I finish fussing because I am a fusser at heart, just trying to put in extra details, then this one will be done. I have not yet made my two cards into cards yet. So hopefully by the time the blog post goes live, you will see those over on the blog. If you want to check those out, I did both the puppy and the kitty. And right now today and tomorrow is a free shipping sale over at Colorado Craft Company. My code for you, my coupon code is in the doobly-doo down below and on the blog. And don't forget that you want to sign up for the Christmas berries class, even if you don't want to paint them right now. Although it might cool you off to be putting on some Christmas music and thinking about the holidays while it's as warm as it is all over the place. I will see you all again very soon. Friday I'll be back with more Christmas berry painting. And I'll see you then. Take care. Bye bye.


Hi everyone and welcome back, this is the third part of my mini art journal series where I am playing with products by Art by Marlene and here is the little art journal that I made using dyes from the same collection. At the end of this video you will find two links on the two other videos that I have shared before where you can see how I made this little journal and how I made the pages that are included. I absolutely love the colorful backgrounds and now I am ready to start sticking again for new pages. And let's take a look on what I have, this is the first page with the snail, then I have the other one with the seahorse. Here I have two pages, the one with the boat which is one of my favorites and the lady. And I like to work on different backgrounds, I don't go in order, just depends on what focal point I have so that it stands out against the background. So this is the one with the lighthouse and at the back I have my flamingo. So up to now all the focal points in this little mini journal are cutouts from booklets and here are the two booklets that I have been working with again and again and you will find them linked down below, they are back in stock if you want to grab those. Today I am going to make some using these cutouts, some pages but I am also going to make pages using stamps. So I have here a new collection by Art by Marlene and this is the Dutch collection, I will be using both of these stamps today for making different pages and I like to use on this size of an art journal any type of stamp set that is made for card making. This is the perfect size for that and you can see how lovely these are going to fit on this size of pages. So if you are into card making I am sure you already have lots and lots of stamps that you can work with on this type of art journal. And since I have them I am going to show you a few more products from this collection. So Marlene has came up with four different washi tapes in different designs and different sizes as you can see, a lovely color combo perfect for the Dutch collection and they all come in a package. Now she has also came up with a new art journal. This is a ring bound journal with watercolor paper, the size is about 8 by 8, not exact and the pages are watercolor and very thick, the perfect quality by Art by Marlene that she has in all of your journals. This means that it takes any type of medium really nicely, it's not going to bleed at the back, you can add way too much water and it's not going to warp the pages. Front and back covers are heavy and it features lovely designs by Art by Marlene. Leave me a comment down below if you want me to share projects in this size of art journal. So just because I have been working already in this little mini art journal with Art by Marlene style I want all the pages to be cohesive so that's why I will keep working with your designs. I have a few stamps from the previous collection as well as from the Dutch collection. I was planning to use these lovely houses but I am going to keep it for another video this is an absolute favorite stamp set. I'm also going to use this little gear which is upside down, I think it's really fun and I am also going to incorporate in my pages some of the die cuts. So let's start with the first page. If you already seen the previous videos you already know by now that I do have a process so I have the background ready but I always like to go with this stamp set that is full of doodles and do some stamping at the back. For this page I decided to go with black just because I want this to show more. Usually I work with archival ink that is pretty much the same color as the background but I am trying to keep all the stamping towards the edges so that I make kind of a border. For this page I am going to play with die cuts from the booklet and I picked this one that has a lovely border all around. So I am going to try and recreate that at the edges.  This is going to recreate the little border that I have on my cut out so everything looks as if they are part of the same page. And details like that really make a difference and they bring all the elements together. With my white gel pen I am just filling in some of the squares there. Completely randomly it looks really organic just because I want to introduce even more white at my background. Now I am happy with how my background is looking and I am going to start putting together my focal points.  So I am using the circle with a little lady at the top and then at the bottom I am going to stick down some of the feathers. I like that they are different sizes and I picked ones that have different colors. Notice that I am not sticking them down in a row, I just want to have this organic look where everything is uneven.  Another way to help your focal points stand out is to add some shadow all around them.  I will do this technique later on on the other pages. So I am going to repeat the same process all around the feathers. And this is a marker that I am using which is absolutely great. It works pretty much on every surface. But it doesn't dry really quickly so you have to be careful. So that you don't smudge your pages. Now as you can see I am not being very neat, this is an art general and nothing has to be perfect. With my white gel pen I am going to draw some lines so this is going to look as if the feathers are hanging from the dream catcher or for the signal with the girl. I am also going to draw some lines at the top of the feather so the string looks as if it is wrapped there and I am also going to draw a little bow. One of the things that I always like to do when I finish a page is to add some highlights with my white gel pen and this is exactly what I am going to do here. So I am adding some highlights on the feathers, on her hair, just really randomly without paying any attention or nowhere the light would fall. I just like the whimsical look that this gives. Now I am going to bring in my booklet with sentiments again from the same collection by Art by Marlene. This one is packed with motivational quotes and some of them are really hilarious and I like the fact that they come in different colors, you will find the same quote in white, in craft and in black. So for this page I picked the one that says think happy thoughts, I like to cut it out in different pieces and stick them down.  In the close up photos you will see that I did use my white gel pen around those words as well, I am going to put it back in so you can see how it looks and here are some close up photos on the first page for today. Most of the products that I am working with today are back in stock at Jogles, you will find links down below, keep in mind that Art by Marlene products sell out super quickly just because the designs are so unique and really happy and bright, if you like something move quickly. I am flipping through my little journal and this is the next empty space, so this is where I am going to work with my stamp set, I am going to bring it in and I will work with the upside down girl, she makes me really happy and puts a smile on my face. So all I am going to do is to stamp with black ink on white cardstock and I am using my misty hair just to make sure that I stamp everything nicely but this is not necessary of course. I am going to take it out, I am going to color it in and for that you can use any type of color ink medium that you like, it can be watercolors, it can be markers, it can be your pencils, I went with my alcohol markers here for a very quick coloring and I picked colors that are going to stand out against that pink background.  For sticking down all my die cuts in these pages I go with my Nouveau de Luxe glue just because when it dries it's not going to show at all, it goes completely transparent.  From the doodle stamp set this is probably my favorite of all the doodles, the row of those hearts, I keep using it again and again and if you don't have this stamp set yet I strongly suggest you grab it, it's absolutely amazing, it has tons of doodle designs that you will be grabbing again and again for your mixed media projects. So just like always I'm adding my highlights here and there again completely randomly, I absolutely love the whimsical look that it gives on my pages. As a quote I went with a sticker that says do the unexpected, I think this fits my page perfectly, again I'm cutting it into different pieces and I'm going to stick it down and I will use my white and black marker to go all around them just like I do with all the other pages. Again notice that as I'm going around those stickers I'm not being neat, I like to have strokes that are uneven and I'm also introducing white as well just to brighten it up a little bit more. So let me put this page back in my mini journal and here is how it looks. So this page is a great example on how you can create your very own die cuts by using the stamps that you already have. But if you don't have enough time and you want to create a little page really quickly then use the die cuts from the booklet which is what I'm going to do for the next page. So here I picked the house that has a balloon on top, I went through the different backgrounds to decide which one is going to complement my die cut better and I decided to go with the blue one.  This is enough for this die cut to stand out. When I prepared this background I did some stenciling as well as stamping so I have lots of visual texture there and this is going to be a super quick page since I don't have to do much. Most of the job was done when I was creating the background. These type of pages and in this size are perfect when you want to be creative every day but just for a few minutes so you can easily put together something fun. For this page I went with the quote that says craft is dreaming and creating in freedom.  Now I'm going to bring in my white gel pen and I'm going to fill in the lines there and with my gel pen I'm also going to emphasize some of the patterns that I have created using the stencil at the background and I do that just because I want to introduce some more white on my background. Again I'm going around the words with black and white pens and just like always the finishing touch I'm going to add my white highlights and here are some close-up photos on this page. For the next two pages I'm going to use stamps from the new Dutch collection by Art by Marlene and for the first one I'm going with the windmill. For the second one I decided to go with the houses but I want to use the frame as well or another one of the pages in another video of course. So I'm going to stamp the windmill and the tulips and these are going to be my focal points. You can color them with any coloring medium that you like. I went with my alcohol marker since I had them on my table. Lately I'm in love with my tree blends. I find them really quick and simple to work with. I don't have to go through the stash of my markers to find which colors match together. You have all three, mid, light and dark in one barrel so it's really easy to color everything. So anyway I'm going to do some quick coloring here. I cut out both my designs with my scissors and now I'm going to place the windmill on top of different backgrounds to try and decide which one looks better. I decided to go with the blue one just because it looks like sky but I want to have a hill where I can place my windmill on top. So I have one of those pages. This is actually a leftover. I have many of those pages that I create from time to time so that I can make many of those booklets and I'm going to use this one to cut out some hills but I thought that this was not green enough for me so I'm going to spray some green on top and this is the illusion spray by the way which is the exact same colors that I used to create this background in the first place but I wanted that green more saturated. Now I'm going to bring in a darker spray, a darker green so that I can have one hill which is light green and another one which is darker. I'm going to make sure that these are completely dry and then I'm going to bring my scissors and cut out two hills, two slopes. I can then place one on top of the other and since these pages are leftovers from using the same die they have the exact same dimensions as my actual page so everything is going to fit nicely and I even end up having those rounded edges.  I want to have a little bit of a border all around so I'm picking this one with the three circles I'm going to stamp that with black archival ink in different areas mainly staying on the edges. For the middle I'm going to fold the page so I don't end up having stamping on the other page and then I'm going to put everything together. I'm using again my nouveau de luxe glue I'm going to stick the back first this is going to be the hill at the far back and then the front one and check that when I place it down this is where I realize it doesn't go all the way to the fold of the page and that's why I'm going to make it smaller up to there so that it looks better. At least in my eyes the fact that the hills are not made out of the same color help them stand out one on top of the other and before I stick everything down I'm going to bring in my white gel pen and I'm going to add some color on those stamped doodles. I'm not being very neat I'm just adding a little bit of white back there without being very careful I just want to introduce a little bit of white on my background this is something I always like to do mainly I do it by adding splashes but I didn't want to add to play with splashes in this book and I haven't done any splashes in any one of those pages and just because I want to keep everything kind of matching I decided to add white with my gel pen just like I did on the rest of the pages so now I'm going to use my nouveau de luxe glue and stick my wheat mill down I kind of like having elements sticking out of the pages they give the illusion that there is something going on out of this page and you just see a part of it so this is why I'm cutting out a few of those wings and now I'm going to stick down the tulips on the heel that it is at the front so it looks like I have a lovely scene there you can stick clouds if you like I'm going to leave it as it is and you will see that at the end I'm going to finish it off by sticking a few hearts I'm adding my white highlights I did separated those heels with a black line using my pen and now all I have to do is to pick up a quote I'm bringing in the booklet again just like I did for every other page and for this one I went with a sticker that says make the world a better place usually those tickets are quite big so you can't really fit them on such a small space but when you cut it out in smaller pieces then you can easily fit it and follow the design so when I placed the page back in the booklet I felt that something was missing and that's why I went back and added a few hearts the hearts are actually cut out from one of the booklets I am adding white highlights on those three hearts and here are some close-up photos on this page and let's move on to the last page for today for this one I'm using the other stamp set the one with the houses and just because there are many details here I'm going to directly stamp this on my page and I decided to go with these orange and pink one I'm using my mistich just because I want to make sure that I'm going to end up having a good impression and although I'm going to cover it up later on I just want to have all those little details that I won't be able to cut out so from one house to the other there are some strings with clothes or with banners which I'm not going to bother cutting out once I stamp it on white cardstock and color it in that's why I want to have all that detail directly on top of my page so I'm going to leave this aside and I'm going to bring in another piece of white cardstock do my stamping one more time and then start coloring again use any coloring medium that you like I went with my alcohol markers since I had them on my table from the previous pages now one thing you need to remember is when you are deciding on which background you need to use for example I know I have pinks here I'm going to go with yellows and blues and oranges maybe on top of the houses so this way I know that everything I color is going to stand out against that background again after coloring I went ahead with my scissors to cut it out and you can see that I don't bother with the details all around this design I'm just going to cut out the main houses in the same stamp set there is also a sun and it has little hearts all around which I'm not going to bother and cut out that's why I stamped again all the details on my background directly as well as on this white paper I'm going to color in the circle and I'm just going to cut out just that before I put my little scene together I'm doing some stamping again with one of the doodle stamps I'm going around the edges and I like this one this is another one of those stamps from the doodle stamp set which I use again and again and now I have one leftover from the previous page that I made where I had that from for the heels so I'm going to stick it down there and then I'm going to place on top the house is making sure that I align them perfectly so you see I do end up having all those details and the blue house has some legs and it's standing on the legs I think it's really adorable so cute I'm going to stick down the moon and I'm going to bring in my black and white gel pens and just start adding my doodling on the stamp that I did for the borders I end up having some lines so I'm going on every other one and filling that gap then there are these hearts all around the Sun which I'm going to fill in with my white gel pen again and from one roof to the other there are some banners which again I'm going to fill in with white as well as some clothes of course here you can grab your very thin acrylic markers and color them in if you want to have some color instead of white there I'm also going to use black to define that he even more just like always I'm adding my highlights and finally for the quote I went with the one that says find beauty in the ordinary again I cut it in pieces so that I can fit it nicely on my page I'm going around it with a black pen and a white gel pen and then I'm going to put it back in my booklet here are some close-up photos on the last page for today stay with me till the end as I'm going to share a quick flip through this little mini Argyran so you can see all the pages together make sure to leave me a comment down below let me know which one of all those pages is your favorite also let me know if you want to see more videos as I'm going through the rest of the pages I hope that you had fun today that you got inspired thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you all next time


Oh, good evening everybody, happy birthday. You're all looking at me like, what is he talking about?  Right, it's the birthday of the church. Turn to somebody next to you and say happy birthday. Yeah, there's a global celebration going on. Not only a global celebration, a cosmic one, a heavenly one, because today the heavens are rejoicing at what Jesus Christ has done in obedience to his Father, in winning salvation for those who bear the image of the Father. We celebrate tonight the culmination of Jesus' great work, you ready to celebrate it? All right, so I've got two, you might be wondering why I have two of these, because it's gonna be a super long talk, okay? The outline has to go all the way across. I asked for a third, but they thought it might be too intimidating, but you're ready for that, aren't ya? All right, okay, praise the Lord. Somebody's talking to me over there. By the way, hello everybody online, welcome. I wanna say hi to Dave's mom too, I haven't seen it in a long time. You're looking good tonight, good to see ya. Let me tell you where I'd like to start. I wanna start with the ascension. How many of you celebrated the ascension this last week? Yes, yes, yes, yes, so beautiful. And the realization, and just take a little bit of time to kind of set aside our hopes and concerns, our personal hopes and concerns for the night. The Lord has you on his agenda tonight, so you can set it aside, you don't have to worry. He's got a plan for you tonight and for me. But the Holy Spirit wants you and I, wants to help you and me to be able to perceive, to discern, to experience, and to grasp the beauty and the majesty of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Because today we wanna kind of celebrate with the Holy Spirit, because this is the Holy Spirit special day, but when you celebrate with the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit wants to do is he wants to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. And he wants to communicate to us as we see the beloved Son and understand what he's done for us and why he's done it. He then wants to communicate to us the love of the Father. You ready for both of those? All right, I'm gonna start first with some things, some jewels from the Catechism. And you'll have to help me out tonight. So the Catechism describes the unfolding of God's plan and what we wanna celebrate tonight. Paragraph 670 of the Catechism. Since the ascension, God's plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already in the last hour. Already the final age of the world is with us. Christ's kingdom already manifests itself, its presence through the miracles and signs and wonders that come through the proclamation of the church. So turn to somebody next to you and say we're in the last hour. Yes, we're living between, tell them we're living between the two comings of Christ. This is the age of the church. Pretty good, this is the age of the? This is the age of the? Yes, pretty good, pretty good. Paragraph 665, I'm gonna tell you if you might wanna write these down. Christ's ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus's humanity into God's heavenly domain. Well, that was really powerful. Let me read it again. Christ's ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus's humanity into God's heavenly domain. Think about that for a minute. Jesus became one of us so that he could make it possible for a race of people that bore the image of God that was created for God's glory, but fell from God's glory and became alienated from God, cut off from our destiny and to inherit a future without hope and God sent forth his only son for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, his beloved son. He sent his son into the world to take on human flesh so that through walking through the earth in human flesh, bearing our lady's flesh, the blood of our lady running through his veins, becoming one of us, heaven and earth came together in Jesus and he walked the earth, brothers and sisters and he gave to God what belongs to God, what no one else had ever done. He gave to God what belongs to God. What did he do? He fulfilled the first commandment. He loved God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind and all his strength. One of us, the second Adam from the earth in God's creation finally gave to God what belongs to God. From a heart, from a human heart. God the Father was loved on this earth from a human heart the way he deserved to be loved. And then Jesus proved his love and showed us something that's so important and precious for us to be able to grasp about our own life. He revealed to us what love is and this is what the world right now is really mixed up about. There's a lot of talk about love, isn't there? It's like love is love, right? Everybody's trying to define love. Everybody's trying to express love and it's already been defined and it's already been expressed by the perfect man who walked on our behalf and he loved perfectly and Philippians two the great, him to his glory says this. He emptied himself taking the form of his servant becoming like you and me. Right? He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even death on the cross. He defined love. He said, if you love me keep my commandments.  The cosmos was made for his glory. It was made as a gift for us but all we can think about is our little world and our little self importance. We're totally preoccupied with ourselves. Our gaze has fallen and while the heavens declare the glory of God while the angels are absolutely at this moment just singing and the saints are glorifying on this night celebrating the victory of Jesus and his kingship and his exaltation in glory. They're all celebrating it and on the earth we're watching TV. You know what I mean? Or we're fighting or we're arguing. The most important thing going on in the planet tonight is that God's people, weak and broken people like you and me we're celebrating by the mercy of God. We know even in our broken sinfulness we know what he has done and we have the privilege to stop and to acknowledge the glory and majesty of Jesus the father's beloved son who now sits at his right hand he's reigning in glory and when he died on a cross and he gave to God what belongs to God John 14 chapter 14 verse 30 there's maybe one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible Jesus is talking to the apostles and he says that intimate last supper discourse he's speaking to them and he said I won't be with you much longer and they're looking, what do you mean? He said because the devil's coming after me just like he's come after everybody else probably more intensely toward the Lord but every human being that he enslaved and Jesus said but the devil's coming after me but don't worry about it here's what I want you to know my friends what's going to happen this is my I'm describing what he's saying there this is my translation of it he said to the apostles in that moment the devil's not in control he's the God of this world and I'm about to bring down his kingdom forever and here's how I'm going to do it I'm not going to do it by calling down all the angels that I could all I would need was Michael to come and to flicker my finger and he could handle the whole thing but no my father has a different plan and I love my father and here's what Jesus said his exact words here's what I want you brothers to know he said I'm going to do what I'm going to do because I want the whole world to know I love the father that's what he's saying right there and he's telling us I'm on this cross freely because my I do all that the father commands me to do he said and in that I show everyone for all eternity that I love the father and what is it that conquers this brings down the kingdom of the enemy what is it that saves the human race it's the love of God in the burning heart of Jesus Christ first and foremost for his father and he's telling us and he told us this is the first and the greatest thing to love God with all your heart all your soul all your mind and all your strength and finally there was a human being a human person who did it the God man and Philippians two says therefore say with me therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every other name in heaven and on earth and under the earth he's been exalted brothers and sisters and that's what we're celebrating in part tonight when Jesus went home to the could you imagine we hardly think about it when he rose from the dead we talk about the resurrection a lot obviously you know Christianity is the resurrection for the dead but it's one movement back to the father Jesus took on human flesh and destroyed everything that separates us from God like becoming one of us giving to God what belongs to God so the second Adam Jesus could go home with human flesh so when he ascended to the right hand of God the father and he came back home and the gates were lifted and all the angels were waiting they were absolutely stunned he came back in human flesh and he was glorified at the right hand of the father he sat on a throne and he's sitting on the throne today and guess what because he's there in his glorified flesh you have a future and I have a future he began the new creation that's it nobody else could do that Buddha couldn't do that Muhammad can't do that Bill Gates can't do that Elon Musk can't even do that nobody but Jesus Christ can do that because in his flesh brothers and sisters do you understand the destiny of human flesh was headed for eternal condemnation we had no hope in this world and he entered the world and he took this race of people that were alienated from God had become God's enemy and lived without hope and he took on our sinful flesh and he died on our behalf and he gave to God on Peter Herbeck's behalf what God deserved from Peter Herbeck but Peter couldn't do it because he's fallen but Jesus loves Peter so much he grabbed his arms around me he identified himself with me and his love is united to my weak love and he takes me right into the presence of God the Father is that amazing? He's filled with glory Father tonight Father we're gonna yield our hearts tonight to begin with to the movement of the spirit the Lord and giver of life who comes the Catechism tells us based on scripture to manifest Jesus in his Lordship to us because we see in him and if we let the Holy Spirit do if we just lift our eyes brother and sister it's a little bit from our own anxieties and our own concerns and our own fears and we let the Holy Spirit lift our hearts and animate our spirits and allow us to see the beauty and majesty of Jesus Christ it sets us free you know why? Because we see our future we see our destiny do you believe me? Okay there's four people here who do we're getting there this is a tough crowd Father this is a tough crowd I need some more notes do you need some more notes up here? No. Yeah. There's a great psalm Psalm 145 it extols the greatness of God right? It begins this way I will extol you my God and my King and I will bless your name forever every day I will bless you and praise your name forever it goes on to say I will recount your wonderful deeds and the splendor of your majesty your wondrous works upon them I will meditate it goes on to say and he said I will speak of your glory and I will bless your name and I will declare your victory says the Lord. Now this is I think a very helpful little plan for us in these difficult times when everybody's arguing and fighting I think there's a lot of negative talk out there and it's kind of like a heavy blanket and it affects us doesn't it?  I don't know but I do it every day you know alright let's do it real we're going to do a little bit of I'm going to help you with God's Word God's Word will help you okay 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 the apostles always begin their letters with telling us what God has done for us before they call us to do what God wants us to do with our lives do you get it? alright putting first things first I'm bound to give thanks to God always for you brethren beloved by God turn to somebody next to you and say you're the beloved come on look him in the eye okay wow you guys really like this part wow wow yeah now now turn to somebody next to you and say I'm the beloved yeah yeah you're preaching now the men love this don't you guys I do this at men's conferences and I say brothers look deeply into your eyes alright each other's eyes and say you're the beloved they love it yeah alright the beloved number one number two why are you the beloved because God chose you say I am chosen I am beloved I am chosen now tell someone next to you I am chosen look the other way and say you're chosen preach the Word of God church let it come out of your mouth alright alright say what God says watch what happens in a family and a marriage and friendships when you say what God says and you live according to his truth and his power it'll change your relationships it'll change the atmosphere of your home miracles will happen I can tell you I grew up in an alcoholic home where we had lots of shame and pain and the rest of it and by God's mercy we got we got a hold of this by some crazy charismatic farmer who prayed over my sister and gave her a word of knowledge and it went through my family like a current of grace like Pope Francis said weak and broken people Germans on top of it right stubborn Germans okay you're beloved and chosen we're not even through the first sentence yet okay you're chosen from the beginning to be saved say I am saved I am saved turn to somebody next to you and tell them you're saved okay okay we hardly knew each other five minutes ago now I know you're beloved I know you're chosen and you're saved but you're saved the Catholic way not once saved always saved you're saved right you have been saved you are being saved you will be saved right and then Paul we're not even at the end of the first sentence yet Paul goes on to say how were you saved by sanctification 25 cent word brother is okay what's sanctification to be set apart for God right turn to somebody next to you and say I'm sanctified come on say it again I'm sanctified yeah and I'm saved and I'm chosen and I'm beloved that's who we are all right and he sanctified you for belief in the truth no did he say my truth did he save me from my truth to design my own self and my own reality no he is the truth okay you were set apart by God to live the truth Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life amen amen okay and now that's the end of the sentence and then he goes on to say in the second sentence to this he called you through our gospel how were you called to being beloved chosen saved and sanctified through the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ the glad tidings we've been talking about this is why the church is called this way the church is the only light of the world this is exactly what all of humanity needs that's why it's so despairing and so discouraged and so lost and instead of having burning compassion and love for the troubled craziness in the world we get angry every night because we watch four hours of news right and we just get one after another after another and you go to bed with a headache right and you're angry and you hate another politician right and you just want bad things to happen to people they're stealing my country they're doing this that I hate those people come on tell the truth there's a priest here there's a priest here because why we're so fallen and we just talk like it and we just go back we're just like I mean it's like my dad's old alcoholism he just kept going back to it you just keep going back to the same time oh honey the world oh my God what happened to the world click to show in the church too oh my God oh right I mean that's really where we are turn off the tube except for EWTN choices we face okay now you were given all this and the good news for this is the this is the nugget so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ say to somebody I'm going to glory say it again I'm going to glory I'm going to glory because Jesus Christ has saved me through his death on the cross through the shedding of his blood and the rising from the dead and his ascension into glory and the outpouring of the spirit and he gave it to me in baptism and I was born again turn to somebody next to you and say I'm born again you are born again you're the you're the new creation who acts like you're dead I mean literally friends the key for us it's not it's not complicated it's just hard because we're weak and broken people filled with self-love and filled with you know this that and the other thing but greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world it's true it's true friends we're living at a an epic time in human history there are things happening now that has never that have never happened in human history we could be in the end times Father Father I'm not saying we are I'm just saying we don't know but if this isn't the end times this is an incredible dress rehearsal because the fundamentals are under massive assault what is a human what is the family what is marriage when does human life begin right there's a war going on over abortion still in our country and the men and women who want to abort it's easy for us to hate them but don't ever hate them because they're in darkness because the devil is the king of this world and he's been sacrificing human beings from the beginning he's bloodthirsty I know that's a depressing thing to say he's wicked and he's evil and he hurts all of us and we God looks at all of us everybody with mercy with tenderness with forgiveness Jesus knows who we are he knows how deeply I've sinned I broke a lot of the biggest commandments friends not yesterday but it happened at one time in my life you know serious sin but I'm not boasting in it but God's mercy comes to forgive us to heal us all of us that's why he shed his blood he's not surprised at what we've done I mean a good priest once told me when I was having a hard time spitting out a hard sin you know in confession never happened to you I always look for a blind foreigner when I go in I gotta be honest and it was a serious one he looked at me and he said, Peter here's one thing he was behind a curtain and he even understood who I was wait a minute how'd you know I had a plastic nose and glasses on and everything and it didn't nothing worked and he said, Peter one thing you'll never hear from Jesus is Peter I can't believe you did that you're the only one who's still surprised he has come to seek and save the lost welcome to the human race he does not come to condemn anyone right but he comes to save us that's why he did all that and it's for everyone there's not one person here not one we're listening who's committed an unforgivable sin who can't be forgiven who isn't radically passionately loved by God no one's disqualified no one's set no one the destiny Jesus won for all is for you you are destined to share in the eternal glory of God I don't care what you did if you've confessed your sin he throws it in the sea of forgetfulness and he puts a sign, Father John Bertolucci used to say with a sign on the seashore that says no fishing and the devil always wants us to pick it pick it back up pick it back up see what you did see what you did and brothers and sisters I mean it's happened to me a lot in my life and if I didn't know the word of God this is the offensive weapon this is where I say no no no no that's a lie that's a lie and I speak it I'm forgiven God has forgiven me I'm the beloved son of God and then something in me is like no you have to agree we get into the devil's narrative and we agree with him yeah I'm not very good yeah and then shame sets in and all that kind of garbage you guys or gosh if there's some sins in me like oh man if someone knew if anybody knew some of what I've done I just can't so I remain isolated I remain alone I just remain there cause that's all a lie it's a total lie friends and God wants us to be able to look at one another through the mercy in his eyes mercy to mercy tenorness to tenorness forgiveness to forgiveness so people can open up their hearts and they're not afraid of being rejected or hated whatever you know what I mean okay I am beloved I am chosen I am saved I am sanctified I am going to glory let's stand up and thank the Lord let's stand up and thank the Lord yeah okay let's praise the Lord you guys let's thank him like King David let's be like King David let's just take off our clothes and let's run around like a bunch of crazy people no no no no no let's just stand let's praise the Lord as Bob's coming up let's praise the Lord let's thank the Lord he's exalted the Lord is exalted he's the king thank you father thank you thank you thank you thank you bless you be God