I'll begin at verse one. I'll read to verse five. And we're looking at what is called principles for giving. And you'll be seeing this as we go through this chapter. Second Corinthians, chapter nine, beginning at verse one, reading to verse five, Paul writes, now concerning the ministry to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know your willingness about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that a Kaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up the majority. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect that, as I said, you may be ready, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, should be ashamed of this confident boasting. Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and to prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. So what we have here in chapter nine is Paul returning to his encouragement for the Corinthians to give their offering. He's basically saying it's time for you to demonstrate your love for them. It's time for you to demonstrate your sincere care for your family in Christ, because you see that's what the Bible teaches us as believers to do, to sincerely care for others. And we are to meet the needs of those who have genuine and urgent needs. When Paul was writing to a pastor by the name of Titus in chapter three, verse eight, Paul said, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will, that you affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. And so Christians are to be known to maintain the good works. And part of the good works that we maintain is care for those in need. Now they've openly stated that they were going to help. And so Paul is simply saying it's time for you to do so. And he's instructing the church, and that's what we find here in chapter nine, a continuation of that theme that we have already looked at in chapter eight. And so he begins in verse one of chapter nine by writing, now concerning, notice the ministry, the ministry to the saints. Now he's used this phrase, ministering before. He said that in chapter eight, verse four, notice how he had said, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. So he's already used that term, ministering to the saints. He's speaking of the ministry. Ministering is a Greek word that speaks of serving, supporting, or of relieving or bringing relief. So ministering to the saints is speaking of rendering financial aid to the church. The church was needy. And so that's what he's speaking about when he says that they're to be ministering to the saints. He's speaking of giving financial aid to those in need in the church. It was speaking of delivering a financial offering to the church in Jerusalem. Now often when we think of ministering to people, we think of praying for them or teaching them, encouraging, exhorting them. We think of having conversation with them, guiding them, counseling them. And those are all practical aspects of ministering. And that's generally what we think about. We think about praying for them. We think about teaching them. And of course, teaching them and praying for them, encouraging them, exhorting them, and counseling them. All of that is ministering. And we do that because we want to strengthen their spirits and we want to encourage them with hope. But we need to remember that ministry is not simply those things, it includes other things. And it includes the meeting of physical needs. Because meeting somebody's physical need is also ministering. In James chapter two, verses 15 through 17, James said, if a brother or sister is naked in destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what is a prophet? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. It's one thing for me to say, be warmed and filled, may God be with you. It's another thing to practically meet the need. And you see that in scripture, both old and new. And so in their giving of their physical needs to the church in need, ministry is occurring. And they're carrying in a practical way. It's one of the ways that God's love is revealed to his children. In Galatians chapter six, verse 10, Paul said to the church, churches of Galatians, we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. And so he's speaking concerning meeting the needs of those who were needing the church of Jerusalem. And as he's writing that, he says it again, verse one, concerning the ministry to the saints. He continues by saying this, it is superfluous for me to write to you. And when's the last time you use the word superfluous? Except for right now. It's not one of the words that we use very often. It's a word we can use. It simply means unnecessary. It's unnecessary for me to say this or to any further than I am. I don't have to. It's superfluous. It's unnecessary to say this more plainly. And so I'm trying to be as plain as I can, basically, is what he's saying, because he goes on in verse two to say, for I know your willingness about which I boast of you to the Macedonians that Achaea was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up the majority. So notice with me, he speaks of Macedonia. He speaks of Achaea. Again, if you were looking at a map of Greece, and you see that if you're looking at Greece, Greece actually has the southern section and the northern section. The southern section was called Achaea. And you would take the southern section, and you would go up to what is called an isthmus.  And to the north would be called Macedonia. And that's basically what he's speaking about. He's speaking about a geographic location. He's talking about northern Greece. He's talking about southern Greece. I spent a month in Greece when I was 25 years old. I actually celebrated my 25th anniversary in Thessalonica when I was in Greece. And so I've been there at this isthmus. I've seen the ruins of Corinth and gone into Athens and all the rest of that. And so he's speaking concerning that. He's speaking concerning how he was boasting of the Corinthians to the Macedonians. And he had said to them in verse 2, Achaea, which is a southern region, Achaea was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up the majority. So he said, I was boasting of how you were ready to minister a year ago. And their desire to help had touched Paul deeply. And he had spoken of that to the Macedonians. Now earlier, we had already seen that he had used the Macedonians as an example to them. But now he says that he has used them as an example to the Macedonians. He said in verse 2, Your zeal has stirred up the majority. You've had the effect on them of being a great example of faith and sacrifice. Your zeal has produced a response in them. As I mentioned to you once out of Hebrews 10, 24, how the writer said, let us consider one another in order to stir up love in good works. That's what you've done. Your example has provoked them. You've been a great example of love. You've been a good example of good works. And I can use you as an example. I can say, this church is great. These churches are doing wonderful things. I can say that because I use you as an example to stir up others to follow your example. And that's what he's saying. So in verse 3, he goes on to say, yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that as I said, you may be ready, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, should be ashamed of this confident boasting. You see, zeal is one thing, but making good on your promise is another. I've already told you, prepare your gift and be ready, because he wanted them to have the money set apart and ready to be transported. So in the first letter, 1 Corinthians 16, he had said in verses 1 and 2 about the collection for the Lord's people, do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up so that when I come, no collection will have to be made. So he's already said this. He's already said, I want you to have your gift prepared, and I want you to follow through with the promises that you made almost a year ago. And I don't want to have you embarrassed in front of people that when they show up, as he said in verse 4, and find you unprepared, he said, you should be ashamed, and I'd be ashamed of this confident boasting, too. I don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that you haven't made good on your promises. And here I am speaking about how wonderful you are, so I don't want you to be embarrassed. And I certainly don't want to be embarrassed myself, because I've been speaking about you and bragging about you to other people. So Titus and the team are arriving before Paul is going to arrive, and he wants everything to be ready before he comes to Corinth. And so with this in mind, he's saying, it's good for you to complete what you began a year ago. You see, Macedonians may come with me, and what will they think if you're not ready? It would embarrass you. It will embarrass me. After all, I've been bragging about you to them. In verse 5, therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. Now, I want you to see something and just take a moment to point this out, but this is what you would call the administrative side of ministry. He's saying things need to be prepared and prepare those things in advance. If you were behind the scenes in any church service, you know, and you're not serving here, if you came as a visitor or a member of the church who isn't presently serving, you might get the idea that everything just happens on its own, but obviously it doesn't. Everything is prepared in advance. Everything is. You know, if you were here for a service and some of you sometimes come for a service, you'll know this already. Our worship team is already up here before services begin. They're already up here and they're practicing, they're preparing, they're going through their list of songs that we're going to be worshiping through that day. Everything. You'll have people out in the foyer area, you have people in the parking lot, you have people all around and they're preparing because the church doesn't just happen. It's not like that. The church is prepared and there needs to be preparation. And so he's simply saying that this is just principle. He's saying don't be in a rush to complete what you should have already had done. And as he's saying that in verse five, notice how he says, prepare your bountiful gift beforehand, which you had previously promised your bountiful gift, which you previously promised bountiful, your bountiful gift speaks of a generous gift. It's speaking of a benefit that's been bestowed upon someone. So it's now a matter of them keeping their word, a word that they voluntarily promised they voluntarily gave. Notice it's given as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation, not a grudging obligation. Generosity speaks of desire born out of love for God. It's spontaneous. Proverbs 22.9 says, he who has the generous eye will be blessed for he gives of his bread to the poor. But a grudging obligation speaks of a greedy desire to keep, to hold for yourself. You should rejoice, to care for others. You shouldn't be trying to find a way to keep things for yourself. This is important because giving reflects the knowledge of what God has done for us. It denotes honest maturity, it reveals faith, and it reveals godly priorities. And therefore the Lord would have us to be generous, because in a moment we're going to see why we should be. But the fact is Paul is explaining to them that they should have things prepared. It should be organized. I wrote to you and was expecting something to be done about a year ago, and now they're on their way to pick this up. And so have it ready. Be organized and administrative properly. And I want you to have it ready. And it should be generous. You've had a full year to prepare so that when they come, you won't be embarrassed because you were unprepared. And I won't be embarrassed because I've been bragging about you. And so this is what he's speaking about. And he's speaking of this, doing it as a matter of generosity, not in a grudging way. But verse six, this I say, he who's so sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to give us some principles of giving. Because Paul is teaching the Corinthians these principles. Notice in verse six how he says, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. So to illustrate how a person gives and the attitude we should have, Paul uses a farming illustration. And it's a picture that's intended to illustrate faith filled dependence. The farmer knows a few things for sure. One, a farmer knows that he doesn't have control over the weather. But he also won't sow seed where it has no chance of producing a crop. He's not going to throw his seed on ground that will not produce. In my backyard at my home, I have a section planted on the side of my house that I have planted plants there that will not grow. Nothing grows there. Not even weeds. So that's a blessing in disguise when I think about it. But it doesn't, nothing, it's very, very few things can grow there. I have some trees that actually took root. But I put some ground cover on it and it all died. I put other kinds of plants and they died. It's just bad.  I won't put something in a portion of land that isn't going to produce. It would just be a waste. And so a farmer isn't going to sow seed where it has no chance of producing a crop. The farmer also knows that when he sows seed, he's doing his part. But as he sows that seed, he assumes that the seed is going to actually grow. So his sowing seed is an act of faith. It's an act of faith that it's going to grow, but it's also an act of faith that it's going to rain. Because he's going to rely on the weather. And he has no control over the weather. He can throw the seed, but it doesn't mean that the seed will germinate. And it doesn't mean that it's going to rain. And he knows that. And one of the things that the Jewish farmers knew is that they had to rely on the rain. Now, remember, all the way back in their history, the nation of Israel, God had told the nation that if they were faithful to him, he would provide rain for them. He would provide what is called the early rain, as well as the latter rain. He had said to them, you have been in captivity in Egypt. And in Egypt, there is the mighty Nile River. And all the irrigation needs and various other needs are met by that one mighty river. But he said, I'm going to take you to a land, a land that doesn't have a mighty river. Because the nation of Israel has the Jordan River. And the Jordan River is not a large river at all.  I'm going to bring you to a land that has no river that can do that, the Jordan River. And so what you're going to do is you're going to learn to rely on me to provide for you. Because rain is going to be a symbol of my provision and my grace to you. In Deuteronomy 1114, God said to the nation, I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain that you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil. So they're going to be sowing their seed, but they're going to be dependent on God. They're going to be sowing their seed, and they're going to be praying that God will cause it to rain. Now after sowing the seed, there was little more for them to do than to simply wait on the rain. And this they were to do, and they did it with a certain attitude. They would, they would wait on the rain patiently and expectantly. In James chapter five, verse seven, it says, therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives their early and latter rain. And so when they would sow their seed, they would patiently and expectantly wait for the rain to come so that the seed would germinate, and they'd be able to harvest their crop. And so their seed was actually sown in faith. By throwing out the seed, they were actually acting out their faith. Now the practical application of this, because the context that Paul is using this is, related to finances, and he's saying that they need to be generous in their giving to help those in Jerusalem. So the context here is very basic. When you sow your financial seed, there's an element of faith that God will bring in fruit. And when the farmer throws the seed, it can appear that he's throwing it away. Those of you who've gone outside and you've taken seed, they can use those little, those little machines that spread the seed, the seed spreader. You can do it by hand, whatever you do. I've done both.   And if it's on the, on the ground before you put any topping or whatever, when you, when you spread the seed, it can see, it seems like you're throwing it away. It could appear that way. And that's the whole thing. And when you give your gifts to the Lord, it can appear that you're just giving it away or throwing it away. That's the whole point. You're sowing seed. And sometimes when you're sowing the seed, you may seem to think that, oh, where's this going? And what's it going to do? But when your, your seed is sowing in faith, and that's what he's telling the Corinthians, when the seed is sown in faith, the Lord produces a crop in Malachi three, verse 10, in the Old Testament, it says, bring all the tides into the storehouse that, that there may be food in my house and try me now in this at the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it in the Old Testament. This is the only place that I found in scripture that ever says to try God or test him. It's the only place. And it's related to them bringing their offering to him. And he's saying, bring your offering in faith to me and see if I won't open the windows of heaven and care for you. So it's an act of faith. It may seem like you're throwing your money away, but you're trusting the Lord to provide. And that's the lesson. That's the principle that Paul would be teaching us through the Corinthians. He also points out, and notice this, the second thing, he points out that it only makes sense to be generous in giving. Why? Because if a farmer only sows a few seeds, he reaps a very sparse crop. If you only throw a little out, you're only going to get a little in return is what it would be saying. Again, he so he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So it only makes sense to be generous. And again, he's already spoken about that in verse five, when he spoke of their generosity. He's already spoken to them and he's saying it simply makes sense to sow seeds, many seeds, so that you can reap many benefits that the Lord will bless you with. In Proverbs 11-24, there is one who scatters yet increases more. And there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. So to give financially is sowing into the kingdom of God. It's a spiritual act of faith. And if you desire blessings from the Lord, Paul would say, do not withhold from the Lord. In Proverbs 3-9 and 10, honor the Lord with your possessions, with the first fruits of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty, your vats will overflow with new wine. Now notice verse seven, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. So he encourages proportion to giving based on a decision of the heart. Over the years, I've had people approach me on this subject and they've asked me, and they've said to me, I want to give to the Lord, but I don't know what model to use. What model is there? Should I tithe? And I've said to them, as I'll say to us now in this study, that the principle of the tithe is an interesting principle because when you look under the law of Moses, people didn't simply give 10% because the word tithe speaks of a tenth. It speaks of a tenth in the way that people would give 10% to the Lord. But under the law, people didn't give only 10%. When you look in the Old Testament book of Numbers, for example, chapter 18, verses 21 through 24, those verses say that 10% is to go towards the support of ministry, the Levites. Then when you look in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 12, it says 10% goes towards the support of religious feasts, the festivals. Then you look at Deuteronomy 14, 28 and 29, and it says every third year, 10% is given as welfare for widows and orphans. So you're looking at 30% in every three years. Exodus 30 verses 11 through 16 speaks of a mandatory offering of a half shekel for the upkeep of the temple. And if you said, well, I really can't afford to give, so I'm going to keep some of it for myself. That was called borrowing the tithe. And Leviticus 2731 says, if a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one fifth to it. So if you borrowed from what you were to give to the Lord, you gave him a 20% interest on that. And so how do you give to the Lord? Well, it would seem here, notice verse 7, that each one is to give as he purposes in his heart. So each has the responsibility to decide how much they desire to give. Some have small resources, they give what would be considered relatively little. Others have great resources, and they give what would be considered great amounts. But it's been said, the heart of giving begins with the giving of the heart. We saw in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 verse 5 how the Macedonians first gave themselves to the Lord, and that's where true giving originates. When you read your Bible, there's a man we're all familiar with, his name was King David. And King David's a good example of someone who gave from a heart of love for God. David loved the Lord. He wanted to build a house for him. David lived in a home, but the Lord's ark was in a tent, and he didn't feel good about it. So in 1st Chronicles 22 verse 5, David said, Solomon, my son is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous, and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it. So David made abundant preparations before his death. Later, David revealed the amount of his personal contribution to the building of the temple, when he said in 1st Chronicles 29, 3 through 5, Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver. Then he gives us the amount, 3,000 talents of gold, which is equivalent to around $9 billion, 7,000 talents of refined silver, which is about $20 million to overlay the walls of the houses, the gold for things of gold, silver for things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be done by the hands of craftsmen. So he gave a huge contribution because he loved the Lord, and Paul tells us in verse 7, that God loves a cheerful or a joyous giver, and that described David, because in 1st Chronicles 29, 17, David prayed, I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure and uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things, and now with joy, I have seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. You see the mature Christian finds giving to the Lord a joyful experience. It's a genuine pleasure. That takes time to learn. Let's see how I, how did I see this workout? Well, when my children were small, and it was Christmas, I wanted to teach them the lesson it's more blessed to give them to receive. And so as they were small, we would celebrate Easter, rather, I'm sorry, Christmas Eve, would celebrate with my kids and Marie and me. And each one of the children had one gift that they could open on Christmas Eve. And what we would do is I would read out of Luke chapter 2, the Christmas story, and I would share with them a devotion, and they would be seated there with their little gift that, because I let them choose which one they would want to open on that night. And they'd be sitting there almost shaking with anticipation, I want to open this up, and you can see it, they would be almost vibrating. And there's vibration. And I tell Marie, stop vibrating in front of the kids, they're going to get the wrong idea. But the kids would be, hold on, they would be holding on to the gift. I would read Luke, and then I would pray, and then I would say to them, we're not going to open these gifts at the same time. Each one of you will open your gift individually, and we would change it, maybe from the oldest to the youngest, and the next time the youngest to the oldest, and then we would switch it up. And I'd say, I want you to watch them open their gifts so that you can see the joy that they have as they receive it. And so we would do that.  When I began to see the change in them was when they grew older. Then they got to the point where they actually had picked out the gift, they gave it to their sibling, and they watched the face as their sister or brother opened it up. And when they started having joy at seeing the other receive, then I began to think I was teaching them the proper way to have more joy in giving than in receiving. And that's something we learn over time. If we still are the person who thinks Christmas is our birthday, we've made a mistake in our theology, because it's a celebration of gift giving, of how God gave his gift to us. And when we learn that, when we get the joy of doing that, then that shows us as maturing. I can still remember when Marie and I were first married, I went to, excuse me, a flea market, you know? And we didn't have much money. And so I went to a flea market, and you get some good deals. It doesn't matter if one leg's a little longer than the other, as long as you kind of lead like that. But I bought all, I still remember, I bought bright red pants, bright green pants, bright yellow pants. And then I bought this big thing of perfume. I made a gallon for three bucks. What a deal. You know, so I'm thinking, you know, and I remember giving these gifts to Marie, and she didn't appreciate them. And so now my gift to her is to take her out so she can pick her own gifts out because she's a lot happier that way. But I started learning early in our relationship that the real joy was to see a joy in that person as you gave to them. And that's how it is in Christian giving. It is more blessed to give than to receive in Christian giving. And that's what Paul is speaking about. He's speaking about the joy of generosity to give bountifully to somebody else because you're doing something in the name of Christ and blessing them. And that's how it works. And that's what God would have us to know. God desires us to do that. He desires us to give in such a way that we're able to minister to the people. And God will also take care of us. Again, in verses eight and nine, God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That you always having all sufficiency and all things may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, he has dispersed abroad. He's given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. So God promises to supply your material needs and will make it possible for you to continue giving. Somebody said, he will bless the increase of those who give cheerfully that they may have not an excess so they can live in selfish luxury, but the sufficiency with which all genuine believers ought to be content. Again, a generous man will prosper and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. He says now verse 10, may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you've sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. So God has supplied seed to the sower and God is the one who has blessed you in the first place. You're simply giving out of what he has first given to you. In first Chronicles 29 14, we read who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this for all things come from you and of your own we have given you. Again, when my children were learning to give as small kids, they didn't have jobs and so Marie would give them an allowance out of my pocket and then the children would give me a gift and they would say, Oh, I wish I could give you more daddy and I'd say, No, this is fine because I paid for it. So, No, this is fine. They didn't give me anything out of their own sweat and blood, toil work, creativity. They gave it to me out of mind and that's how it works. And that's the whole point. What do you have that you didn't first receive? And if you first receive that, then why do you glory Paul said as if you hadn't? If God is the one who owns all things that the cattle in a thousand hills belong to him and all of that, that the earth is the Lord's, then that who am I to say I'm giving to you out of my substance. In fact, what I am is a steward of his substance. And so what I gave to him is what was just said. I gave to him out of what already belonged to him. I gave to him what he gave to me and I gave it in return. So Paul prays that God will continue to give them finances that can be used for the Lord. It's interesting how he uses words like supply and multiply, increase, enrich, liberality, thanksgiving. May he keep blessing you that you may keep giving to others and his cause. Verse 12, for the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God. Well, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your liberal generous sharing with them and all men. So he closes with the word concerning practical fruit of giving. It not only supplies the needs of the saints, it abounds in blessings to those who give. The result will be that they will glorify God for supplying their needs because of their faith and obedience. It's a tangible evidence of the unity of the church as the Gentiles are caring for the Jewish brethren. And he says in verse 14, by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. He's saying because of your gracious giving to them, prayers have been lifted up on your behalf. They're going to be blessed so much by your help that you will be lifted up in prayer and they will be grateful. And then he says this, and I'm going to spend a moment talking to you about this as we're about to close. Notice verse 15, how he says it. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift, indescribable. We all know what that word means, indescribable. Something that is indescribable, it's just we don't have the words to communicate. Now he's speaking about Jesus Christ. He's saying thank God for his indescribable gift, thank God for Jesus Christ. Thank God for what Jesus has done for you. Remember in chapter 8 verse 9 how it said, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. Thank God for the indescribable love of Christ. Now here's the thing, and this is what I think that this study, I want to close with this illustration to try and help us understand something about giving. And I'm going to use a very, what's the word, a natural illustration to try and bring a spiritual meaning to this. Thank God for his indescribable gift. As a young man, I met a young woman. I was teaching a Bible study. My brother had gotten saved. He needed discipling. I lived in Norwalk. He lived in Ontario. He got saved August 4th, 1974. And I watched to see whether he would go to church and he wasn't going to church. So by September, the beginning of September, I was concerned for my older brother. He wasn't being discipled. So my sister Madeline and I began to drive from Norwalk to Ontario and he had a little apartment right off of Hold in San Antonio by the park. And so I started teaching Frank September, October. As I'm teaching him, he's inviting work friends, people he knew from the job. And one day a young woman walks in and she sits down and she listens to the Bible study a couple weeks later. She gives her heart to Christ. And as I had my first conversation with this woman, Marie, I like her immediately, but she doesn't know Christ. And so she comes to faith in Christ two weeks later through my sister Madeline, who brings her to faith in the Lord, begins to attend the Bible studies faithfully. We begin to date. Now I know her. I know her as a person. I know a little bit about her. She talks to me after Bible studies on Monday night. I know her a little bit, but I want to know her better. So I am attracted to her. I like her and I ask her out. As I ask her out, I get to know her a little bit better just by talking. Before you know it, we're going out on a weekly basis. Before you know it is an exclusive relationship. She doesn't date any other guys and I hadn't been dating any girls anyway. So it was a good thing for me. And so she's just going out with me, but we're talking and now we're spending hours. And before you know it, the relationship is growing. I'm learning things about her. I'm developing a relationship with her. I'm hearing the things of how she grew up. I'm learning things about her family. I'm learning things about her wants, the things that she likes, the things that she doesn't like, the things that are important to her, the things that aren't. Our very first date, our very first conversation as we're going on. I still remember as we're talking and she says, I need to let you know something. And I said, what is that? She says, my name is Marie. It's not Mary. It's not Maria. It's Marie. That's the first thing she told me. So what is my name for her today? Maria. And so she also says, if I get stung by a bee, get me to a hospital immediately because I'll go into shock. Those are the first two things I remember on our first date that she told me. My name is Marie and take me to the doctor. That was it. And so over time, we get to know each other. Over time, I hear what it was like for her as a little girl growing up here in Chino. I hear stories from her. I learned things about her. And guess what? Over time, I start seeing her differently. Over time, I began to ask myself, could you be with this girl? Over time, I hold her hand. Over time, I give her our first kiss. Over time, I ask her to marry me. And I'm learning all these things about her.  And then a year goes by and I'm learning more. Five years go by. I'm learning more. 10 years go by. I'm learning more. 15, 20, 25, 30, 40 plus years go by. I'm learning more. I'm learning more. I'm learning more about this woman. And my love for her is growing and growing and growing. And guess what? That's what happens when you're walking with Christ. You get saved. At first, he's just your savior. You don't even know what's going to happen in time with him. But over time, he blesses you. Over time, he works in your life. Over time, you go through pain. You go through sorrow. You go through tears. You go through disappointment. You go through illnesses. You go through loss. You go through so much. And he's always there. And he never lets you down. And he always holds you up. And he loves you. And you learn that. You learn more about him and more about him. It's not the same as when you were quote, unquote, dating him. It is now a relationship that is deep. It's lasting. It's understanding. And you now have a love for him. And let me tell you something.  He never leaves you. He never forsakes you. He walks through the valley of the shadow of death with you. You fear no evil. He is with you. You can do the impossible for all things are possible with God. You learn that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You learn these things and he becomes indescribable. Indescribable. He gets to the point in your life where you can't put into words what he means to you. What Jesus means to you. What he's done for you. How he's loved you. How he's provided for you.  I don't know how I'm going to pay these bills. And then you go to the mail as I have and you open up a letter that's unsigned. There's no return address and I open it up and there's a check there for $200 and I needed that so bad.  My God is able. I know he is. He is indescribable. Thank God for his indescribable gift, Jesus Christ. How can I out give him? How can I out give him? How can I grudgingly hold on to what I think is mine when in fact all that I have came from him? That's what Paul is teaching us in this passage. Corinthians, you only have because he gave. He doesn't want your grudging obligation.  But he rose the third day and he gave you life and he poured his spirit into you and he's provided for you every step of the way. Thank God for his indescribable gift. Thank God for his son, Jesus. And so when you give to the Lord, you give with joy because he first gave to you.  Perhaps you just haven't spent time with him to realize yet that you have all that you need in him and he will provide you with all that you need. As God come through in your life, he's come through in mine. He continues to do that because my God is faithful. That's a fact. That's a fact. My God shall supply all my need. He doesn't supply all my greed. He supplies all my need. And I have learned, so have you, many of you, contentment. It comes through spiritual things. It comes through relational things. Contentment doesn't come because I have a nice home. Thank God that I do. It doesn't come because I can drive a car, a nice car. Thank God I can. But those things have not given me satisfaction. They haven't. What gives me satisfaction is him. It's him. It's when I've been on my face many times crying out to God for my son, for my daughter, for my friends, for my mom, for my dad, for my brother, for my sisters, for my church, for my wife. God in Jesus' name. God in Jesus' name. He comes through and He delivers me. And I'm never alone. He's always with me. So I give to him because he first gave to me. And Paul is saying, Corinthians, you've had a year you could have and should have prepared. I expect you to be generous. When they show up, don't embarrass yourself and don't embarrass me because I've been bragging about you and I know God's working in you. So be generous because your brethren need generosity right now. They need your help. So help them.  Thank God for His indescribable gift, Jesus Christ. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.


Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in Mountain View, California at Phantom Auto. Really an interesting company taking a different spin into the autonomous vehicle space and really excited to have Elliot Katz here. He's a co-founder and head of business legal and policy. You probably have the hardest job in the building. Great to see you Elliot. Good to see you. So interesting times. We could talk a lot about the tech but really what is going on in the policy? Obviously the government has a whole lot to do. We hear about trials here and there and how do you see this kind of regulatory environment changing in the face of oncoming autonomous vehicles? Sure, well I think what we've seen in the last few years is that the underlying technology that powers these cars has become incredible. The AI I would say is about 97, 98% of the way there but these are life-saving vehicles. We want these vehicles out on the road as quickly as possible and I think the regulators are coming to the realization at this point that if we want to get these vehicles deployed right now we need to have some sort of bridge to that technological gap to get us from 98% to 100%. And a lot of people are looking at teleoperation to fill that gap. A specific example is in California. Right now we have draft regs where we expect those regs to go live in the next couple months here. If you want to do driver list testing it's a regulatory mandate that you need a teleoperator and a remote communication link so that there can be communication between the vehicle and a remote operator. So do you need the remote operator if you also have an operator in the vehicle or that's kind of another step closer to full autonomy I guess? So it's only if you want to do driver list testing. So if you want to remove a human safety driver from the vehicle which obviously most of these companies if not all of these companies would like to do is that gets you one step closer to deployment then you will need a remote operator in California. Interesting and so you talk about the 96, 97, 98%. So are those really the edge cases? Is that where this kind of final frontier sounds like the basic operation is pretty much nailed at this point in time? Yeah, so I mean the problem with edge cases is they don't happen frequently, right? Or at least frequently enough. So it's very hard to gather data on edge case, right? Say you're driving and you come across a construction site and in the construction site you have construction workers giving hand signals, you have mud that's piled up or gravel that's piled up, you have moving objects, you have different things that are happening at different times. These vehicles may not be able to understand exactly what they need to do during that situation and in that case they could ping, the vehicle could ping a remote operator at Phantom and a human would be able to operate the car in real time, see everything that a human in the vehicle would be able to see and drive the vehicle in the same way they're sitting in the driver's seat. So when you're doing POCs or talking about POCs with some of the autonomous vehicle companies, what's the expected latency of a use case like you just described, the construction one? Cause clearly the remote driver is kind of on call but not specifically on call for that one particular vehicle in that one particular instance to call in. So what's kind of the use case in the scenarios that you guys are working on? Sure, so in terms of latency, we've obviously that's our secret sauce but we've been able to get that very, very low. That's how we're able to do this in the first place. But I don't mean the latency of the communication back to the car for the driver. I mean the hey, I need help, kind of that type of a turnaround. So that's a very important point. So one thing that we're not doing here is we're not doing the type of thing where you're driving say on the freeway, 65 miles per hour and all of a sudden there's a fire in the middle of the freeway. You ping the remote operator and he or she instantly has to take over the car. That's not what we are. In this case, because we do have autonomous vehicle legislation at the federal level and also already passed in many of the states. So at the federal level, there's a bill in the house and the bill in the Senate. Neither of which have been passed but we expect that one will go the distance this year. So you might actually have the rare scenario where the regulation outpaces the technology which is a good problem to have. In fact, I would say it's not a problem at all. So I think that the biggest barrier to deployment right now is the technology. It is that last 3% which has proven to be a very, very difficult piece of the puzzle and could take many, many years to solve if ever. Because these cars, to have the AI be able to do 100% of what a human could do, that's very, very difficult and it can take a very, very long time to happen. And it's interesting too because machine learning is so different. They want a lot of quantity to run through the learning algorithm. That's how they learn. It's very different than people. They're not quite so good at stitching things together. Okay, what about in California? I'm just curious. DMV, obviously there's more cars in California than any state in the union by far. I'm sure the impact here will be greater than most places in a significant way. Not to mention the fact Waymo's right up the street. So when you look at kind of the California regs, anything special there or are they just kind of following the line of the feds? So I think that California is unique obviously in that it's a state that a lot of other states typically look to. As I mentioned before, we do have those draft regs that would mandate teleoperation if you're doing driverless testing. And I think that idea is born out of everything that we've been talking about at a high level, which is these are life-saving vehicles. Everyone wants these deployed as rapidly as possible, but we also want that deployment itself to be as safe as possible. So I think that California is forward thinking in that they understand that there is this fallback mechanism that isn't necessarily the machine. We think we have the ultimate fallback mechanism at this point, which is actually still a human. The machine is very, very good, very, very good. And I would say much better than a human driver at 98% of the driving task. But for these edge case scenarios, you still need to bring a human back into the loop. And so I think that regulators like in California, like in Florida that have been thinking about how to deploy this out in the safest possible manner are quite forward thinking to the extent that in California, basically what they're saying in the draft regs is you need a remote operator. You need this to a communication link. But we're kind of leaving it in the industry's hands to figure out exactly what that means. We think it's good to have from a safety standpoint, but we want to see what you actually roll out because it's nothing that anyone has done to this point. And I'm wondering, was there a tipping point? It surprises me when you say that the regs are actually ahead of the innovation in this category. How did they get to that conclusion? This seems so anti to everything that kind of typical regulators want to keep in terms of the status quo. This is so radical. There's employment implications and labor implications and green implications and smart city implications. There's so many things here you would think that they would be lagging. Was there a particular event or a particular test case or a proof point or something that happened that kind of flipped a switch from the legislative and the regulation point of view? Honestly, I think it's how staggering the numbers are. So if you take a step back and look at the forest and not the trees, you have 1.2 million people dying every year worldwide due to traffic accident fatalities, 40,000 in the US in 2016 and 94% is due to human error, right? So if you, if to use an example, that would be the equivalent of eight 747 airplanes crashing every single day in a given year and killing everyone inside. Eight a day, every day. Yes, that's for the worldwide numbers, the 1.2 figure. So if we had that happen even just for two weeks in aviation in the US, aviation wouldn't exist as we know it. But for whatever reason, well, not for whatever reason, because as long as we've had vehicles on the road, all we've known is that humans are supposed to drive them, we've just accepted the fact that there's going to be a certain amount of loss of life on our roads. Now we have a technology that at least, again, going back to that fact, 94% is due to human error. So if you eliminate the human for the most part from that equation, you can save a lot of lives. And so if the goal of NHTSA and the DOT and our government in general is just to make our roads as safe as they possibly can, this technology is an absolute no-brainer. And I've been doing this for quite some time, but I think around 2015, 2016, I saw somewhat of an awakening in the government, like we're really scared of this being deployed, but in reality, we should be scared of this not being deployed, right? Because the life saving and other benefits as well, but that's just the most jarring stat. All right, well, exciting times. Well, Elliot, thanks for taking a few minutes and we're excited to kind of watch the ride. Yeah, absolutely, thank you. All right, he's Elliot, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE from Phantom Auto in Mountain View, California. Thanks for watching.


Hello and welcome to the Grand Line review, your source for everything one piece, and today we have a review of chapter 970, Odin vs Kaido. And that title quite accurately sums up this week's events, with this very much being the moment that many fans have been waiting for, as after acting like a fool for the better part of half a decade, Odin and his forces have finally stood up to the might of the beast pirates. Although despite it taking up the bulk of the chapter, the entire thing is dealt within a very montage-like manner, so the entire experience feels very very swift, which is a bit of a shock after just how much this conflict was seemingly being built up during the last chapter. Because at the end of 969, it felt like we were gearing up for some sort of incredibly epic clash, however I do completely understand why Odin decided not to take this route with things, because this event is not the centerpiece of the flashback. I imagine that the execution would serve that narrative purpose, and meanwhile when we cut back to modern day events, that will be the stage for action to truly dominate. The one thing I can't help but feel though is wanting more from Kinemon and the rest of the Scabbards, as well as Shinobu actually, because she is here now. Because this chapter had a really fantastic part where Odin kicked into gear and just demolished a ton of the beast pirates, which prompted all the Scabbards to follow. And seeing that kind of action from Odin is great and there's a bit more to focus on with him as well, but the rest of the characters were very neglected.  Still after spending the better part of a decade with some of these characters, I can't help but want to see Kinemon, Raizo, Kandro, and the others in combat at one of the most dire stages of their life. At the same time though the logical part of me recognises that taking the time to focus on that too much would continue to bloat what is already the longest flashback in one piece. And given that this battle doesn't contribute greatly to the meat of the story as a whole, I do think it's very much for the best that the entire thing was concluded within a single chapter. And for those who want more, well that's what the anime is for it seems, because when they reach this point I guarantee that this one chapter will play out over at least two, maybe even three episodes. Getting to the highlight of the chapter for me though, it was most certainly when Odin struck Kaido.  I know that we really don't know much about Kaido in the grand scheme of things at this stage, but I highly doubt that he or anybody else was expecting any form of injury because invulnerability seems to be Kaido's thing. But don't expect this figure, who very well could have taken down the dragon boy. But with all of this in mind, I would like to note that all of this still happened 20 years ago, so I don't want to be hearing stuff like, oh Odin equals Yonko level confirmed her, because Kaido at this stage most certainly did not exude the same godlike force that he does today. In fact, Kaido is most famously known for his incredible sort of defeats in the past, so I really would not read too much into the skirmish. With that said, I don't think it's even a question that Odin could have won at this stage. Especially when you consider that this fight took place under Kaido's ideal conditions as well. He had the time to muster his forces, including King and Queen, and even chose the location of battle. Kaido could not have been better prepared to take on these 11 individuals, and he still came very close to losing absolutely everything. So that's pretty incredible to think about. And the only thing that really prevented Wano from being saved right here and now was the interference of the mana-manonomi user, and what's incredibly creepy to think about is the fact that Higurashi at some stage must have had access to Momenosuke in order to touch him in his present form, meaning that she must have impersonated someone incredibly recently to get close to him. And so this whole situation becomes awfully suspicious all of a sudden, and very much reignites the traitor of Wano idea. Although Kaido does a very good job of that himself by pretty much outright stating that he has a spy within Odin's castle. And while that could be something very simple like a servant or another low level being of some kind, that is definitely the boring answer, and one piece does not often go for that choice. So whoever the traitor is, I suspect that they allowed the mana-manonomi user to touch them and use their guise in order to get close to people like Momenosuke and commit their forms to the fruit's memory system. And you know what, we may even be very likely to find out who that is quite soon, because if it is one of the scabbards, well, they're all currently imprisoned, so one of them should be receiving some sort of special treatment, and I guess by special treatment I mean not being executed. But it's just so hard to see any of them as the traitor at this point though, because I would definitely rule out Kinamon, Ashredoji, Raizo, Nekamamushi, and Inorashi. And it's because they've all just had far too great a display of loyalty, which leaves us with Dendro, Kondro, and Kiku, all of whom are much more of a blank slate to me, but we'll see I guess. Something I do want to go into though is that last week it was mentioned that an event was coming up known as the Hour of Legends, and I think that most people, very much including me, took that to mean that it was referring to the battle that we would come to see during this chapter. But after reading it, I highly doubt that this is the case, mainly because this conflict was treated as nothing particularly special, and the people of Wano had an almost neutral reaction to it, not something that I think anybody would ever label as an anything of legends. And with that in mind, I think it's more likely that this Hour is going to be closer to the execution of Odin, with the Toki prophecy business happening within said Hour, and leaving Wano with some mystery and speculation earning this event title. And something else I do want to discuss is that before this whole battle thing takes place, Kaido notes that if Odin had teamed up with Yogoro, many years before, and combined the Might of the Samurai with that of the Akusa, then he and Orochi really would not have stood a chance at all, which after seeing how difficult it was to deal with 11 people in this one chapter, I completely agree there. But something else I very much agree with though, is Kaido calling Odin too soft, because here's the thing, as much as we don't know exactly why Odin agreed to a deal with Orochi, at least part of it had to do with protecting the people of Wano. So in theory, Odin shows this path to ensure their safety, however in doing so, he doomed the country to tyrannical rule for at least two decades. I mean more actually, because there was the five years he spent dancing naked, so a total of a quarter of a century at least. And then you have to ask yourself, well how many people would have died during that time due to Orochi's cruelty? Like being forced to work to death in the Prison of Mine, or even committing suicide to avoid the pain of starvation, like we have seen many about to do. And I get that this is a way to highlight Odin's honourable to a fault personality, and it will lead to a nice traumatic conflict in the modern day. But in the end, the more favourable trade, probably would have been to stand up and fight right there at the beginning, with some civilian casualties yes, but then not incur the absurd amounts of people who would come to die over the next two decades. Although maybe eventually discovering Odin's full reasoning for his actions will clear this up, because at the moment I'm still left with that strange feeling I had last week, of constantly asking myself why we are even in this situation to begin with. If the only thing at stake was protecting the citizens from boys and arrows or whatever, then there was no reason for Odin to make it such a cryptic scene of intrigue. In any case, in regards to this chapter overall, it was a false climax. One that we knew was going to happen because in the flashbacks, dramatic weight is never put on any particular fight, but generally on the moment of death of a character. So as much as I felt after last week that we were going into something big, what happened in 970 makes nothing but sense. In fact, one could even make the argument that this was the most inconsequential chapter of the Wanna Flashback yet from a narrative standpoint because when you think about it, nothing happened during 970 that we didn't know already. Nothing important anyway, because we knew that Odin was the one who dealt Kaido, his one and only wound, we knew that Odin's rebellion would fail, and we knew that he would be sentenced to be boiled alive. And all this chapter really did was show that information we already knew in its process of occurring. I think the only thing that comes even close to being surprising or new information, at least would be how heavily Shinobu is involved in these events, but that's about it. So in some ways it was a very technically necessary chapter, but it was still a lot of fun to read because I for one will never be complaining about seeing Kozuki Odin or Kaido in action, but I am glad that we've dealt with this stuff now, because after the battle is where things start to get really mysterious and interesting, aka the hour of legends. So I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of Toki, as the Kozuki clan reaches their most desperate point, although I don't know how much I'm banking on seeing too much of her. Toki at the moment seems to be quite deliberately ignored in this Odin flashback, she's just kind of there which is utter utter madness considering how ridiculously important she is. But I have stated my thoughts on this before, and I feel like she is bound to have her own separate flashback potentially. She isn't the only one though because over the last two chapters, I've gotten a really strange impression of Kaido as well. He's another character who all of a sudden is just there, and almost deliberately ignored as well. Well ignored beyond his necessary involvement, which leads me to believe the same thing in regards to him as Toki. I feel like Kaido is bound to have his own personal flashback in the future, because this man has quite the story to tell, and part of that will no doubt how he became involved in Wano. But it just feels like there are a lot of really big pieces missing here, because after this whole Odin business is done, it's not going to give us the full picture. And that's pretty crazy because by traditional arc standards, we would be rocketing towards a conclusion right now, given that we are 61 chapters in. Yet Wano almost feels like we're very much still in the meddling phase, and there's still so much to explore in the modern day as well. With characters like Hawkins, Apu, Drake, Nekomomushi, Kyoshiro, etc. there's so many more. And I can't come to any other conclusion other than this arc is going to be massive. At the moment, I would be shocked if we were more than halfway through, because there just aren't enough pieces in place yet for the big action finale. So I will once again suggest that we all get very comfortable, because this is going to be a long ride. But in regards to this chapter specifically, there was also a lot to like about it that I haven't mentioned yet. In fact, a very special mention needs to go to Chibi Shinobu, who is the most adorable thing ever, and her baby ninja attire. In general, I also find it quite interesting how increasingly important she seems to be in the story, having spied on Odin's conversation last week, so it looks like she is an awful lot more than just a gag presence. Also, every time Hiyori appeared in the chapter was very delightful. She was equally as adorable having her hair done by Toki, whilst Momonosuke was very seriously reading a book about swordsmanship. Plus, in a panel further into the chapter, Hiyori is performing one of her signature drop kicks on Momonosuke, which is always fantastic, and she's just such a delightful child. Very reflective of what we know of her in the modern day, although much less reflective of Komarasaki. But I won't get into that business again, because I imagine you've probably all had enough of my, uh, crackpot thinking. But that pretty much does it for chapter 970. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produces in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon, because the support of all of you amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime and manga series, then please do check out my second channel, New World Review, for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server, where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on the chapter. This has been the Grand Line Review, and I'll see you next time.


Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another movie review. We're in front of the King shelves here So we're doing a Stephen King adaptation and now we are going to start talking about Pet Cemetery 2019 The TLDR for any of you King fans who come across my channel or subscribe to my channel And you just want to know my opinion on whether or not you should go spend your hard-earned money To watch this movie in the theaters. I would say definitely not Right now I am sitting on that line as far as a rating is concerned a line that is Right at red box like I pay two dollars for this movie and not be mad Me I spent 25 bucks to take me and my wife out the movie date night kind of thing So that was the first upset She liked it. She enjoyed it. Yeah, I guess as a non-king fan. She has no Level to judge this at she liked it for the for the movie that it was that's fine. She's seen the original film She I don't think she enjoyed that one quite as bit as much as this one So I'm gonna go ahead and say as a Stephen King fan. This is not a Stephen King fans movie If you're just looking for your average run-of-the-mill horror movie Then yeah, certainly, but if you're coming to watch Stephen King's Pet Cemetery boy, this ain't it My first non-spoiler Discussion section.  You're gonna have such a huge twist to the story I actually thought it would be it would have been awesome Had I watched the movie not knowing anything about that and that's what I was trying to do But the comments section just would not let it go and finally someone snuck the spoiler in that was in there for the For the for the for the trailer the big change The change isn't even what I'm what I'm mad about it could have worked It could have very well worked had they gotten an actress a young girl that could pull that off She kicked her makeup was so incredibly bad. The acting was absolutely atrocious I think the only thing they got right and now we're gonna go into spoiler territory because everything else I have to say is a spoiler.  I know it is But if you're Stephen King fan, you're likely gonna go see this movie without me telling you yes or no anyways, so I would think But The the only thing they got right as far as this new change this new direction for the windigo or whatever you want to Think possesses the bodies is The the corpse was talkative more this time than just saying, you know, not fair or daddier things that gauge said in the original Film now in the book version of the demon or whatever It is very talkative and it can be cheesy But that is not that is not to the positive because that was one of the things in the book They're probably the only thing that ever felt Odd in the book to me and out of place was that kind of exorcist your mother sucks cocks in a hell Carousel kind of attitude from the demon and I guess During that time that was just something that you know Writers were doing, you know, it was it was more of who let the evil talk whereas. I think gauge 19 what 89 I can't remember when the first movie was made. I think it was 89 Gage was far more scary in the original than Ellie was in this one Now one of my biggest problems With this is something that my friend Cody Tidwell hit on when he had watched the trailer I had not and he said the film just looks cheap. I was still trying to tell everybody.   Could they not find a decent location? What happened? Why were we? That why were we? Shown at this terrible CGI darkness that looked straight out of like Disney XD I mean, I'm not shitting you at all. It looked like an episode of Zack and Cody and I can't wait for like Zack and Cody fans to be like that wasn't on Disney HD XD, I don't know. All I know is that my kids watch these shows they watch Disney XD and they watch Zack and Cody But I remember, you know, like walking in When one of those shows is on they'd be like out in the woods or something where some place is dark And that's how bad the fake dark was in this movie. It was so so bad The new gauge is absolutely pointless. There's there's no emotional connection to him whatsoever There's no emotional connection to Ellie. There's no emotional connection to anybody in this film whatsoever They even nerf Judd the simple character that Judd was they completely nerfed him By making his just completely Destroying the relationship between him and Lewis him the the book is Mostly told from Lewis Creed's point of view in this one It almost feels like they were going for a psycho-esque kind of thing Because at the beginning it kind of feels like oh Ellie is the main character kind of like they did in the dark tower Where they're like, oh, Jake's maybe the main character We spent very little time with Lewis even during the I don't I don't like the new Pascal That that just seemed like something in the original story. It felt there was there was an emotional connection there I don't know why but there was and in this time there absolutely wasn't one In fact, I kept I kept on having to take a double a double The makeup on the dude's face can't be that bad and it was I think that's one of the things that was their name Mary Lambert or what it got right in the first film is that Everything looked at least a bit convincing Whereas in this one that there is so much that looks wrong You can tell that church is just a dirty cat with gooping it with gooping it's fur that you can tell There's even some fake Like son cracking they do to Judd's face that is really really bad I don't know if they were planning on shooting in a lower resolution So that was terrible I think The mother What's her name Ellen? I think the mother was the best actress Lewis is that guy from Terminator Genesis or whatever it was I didn't care much for him He could have been anybody Nothing about this movie has any heart and I think that's the biggest complaint I have that's the biggest complaint I'm gonna walk away with is there is no heart to this we are just meant to Feel bad because this man loses a child and then he goes he goes crazy I never saw that descent in in this version of Lewis it's almost like the heartless, you know soulless The shining a Kubrick did which he sucked all the heart out of it and try to pump as much art into it It's possible pretty shots the discordant music all that stuff in this one It just feels like somebody taking the book bit by bit and going okay. Well, how about if we tweak this? And at the same time every time they tweak something they just they just took all the the motivation out of the characters I think the biggest complaint I have one of the things that I've already said is I Hated the relationship between Lewis and Judd here because it didn't feel earned It just felt like you know these two neighbors that were just dealing with this really weird Situation and of course the ending is is pretty shit The very last scene that is an that is an almost perfect ending for book and original movie That is the perfect ending. That's the only way it can end. So maybe It's three o'clock in the morning here. I'm literally out here three o'clock in the morning Is someone's racing a bike up and down the street? um Welcome to Alabama But shoot where was I where was I even going with this? I don't know. Um, but there was The I think it was the the relationship between Judd and Lewis never felt earned It just felt like something that was tacked on it wasn't unbelievable. I didn't believe any of these characters I thought for just a split second and this is maybe a huge spoiler. I'm not sure I mean I already said there's gonna be spoilers from that point on but I Almost thought they were gonna kill both kids and I think that would have been a great Oh, the ending is where I was going. Sorry about that So the ending they have like the whole family like they're gonna get the family together You know, it's it felt really really silly And I think it was an attempt to try to make a perfectly dark piece of media Darker I think they were struggling with that. How are we going to push it one step farther and they completely and utterly failed But that's my thoughts on pet cemetery. Good Lord. Let me know what you think down there in the comments below But until next time I have any you've been you this has been Unfortunately a negative movie review of one of my favorite Stephen King properties. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye


A diffuse map is the most common kind of texture map you will ever need. But what if your camera sucks? Or what if the sun just wasn't giving you the perfect light that day? Not a problem. In the next 20 seconds you will have just the tool you need to make that picture perfect diffuse. Alright, let's do this. Click the link in the description and click the world icon to download the plugin. Once you've downloaded it, open local C, program files, GIMP 2, share, GIMP 2.0, and scripts. Drag it in. Congratulations. You are now ready to make diffuse maps out of any picture you could possibly take. And if you join me next tutorial, you will learn exactly how. Hope that helps. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please don't forget to like and subscribe. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I'll see you around.


Hi, good morning. My name is Luca Derry and my colleague Samuele will be talking together about eBPF in the context of network traffic monitoring. So the idea is to use and to show you an application of eBPF to something meaningful. We are not talking about eBPF per se, but how to use it in a word. So let's start with a few few notes about us. I'm the founder of the Antop project. You heard this before when we talk about PF ring. I'm also a lecturer at the University of Pisa. Samuele is a former student of mine and is working with us at Antop. Antop is an open source project. We started, I started in 1998, so very long time ago. It was about monitoring network traffic in a simple way. Don't think about the internet. The internet did not really exist as it is today. It was a totally different word. So over the time we started from analyzing packets, okay, just to display to people to accelerate in packet capture. So PF ring, we have done many other things. Another thing and good contribution, I think, to the open source community is a library called NDPI that allows you to analyze and dissect packet payload. So it allows you, for instance, to tell you what is the application protocol of a certain communication. So this is called NDPI. You can find all our open source code on GitHub, so github.com slash Antop, and so this is the place where you will find our activities. Let's start from the very beginning. So why we're here talking about network monitoring? So when we talk about network monitoring, so this is a definition coming from Techopedia. So we are talking about the ability in essence to monitor a computer network to see what is happening. Okay, so if there is something wrong and expected, so from the security standpoint, from the configuration, misconfiguration, this type of things. And usually the way to do that is through packet capture. So in essence we capture packets, we analyze packets, we report users what is happening. This is why, for instance, I started the PF ring because it was a way to accelerate packet capture. Packet capture has always been the main problem. So we have to receive this data. So the input are packets. So if you talk about that, so look at this picture, 2009, so 10 years ago. Okay, this was the picture of the Antop word many years ago. So PF ring was there, so we had a different way of pulling packets, a better pocket puller, T-NAPI. And then we have our application on top of it. Okay, so here we are talking about packets. We are talking about network adapters. We are talking about way to accelerate packet up. And then we have packet analysis. Again, 10 years ago. If you're talking about 2019, you go to GitHub, you download AntopNG, so that is the successor of Antop, so the next generation. You will see a graph like this, you will see that there is a peak, you will see that there is probably an anomaly here. But you will see that packets are still for citizens. This morning, until now, we talked about packets. XTP, DPDK, and so on. Packets, packets, packets. Because packets are too many, so it's not possible really to handle packets easily, so you have to put them in a meaningful fashion. So in a way so that you can understand what is happening. Usually the way of doing that is through the concept of flows. So you put together one after the other, packets with the five tuples. So same protocol, same IP source, destination part, and so on. So this is the uncompressed version, so you will see packets. This is the compressed version of flows. So you see my PC is talking with that PC over part 80, and all the packets of the same common action will be put together. And again, people like to see a peak. Again, there was a peak here. You want to see, hey, what's happening? You can see the flow, but if you don't trust flows, so if you want to go down to packets, in N-top and G, you can click and say, give me the packets. So again, we're talking about packets. What's wrong with packets? I'm not against packets. For all my life, I've done packet analysis, so it is good, okay? In particular, it is good if you want to be outside of the system you're monitoring. So we are here today at FOSDEM, so if I want to see what is happening in this room, I cannot put an agent on every single laptop. First of all, because it is impossible. You have a smartphone, you have tablets, you have many things. So it's very easy to look at packets, so capture packets, classify them, put them on a web interface. Very good. On a web, there are some challenges. For instance, one is encryption. In NDPI, we had to struggle fighting against that. Not that we have to decode the packet. Again, the packet inspection is not about decoding and dissecting the packet and instructing, you know, your data. It is about understanding if you're talking about Gmail or if you're connecting to your home application. So we had to, for instance, to decrypt the initial, you know, certificate exchange to understand what is that about. However, there is visualization.  Sometimes the container moves on another place, and so on. So if you look at the packets, entering or leaving a machine, at the end, you will see the same result. So you will see that you're connected to a certain website. But you don't understand the interaction of things happening inside the same computer. This is the main problem. And also when you deal with packets, you have to handle fragmentation, packet loss, or transmission. So the packet is not the native way of communicating. When you open a socket, you say, I want to connect to this port, I want to send, get, slash, whatever. You don't know anything about packets. Okay, so you don't have to pay attention to IPR, there's nothing, zero. It's the card that is doing for you. If there is a long empty, it will split the packet into, you know, segments and so on. So anyway, packets are nice, but they're not native. People don't understand packets.  So years ago, I wanted to extend that and give more information about the system, system introspection. I wanted to handle virtualization. I wanted to have also an ability of have a continuous drill down from a problem, let's say a peak. Let's say, what is happening? Okay, my web server, a stock with my SQL, and this was the reason.  So at the end, we are still using the same flow and paradigm and packet paradigm. But I want to see what is happening inside the system. If there is a security issue today, you can see, oh, I've seen this very nasty payload inside my pocket, but you don't know the application that I sent that payload. You don't know who has to receive the payload. You simply have, you know, an IDS, an IPS, that is reporting that, but you are blind with respect to what is happening inside the system. So we want to fix this problem. So this is what we are going to talk today. So in 2014, I was very excited because I'm a good friend of the creator of Sysdig, about Sysdig. I don't know if you are familiar with that. Sysdig was, it is still a kernel module that you can install on Linux. It looks like a TCP dump for system events. So in essence, you can look at system events. You can see connect, close, send, receive. So the idea was to give an idea. So when we have, you know, application or containers talking each other to see, okay, my HTTP is stored with my SQL, and this is the amount of data, but as it changed. However, this software that, again, 2014 was very, very nice, was designed by somebody that had packets in mind, packets. Okay, this was the idea. So use TCP dump over Sysdig. This was the problem. So we had, so this code is still, it's still available.  So I spent a lot of time on that, but it was a failure. It was a very big failure, for many reasons. First of all, it was using too much CPU. So you have a process that is using 10 to 20 percent of the CPU on your box, simply because Sysdig was designed with the packets in mind. So if there is a system that receives a lot of traffic, you have to analyze a lot of packets, and that is wrong. First of all, because you're not in the machine with the packets, anyway, because, you know, there is a lot of things to do. And second, because adding your monitoring feature adds extra load on the system. Second, people don't really like to install agents. Okay, it's not, it's not always possible, like I've said, but again, this is still doable. But the main problem is that Sysdig requires a carrying module.  And these people say, if you install a carrying module, then you are on your own. People also don't like that. And also containers were not that popular in 2014. You know, Docker started to exist, but it was not a big problem at that time. So we were a little bit ahead of time. But the main problem was the CPU. I mean, monitoring was too expensive. And this was, this was the problem. In essence, Sysdig outwars just to give an example. So you suppose that you want to monitor a TCP connection, you have to track socket, you have to track sand, sand, receive, receive. You have to put them together in flows, similar to flows. And then you have to report the information. And this is very CPU expensive, because you have to see, analyze every single packet. That is, that is the problem. So Sysdig is too much pocket oriented. Now I'm going to leave the microphone to Samuel. Hi everyone, I'm Samuel and I studied the application of the BPF to traffic monitoring with Luca. So BPF is a very great tool that enabled us to inject code inside the kernel and have it executed when a specific target kernel function is invoked. And so these, by attaching a BPF code to network functionalities, we are able to avoid inspecting, capturing and analyzing the single packet, but focusing only on the events we are interested in. Furthermore, because the code is executed inside the kernel, we can compute metrics and send it to user space only there are things that are needed and avoid sending all the information away we can collect. And both these features give us a great savings in terms of CPU usage. Furthermore, BPF has another key feature that is that it doesn't need the installation of another kernel model that becomes embedded in the modern Linux kernel versions. So these are very great things. What we have done is inject BPF code inside the kernel. It's set up inside the kernel and generate events and send it to user space through a SQL buffer provided by BPF. So the structure of events is very simple. It's articulated in different ways but provides very simple information such as the destination or source port and IP address, the protocol or for example the latency calculated from inside the kernel. So it's from the perspective of the kernel or the application and not from the external point of view of who captured the packet. Another thing that we are providing is the PIDO, the user ID or for example the the full path of the executable or the task name or the process name or for example the time in which the event has been triggered and things like this. So to do this we attach the different probes, the different we inject code to we attach code to different kernel functions that are for example the TCP connector which is triggered when the kernel connects to a remote or local host or for example to intercept UDP or events concerning the change in the state of the socket. For example we can track when the socket is closed and analyze how much bytes has been received or sent through that socket. Another thing that we can capture is the retransmissions, the events regarding the retransmissions and this is it. So together with this kind of information what we've done is using a BPFA per function that is BPFA get current task to indicate the task, the struct associated to each thread and process and by navigating through the kernel structures we can collect these kind of information such as the user or for example this group and furthermore by using the socket that is provided with the function call for example when we connect we use the TCP connector we provide as argument the socket that we want to use but analyzing the socket we can extract information regarding the protocol there or the destination address. So to provide visibility concerning containers what we have done is using the C group that we collected from inside the kernel to interact with the Docker demon with the Docker API and gather information concerning the container. This can be done because the C group identifier that we we found that this group identifier that we we have extracted from the kernel structure and sent to user space is the same identifier that Docker used to track containers. So what we have basically done is collect this information, collect the C group identifier, send it to user space and at user space level interact with the Docker demon to collect information and store them in a cache. So we can we have information like for example the container name or for how much time has been in the container alive furthermore we have found that from from the result of the query we can obtain information from Kubernetes such as the pod or the cluster where the container is in. So we have a greater view about what is going on on the machine in a bigger way concerning Kubernetes view. So under the hood this TCP accept has been implemented very very has been implemented very simply because we have attached a probe to the to the to the to the return of the function call. So when the function returns our code is executed. When our code is executed we use the socket that is returned by the function to collect network information and use the the task structure to to to collect information of the user and concerning the process. So in a very in a very similar way we have tracked the retransmission and events concerning socket closed when a socket is closed but for for for the connector it has been more difficult indeed we have to use an ash table because these because we want to know not only to return information about the user or the network but we want to return also the the return code of the function to check if it has failed or if it has been successful. So what we have done is attach a probe when the the function is invoked when the when the TCP connect is invoked collect the socket that is passed as argument then the function is executed the the controller returns to the to the to the function and when the function returns the the return code our code is executed again we check in the ash table where we put the socket and is indexed by using the thread identifier we we we we we we get this this socket and and track network information of the this beside the return code and in this way we by putting also the kernel time we were able also to to to to measure the latency of the connection. okay okay all right okay okay so in essence we have integrated the ABPF with with entopmg through a library called the ABPF flow that that allows us to avoid you know seeing all these these internals of eBPF and just to report to report events just to give an idea this is a this is a typical example so you start eBPF flow this is a helper allow you to see you know the kernel time the process ID what is happening who's talking to who what is the process what is the command something like that so the idea is that we want to make this library available to also to everyone so that you can put your application on top of it and forget eBPF so for you it will be a source of information so currently in entopmg this is a preview of what we have allows you to see next to the communication also the user and the and the process that's executing that so you will see this this this pocket is going to Apache okay or this pocket is coming from Chrome thread and this is for the source and for the destination of course thanks to the the pocket inspection we can analyze that this is very important because it allows us to augment the information so we have an idea of what users are doing so what am I doing okay I run in Thunderbird so I'm using draw box so these how I use my my network so not just analyze pocket but also analyze you know activities so what what is a certain user is doing and I don't know if you have you have noticed but we have the full part of the application so in case you you will have a let's say a security evaluation you will see you know that a certain pocket is very bad so you know exactly the process that has created that pocket and the user and the container eventually so this is this is important we have also the ability of putting all these things together so you see you know what what a certain process is doing what what are the process activities and what are the users doing inside the container but you know this is very nice okay we just track you know some some some events very simple so if you have a you know gigabit of traffic we simply see connect the response and periodic update but we have a problem with udp inside udp every pocket is independent so you can open a socket send the pocket to to each of the of your few so how do we avoid play with pockets again how do we avoid sending to use a space an event for every single pocket so at the moment we have used an internal lru so that whenever we see pockets similar pockets from from the same to the source of the same destination we just send the event once okay every every time so let's say for every for every second for every 10 second we we see several pockets so especially if you have a vpn let's say before somebody mentioned open vpn so this is a typical example so we send an event every every a few seconds so without doing that so this is one of the problems that we are still trying to tackle unfortunately everybody's talking about ebpf in very positive terms but there are also some some problems with it the first problem is that bcc is not what what i consider a stable you know tool first of all there are some limitations in terms of memory loops this type of things you might say so why why is it a problem it is a problem because whenever you have to decode a pocket you have to know you have to go through certain layers so in fact before in the presentation of xdp people put a lot of emphasis about the speed say give me this pocket give me this pocket but if you have to look at the pocket before making your decision so you have to decode it if you want to decode it inside the kernel with ebpf you have to deal with the problem and the limitation of of this type of tools another point for reason is that you know the bcc tools are changing very often okay so you see people that are playing with python and they are happy but if you play with the cpi you know sometime this might change we have although also some some other little limitation that i hope that will be solved in the future so just to wrap up it is now possible to see the full path from pockets to activities if there is something by happening i will not say this pocket is bad but i will say this user with this process has created the problem that's it thanks to the you know the container paradigm and thanks to the fact that our library can run on the host not on each container so we have the ability of monitoring all the containers of a system and to collect this metadata and attach this to two packets the load is very little you know with our tool the load is less than one percent so it's almost unnoticeable and we have this information this one as shown this preview you know it will be part of the next n top ng version version four but we plan to have this this library available so that there might be other tools willing to use it so that for instance i imagine a net or probe or an IDS that want to add this information next to the to their problems they are reporting thank you very much


The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohamed, has assured Nigerians that the country is in safe hands, despite the security challenges it is facing. He advises citizens not to succumb to doomsday predictions about Nigeria because they will not come to pass. The Minister has said this when he received the Olu Nyi of Iyi Ikiti, Oba Adiola Adeni Ajakhae, and his entourage at the office in Abuja on Thursday. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.