So here to be more and who are you? Hello everyone. I'm a candy from from be more Yeah, being a sales director and be more and you do a tablet many years and Yeah, we've been doing tablets since 2010 and this year we launched Intel smartphones. So here's the Intel smartphone. This is a four inch What is a CPU name? It's Sophia 3g Intel 3g are Sophia. So 3g phone for inch and how much yeah, this is a low cost one because it's around 74 $34 you get an Intel phone, right? We got a two to ID Yeah, different different ID here. It's supposed for inch. It's better life. How's the better life? Do you measure already? Yeah, the battery life. It's about if you talking it's about four four hours For ours. Yeah, with the phone core, right? So how does it compare with media tech battery life or something else? It's similar similar similar, yeah, right? And then you have different size here. You have five inch. Yeah Can we show around this one? So these two are dual core, right? It's gonna be right now. Over here is dual core, but it's okay to upgrade to bottom four. So dual core and even the dual cores made that Android 5 right now is 4.4, right? Right now it's 4.4 But we will have a we're working on a lollipop 5.1 update So it's also a good price for that and then you have a different five inch five point this five inch also This is also five inch. It's a different ID And uh, just a different color, right? Different color different finishing here This is kind of like with a with a brush brush, right? Yeah, slightly different Okay, yeah, and then you have 5.5 inch also And this is also already running 5.1 Android What core Any of these are lte lte not yet, but not 3g yeah 3g are so it's x86 android. How's the compatibility with all the apps? the apps right now, I think Right now because Intel has put a lot of Investment on the application. It's almost it's almost everything's ready to To make it compatible with the android app.  Yeah, those phones These these three phones we already shipped out All right big quantity or not yet big one like a over 100 run out. We did over 150k 150k and Intel phones already are you one of the leaders? Ah, thank you. Are you one of the biggest quantity? Right now. Yeah, we still we shipping to to Walmart Yeah, but especially the four inch with the biggest volume. So, uh, why do you focus? Why do you do intel phone? Because we think you know like media tech or spread charm is everywhere every come everyone can do it There is no There's almost no requirements for the come for the factory who who do the MTK or spread charm But in so they have a like a minimal requirements about Manufacturing to do it and they help you and they help us. They help you with design With design with the technical. Yeah, testing right heats and everything. Yeah So how about this is one of the laptops you do with intel? Yeah, right? Uh this 10.1 inch or 11.6 11.6 inch Is there a good price for that kind of laptop? Yeah, this is this is the first laptop we we do so far first laptop. Yeah, first laptop and it working good It's perfectly how much it cost maybe right now that goes about 100 105 something $105 Then you get a windows 10. No can be windows 10, but the customer need to pay the license, of course How much is license? This one is entry notebook It's around more or less around 15, but the local yam need to talk with the microsoft directly And then you have all these tablets here How many tablets do you sell every month? In total it was selling like a monthly tablets it's about 300,000 And for example that one is this entry level The this is the entry level. This is the cheapest one. Yeah, the cheapest one 3 2 3 0 rk. This is the rock chip. This is the rock chip mrd. Yeah rock chip mrd How much it cost? And right now it's but it's wi-fi this is wi-fi version. They cost about 30 34 the basic price 34 dollars And uh, so cheap display also, right? Yeah, it's the HD tn and then you got uh lollipop Yeah, you can only pop And then you have some higher specced ones Then we have our own tooling. It's a higher Higher specification This this is the metal. It's our own private tooling. All right private tooling there. Yes Yeah, you see here. It's uh one is metal. Yeah. Yeah, this is a plastic So we made it's a same pcb board Different uh different case different case The yeah, how many intel tablets do you sell? Even so right now it's monthly monthly it's about 200 22 k or something 200 k every month. It's a big quantity You make millions of tablets. Yes. Yeah, each year like last year we did 2 million and this year our tactic was Still around 2 million tablets. You sell more than acer You sell more than assos or no? No, I don't know what I don't know. What is they what is the volume that and many different brands many different customers everyone For every europe and usa and yeah europe and uh south america or even Asia and how about this one? Uh, those are the super slim one that we had it's an eight inch uh Intel quad core That one is you can do either petrol or you can do sofia 3gr quad core It's great. Yeah, it's worth so Right now it's 5.0, but we are working on 5.1 So how's the how's the tablet market going is uh under pressure, right? So that's why you do smartphone It is pressure, but you know a lot of our competitors they are saying they they mark the sales volume is getting done But for us so far compared with the last year We're even slightly up compared with the last year. So we are we are doing good You're doing good. Yeah, we're doing right, but you are expanding to laptop to smartphone It's still tablets. It's our major one, but we're just getting increasing more products lined up. Yeah


We'll begin reading here in the book of Amos in chapter 4, at verse 1, and I'll read to verse 5 and we'll get into our study. Amos chapter 4, beginning at verse 1, reading to verse 5.  The Lord God is sworn by His holiness, behold the day shall come upon you when He will take you away with fish hooks, and your posterity with fish hooks. You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into harm and says the Lord. Come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal and multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the free will offerings for this you love, you children of Israel, says the Lord God. And so as we look at this particular portion of Scripture, we know that God is bringing a word of judgment against the nation of Israel, actually represented by the northern tribes. And as we look at this, we're going to see that Israel is being judged for various reasons. We'll break it down in this way, verses one through three, we'll speak about God's judgment against Israel for their oppression to the poor. In verses four and five, God will judge them because of their idolatry. And then in chapter four verses six through eleven, He judges them because of their hardened hearts that have resisted repenting and returning to Him. And so we're going to see that the Lord is bringing judgment and is declaring that. As a matter of fact, when we get to verses twelve and thirteen, notice what He says there.  For behold, he who forms mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts, is His name. And so He's going to close with a call to prepare for judgment, a judgment that He has already prepared for them. As I've been sharing with you here in the book of Amos, God uses reminders of past judgments to reveal what happens in the future. And we're going to be seeing that here in chapter four. Now I want you to notice how He begins. This one, how He simply says, Amos says, Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, Bring wine, let us drink. And so Amos is declaring that the oppressors will be humbled, but the idolaters will be hardened. The one who has done wrong, he's saying, is going to receive according to the wrong that that one has done. And in this judgment that God is bringing, God's holiness will be revealed, His justice will be served. The Psalmist in Psalm 140 verse 12 said, I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor. And so you see this as we begin here, that God is bringing a word of judgment and He's speaking to them concerning how they have oppressed the poor. And that's where the judgment is going to ultimately begin. So people are going to receive what they have stored up for themselves. They're going to be judged because they have been storing up wrath against the day of wrath. It's not God's fault. And we need to begin by saying that, not as if the Lord needs me to apologize for His holiness. But it isn't God's fault that man is getting judged. Sometimes we look at God and I think we see him through the view of New Testament revelation that is especially based on the grace of God and the mercy of God. And so when we read the Old Testament, we say to ourselves, I can't see this. It's almost like you've got two different gods, one in the Old Testament and one in the new. The one in the Old Testament always seems to be mad. But the one in the new seems to always be filled with grace and love and mercy. But the fact is it's one God who is revealing both sides. One is that He is holy and just. The other is that He is merciful and gracious. And we have to see this as a composite picture of the one God and the Lord in the Old Testament here in Amos is speaking a word of judgment. And I mentioned to you as we were going through in the introductions that he began first and foremost by speaking concerning the nations that were surrounding Israel. We saw that in the first couple of chapters. But he went on to speak to Judah. Now he's speaking to Israel. And he's saying to them that judgment is coming and there are reasons for it. It's not his fault that judgment is coming. They have rejected him and they don't want to repent. They've resisted him and they don't want to turn from their sin. So ultimately what's going to happen is they're going to be receiving what they have stored up for themselves. When you look in the New Testament, Book of Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8, Paul said it like this. He said, Do not be deceived. One is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. You sow to the flesh, he says, you will reap from the flesh. Romans chapter 2 verse 6 says that God will render to each one according to his deeds. And this is what we're seeing. They're going to reap what they've been sowing. And so he begins in an interesting way. He says, Hear this word, you cows of Bashan. And no, he's not speaking to overweight people. I know you're thinking that. Now what he's speaking about are the cows of Bashan. The cows of Bashan were known for their size and the cows of Bashan were known for their strength. And he's speaking concerning the place that they would graze on the hills of Samaria. And the point he's making here is a very simple one. He's illustrating the greed of the oppressors by making reference to these particular cows because they were known for their size, they were known for their strength, and they were also known for being extremely valuable. They would feed, like I mentioned a moment ago, on the lush pastures of Samaria. And they grew huge. Amos was a herdsman. And he was using the language of his occupation as he described this. Now what he's doing is he's saying that the rich are living in luxury. And as they're living in their luxury, they are calloused and they are greedy. These are people who have been given entirely over to meeting their own physical sensual desires. And what they're doing is they're squeezing everything they can out of the poor in order that they might finance their own luxuries. That's what it says in verse 1 when it says that they oppress the poor and crush the needy. They're squeezing everything out of the needy to finance their own desires. They're taking advantage of the poor because the poor cannot help themselves. That's not something new in our society. That is something that's been going on for the longest time. When I was 18, I decided to burglarize a jewelry store, Hudson's Jewelry in Whittier. I got a tyarn. Actually a friend of mine and I went to a liquor store and I stole a half gallon of seagrams. We went to a friend's house, drank. Got a little liquid courage, decided to go and burglarize a jewelry store. So I took the tyarn and I broke the plate glass window on Hudson's Jewels. Reached in and took a handful of diamond rings. My friend reached in and took some himself, put them in our pockets. It was about 11 o'clock midnight. He took off running, got into his car and sped on down Whittier Boulevard and within a minute or so, as we're there in Whittier, within a minute or so there's a squad car that begins to follow us. We go into a neighborhood and we turn our lights off and we're trying to evade the police. We end up in somebody's driveway. I tried to climb out of the car but he got so close to the house I couldn't get out. He got out but he was a cow of bachon. He was too heavy to run. So the policeman pulled up right behind us, arrested us, went to jail overnight, got bailed out. My dad got a lawyer from Beverly Hills, Stanley H. Brown. For many years he kept sending me Christmas cards hoping I'd get in trouble again. Went to court. I had taken $2,000 worth of rings. That was back in 1968. So that would probably be worth quite a sum of money much more now than then. It was a felony. At that time $100, anything you stole that had a value of $100 was regarded a felony. The young man who went before me had taken a check and he was standing before the judge. He had stolen a check from his employer and it forged an amount on that with his employer's name for a little bit over $100. And I still remember as I was seated there in that courthouse waiting for my turn before the judge, I still remember the judge looking at him and sentencing him for that $100 worth of larceny to a few years in jail. I stole $2,000 worth of rings. This guy took $100, a little over $100. And I'm there thinking, oh boy, I'm in some trouble now. But my dad had gotten a lawyer and this other man didn't have anybody to defend him. He was poor. Not that we were rich. My dad actually mortgaged our home. He took a second on the home, took a loan out on his own house to pay for this lawyer. But I saw then back in 1968 how that if you have a little money, you have a better chance sometimes than the one who has nothing. So it's nothing new. I didn't do any time at all. I didn't even get probation. All we had to do is pay for the broken window that I had smashed with that tire iron and less than $100 in court fees. I didn't get any problem at all. And I took 20 times the amount that this young man had taken. I had representation he didn't. Sometimes it just really isn't just. Sometimes it just isn't fair. And that's what's being spoken of here right now. The rich were taken advantage of the poor. They were squeezing everything they could get out of the poor. And they were doing so to finance their own luxurious living. They were crushing the poor and taking advantage of them because the poor could not take care of themselves. And obviously as you read the Bible, God is against this. Psalm 10 verse 2 says, the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Psalm 35 verse 10 says, all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him? Yes, the poor and the needy from him who plunders him. God hears the cry of the poor. Now when it says here again in verse 1 of chapter 4, hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria. When he speaks of the cows, Jay Vernon McGee makes an interesting point here and I'll just repeat what he says. He's one of the commentators that makes studying the Bible much easier for me to be honest with you. He says, it's interesting that he chooses to use the word cows of Bashan. He doesn't say you bulls of Bashan, he uses a feminine, cows. And so Jay Vernon says that this could speak of women who are living in luxury, cows of Bashan, who are living in luxury as a result of the oppression of the poor. But he also said, and this I found kind of interesting, that it could refer to men who are actually very feminine. And he was saying that often the nation's values are revealed by the way its female population dresses. He pointed out that when the women dress well it will reveal that the nation has affluence and there's some truth to that. Well the point he's making is very simple. He's saying that here Amos would be speaking of not simply the women, we'll say because it says at the bottom there, last portion of the scripture you say to your husbands, it could be that he's speaking in the feminine sense of women, it could be speaking in another sense of feminine men possibly, but it also could be referring to the rulers because when it says who say to your husbands, that word husband, I looked this up in the Hebrew language, that word husband in the original language actually speaks of more than any husband, though it can be translated literally as a husband. It also speaks of a master or a ruler, it can speak of men and it can speak of a prince or a king. If it's in reference to a husband then he would be saying the wise are influencing their husbands to evil. If it refers to masters of the poor it would speak of a confederacy that unites together to hurt the poor and would be referring to banqueting at the expense of those who are at least able to provide for themselves. So when he says who say to their husbands bring wine, let us drink it would be another way of expressing that they were living well off of the poor. The poor who had nothing were financing the luxurious lifestyles of their own oppressors. What does he say about that? Well verse 2, the Lord God is sworn by his holiness, behold the days shall come upon you when he will take you away with fish hooks and your posterity with fish hooks. You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her. You will be cast into harm and says the Lord. We'll look at that for just a moment here. When it says in verse 2, the Lord God is sworn by his holiness, the days are coming. He's speaking of how they're going to be taken against their will by an invading army. Notice how it says when he will take you away with fish hooks and your posterity with fish hooks. He's going to be an invading army that's going to come. And then he goes on to say in verse 3, you'll go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into harm and says the Lord. And so you're going to go out through broken walls. If you think that your homes, your walled homes and your palaces will protect you is what he's saying, you're wrong. That phrase cast into harm and I thought that's an interesting, what do you mean you'll be cast into harm and because that's a word that doesn't even sound Hebrew. It didn't sound like a city in the nation. So I thought I'd better look that up and see what he's referring to. And the word harm and there actually is translated a palace or a castle. And so what he's referring to very simply is it's speaking of casting that which has value to you into harm or into a protective enclosure. It's speaking of the fact that they have a fortified portion of a castle that is used for protection and that is not going to protect you from losing everything that is dear to you. And so that's what he refers to and I want to note this with you. Notice in verse 2 again, when he will take you away with fish hooks and your posterity with fish hooks. Now here's something that is interesting in that during that day there was a nation that was known for its extreme cruelty and they would put fish hooks in the noses or in the lips of the prisoners. Sometimes they would even pierce the chins with these huge hooks and they would link them on chains and they would have lines of prisoners, each one of them being attached by a hook. And that was the nation of Assyria. And as I was looking that up I took this quotation from some information that I used in my study and this individual said, there are many examples revealing Assyrian severity. A captured king was taken to the capital and compelled to pull the royal chariot of triumph.  They were blinded and their tongues were torn from their mouths. Prisoners were skinned alive and set on fire. Their skins were also hung near enemy city gates in order to collect tribute. The Lord allowed the ruthless Assyrians to capture the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC because of Israel's rebellion against him. And when you look into 2 Chronicles 3311 it says, the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters and carried him off to Babylon. So God is saying that in the oppression of the poor, in that you have squeezed every dime from them, you will be judged. You can take those treasures that you have and try and put them in a fortified citadel palace but the walls are going to be broken down.  So the Lord is speaking concerning a coming judgment that is fulfilled when Assyria came into Israel. He goes on in verses 4 and 5 and says, come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal, multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tides every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. Proclaim and announce the free will offerings. For this you love, you children of Israel, says the Lord God. So come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal, multiply transgression. So what is he doing now? Secondly, he's spoken against their oppressing the poor and now he speaks of judgment against their idolatry. When you read your Old Testament, you discover a couple of interesting things. One, Bethel was a site of an alternate worship kind of altar. I mentioned to you that in the reign of King Solomon, he left his kingdom to his son Rehoboam. Rehoboam had an issue with another man named Jeroboam and I've been mentioning to you that Jeroboam had gone into exile in Egypt upon the death of Solomon, returned to the nation of Israel, met with Rehoboam, demanded that Rehoboam show him and his people more courtesies, if you will, to release them from the pressure that they were under because of Solomon in the taxation and instead of Rehoboam reducing that, he actually said I'm gonna increase it and that caused Jeroboam to go into rebellion against the king of Judah, which at one time was the king of all of Israel and the 10 northern tribes separated and when the 10 northern tribes separated from the relationship with the two southern tribes, they built two alternate places to worship, one in Dan and the other in Bethel. The word Bethel means house of God and what they did is they created alternate worship sites and that's what's being referred to here when it says come to Bethel and transgress. He's saying you're going to Bethel, an alternate worship site that is actually pagan. Now when he speaks of Gilgal, when the children of Israel under the leadership of Joshua were entering into the Promised Land, the first place that they actually stopped at all was in a place called Gilgal and Gilgal was a place that was very, very significant. It actually in its history for Israel had become a place that was looked at with a certain sense of sacredness but Gilgal eventually became a place associated with both rebellion and idolatry. When you read the book of Hosea chapter nine verse 15, it says all their wickedness is in Gilgal for there I hated them because of the evil of their deeds, I will drive them from my house. I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious. In Hosea 1211 it says though Gilead has idols, surely they are vanity, though they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal, indeed their altar shall be heaps in the furrows of the field. So Gilgal became associated with rebellion and idolatry so he's speaking concerning this and that's why he says come to Bethel and transgress and at Gilgal multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. The invitation is to come to Bethel and transgress, multiply transgressions at Gilgal. What is he saying? He's saying you are idolaters.  Your offerings are filled with that which is unacceptable to God. In the Old Testament very often, not always but very often, leaven is associated with sin. And he's saying the offerings that you are making to me are unacceptable because they are filled with sin. This is sarcasm by the way. It would be like God today inviting people to come to church in order that they might be able to sin. Come to church in order that you might sin. And the thing that he's saying and this is something worthy of noting for a moment, he says in verse five, offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the free will offerings for this he said, for this you love.  How do I illustrate that? I don't wanna say things to you that don't make any sense and half the time I feel that I am because in some ways what I wanna share with you very often can be misunderstood because it can appear to be a judgment against people and I know of the sensitivities of many today that anything that appears to be critical is immediately looked at as being unloving. And so I'm real sensitive to that because I don't want to misrepresent the Lord to this congregation and I don't want people to misunderstand the point that's attempting to be made and it becomes very complicated because in the earlier days I would just say what was there and because I was speaking to people of my generation they had an ability to kind of like sort it out and the generation that is coming up now I wanna be sensitive to be able to communicate in a language that makes sense. So I'll say it this way and let's see if it makes sense. All the gray hairs will go yeah I understand it. Then you forget it tomorrow. I got saved because I hated my sinful life. I got saved because I hated my sinful life. I was hurting people. I was lying, I was stealing. I was hurting people, those who loved me the most, my family, friends. I got to the point that I began to just despair of life. I began to think there's no point in being alive. And not that I ever got suicidal, I didn't but I did get extremely depressed because I was messing everything up. People who loved me were being hurt by me. I couldn't have friendships, I didn't have relationships. I was just messed up and I got to the point and some of you can identify with this. I know you can. I got to the point where I said, God you gotta do something because I can't take it anymore. That's what led me to getting saved is I just got tired of hurting people. I hurt my mom, I hurt my dad, I hurt my sisters, I embarrassed my brother, I hurt girlfriends, I hurt friends, I hurt everybody. I was mean-spirited, I was a thief, I was still for my own friends. Lied, I used to create lies just to lie. I lied because I loved to lie and I would make up crazy lies just for the attention. I did crazy things for attention. I felt so like I was invisible so I would say things to try and make myself seem important. I would do things so that people would notice me and I began to discover that I was going down instead of becoming better. And when I started hurting people, when I started seeing my mom cry over me, when I saw my father so ashamed of what I was doing, I said, God you gotta help me.  Anybody understand that? Did that make any sense?  The drug abuse, the alcohol, the stealing, I was at a place in Monterey, California, called the Monterey Pop Festival. Some of you may have heard it, it used to go on many, many years ago. I dropped a drug called psilocybin. Magic Mushroom. It was a hallucinogenic and I was wired and loaded as I was walking through the Monterey Pop Festival. And I walked by a guy, a woman and a little boy or girl, I don't remember because the hair was real long. They all had stringy blonde hair, I do remember that and it wasn't hallucination. And as I looked at it, I noticed, I actually stopped, I still remember stopping there in this big festival, seeing these people walk by, and the woman was wearing a long peasant dress the way that the girls used to wear at that time.  And what stood out as I was looking at them is that they were all made, the clothing was made out of sheets. It was made out of sheets. And as I walked by, I remember looking at them, realizing that that guy there didn't have money to buy clothing, so they were taking things and just sewing them and wearing them as clothing and the thought hit me, the thought hit me, that's what you are gonna be in your future. If you don't get away from drugs, if you don't stop abusing, you're gonna be like that. Not that I'm judging them, but I saw my future in them. And it was so shocking, I went to my friend's apartment, they're at Pacific Grove, they went that night to the Monterey Pop Festival to hear the evening music. I said, I'm gonna stay here and I still remember staying in that place, smoking pot, listen to the moody blues and reading the Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien. I remember all of that, it's funny, I can't remember Cross Street where I live now, but I remember all of that 40-some years ago.  If I don't change, I'll be like those people I saw today. So when my friends came back, I said, guys, I'm putting down. Putting down means I'm stopping using. I'm no longer gonna do my drugs, I'm putting down, man. Putting down. No, because I was a loady. That means I like to smoke and do a lot of dope. I'm using old terms, I have to remember that. So I put down, I stopped doing drugs for a day. That's a fact. I didn't smoke pot the next day. I went back to it the next day. Didn't like being clean. But I did start thinking about that. I'm saying all of this for a reason, there's a reason for it and that is, I began to evaluate under the conviction of the Holy Spirit what my life was amounting to and all the people I was hurting and I got to the point where in my natural self, if you will, I began to say to myself and then I actually started to pray again. I started saying I can't take this anymore. So when the gospel was presented to me and the freedom that I could have in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of my sins and the new life that He promised me. When I heard that, when the Bible said it, they were quoting it. If any man be in crisis and you creation, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. When I heard that, all things are become new. That's what you call good news. I mean, I can't make myself good. I've already tried, I actually tried and I failed. Are you saying that God said that He can forgive me of my sins and make me a different person? Can He make me somebody who loves? Can He make me somebody who's tender? Can He make me somebody who cares? Can He make me somebody who can provide? Can He make me into somebody who can be responsible and trustworthy? Can He change me from what I am to something else? Can He really? That's good news. I hated my sin. I hated what it was doing to others and I was in bondage to it. I couldn't break away. I tried, I couldn't break away. I would walk away for a while and I would come right back to it like a dog, go through its vomit. I would return to it. I understand that. And so when I got saved, why would I return to sin? Why would I want to be a Christian and continue in sin at the same time?  Why would I think that He accepts that when He has sent His Son, Jesus, to dine across to set me free from its control of my life, from its rulership in me? And yet I'm seeing, and this may not make sense to some, it may sound harsh to others. But what I'm seeing today very often in the church is people who are doing what God is saying here. You offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. And you love it. You want to go to heaven, but you want to live in the world at the same time. You can't have both. Joshua said it like this. He said, choose this day whom you shall serve. You want to serve the gods on the other side of the river? Go for it. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. You have to make a choice. That's the essence of Christianity. It is what has been referred to. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German minister coined this. That is the essence of what is called cheap grace. A grace that costs nothing and a grace that changes no one. But what God's grace does is it cleanses us and transforms us. It is his agent of transformation, you see? So when the Lord is speaking here, he's saying, you come and you offer your sacrifices, but they're tainted with sin because there's no faith in it. You are idolaters because you're worshiping at the altar of Bethel and offering sacrifices that I have not required of you. All fence of sacrifices because they're filled with the essence of idolatry because you're not worshiping me according to my word in the New Testament sense. You're not worshiping me in spirit and truth. And so today, there's a lot of confusion that people have in this world that we live in, in the United States, where they say as long as somebody has faith, that's all that matters. And God would say, no, you have to have faith in God himself through Jesus Christ. That's what matters. And a faith in Jesus Christ that is real will transform a life of a person who has that kind of faith. And that's how people are changed. Yes, amen, amen. That's how people are changed. And that's what led to my dad getting saved because when I got saved, my sister Madeline got saved. Madeline was the closest thing to a saint that we ever knew. She was 16 years old. She didn't go out, she didn't have boyfriends. She would actually stay at home when her friends are going out partying at 16. She stayed at home. She'd have her hair up in curlers, rollers, and she'd be seated between my dad and my mom eating popcorn with them on a Friday and Saturday night watching TV. She was the classic good girl who married her very first boyfriend. She's been married for 38 years to that man. She was, so my dad said, David, I knew I was better than you, but I knew that I was worse than your sister. I knew that you needed Jesus because you were messed up, but what did she need? And he said, I watched your life. I saw what happened in you. And I knew that God had an ability to transform lives when you lived in the way that you did before your mom and me. Transformed lives, the power of a transformed life. It is the gospel in human form. It is, this is what God can do in somebody. And we have kids who tell their parents, you need Jesus, and the parent says to the kid, clean your room, the kid doesn't want to clean the room. Doesn't want to clean the room, but he wants his parents to go to heaven. And all the parents see is a dirty room and a kid who disobeys. It's a power of a transformed life. It's a transformed way of being. It's a respect, it's a love, it's a peace, it's a joy. It's something that comes through a relationship with God. And so God does not want us to give to him offerings that are tainted with sin. And he says, that's what you're doing. And this, you love children of Israel. You love making these offerings because it's obvious that's acceptable to you. And you're resolved to do that which you desire to do. He moves on and says in verse six also, I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city. I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon and where it did not rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water. They were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I blasted you with blight and mildew when your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees and olive trees, the locust devoured them. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt. Your young men I killed with a sword along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.  Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. And so I have dealt with you severely. He's speaking of their hardened hearts and how their hardened hearts have provoked them to resist repenting and returning to the Lord. And he reminds them of five judgments that he had brought upon them, judgments that they didn't learn from. I have dealt with you. He's saying this, I have dealt with you severely but you refused to repent. Your hearts are hardened in spite of the judgments that you've experienced. My judgments he's saying were intended to bring you back but you hardened your heart against me. And so he begins to outline them. First he says I gave you cleanness of teeth. Now that's not saying that he gave them toothpaste and mouthwash. He says you have cleanness of teeth because you had nothing to eat. Cleanness of teeth is another way of saying emptiness of teeth. You have nothing to eat.  And so you've gone through a time of famine with nothing to eat. That should have turned you to me. It may speak of famine that they experienced during the time of Elijah. It could speak of the seven years of famine that they experienced during the time of Elisha. But he's saying I have withheld from you food. Food would help to remind them that man doesn't live by bread alone. When Jesus was being tempted by Satan, the tempter, and he hadn't eaten, Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and we're told that he was hungry. He was hungry, the word hungry in Matthew and Luke chapters four is in reference to, hungry is in reference to famished. And when somebody went without food for 40 days, there's a certain period of time when you're fasting that you're initially hungry, then you lose your appetite.  And when Jesus was there, be tempted by the evil one by Satan for 40 days. The Bible says that he was famished. He was hungry. And at that point, when his flesh was at its weakest point, when he was really moving towards starvation or dying of starvation, that's when the enemy comes and says, make these stones into bread. When you go to Israel, you'll notice that some of the bread to this day is shaped that could look like stone. It can look like stone, it's round bread with a flat bottom. And so there are stones like that all around the Lord. And so the enemy points to the obvious and he says, if you're really the Son of God, make these stones into bread. And that's when Jesus said to him, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God. I gave you over to your hunger, which should have awakened you to a deeper need, which is to have relationship with me. The New Testament reveals to us that Jesus himself is the bread of life. So the food reminds of people that man doesn't live by bread alone. In verses seven and eight, and he says, and you have not returned to me, in verses seven and eight, I withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain in one city withheld rain from another. God says I sent drought for three months. And this drought prior to harvest was disastrous. And that's an indication of judgment because when the Lord was speaking to the nation of Israel and giving them both cursings and blessings, a part of the cursings is found in Deuteronomy 28, verse 23. And he says to them, your heavens, which are over your head shall be bronze. The earth which is under you shall be iron. I'm gonna withhold the rain is what he's saying. Now, in the Old Testament, as well as the new, rain is a symbol of the promise of God to provide water for the children of Israel. When the children of Israel were in Egypt, Egypt is a nation that has its main water supply coming from the river, the river Nile. God said to them, I'm taking you from a nation that relies on the water of the river. And I'm bringing you into a nation that is gonna rely on rain. The Jordan River, especially in times of drought, is so small you can, in some places, almost jump over the whole river. It's that small.  So rain is gonna symbolize my grace. You see that in Deuteronomy 11, where it says in verses 11 through 15, for the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden. But the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the reign of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.  And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock that you may eat and be filled. The rain that would come and would saturate the ground so they could have crops was a symbol of God's grace. And that's why Jesus would say God sends his reign on the just and the unjust alike because it was a way of demonstrating the gracious provision of God. Now the fact that one city had rain and another did not should have revealed them that God was behind this. I know some of you perhaps have experienced this where you're standing on one street and right across the street, it's raining and where you're standing it's dry. Well, that's what the Lord is pointing to. He's saying one city has rain, the other doesn't and I am showing you this because I am the one who controls the weather. And so you should have known that I'm behind this, this time of drought. That should have caused them to return to him. Again, water is a symbol of the grace of God. It is also a symbol for the water of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives to us. You don't have the bread of life in the New Testament and you don't have the water of life that comes through faith in God. Now notice when he says in verse nine I blasted you with blight and mildew. I blasted you, that's an interesting way to put it. He's talking about heat. He's talking about scorching heat that would come from the east, from the desert area and that would wither everything. He's speaking of the mildew as well as the locusts that are destroying their crops. Again, in Deuteronomy 2342 and the Lord is speaking of the curses. He said locust shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. Again, you're seeing my hand of judgment that should have caused you to return to me but you did not. Then he says in verse 10, I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt. Your young man I killed with the sword along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up to your nostrils yet you have not returned to me. He says Lord, you smelled the death. You smelled the putrefying flesh. I sent to you a plague. A plague in the manner of Egypt. Well, in Deuteronomy 2327 it says the Lord will strike you with boils of Egypt with tumors and with a scab and with itch from which you cannot be healed. It's another way of saying I've brought my judgment. You should have turned to me.  Again, in Deuteronomy 2825 the Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. You shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. He's saying the stench of the dead body should have awakened you to return. But you did not. That shows the hardness of their heart. And then finally, when he says I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a firebrand plucked from the burning yet you have not returned to me. A firebrand plucked from the burning. The Assyrians at that time were conducting raids into Israel, into the communities, taking some captive but were not engaging in full scale war. That should have awakened them to call upon the Lord for help and to repent but they didn't. You have not returned to me. And then finally, therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel.  For behold, he who forms mountains, creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is and makes the morning darkness who treads the high places of the earth. The Lord God of hosts is his name.  That's a scary statement. Trying to remember something one of my uncles once said. I had an uncle, his name was Jesus, but I only knew him as Wettel. And he went to Santa Fe High School. He was a few years older than me. He was my dad's youngest brother. And he was a brawler. That's what he was. He was a brawler. And there was a guy, I'll give you an example. There was a guy in Santa Fe High School who was six foot eight. And he used to pick up my brother Frank. My brother Frank is two years older than me. My uncle Wettel was, I think my uncle Wettel was about six years older than me. And my uncle and my brother were standing in front of my parents' house. My brother at that time was about 14. And Wettel was a senior in high school at that time. And this guy, he was six foot eight. This guy was walking down the street. And my uncle looks at my brother and says to my brother, is he still picking on you? And my brother looks at my uncle and says, yeah. So my uncle goes and beats this guy up in front of the house. He was a bad man. And he was talking to me one time and he said, yeah. He says, I was at this place and this guy came in and got me mad. So I told him, prepare to meet your maker. I didn't know that's in the Bible. But there it is. And that doesn't say Wettel there. That says, God said it. But what a scary thought. Prepare to meet your maker. Well, the Lord is saying here, prepare to meet your God always, real. Listen, there are two ways that you can prepare to meet your God. One, get right with the Lord. When you're right with God, then the joy and the opportunity of actually seeing Him face to face is something that your life is gonna be wrapped up in longing for. So the day that He comes, the day that you see Him will be a day of joy because you have prepared to meet your God. You know, I've shared this many times. I'll never forgive me for repeating myself, but this is how I learned spiritual lessons. When I was a little boy and I did something wrong, my dad would come home from work and he'd come pulling into the driveway. And when he drove into the driveway and I heard that pickup truck brakes that were squeaking a bit when it stopped, you know, squeak, squeak, squeak.  And cause I'd been bad because when dad came home, I was just gonna have to pay the consequences. So I could have a sense of, oh, no, he's home. But then again, there were times when then I was just anxious for him to come home to see him because I hadn't done anything wrong that day, so it was nice and dad wasn't gonna come home upset in any way and wasn't gonna get any reports of things that I had done that day. And so when my dad would come home, he'd come into the door and my brother and I would run up to him as little boys and I would climb on his leg and my brother would climb on his other leg. My dad walked like Frankenstein with these two little kids on his feet and we were, oh, daddy's home, daddy's home, daddy's home. You can have that attitude. Either you're afraid or you're rejoicing and what I want is to rejoice. I am prepared to meet my God. I am prepared, not because I have done some righteous thing myself, but I am prepared because I came to faith in Jesus Christ and he has made it possible for me to look for joy, to see him and God is speaking to the nation of Israel and saying, listen, I'm going to be dealing with you. You are going to be seeing me. You had better prepare to meet your God. Be ready because every one of us will one day give an account of himself or herself to the Lord. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 10, 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That's why we must be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God knows everything about our lives. Psalm 90, verse eight says, you have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. There's nothing hidden from you. All things are open and revealed to you. You see it and so what the Lord is going to look at in us because of Christ is the blood of Christ that has cleansed us from all sins. So on the one hand, the warning is to all be ready. But on the other hand, for those of us who have gotten right with the Lord, who said, God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner.   I'm not going to try and be religious and be right by attending a church or doing certain religious things. I'm going to follow you because you have saved me.  And I'm prepared to meet you. I'm prepared to meet you. I am prepared to see you face to face. And the Lord says, these are the things that are going to happen. You better be prepared because the one who forms mountains, who creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, makes the morning darkness who treads the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts, is His name. We don't have some wimpy God. We don't have some wimpy God. We have an almighty, powerful living God. And we are prepared to meet Him because we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And this God who does all of that is not only the omnipotent and omniscient, omnipresent God, but he's also our father, our dad. What an amazing thing. If we could let that sink into our spirit tonight. Some of you don't know what it is to have a father who loves you. I understand. You don't know. You didn't have one. And maybe even the concept of a father may be something that isn't even appealing to you. But God is your father. And God loves you. And God provides for you. And God watches over you. And God smiles, if you will, because you're precious to Him. Your sin, no, He hates it. But He loves you. And He knows your weak. And He knows your frail. And He knows that there are times that you do things that you don't want to do. And He is merciful and gracious. And the moment you say, God, be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. He cleanses you and washes you. When you fall down and bruise yourself in life, and you say, God, help me.   God who created the heavens and the earth and everything is your father. Prepare to meet Him. It's not gonna be that long. Prepare to meet Him. And when you see Him face to face, then be prepared to just simply say, God, I love you. Thank you for your grace and your goodness to me. Thank you for Jesus Christ. You died on the cross for me. Thank you for being my father.


Welcome back to another episode of Talk Story with John Waihei. Have we got a special guest for you this afternoon? Taking time from his very busy schedule, dealing with the great problems of the state of Hawaii, we have with us the governor of the state of Hawaii, Governor David Ige. Welcome Governor. It's a pleasure to have you on our show. I think we had you once about a year or so ago. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for inviting me. Well, you know, obviously people are right in the midst of dealing with the coronavirus crisis. So we might as well just go right into that subject. I know that this afternoon you had a press conference. If you don't mind, could you just kind of update us to what was announced at the press conference? Sure. And let me just, I just really do want to take a step back, Governor, because I do want to thank all of your, all of those are watching your program and who may be listening live on audio. I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for your commitment to the state of Hawaii, for really doing all the things that are so necessary to control the virus and really flatten the curve. You know, Hawaii needs the nation in the response to the COVID virus because we have, you know, the lowest number of cases per capita. We have the very low hospitalization, which, you know, demonstrates that our health care system is taking care of the disease. And we are fortunate in that we have amongst the lowest mortality rate in the country. And I think that's really because every citizen has taken on the responsibility of doing what they can to help fight the virus. Thank you, Governor. Thank you for that. I know that the listeners, the think-tack listeners appreciate that and we also thank you for the work that you're doing. Where are we? What was the purpose of the press conference? So the press conference focused on two important things. First and foremost, we did launch the Hawaii Recovery Plan, Beyond Recovery, which really laid out our phases for restoring the local economy. I think it was very important. I know that there's been lots of conversations of competing plans and different people and organizations working on different efforts to restart and reopen Hawaii. And the plan I announced was in conjunction with Mark Muguyishi and the Speaker's COVID Response Task Force. We had broad participation by various stakeholder groups, many in the business community, and obviously the state agencies and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency all collaborated on this Beyond Recovery Plan. So it was a great effort, teamwork on all fronts that got us to this place of a common, thoughtful and phased reopening of the Hawaii economy that will allow us to increase business activity in a safe way. We do anticipate that the number of COVID positives will go up slightly, but we are prepared and able to test, do contact tracing, and most importantly contain any virus infections that we may see occur. Okay, so the plan is announced. Does that mean one of the first questions I received from one of our listeners was he or she wanted to know whether, and I assume that that has happened. Let me see, and the question was, has the Hawaii's occur flattened?  Yes, most definitely, and there's been a number of websites across the country that tracks all of the COVID positive and all of the data that every state is producing, and Hawaii is just one of seven states that actually over the last three weeks have had lower and lower total positive COVID cases across the country. So by every measure of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hawaii is definitely trending lower, and I think most importantly, we've been doing that for now three, four weeks, and feel like the COVID-19 infection in our community is contained and under control. And Governor, if I may ask you, is that pretty much across the whole state? I mean, every island is in that situation, including Oahu, which has the greatest number of people. Yes, and you know, Governor, two weeks ago, I wouldn't be able to say that, and Oahu continued to get cases of COVID-19, but beginning last week and continuing in this week, even Oahu, the number of cases on Oahu, there will be days where there's no cases at all, and the number of cases has been one or two or three, at least for the last two weeks. So all counties are definitely very low single digits, less than five per day. Now, is there, in terms of the phase recovery plan, when do you think or what you hope will be the timeline for returning to allowing inter-island flights, just in-state travel? Yeah, so certainly inter-island, the whole issue of the inter-island quarantine, actually I had a call with the mayors this morning, and we really, I told them I really wanted to talk about inter-island travel. I've had questions from people I know on the neighbor islands. I think everyone knows of a relative or friend who's passed away, funeral services have been delayed, a wide variety of reasons that normally we would be traveling inter-island, but has been put on hold because of the quarantine. So we definitely are talking about it more seriously, talking about what safeguards and screening processes need to be in place, and then we will be making an announcement on inter-island travel. I would say in the next week or so, as I said, and you asked whether every county is the same, I think now all the counties are the same. The number of cases have been below five in all of the counties, even sitting in county of Honolulu. So I think all the mayors feel more comfortable with the notion of allowing inter-island travel. So part of the discussion, for example, would be how close people should be in situations like an airplane or the like. I presume I'm not up on all of this, so that's actually a question, Governor. I mean, what are some of the same things? So a couple of things. There's actually lots of CDC guidance on travel in airplanes and I would like to note that because of the regulations and how much they control circulation of air and all kinds of things on an airplane, it is relatively safe and it hasn't been, I can't think of a single case where we can track back to an individual getting infected on a flight. So, you know, I know the perception is that COVID-19 is tied to travel, but it's more residents traveling somewhere and then getting infected on the mainland and then traveling back home. But it is... Yeah, make sure your Omiyagi is something healthy, right? Yes. And, you know, Governor, I did have the chance to talk with people at Hawaiian Airlines and they are being very cautious and respectful of people's concerns about safety. So they are, even though they're not required to explicitly implement social distancing, they've chosen to, you know, spread people around the aircraft, you know, even on weekends that I think you knew and saw increased traffic on Mondays and Fridays by construction workers and other employees who go to do work on the neighbor islands. And Hawaiian has really implemented social distancing on their flights. They've even added flights, even though the planes are less than half full, they chose to go ahead and add another flight so that they could space the travelers apart and they don't have people sitting in adjacent rows or in adjacent seats. And so definitely during this time, I think it's safe to travel into Ireland once we allow it to happen. Well, that's great, Governor. You know, I can tell you, though, at the end, we opened up the beaches, I guess, this weekend, at least on Oahu. And so my, you know, I took a drive, my wife and I got in the car and took a drive. And people were so happy to be out and about.  But how did all of that turn out? Is that something that it looks like we're going to have and we'll be working for a while?  Yeah, by the way, you still cut, that office still looks great with you in it. Thank you. I'm looking at my old back snob. Yes, yes, it's still the same one. But you know, the people of Hawaii really have a sense of community and they understand the Kuleana and they are more than willing to embrace it. You know, and in this COVID-19 crisis, I am so proud to be Governor of Hawaii because it is so obvious that everybody is paying attention. They are taking the mandate seriously. They're distancing themselves. You know, in other states, they're fighting about whether they have to wear a mask or not. But everyone here, as soon as we said, it's safer for everyone to wear a mask. Everybody was out making masks, you know, doing all of the things that they need to do to keep our community safe. And like you said, you saw it on the beaches. I did talk with Mayor Caldwell and, you know, he was very nervous about opening the beaches. I think we all are because, you know, we see the photos in California and Miami, you know, the chaos that reopening the beaches has caused on the mainland with everybody just piling on and not really listening. But in Hawaii, people paid attention and they were in family groups, you know, they stay distance away from each other six feet. And, you know, so it was obvious that we could reopen the beaches and not see the chaos that was created on the mainland.  It assures me that our people will comply because we all understand how important that for each of us to do our part in keeping our community safe. Well, thank you, Governor. We're going to take a real short break at this time. And we will be right back. Governor of the state of Hawaii, David Igay, talking about the state of the coronavirus pandemic in Hawaii. You know, Governor, I had somebody from the mainland, a friend of mine sent me an email and he said, oh, wow, what's happening? They arrested these people in Hawaii, you know.  I said, you know, we have the lowest, I was aware of that, the lowest contagion, contagious and death rate in the whole nation. And we're proud of that.  And I said, that's something that we can really build on, you know. And I know that you have been working on this issue with the travel industry in Hawaii. But are there plans, you know, plans being drawn up to foresee a time when we might be allowing tourists back into our state? Yeah, you know, certainly, Governor, we know that one in five jobs is dependent on the visitor industry. And really, most of them are unemployed right now. So we need to bring our visitors back. There are a number of states that have actually ordered a mandatory quarantine. But for the most part, it's all lip service in other states. Hawaii is the only state that actually is enforcing and truly implemented a 14-day mandatory quarantine. So, you know, as you noted, we've been working with the counties and the police departments all across the state and working with state law enforcement in the Sheriff's and Attorney General's office to really put some teeth behind the Hawaii mandatory quarantine. So, for example, we did get the courts to agree that when we make an arrest, they were just releasing the violators with no bail at all. And we were able to talk with the Chief Justice and just explain that, you know, they have to impose a $2,000 bail because if they don't, if they just release them, then it makes a mockery of the mandatory quarantine. So that has helped us with enforcement. And as you noted, we are serious and we have arrested, you know, we've done a couple things. We want, if they need to have a confirmed reservation in a hotel in order for them to be here. And we do make sure that they have a reservation and confirmation for the entire period of quarantine. If they leave before the 14 days is up, then we require them to have a confirmation on a flight out of Hawaii so that, you know, what was happening is people would come check into the hotel for a day and then just check out and disappear. And then we would lose them and we wouldn't be certain of where they were. So, even though many states have ordered quarantine, only Hawaii has really implemented them and really made it effective. We have been working with the visitor industry and what I tell them is we need to reinvent the hospitality industry in light of this COVID-19 experience. And I really tell them that it'll never be the same. You know, we have to reinvent every aspect and, you know, it's been heartwarming to meet with hotel industry executives and hear them talk about, as you said, they want the brand of Hawaii to be enhanced post COVID-19. They want to be the self-safest and healthiest hotels. They want to be able to assure their guests that they can get health care and help if they should become ill in the islands. And I think most importantly, they want to let the local residents know that they will be partners in enforcing the quarantine, in enforcing any kind of program that we need to put in place to keep our community safe and allow visitors to return. So really, that's what we've been working on with the airlines, with the hotels, with the travel agents and the tour companies, all partners in creating a better hospitality industry in Hawaii. That's fantastic. I mean, how many societies have a chance to redo something, something important like that? You know, it's so interesting to me, but there are people, as I saw on the internet, there is this Aina Aloha Declaration about using this opportunity to make things more like Hawaii in the future. And I was just thinking, wouldn't it be wonderful if this gave us a moment when we can, when we not only enhance the health of our industry in terms of its tourists coming here, but also an opportunity to, for example, use local products, emphasizing the need to be self-sufficient. I think of the cattle ranchers on the big island who send their cattle off to the mainland to be brought back to, you know, Seoul and Safeway and then in the stores. Yet by all working together, maybe we might first achieve a moment when the industry and the society seems to be running in the same direction. I think there's some, there's a reason to look for the silver lining, I guess that I'm saying. And the Aina Aloha was just one of those opportunities. Yeah, I guess that's what you're trying to tell me. Yeah, that's absolutely correct, Governor. And we are definitely working in every facet with the farmers here to promote self-reliance. You know, we actually want to challenge the ranching industry to stop sending cattle to the mainland for finishing and just have it sold here. We're trying to get our public schools to be 100% self-sufficient. We actually have figured out the procurement and so we're very close for like beef to be all locally sourced for all of the public schools all across the state 100% of the time. So yes, we are using this opportunity to really accelerate our commitment to self-reliance, to being a better industry, for the visitor industry to truly be partners with our community and our residents in recreating a better Hawaii movie. Yeah, get off the numbers. It's not about numbers, it's about quality. And I hear that more and more as we, you know, go through all of this, that this is a chance for us to do something that demonstrates Hawaii's specialness. And I'm so glad you're taking the leadership on that. Yes, absolutely. And it's, the response has been terrific. So, you know, one of the notions that we're talking about in this phase as we hopefully can get to a place of allowing inter-island travel, it's really focusing on the Kama'ina economy and encouraging our residents to experience a staycation in the new hospitality industry 2.0. Yeah, so that they can experience and see what the hotels are going to be doing to keep the guests safe. And I think most importantly, to keep our community safe, to put in place health requirements that would keep sick people in the hotels and separated from other guests, as well as the local residents. Well, I got to ask you this, Gal.  But when I was much younger, my hair was down to my shoulders, you know, and I used to be all fuzzy.  And my wife is already threatening to just cut it off herself, you know. When do you think we'll be able to have those kinds of services brought back, if at all? Well, so certainly, Governor, we've evaluated all the businesses and industries in terms of risk and restaurants and personal services. So hair salons, hairdressers, barbershops are considered medium risk businesses. And so we are actually very close to restarting all of those activities. County of Maui has announced that they're going to allow barbershops and hair salons to reopen on May 25th. Oh, great. Yeah. So, and I'm certain that... I hope the airlines get there. I'll fly over to Maui, cut this hair. Yes. Keep peace in my family. No, Governor, I just want to let you know my hair was getting too long for me and Don cut my hair this weekend. If I wear a mask, can I come over to the governor's residence? I certainly will let her know that she might have a second customer. It's not bad. It looks really good. Yeah, no, she did a good job. I was very, very nervous. But she seemed to have done a good job. Are you keeping in touch with your children and how they're doing in... I know they're... I guess they're in Washington, right? Yeah, well, so as you know, Gav, I have three kids. My oldest daughter, Lauren, is in Washington, D.C., on lockdown. Yeah, she's kind of stir crazy. I'm my middle daughter, Amy. She's married to my son-in-law, Anthony, is a Navy pilot, and he just got deployed to Japan last week. So she's kind of on her own. She's living in Mount Vernon in Washington State. It's about 45 minutes north of Seattle. And my youngest son, Matthew, is working for Microsoft in Bellevue. And he was just informed that Microsoft will let them work from home until October. So I'm really encouraging him to come home because he can. And he can work from Hawaii or he can work from home. But I don't think I'll be successful. Well, you know, for all families that are listening to us and all families going through that, we obviously wish them the best. And we wish you and your family the best, Governor. And we look forward to your leadership as we come out of this crisis. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for inviting me. And I appreciate it. Thank you, Heraloja.


Welcome to the anxious morning every weekday morning will take a few minutes to go over important lessons that you can use in your anxiety recovery journey The anxious morning brings you support education inspiration encouragement and empowerment Read or listen quietly on your own time free of the endless noisy scroll of social media Use the information to help you along the path to recovery from panic disorder Agoraphobia and other anxiety problems for more visit us at the anxious morning calm I often talk and write about being mindful of your habits when it comes to talking about your anxiety There are some anxious people that default to silence. They withdraw isolate and never talk about how they feel My experience tells me that they are in the minority or at least at the nature of building an online community Based on anxiety disorders self-selects for people more likely to want to talk about all of this If you're reading this email, I'm guessing that you want to talk about how you feel You want to tell people how you feel you want to ask if anyone else feels that way You may want to ask me why you feel that way and what you can do about it You may find yourself talking about this most of the time This does seem logical since you're probably also thinking about this most of the time If you're thinking about it, you're gonna want to talk about it. It makes sense The problem here is that talking about how you feel all the time is not terribly productive When we're hyper focused on the sensations of anxiety and the thoughts that come with it Talking about them in an effort to solve them stop them or otherwise sooth them has the opposite effect We become fixated even more intently on them and that's not even the worst part The worst part is that when we talk about our anxiety constantly we make it the most important thing in the room all the time Recovery is about not making anxiety the most important thing even when it is screaming at you to pay attention to it We learn to detach from it and let it be Recovery is about learning that you can be capable and functional Even while anxious because anxiety does not have to be the center of the universe at all times This means we have to catch ourselves when we fall into the habit of speaking our fears out loud repeatedly or Talking continuously about how we feel. This is not easy. Part of recovery is learning to change our habit of anxious words Remaining silent when our fear tells us to speak so that we may be saved is so difficult But it is an important part of moving forward Tomorrow we'll talk about the differences between repeated speaking of fear and expressing yourself in a healthy way Hey, if you're enjoying the podcast and you'd like to get a copy of it delivered every morning into your email inbox Including a full-text transcription head on over to the anxious morning dot email and sign up for the newsletter And if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or someplace where you can leave us a rating or review Take a moment and rate the podcast and maybe write a small review. It really helps us out Or just tell a friend about us. Thanks a lot


All of these Dodgers, Padres games have been pretty intense so far. First pitch from Kershaw to Profar goes into the stands and this dude skirted around his wife or the woman next to him in the white hat to get a better beat on the ball. He loses. It goes right to where he would have been. She picks it up, rubs it in his face. Then she gives it to this Padres fan who gets oddly very emotional about it and then back to Kershaw. He finds himself into a 3-2 count against Profar. Goes right down the middle and jerks in and says, no, no, no, catchers interference. I hit his glove. Tom, I hit his glove. He's like, I didn't hear anything. I didn't have that. He's like, coach, I hit his glove. I hit his catchers interference. I hit his glove. So Tingler comes out to ask the umpire what he thinks about. He says, hold up, let me ask my friends. You guys want to watch a replay of this? They say, absolutely we do. Let's go check on him. I've never seen this before and I don't know if it's in the rulebook. If the bat hits the glove, that's catchers interference. Usually it has to impede with the swing, but like the ball is already in the catcher's glove before he hits the ball. So the glove did not impede the bat's path to the ball because the ball was already in the glove. I don't know how this rule is phrased in the rulebook if it covers this or if it's just like doesn't cover it, but yeah, Kershaw's right. That should not be catchers interference.      And then he tells the umpire, says that should not be getting checked on. Gives him a little dagger. They're like, we're checking anyway. Little passive aggressive thumbs up and good job from Kersh. Always nice. Good job.  It's the glove impedes in a real swing. I'm with Kershaw here. I don't know if like Profar did it on purpose. Like he should claim that he did this on purpose because then maybe it's like, Hey, that's that's heads up baseball. You're doing what you can. But if he's claiming that that's just like a swing, it's almost a worst look for him if he declares this not on purpose. If you catch what I'm saying, because if he's just like, no, that's a swing that's bad. And you can hear him say, you can see him say to Muncie here.  Like I do that on purpose. And Muncie's like, no, no, no, you're good. You're good. And he says, I'm battling. What are you wanting to do? You know,