Chapter 33 of The Last of the Mohicans, a narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 33. Quote, They fought like brave men, long and well. They piled that ground with Muslim slain. They conquered, but Bozaris fell, bleeding at every vein. His few surviving comrade saw his smile when rang their loud hurrah, and the red field was won. They saw in death his eyelids closed, calmly, as two at night's repose, like flowers at set of sun. Unquote from Halleck. The sun found the canopy on the seceding day, a nation of mourners. The sounds of the battle were over, and they had fed fat their ancient grudge, and had avenged their recent quarrel with the Mengui, by the destruction of a whole community. The black and murky atmosphere that floated around the spot where the Hurrans had encamped sufficiently announced of itself the fate of that wandering tribe. While hundreds of ravens that struggled above the summits of the mountains, or swept in noisy flocks across the wide ranges of the woods, furnished a frightful direction to the scene of the combat. In short, any eye at all practiced in the signs of a frontier warfare might easily have traced all those unerring evidences of the ruthless results which attend an Indian vengeance. Still, the sun rose on the canopy a nation of mourners. No shouts of success, no songs of triumph were heard in rejoicings for the victory.  Pride and exultation were supplanted by humility, and the fiercest of human passions was already seceded by the most profound and unequivocable demonstrations of grief. The lodges were deserted, but a broad belt of earnest faces encircled a spot in their vicinity wither everything possessing life had repaired, and where all were now collected in deep and awful silence. The beings of every rank and age of both sexes and of all pursuits had united to form this breathing wall of bodies. They were influenced by a single emotion. Each eye was riveted on the center of that ring which contained the objects of so much and of so common an interest. Six Delaware girls, with their long, dark flowing tresses falling loosely across their bosoms, stood apart and only gave proof of their existence as they occasionally strewed sweet-scented herbs and forest-flowers on a litter of fragrant plants that under a pall of Indian robes supported all that remained of the ardent, high-sold and generous Quora. Her form was concealed in many wrappers of the same simple manufacture, and her face was shut for ever from the gaze of men. At her feet was seated the desolate Monroe. His aged head was bowed nearly to the earth in compelled submission to the stroke of Providence, but a hidden anguish struggled about his furrowed brow that was only partially concealed by the careless locks of gray that had fallen neglected on his temples. Groot stood at his side. His meek head bared to the rays of the sun, while his eyes, wandering and concerned, seemed to be equally divided between that little volume which contained so many quaint but holy maxims and the being in whose behalf his soul yearned to administer consolation. Hayward was also nigh, supporting himself against the tree and endeavoring to keep down the sudden risings of sorrow that required his utmost manhood to subdue. But sad and melancholy as this group may easily be imagined, it was far less touching than another that occupied the opposite space of the same area. Seated, as in life, with his form and limbs arranged in grave and decent composure, Uncus appeared a raid in the most gorgeous ornaments that the wealth of the tribe could furnish. Rich plumes knotted before his head, wampum, gorgots, bracelets, and medals adorned his person in profusion, though his dull eye and vacant liniments too strongly contradicted the idle tale of pride they would convey. Directly in front of the corpse Chinchguch Cook was placed without arms, paint, or adornment of any sort except the bright blue blazonry of his race that was indelibly impressed on his naked bosom. During the long period that the tribe had thus been collected, the Mohican warrior had kept a steady, anxious look on the cold and senseless countenance of his son. So riveted and intense had been that gaze, and so changeless his attitude that a stranger might not have told the living from the dead, but for the occasional gleamings of a troubled spirit that shot a thwart the dark visage of one, and the deathlike calm that for ever settled on the liniments of the other. The scout was hard by, leaning in a pensive posture on his own fatal and avenging weapon, while timonant, supported by the elders of his nation, occupied a high place at hand, once he might look down on the mute and sorrowful assemblage of his people. Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier in the military attire of a strange nation, and without it was his war-horse. In the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness to undertake some distant journey, the vestments of the stranger announced him to be one who held a responsible situation near the person of the captain of the canadas, and who, as it would now seem, finding his errand of peace frustrated by the fierce impetuosity of his allies, was the content to become a silent and sad spectator of the fruits of a contest, that he arrived too late to anticipate. The day was drawing to the close of its first quarter, and yet had the multitude maintained its breathing silence since its dawn. No sound louder than a stifled sob had been heard among them, nor had even a limb been moved throughout that long and painful period except to perform the touching offerings that were made from time to time in commemoration of the dead. The patience and forbearance of the Indian fortitude could alone support such an appearance of abstraction as seemed now to have turned each dark and motionless figure into stone. At length the sage of the Delaware stretched forth an arm, and leaning on the shoulders of his attendants, he arose with an air as feeble as if another age had already intervened between the man who had met his nation the preceding day, and him who now tottered on his elevated stand. Men of the Lennipede! He said in low, hollow tones, that sounded like a voice charged with some prophetic mission. The face of Manitou is behind a cloud. His eye is turned from you. His ears are shut. His tongue gives no answer. You see him not, yet his judgments are before you.  Men of the Lennipede! The face of the Manitou is behind a cloud. As the simple and yet terrible enunciation stole on the ears of the multitude, a stillness as deep and awful seceded as if the venerated spirit they worshipped had uttered the words without the aid of human organs. And even the inanimate Uncus appeared a being of life, compared with the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded. As the immediate effect, however, gradually passed away, a low murmur of voices commenced a sort of chant in honor of the dead. The sounds were those of females, and were thrillingly soft and wailing. The words were connected by no regular continuation, but as one ceased another took up the eulogy or lamentation, whichever it might be called, and gave vent to her emotions in such language as was suggested by her feelings and the occasion. At intervals the speaker was interrupted by general and loud burst of sorrow, during which the girls around the beer of Korah plucked the plants and flowers blindly from her body, as if bewildered with grief. But in the milder moments of their playing, these emblems of purity and sweetness were cast back to their places, with every sign of tenderness and regret. Though rendered less connected by many in general interruptions and outbreakings, a translation of their language would have contained a regular descant, which in substance might have proved to possess a train of consecutive ideas. A girl selected for the task by her rank in qualifications commenced by modest delusions to the qualities of the deceased warrior, embellishing her expressions with those oriental images that the Indians have probably brought with them from the extremes of the other continent and which form of themselves a link to connect the ancient history of the two worlds. She called him the panther of his tribe, and described him as one whose moccasin left no trail on the doos, whose bound was like the leap of a young fawn, whose eye was brighter than a star in the dark night, and whose voice, in battle, was loud as the thunder of Manitou. She reminded him of the mother who bore him, and dealt forcibly on the happiness she must feel in possessing such a son. She bade him tell her, when they met in the world of spirits, that the Delaware's had shed tears above the grave of her child, and had called her blessed. Then, they who seceded, changing their tones to a milder and still more tender strain, eluded with the delicacy and sensitiveness of women, to the stranger maiden who had left the upper earth at a time so near his own departure as to render the will of the great spirit too manifest to be disregarded, they admonished him to be kind to her, and to have consideration for her ignorance of those arts which were so necessary to the comfort of a warrior like himself. They dwelled upon her matchless beauty, and on her noble resolution, without the taint of envy, and as angels may be thought to delight in superior excellence, adding that these endowments should prove more than equivalent for any little imperfection in her education. After which others again, in due succession, spoke to the maiden herself in the low, soft language of tenderness and love. They exhorted her to be of cheerful mind, and to fear nothing for her future welfare. A hunter would be her companion, who knew how to provide for her smallest ones, and a warrior was at her side who was able to protect her against every danger. They promised that her path should be pleasant and her burden light. They cautioned her against unavailing regrets for the friends of her youth, and the scenes where her father had dwelt, assuring her that the blessed hunting grounds of the Lennipi contained veils as pleasant, streams as pure, and flowers as sweet as the heaven of the palefaces. They advised her to be attentive to the wants of her companion, and never to forget the distinction which the Manitou had so wisely established between them. Then in a wild burst of their chant they sang with united voices the temper of the Mohican's mind. They pronounced him noble, manly, and generous, all that became a warrior, and all that they made might love. Clothing their ideas in the most remote and subtle images, they betrayed that in the short period of their intercourse they had discovered, with the intuitive perception of their sex, the true disposition of his inclinations. The Delaware girls had found no favor in his eyes. He was of a race that had once been lords on the shores of the Salt Lake, and his wishes had led him back to a people who dwelt about the graves of his fathers. Why should not such a predilection be encouraged, that she was a blood purer and richer than the rest of her nation? Any eye might have seen, that she was equal to the dangers and daring of a life in the woods. Her conduct had proved, and now they added, the wise one of the earth had transplanted her to a place where she would find congenial spirits, and might be forever happy. Then with another transition in voice and subject, allusions were made to the version who wept in the adjacent lodge. They compared her to flakes of snow, as pure, as white, as brilliant, and as liable to melt in the fierce heats of summer, or congeal in the frost of winter. They doubted not that she was lovely in the eyes of the young chief, whose skin and whose sorrow seemed so like her own. But the far from expressing such a preference it was evident they deemed her less excellent than the maid they mourned. Still they denied her no need her rare charms might properly claim. Her ringlets were compared to the exuberant tendrils of the vine. Her eye to the blue vault of heavens, and the most spotless cloud with its glowing flush of the sun, was admitted to be less attractive than her bloom. During these and similar songs nothing was audible but the murmurs of the music, relieved as it was, or rather rendered terrible, by those occasional bursts of grief, which might be called its choruses, the Delaware's themselves listened like charmed men. And it was very apparent, by the variations of their speaking countenances, how deep and true was their sympathy. Even David was not reluctant to lend his ears to the tones of voices so sweet, and long ere the chant was ended, his gaze announced that his soul was enthralled. The scout, to whom alone of all the white men, the words were intelligible, suffered himself to be a little aroused from his meditative posture, and bent his face aside to catch their meaning as the girls proceeded. But when they spoke of the future prospects of Cora and Uncus, he shook his head like one who knew the error of their simple creed, and resuming his reclining attitude, he maintained it until the ceremony, if that might be called a ceremony in which feeling was so deeply imbued, was finished. Happily for the self-command of both Hayward and Monroe, they knew not the meaning of the wild sounds they heard. Chinch-Gochuk was the solitary exception to the interests manifested by the native part of the audience. His look never changed throughout the whole of the scene, nor did a muscle move in his rigid countenance. Even at the wildest or most pathetic parts of the lamentation, the cold and senseless remains of his son was all to him, and every other sense but that of sight seemed frozen in order that his eyes might take their final gaze at those liniments which he had so long loved and which were now about to be closed for ever from his view. In this stage of obescus, a warrior much renowned for deed in arms, and more especially for services in the recent combat, a man of stern and graved demeanor advanced slowly from the crowd, and placed himself nigh the person of the dead. Why has thou lift us pride of the Wappanachki? he said, addressing himself to the dull ears of Uncus, as if the empty clay retained the faculties of the animated man. Thy time has been like that of the sun when in the trees, thy glory brighter than his light at Noonday. Thou art gone, youthful warrior, but a hundred Wyandots are clearing the briars from thy path to the world of the spirits. Who that saw thee in battle would believe that thou couldst die? Who before thee has ever shown Ottawa the way into the fight? Thy feet were like the wings of eagles, thine arm heavier than falling branches from the pine, and thy voice like the manateau when he speaks in the clouds. The tongue of Ottawa, his weak, he added, looking about him with a melancholy gaze, and his heart is exceeding heavy. Pride of the Wappanachki, why hast thou left us? He was seceded by others in due order, until the most high and gifted men of the nation had sung or spoken their tribute of praise over the mains of the deceased chief. When each had ended, another deep and breathing silence reigned in all the place. Then a low, deep sound was heard, like the suppressed accompaniment of distant music rising just high enough on the air to be audible, and yet, so indistinctly, as to leave its character and the place once it proceeded, unlike matters of conjecture. It was, however, seceded by another and another strain, each in a higher key, until they grew on the ear, first in long-drawn and often repeated interjections, and finally in words. The lips of Chinggachkuk had so far parted as to announce that it was the monody of the Father. Though not an eye was turned toward him, nor the smallest sign of impatient exhibited, it was apparent, by the manner in which the multitude elevated their heads to listen, that they drank in the sounds with an intenseness of attention, that none but Tamanund himself had ever before commanded. But they listened in vain. Their strains rose just so loud as to become intelligible, and then grew fainter and more trembling, until they finally sank on the ear, as if borne away by a passing breath of wind. The lips of the Sagan were closed, and he remained silent in his seat, speaking with his riveted eye in motionless form, like some creature that had been turned from the almighty hand, with the form but without the spirit of a man. The Delaware's, who knew by these symptoms that their mind or their friend was not prepared for some mighty an effort of fortitude, relaxed their attention, and, with innate delicacy, seemed to bestow all their thoughts on the abescus of the stranger maiden. A signal was given by one of the elder chiefs, through the women who crowded that part of the circle near which the body of Cora lay. Obedient to the sign, the girls raised the beer to the elevation of their heads, and advanced with slow and regulated steps, chanting as they proceeded another welling song in praise of the deceased. Who had been a close observer of the rites he deemed so heathenish. Now bent his head over the shoulder of the unconscious father, whispering, They move with the remnants of thy child, shall we not follow, and see them interred with Christian burial? Monroe started, as if the last trumpet had sounded in his ear, bestowing one anxious and hurried glance around him. He arose and followed in the simple train, with the mean of a soldier, but bearing the full burden of a parent's suffering. His friends pressed around him with a sorrow that was too strong to be termed sympathy. Even the young Frenchman, joining in the procession, with the air of a man who was sensibly touched at the early and melancholy fate of one so lovely. But when the last and humblest female of the tribe had joined in the wild and yet ordered array, the men of the Lenape contracted their circle and formed again around the person of Uncus, as silent, as grave, and as motionless as before. The place that had been chosen for the grave of Cora was a little knoll, where a cluster of young and healthful pines had taken root, forming of themselves a melancholy and appropriate shade over the spot. On reaching it the girls deposited their burden, and continued for many minutes waiting with characteristic patience and native timidity for some evidence that they whose feelings were most concerned were content with the arrangement, at length the scout who alone understood their habits said in their own language. My daughters have done well. The white men thanked them. Satisfied with this testimony in their favor, the girls proceeded to deposit the body in a shell, ingeniously and not inelegantly fabricated of the bark of the birch, after which they lowered into its dark and final abode. The ceremony of covering the remains and concealing the marks of the fresh earth by leaves and other natural and customary objects was conducted with the same simple and silent forms. But when the labors of the kind beings who had performed these sad and friendly offices were so far completed, they hesitated, in a way to show that they knew not how much further they might proceed, it was in this stage of the rites that the scout again dressed them. My young women have done enough, he said. The spirit of the pale face has no need of food or raiment, their gifts being according to the heaven of their color. I see, he added, glancing an eye at David, who was preparing his book in a manner that indicated an intention to lead the way in sacred song, that one who better knows the Christian fashions is about to speak. The female stood modestly aside, and, from having been the principal actors in the scene, they now became the meek and attentive observers of that which followed. During the time, David occupied in pouring out the pious feelings of his spirits in this manner, not a sign of surprise nor a look of impatience escaped them. They listened like those who knew the meaning of the strange word, and appeared as if they felt the mingled emotions of sorrow, hope, and resignation they were intended to convey. Excited by the scene he had just witnessed, and perhaps influenced by his own secret emotions, the master of song exceeded his usual efforts. His full rich voice was not found to suffer by a comparison with the soft tones of the girls, and his more modulated strains possessed, at least for the ears of those to whom they were peculiarly addressed, the additional power of intelligence. He ended the anthem as he had commenced it, in the midst of a grave and solemn stillness. When, however, the clothes and cadence had fallen on the ears of his auditors, the secret, timorous glances of the eyes, and the general and yet subdued movement of the assemblage, we trade that something was expected from the father of the deceased. When Rose seemed sensible that the time was come for him to exert what is perhaps the greatest effort of which human nature is capable, he bared his gray locks, and looked around the timid and quiet throng by which he was encircled, with a firm and collected countenance. Then motioning with his hands for the scout to listen, he said, Say to these kind and gentle females that a heart-broken and failing man returns them his thanks. Tell them that the being we all worship, under different names, will be mindful of their charity, and that the time shall not be distant when we may assemble around his throne without distinction of sex, rank, or color. The scout listened to the tremulous voice in which the veteran delivered these words, and shook his head slowly when they were ended, as one who doubted their efficacy. To tell them this, he said, would be to tell them that the snows come not in the winter, or that the sun shines fiercest when the trees are stripped of their leaves. Then turning to the women, he made such a communication of the other's gratitude, as he deemed most suited to the capabilities of his listeners. The head of Monroe had already sunk upon his chest, and he was again fast relapsing into melancholy when the young Frenchman, before named, ventured to touch him lightly on the elbow. As soon as he had gained the attention of the morning old man, he pointed toward a group of young Indians who approached with a light but closely covered litter, and then pointed upward toward the sun. I understand you, sir, return Monroe. With a voice of forced firmness, I understand you. It is the will of heaven, and I submit, Cora, my child. If the prayers of a heartbroken father could avail thee now, how blessed should still be! Come, gentlemen! he added, looking about him with an air of lofty composure, though the anguish that quivered in his faded countenance was far too powerful to be concealed. Our duty here is ended. Let us depart! Hayward gladly obeyed his summons that took them for a spot where, each instant, he felt his self-control was about to desert him. While his companions were mounting, however, he found time to press the hand of the scout, and to repeat the terms of an engagement they had made to meet again within the post of the British Army. Then, gladly throwing himself into the saddle, he spurred his charger to the side of the litter whence low and stifled sobs alone announced the presence of Alice. In this manner, the head of Monroe again drooping on his bosom with Hayward and David following in sorrowing silence, and attended by the aid of Moncombe with his guard, all the white men, with the exception of Hawkeye, passed before the eyes of the Delaware's, and were buried in the vast forest of that region. But the tie, which through their common calamity had united the feelings of these simple dwellers of the woods, with the strangers who had thus transiently visited them, was not so easily broken. Years passed away before the traditionary tale of the white maiden, and of the young warrior the Mohicans ceased to beguile the long nights and tedious marches, or to animate their youthful and brave with a desire for vengeance. Neither were the secondary actors in these momentous incidents forgotten. Through the medium of the scout who served for years afterward as they linked between them and civilized life, they learned in answer of their inquiries that the gray head was speedily gathered to his father's, worn down as was erroneously believed, by his military misfortunes, and that the open hand had conveyed his surviving daughter far into the settlements of the palefaces, where her tears had at last ceased to flow, and had been seceded by the bright smiles, which were better suited to her joyous nature. But these events were of a time latter than which concerns our tale. Deserted by all of his color, Hawkeye returned to the spot where his sympathies led him, with a force that no ideal bond of union could destroy. He was just in time to catch a parting look of the features of Uncus, who the Delaware's were already enclosing in his last vestment of skins. They paused to permit the longing and lingering gaze of the sturdy woodsmen, and when it was ended the body was enveloped, never to be enclosed again. Then came a procession like the other, and the whole nation was collected about the temporary grave of the chief. Temporary because it was proper that, at some future day, his bones should rest among those of his own people. The movement like the feeling had been simultaneous and general, the same grave expression of grief, the same rigid silence, and the same deference to the principal mourner were observed around the place of internment, as have been already described. The body was deposited in an attitude of repose facing the rising sun, with the implements of war and of the chase at hand in readiness for the final journey. An opening was left in the shell by which it was protected from the soil, for the spirit to communicate with its earthly tenement when necessary, and the hole was concealed from the instinct and protected from the ravages of the beast of prey, with an ingenuity peculiar to the natives. The manual rites then ceased, and all present reverted to the more spiritual part of the ceremonies. Czengochkoch became once more the object of the common attention. He had not yet spoken. And something consolatory and instructive was expected from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such interest. Conscious of the wishes of the people, the stern and self-restrained warrior raised his face, which had laterally been buried in his robe, and looked about him with a steady eye. His firmly compressed and expressive lips then severed, and for the first time during the long ceremonies his voice was distinctly audible. Why do my brothers mourn, he said, regarding the dark race of dejected warriors by whom he was environed. Why do my daughters weep? That a young man has gone to the happy hunting grounds? That a chief has filled his time with honour? He was good. He was dutiful. He was brave. Who can deny it? The manateau had need of such a warrior, and he has called him away. As for me, the son and the father of Angus, I am a blazed pine in a clearing of the palefaces. My race has gone from the shores of the Salt Lake and the hills of the Delaware's. But who can say that the serpent of his tribe, his forgotten, his wisdom? I am alone. No, no, cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the rigid features of his friend with something like his own self-command, but whose philosophy could endure no longer. No, Sagamore, not alone. The gifts of our colors may be different, but God so placed us as to journey in the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, no people. He was your son, and a red skin by nature, and it may be that your blood was near, but if ever I forget the lad who has so often fought at my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may he who made us all, whatever may be our color or our gifts, forget me. The boy has left us for a time, but, Sagamore, you are not alone. Chinchkauch cook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling the scout had stretched across the fresh earth, and in an attitude of friendship those two sturdy and intrepid woodsmen bowed their together, while scalding tears, while scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncus, like drops of falling rain, in the midst of the awful stillness with which such a burst of feeling coming as it did from the two most renowned warriors of that region was received. Tamanund lifted his voice to disperse the multitude. It is enough, he said. Co-children of the Lannopy, the anger of Manitou, is not done. Why should Tamanund stay? The pale faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has not yet come again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the suns of Unamis, happy and strong, and yet before the night has come have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans. End of chapter 33. End of The Last of the Mohicans. A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper. This reading by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania. In January of 2008. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org.


What if I said to you You know, I've got a I've got a five-year-old child It's my fourth son.  Why not? And and you say to me, but Charles if you did that then you would get prosecuted for child neglect and He wouldn't take care of you in your old age and what would the neighbors think? And I say, yeah, you're right. I better take care of them Can you see how that echoes a lot of environmental a lot of the environmental narrative today? Especially the climate narrative which says the reason that we've got to take better care of this pile of Resources is that if we don't for now a little more clever a little more Forsightful than bad things are gonna happen to us. Can you see that there's a problem here and that even if I agree with you? And I say, yes, you're right. I better take better care of my son. I'm not gonna take very good care of him He's not going to thrive Because really what you need what I need is to be connected with my love of this being Then I'm going to know how to take care of him Beyond what anything can be Prescribed or enforced or regulated because it's gonna be coming from a relationship I think that the planetary crisis that we call climate change is Almost you can almost say meant to bring us to that realization to bring us to that relationship of love because the Losses that we are seeing are connecting us with the reality of this living being here so To recognize What might be called legal personhood for for beings of nature for rivers for mountains for for land That is a step toward this new and ancient relationship to the rest of life and It's not just a philosophy Because sometimes it seems like okay. Yes, we should do that and thereby demonstrate our respect for indigenous people and and we get to To to be kind of politically correct, you know by doing that Along with learning Maori language and things like that, but then let's get to the nuts and bolts I mean here's the carbon budget here the planetary boundaries, you know, let's let's Formulate some policies to get those numbers down They seem to be in two separate realms what I have learned in my research that I've been doing for the book that That Matthew mentioned is that these are not two separate realms that in fact the Things that people do to protect and restore and heal land Are exactly the same things that we need to do to maintain a Healthy biosphere and a healthy climate Much more than science has realized science is beginning to appreciate how for example regenerative agriculture can increase carbon sequestration and Reduce levels of greenhouse gases that's a hint of of of this connection between the local and the global too often the climate narrative Directs us toward global solutions at the expense of The local solutions that come from our love and connection to actual pieces of land And it makes it seem like well, yeah, we could cut down this forest here because we could plant another one there We can offset things so the result is that It's Somebody else who can do the work. That's not true when we're connected to the to the to the welfare To the well-being of a particular river or a particular farm We can't say well, I'll destroy this one because I can love something somewhere else Instead we're connected to be in deep service to what's in front of our faces


The Iron Spirit exercise that we're conducting here today, this is to really build camaraderie and engage with our NATO allies to build trust and friendship and to promote that unity that NATO represents. All the nations that we have here today would be the United States, the British, the Italians, the Germans, the Dutch, and the Polish as well. So we're here to again see who's the best of the best. It's a really neat opportunity and a unique opportunity to see what the other countries can do and show them what we can do as well as just to get to know how the other countries operate, get to talk with their soldiers, their NCOs, and their officers that are all here, getting to build relationships with them because if we do get called on by NATO to fight we're going to be fighting together so we need to know what each other can do and that we can work together. The benefit of this competition is twofold. Firstly to reassure the Baltic states that we're here and we're serious about defending their sovereign territory, but also to deter any potential enemies and show them that we are ready to fight at a moment's notice and to destroy anyone that needs to be destroyed. I came out here for Iron Spirit to shoot a little competition with NATO countries. We ended up taking first place in my crew, Cogro 1-2. We made some friends with the other allies, had some good times, some laughs, and got to check out the rest of the units that were out here and seeing what our NATO partners have to offer us basically. So it was a really good time and it was a pleasure to be out here and shooting with these guys. This team has to work together. Staff Sergeant Brent Ross came out here for Iron Spirit to shoot a little competition with NATO countries. Competition wasn't what we actually thought it was going to be like, thought it was going to kind of be a little bit of a gunnery style for us, but it was actually one target engagement so we kind of had a really solid advantage over the rest of the countries and crews. We ended up taking first place in my crew, Cogro 1-2. So a really good time and it was a pleasure to be out here and shooting with these guys. It's this team that has to work together!


All right, we're gonna be looking today at First Thessalonians chapter five. We're looking at verses 15 through 18.  I'll give it, I'll give to you a few reminders so that those of you who are joining us today and haven't been part of this study might be up to speed as we get into the verses we'll be looking at. But we're gonna be looking at verses 15 through 18 in chapter five as we're moving towards concluding our study here in First Thessalonians. So let's begin reading in First Thessalonians chapter five at verse 15, I'll read to verse 18 and we'll get into our study. Paul writes, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And so as we're going through this particular portion of scripture and as we've been going through First Thessalonians, Paul has just spoken to the church in given an order. He had given commands related to being at peace in the church. Remember here in verse 13 as he concludes it in chapter five he had commanded be at peace among yourselves. And so he ordered them to be at peace. Now up until this chapter in this book Paul has been basically commending the health of the church. From chapter one you can see his commendations. Good things he's saying about these Thessalonian believers. He began in chapter one by speaking of their faith and their love, he spoke of their patience of hope. He gave reference to the spirit filled power that they evidenced, their faithfulness. He went on to commend their steadfastness under affliction and persecution, their evangelistic efforts, how they rejected idolatry and became a testimony to the lands around them. And he also commended them because they were patiently awaiting the return of Jesus Christ. As he went through this book he got to the point where he began to express to them his fatherly concern. And he responded in writing to the fact that they loved him and he spoke as if he was one who loved them very much also. He exhorted them to live in a way that pleases God. He exhorted them to live sexually pure lives. He also said that they were to lead a quiet and productive life and he said you're also to encourage one another to live for Jesus Christ. Now as all of this is taking place he makes reference to the leadership in the church and we saw this last time that we were together. In verse 12 he had said we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. And so when he had said in verse 12 to recognize those who labor among you and are over you the word recognized speaks of valuing or esteeming highly. So we're saying in all of this I wanna remind you that your leadership was placed there for a reason and you should value them. You should esteem them highly for the work that they're doing for the Lord amongst you. They should be honored for this. You see the elders were not only just there as people in the church but they were also there involved in the members of the church's lives and that's what elders do. They actually get involved in the lives of the people who are going to fellowship and so sometimes when they get involved in the lives of people in the fellowship they have to bring corrections and that's what he was saying in verse 14 when he had spoken really directly to the elders and he had said we exhort you brethren warn those who are in really comfort they faint hearted at uphold the week and be patient with all. That was a word to the elders because he had just said be at peace amongst yourself and those who are gonna be involved in helping the peace to remain was gonna be the leadership of the church. So the spiritual overseers taught them, cared for them, visited them, protected them and they should be honored for their labor as well as their love and instead of being resented as people who were intruders in their personal lives they should be valued for the things that they do. You see the leaders that he's speaking about loved the sheep and because they did they should be loved by the sheep in return. The sheep needed to understand something they needed to understand that the church is an organized organism and under the organization God has placed leadership in that church and the leadership there is actually a gift to the sheep. The leaders of the church are actually a gift to the body of Christ. We know that because Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 says that. It says he himself gave some to be apostles some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipment of the saints for the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. God himself gifted the church with leadership is what he's saying there the word gave there speaks of a gift that was given to the church. That reminds me at Jeremiah 315 where God says I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. I will give you shepherds according to my heart and that's what the Lord has done. And so by because of this they should be esteemed highly for the work's sake. Again we saw in 1st Timothy 517 how Paul had said let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine. And so by submitting to the Lord in proper biblical leadership there's gonna be peace in the body of Christ. And that's why he speaks concerning the unruly and the faint hearted the weak members they should be exhorted and they should be encouraged and that ensures peace will exist in the church in the midst of the pressure that the church is finding itself under. And so as we're looking at these other verses verse 15 through 18 the following instructions are again given to the whole church and they follow logically after his command to be at peace amongst themselves. So in the face of discord within the church be careful not to seek to retaliate. This desire for vengeance, this desire to get back at somebody is to be avoided at all costs. You see few things undermine the gospel of peace more than a church that's always fighting. There's few things that undermine the message of the gospel more than church members who don't get along. People who are always on each other's case always in each other's face. Church wars and factions are carnal, they're worldly and they're destructive to the mission of the body of Christ and that's one reason Paul commanded Christians to pursue peace. In the book of Ephesians again in chapter eight or rather chapter four verse three he said endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Think about this for a minute. Even as he has just said in verse 13 be at peace amongst yourself. There are a lot of letters that Paul wrote where he would actually give an exhortation for the church to be at peace. And it's something I wanted to share with you for a few moments because Paul had to deal with this unity many times in various churches. And you'll see that in a lot of churches the Corinthians come to mind but there are other churches that he would speak concerning the church needing to have a unity of spirit but one that stands out is in the book of Philippians. When you read the book of Philippians you need to remember some basic things concerning the letters that would be sent out. You see what would happen is Paul would write a letter and the letter ultimately would be taken and delivered by somebody. And so we'll pretend for a moment we'll say that I'm like the, we'll say I'm apostle Paul and I'm writing my letter and so I write to the Philippians. And as I write this I have a somebody who's gonna take that letter because you may wonder how did they get these letters and all you need to remember that the church was receiving letters in the beginning that ultimately were collected and made the New Testament. And so Paul would be writing many of these letters and so when he wrote the letter he would give it to a messenger. The messenger would take that letter and would take it to the church that it was addressed to. So Paul writes a letter to the Philippian church and as he writes he's given him commendation he's speaking to them and all it was for the whole church to hear. And so we'll say Paul writes the letter it's sent by the messenger. The messenger goes to the pastor of the church and says to the pastor I have a letter that Paul has sent to be read to the church. That's how it would be. Word would go out to the whole church. We have a letter from Paul and we're gonna collect on Sunday together and we're gonna hear the letter read to us. So picture yourself like that was us right now. So the word has gone out. There's a letter we've received. You've all come to hear the letter and you're seated there and that's what happened with the church in Philippi. They're all seated there and the pastor comes up and he says this is the letter of the apostle Paul to the church of Philippi. And he begins to read. Everybody is listening it's only gonna take 15 minutes or so to read the letter and then he gets to a certain point in the letter and he comes to what we call chapter four. Now everybody's listening to what's being said and then this is read and imagine how it sounded when he read this letter and he came to this part because in Philippians chapter four verses one and two it reads therefore my beloved and long for brethren my joy and crown. So as you hear him saying that your head's kind of swelling a bit. You know, yeah, that's what I am. I'm beloved. I'm a long for brother. I'm a joy. I'm a crown. All right. Well, stand fast in the Lord beloved and then it gets kind of quiet for a moment and then he continues reading. I implore Uodia and I implore Sintiqi to be of the same mind in the Lord. He rebuked two women in the church in the letter. A moment before you're the long for one a joy and a crown and now you're being pointed out. How would you feel? How would you feel?  And that's how important unity was that it wasn't hidden that there was a problem. See these two leaders in the church were known to be having a quarrel. They were fighting and Paul had been notified and he took the notification as credible and responded to it by saying knock it off. He said, you guys need, you need to remember who you are. You need to remember your leaders in the church and there's hardly anything in society that stinks more in the nostrils of unbelievers than a church that is unloving. Very few things smell that bad. A church that's at war within itself. Unity is of utmost importance and that's what he was doing. He was saying the church needs to be united over the things that matter and if there's a problem going on, well, verse 15, if there's a problem, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. But always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. So he's saying, listen, there are some that are unruly. There are some that are faint-hearted. There are some who are weak.  Don't be retaliating. Don't be after one another. Don't be fighting with one another. Don't retaliate against those whom you think have harmed you. Now again, we're addressing life in the church and we're dealing with situations that believers will encounter. I wanna say this quickly, but I will say it. When it says see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, always pursue what is good. There are those who use this scripture as well as others to say that you should never ever seek to retaliate in any form in the sense of using force. That's where some present their case for what is called pacifism. So the question has to be asked at this point because there are those who use this scripture in that fashion. Is this addressing the use of reasonable force in protecting yourself or someone else? Is he saying we should never use reasonable force and that is not the context of this passage? You see, there are those who would say that a Christian should never seek to use reasonable force. They will use it in opposition to military service. They'll use it in opposition to serving in law enforcement. They'll say, well, we're Christians and we should never use any kind of force at all. We should be pacifists and they call them Christian pacifists. When I was drafted to go into the military I actually had a crisis of conscience. The first crisis of conscience that I can remember having related to whether I should go into the military or not because as a Christian, I don't wanna be taken someone's life and if I'm trained in military service and placed in a position of a combat situation what am I gonna do? And I really did have a crisis of that. Could I take someone else's life? Would I take someone else's life? Now, a lot of us have been in that position those who go into the military that's basically what you have to be aware of because you don't know you're being trained. You may be sent into front lines. The Vietnam War was going at that time. There were sending a lot of military troops into Vietnam and I didn't know whether or not I was gonna have to see combat. And so I'm now going into the military but I'm thinking can I and all of that and I had to wrestle through this. Does the Bible teach Christian pacifism? You render into Caesar the things that are Caesar and into God the things that are God. And there is a place for service in the military for the Christian. But I had to come to that conclusion on my own and I did. And so I got out of the service and ultimately what happens is I'm listening to a pacifist on a radio program and he's being asked about using force to protect others. Is that right or is that wrong? And he says it is always wrong to use force.  Would you use force to protect her? And he says I would pray for her and for him. That's what he said. And right away I knew I'm no pacifist. I'll give him a good funeral. Yeah, I'm no pacifist. No, yeah, now we've got some guys going, yeah. There are times when it is the most moral choice to stand up and help the oppressed, to stand up and defend the victim. That's the right thing to do, not the wrong thing. And so we ought to be those who are involved in the best of our ability with reasonableness and all. I mean, I think of the case with Jesus himself when Jesus came into the temple and there were these money changers and they were making a profit off of the pilgrims and the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus formed a whip and he drove them out, overturning their tables. There's a time that you respond to evil with the controlled force, just like Jesus did when he cleared that temple. But getting back to it, this is not referring to those moments that are necessary sometimes. This is referring to things going on in the church. And in the church, peace is to be sought for and worked for. It is something to be not only desired, it's something to be preserved. So it's obvious that pursuing peace in the church is to be done, but pursuing peace is not to be restricted to simply church life. I want you to notice that Paul wrote, pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. So pursuing peace with people in general should be the rule of life. In Romans 12, 17, Paul said, repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So refusing to hold a grudge and seeking vengeance, well, we know that's not something that comes naturally. It isn't something that we just naturally do that we want the best not only for ourselves but for other people. That's not something natural. What is natural for us is to want something good for ourselves and maybe we'll want something good for somebody else and it starts early. It's part of our nature. My grandson who's three years and nine months old, my baby David. Couple of days ago, he was at my house with me and he was playing and he picked up some Legos and he formed them into a gun. He's like, he's lesson four. He picks up the gun and he points it at me and he says, he goes like that.  And I said, oh no, no, no, you don't want me dead. Oh, I don't. No, you don't, you don't want me dead. Why? Your grandmother does.  He looks at me and he says, you won't be with me anymore? I said, no, I said, if I'm dead, I'll be gone. And he looks at me and he thinks for a moment and he says, can I have your house? Where'd you get that from? So this desire, this desire for good for others, you have to learn that because within us, it's always, isn't it number one? Aren't we supposed to be pursuing what we want for ourselves, above anybody else? And that's what he's saying here, no. He's saying, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. So rather than seeking to retaliate, taking vengeance and being angry, instead of repaying evil for evil, desire to do good to others. Now, part of the way that you're able to desire good for others is if someone has harmed you, if you've been able to release them through forgiveness. Forgiveness actually means it speaks of releasing a debt. The word forgiveness is releasing of a debt. That's why Jesus said, as we forgive our debtors because a debtor owes you something. And so when you forgive, you're actually releasing that person from the debt. And so there are two people who are freed in forgiveness, the debtor and the one who's owed the debt. In other words, two people are forgiven in a sense. Two people are set free, we'll put it that way. The person who has been forgiven and the one who did the forgiveness because when you release them, you're released also. And so if I have been forgiven, then I am to forgive others. In Luke chapter 17, verses three and four, we read, take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. You see, we can forgive because we realize how we've been forgiven. If you've been forgiven, then you can forgive. Ephesians 432 says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you. And so I have been forgiven much and I ought to be ready and willing to extend forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is especially important in relationships, quite obviously, but the relationship of marriage, forgiveness is very important because it's because we fail to forgive one another very often that it leads us to the place of divorce. Not always, but we can harden our heart to reconciliation and it can lead us to a place where we dissolve that relationship. So forgiveness is a very important thing to do and we need to learn that amongst ourselves in the church. So what should my attitude be towards a believer who is difficult? Because indeed, we do have some difficult believers. Sometimes we're married to them, we have difficult ones. So what should we do? What's our attitude? What is our attitude to be like towards a believer who's difficult, Colossians 3, 13 and 14, bearing with one another, forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And so we pursue, we don't render evil for evil but we pursue what is good. And it's good both for us and for all. So we pursue, the word pursue means to reach out to or strive for. We reach out, we strive, we pursue what is good. We pursue that which is kind, that which is beneficial or just, that which is generous and not only for us, but as Christians but also for others. In other words, our way of life is to be the kind that blesses all people, including non-Christians.  Why is that? Because our God is love. Because our savior incarnated and demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were sinners he died for us. God demonstrated his love to us. And Jesus said by this, shall all men know you're my disciples if you have love one for another. The fruit of the spirit, the very first thing that I said is love. And then you see all these descriptors of the one word love. It's not only love but it's good and kind in various other things. It's made up of a variety of expressions but what it is is it's love. And so as a believer what I've been called to do is to pursue those things that are good to care for people and to demonstrate my love to all people. And that includes those who aren't saved. And that's one of the reasons why Christians are the most generous people on the face of the earth. Because we give. Now there are those who would argue and say Christians aren't any different than non-Christians. That's not true. I wrote a book written a few years ago that I purchased that was written by a guy who was not even pro-Christian. He just was a guy who did a book on generosity. And what he did is he took two cities. One was San Francisco and the second city, I forget the name of the city at the moment but it was a city in the Midwest. And I'll try to remember it even as I'm sharing this. But it was a city in the Midwest and it was known for having a large Christian population. And its population is the same general size of San Francisco. And so they wanted to do a comparison to see which city was most generous. Now we all know here in the state of California that San Francisco is presented as the city of love. I mean there's been songs written about it and all of that. It's supposed to be a great city and all of that. We also know it's extremely liberal. And so what he did is he took that city and he used it as a comparison with another city that was known for a large Christian population and during the Christmas season they had charitable organizations out there receiving contributions. And so all he did is he looked at the charitable organizations like the Salvation Army and others and he looked for the totals that came in through the people passing by as they gave in the bucket or whatever. Then he compared it with the conservative Christian city and discovered that the conservative Christian city by far was more generous than San Francisco. And so he did more research as to find out why and in doing so discovered that the people who lived in San Francisco believed that they were already doing good when they paid their taxes. So for them they paid taxes. Taxes went to helping the poor and those in need. And so I can keep my money because enough has been taken out of my check to help them whereas the Christians in the other city were saying not only have taxes come out to help them but out of my own wallet I'm gonna give. And that's how it works. And so when he says this here he says pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all that has been Christianity all along. We always have done that in Galatians 610 whenever we have the opportunity we should do good to everyone especially to those in the family of faith. And so moving on he gives three commands. Verse 16, rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. And everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So he gives three commands. Rejoice, pray and be thankful. Instead of living in anger rejoice. Rejoice because God is in control. Instead of being concerned rejoice because God is, he has all power. Somebody has asked me recently somebody asked me this one question that I'll share with you right now. The question was if you've learned anything in the years that you've walked with the Lord what is the number one thing you've learned? And I've been walking with the Lord for 47, 48 years in December. That's a long time. What have you learned in 47 years of walk with the Lord? And I'll tell you, like I gave this answer I said it all works out in the end. When you're young and you're going through pressure you think it'll never change. You think you're always gonna be right here. I'll always feel what I'm feeling right now.  And that's just not true because even as you're going through that you need to remember that you're going through that. You're not staying there, you're moving. It may feel like you're not because right now that's the only thing that I've got. This is what I'm dealing with. Will I be here forever? Well I've learned over time, nope. It feels like forever because sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes it takes a long time. It doesn't go away next week. It doesn't go away next month. It doesn't go away sometimes next year. It may not go away for five, 10, 15, even 20 years. I hope somebody has hope right now.  No, I'm teasing you. What I'm saying is, but it in God works out. I have had, and I'll show you this inscription in a moment, but I have had so many prayers for God. I please do this in my life. And the way he's gone about doing it isn't the way I would have planned it. It wasn't the way I would have planned it. I did not, if I didn't know and I was gonna go through that desert, if I didn't know and I was gonna be in that wilderness, if I didn't know and I was gonna suffer that pain, I probably wouldn't have asked that. If I knew the way that the Lord is gonna work it so that he got me in the deepest portion of my life, there are things I more than likely would have said, you know what, I'll pass on that. I'll pass on that, you know. I've been asking you to help me to love people, you know, I've got a what? No, how about, I just want to like them, put up with them.    There are still things you're processing. There are still things you're learning, and so I've learned, and they've asked me, what have you learned? God is good. God is in control. God works in my life. He will be God. I've learned that. And I'm learning that right now. In Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the call according to his purpose. All things work together. Now he puts one thing here and one thing over here, and they don't seem to match whatsoever. But the way he works, it has a tendency of eventually combining, and then I'm able to look and say, so that's what you had planned for me. So that's what you had planned for me.  That's how the Lord works guys. God works. You see, the knowledge that God is in control gives me the ability to rejoice. And that's what he's saying in verse 16, rejoice always. It motivates us as believers. Psalm 13 verse five, I have trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. Psalm 40 verse 16, let all those who seek rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. Philippians four verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. You see the unique quality of Christian joy is it doesn't depend on our circumstances. Our joy does not depend on the things that we're dealing with at the time. Our joy comes from the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit of joy in our life. It results from knowing that the Lord is in control and trusting his power and his presence. And that's what happens. The Lord is in control. Now as I'm rejoicing and I'm saying I know my God is able, I am praying verse 17 without ceasing. Taking my petitions before the Lord, asking God to move. You see prayer is the outcome of a fellowship with the Lord. And when I pray it's simply revealing my dependence on him, my intimacy with him. I know that God hears when I bring my needs to him and I know he provides comfort and joy as I cry to him. We go through things that discourage us. We go through things that concern us. But we can know that he hears us and the fact that we know that he hears us can encourage us. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. It's an invitation God gives to us in Jeremiah 33.3. The Lord began teaching me of answered prayer very early in my walk with him. I got saved. I was 23 months later. I went into the military. It's going through basic training station at Fort Ord. We got a weekend pass. A friend of mine had an old Buick, several of us piled into the Buick. We were all from Southern California. I was in Fort Ord, a bit northern California. We piled into this Buick. And as we piled into the Buick and started making our way down on a Friday afternoon, as it was growing towards evening on the side of the road just outside of Santa Maria, about 10 miles north of Santa Maria. And you need to remember, some of you will remember, but some of you don't know this, but the road that would take you down from where we were going wasn't a highway the way it is today. It was a two-laner. And so as we were coming down on this two-laner, going out to Santa Maria, and there was nothing out there, there were no homes or anything out there at that time, the car broke down. So we just coasted to the side of the road and it's filled with us. There were several of us in this car and now it's Friday afternoon getting towards night and there's no traffic at that time. What are we gonna do? We're gonna have to walk to Santa Maria. That's 10 miles. Then we're gonna have to grab a bus. If they have one, take it to LA, find a bus from LA to where we lived in Norwalk. We're not gonna get home until sometime tomorrow. And so we're bummed. I'm a new Christian. My friend Bill and I are together. I've got several friends. Two of them stay there behind, stay behind with the car to try and fix it, see if they could get it running. And Bill and I and a couple of other guys start to walk and as we're walking, we're maybe 50 feet away from the car and I stop at the road and I see a car starting to come towards us and I put my thumb out to try and hitch a ride and my friend Bill says, wait a minute, what are you doing? I said, well, trying to get a ride? He says, we haven't even asked God. I said, for what? We haven't asked God to provide a ride, can't hurt. So we pray, God, we wanna go home. Would you please provide a ride for us? Now that wasn't the most faith-filled prayer I've ever prayed. I thought, you gotta be kidding, I'm gonna be walking. As God is my witness, we just started to walk and I hear the sound of a car behind me pulling over. We turn, it's a Volkswagen and a young girl and her brother and they roll over next to us. Now there were four of us walking, I think. Four of us, at least four of us were walking, Bill, me and two others and the young boy rolls down his window. He's in the passenger side and the young girl says, I don't usually do this but I'm a Christian and God just told me to pull over and give you a ride. And I go, wow, wow. And so Bill gets generous and he says, you guys can get in the car. We'll see what God wants to do for us. I'm thinking, no, no, no, no, no, no. Put me in that car. We'll see what he wants to do with them. They're not his children, those are unbelievable pagans, leave them here.  She says, good, that makes me feel more at peace. And we said, these guys are pagans, but they're okay. We did. So give them a ride and show them how good God is and then come back if you'd like.  Liquid God has done, what's he gonna do for us now? Within 20, 30 feet of walking, a van, Volkswagen van pulls over and the guy rolls the window down from the driver's side. He rolls it down and he says, you guys need help. You need to understand the context that was during the Vietnam War. We were military guys. This guy was a hippie. Hippies didn't like military guys. They didn't like military guys. He just sort of soon driven over us as to help us. They didn't like us and we're obviously military guys. And so he says, you guys need help. And we said, we do. And he says, hop on in. So my friend, Mike climbs in the front and Bill and I climb in the back. They have no seats there. Just some bean bag kinds of luxury items. And the guy driving is not a Christian. My friend, Mike Feeney, and he began to talk, Mike was not a Christian, but the guy in the back was a believer. And so the guy in the back begins to visit with Marie, with Bill and me and says, hey, yeah, I'm a believer in Christ. And we share the Lord. They drove us, we were going to Norwalk. They drove us all the way to Norwalk from 10 miles outside of Santa Maria, dropped us off in Norwalk, then drove my friend Mike Feeney to Huntington Beach where they lived and dropped him off at his house. And so that's when I started seeing my God is able. My God is able. My God can provide. You have not because you ask not or you ask a miss hoping to consume it upon your lust. You pray according to the will of God and trust your father, he will provide. Understand that. And that's why we pray without ceasing. God teaches us this in Psalm 3912. Hear my prayer, oh Lord, give ear to my cry. Do not be silent to my tears. And the Lord will work in that way. And first, John 5, 14 and 15. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. We know that he hears us. Whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. And then in verse 18, in everything give thanks in everything.  Notice in everything, he says, not for everything because there are things that you go through that are so difficult that obviously we're not God's plan. The enemy was involved and human beings were involved, but you can in everything learn to give thanks because you know that God is with you. As it says in Romans 831, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us, who can be against us? You see the knowledge that God is for us gives us the ability to be thankful. Someone said to the Christian who really trusts his father's providence and believes that his prayers are heard, every moment's occurrence will be just that which he has prayed for, the fulfillment of our father's will. So we give thanks. Thankfulness isn't an obligation or a duty. It's a possibility and every joy, even in every sorrow, it's the thing that keeps us going. And the thing that keeps us going the most is the knowledge that God's in control. The thing that keeps us going is trusting our Lord. It's a knowledge that he's working in and through everything that we're going through. We learn to give thanks when we have a strong faith that God is in control. He's on the throne. And though we may find ourselves confused or struggling, we will trust him in everything. You know, one of the stories that all of us are familiar with that I can refer to is the story of Job. When you see chapters one and two, you see that God had called a meeting, if you will. The angels had shown up as well as Satan. And God in seeing Satan there in this meeting, he says, what have you been up to? And Satan says, well, I've been going to and fro throughout the earth. When you look at that and you study the passage, what's actually taking place is God is calling him to give an account. What have you been up to as an order from the sovereign Lord? You've given account of what you've been up to. And so it's not a friendly conversation at all. He's saying, you need to give an account. What have you been up to? And he says, going to and fro. Well, we know as a roaring lion, he seeks whom he may devour. So I'm going, he's saying, I've been up to no good. Well, have you considered my servant Job? God continues. The word considered in the original language. Have you observed him and looked for a weakness? Have you spent time trying him testing or trying to find something in him that you can exploit? And he says, oh, yeah. Except you put a hedge around him. You put a hedge around him. And so that's where the battle begins.  Satan says only because you bless him. And we know the story of Job. That Job lost everything. He lost his animals. He lost crops. He lost children. And then he lost his health. And the picture of Job, chapter two, sitting on a heap of dust and ashes. And he has a broken piece of pottery that he's scraping, scabs and removing pus from his skin. He's so infected. He's become the song of children, a byword amongst the people. He, at one time, had had so much respect where people would stand when he walked in the room and give him respect. They're now making up songs about him because look at this guy. There's something wrong with him. He's nobody that we should honor. Now he's in that position there.  He was such a righteous man that he would give offerings for his children if perhaps they had, even in their heart, sinned against the Lord. And now he's there in this condition. We know the story of Job. And his wife couldn't take it anymore. And she's looking at this man. And she speaks to him. Job two, verse nine, his wife said to him, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God. Die. I can't take it anymore. I can't take it anymore. Die. She wasn't angry because he remained with integrity. She wasn't angry because he held on to his faith. And it appears that she was upset because his faith didn't get him relief from pain.  Seek God to take your life. Job, you have no hope. But what did Job say? In Job two, verse 10, he said to her, you speak is one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God? And shall we not accept adversity? And all this Job did not sin with his lips. Shall I only get blessings from God? And shouldn't I go through life of pain too? What makes you think my faith is supposed to cause me not to have sorrow of heart or loss? My faith doesn't guarantee that I don't go through the same kinds of pains everybody else does. We all go through pain. We all suffer. We all lose in one form or another. We all cry our sleep ourselves to sleep at night. One time in your life at least. Every believer will one day find themselves in a position where they may go outside into the backyard. Nobody's around, it's just you, the stars in God.  I lost my job. God, I don't understand. I tried to be a good, good man. And my wife's gone out on me. God, I don't understand. We raised our kids the best that we can. And Lord, they're rebelling against us. I don't get it. What's going on? If you haven't been there, you will. In one form or another, it's just life. That's life. Who here has been guaranteed for nothing but good every day? But all things do work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. And God takes what is sweet and God can take what is souring. He can mix it together and it becomes a life that is blessed by him and in everything we give thanks. That's how it works. That's how it works. Because my God is able. He didn't understand what was going on. But later he did. James in chapter five verse 11 said it like this, indeed we count them blessed to endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Job's words stand out in my mind. When he was saying, if I only had the opportunity to plead my cause and finally God says, well you've been asking me questions. He said, now you'd be a man and answer mine. One of the most dramatic portions of the book is when God starts saying you know everything, then answer some of these basic questions. And after he asks them just a few questions, the response of Job is the response all of us should really have. I've sinned my lips. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. I put my hand over my mouth. I shouldn't speak. I have heard of you with a hearing of my ear. But now I see you with the scene of my eye. I knew and I walked, I walked by faith and not by sight. But now you've revealed yourself to me and I see what I am compared to who you are. That's what you've been praying for all along. God, help me to see you and be aware of who I am. And so we learn, we learn to rejoice. We learn to pray and we learn to give thanks. Philippians 4, 6 and 7, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Our lives are like a book. You have the introduction, you have the chapters that follow but remember this, the last page of the book is already concluded and it says, and they went to be with Jesus, spent eternity worshiping him and it was all worth it. It was all worth it. Last page of the book. Don't forget.


See you two team keep it clean. What's going on is saying graven here with another video and happy friday by the way who that Shout out to the saints fans man, because you know like I always say it's all love man And i'm i'm rooting for y'all heavy i'm rooting for y'all have it needs to be A ravens and saints superbowl. It would only be Right It would only be right would only be right But anyway Um, because you know, you know i'm a ravens fan, but saints They will be my number twos man. They will be my number two team man, but anyway, y'all know that already. That's old news And my apologies that this video is coming out sort of late because I know this news happened hours ago But um carter because this just been a rough week for carter because he has just not been feeling well And it's weird. It's like man. He's out of school, but feeling more sick than when he's in scott. I don't understand anyway Team keep it clean The saints doing their due diligence And working out antonio brown Working out antonio brown and this has really been like the first that we've heard of a workout ever since uh Things went down with the patriots Because we've heard like rumors of different teams possibly being interested in but nobody took that leap Nobody was like, okay. Bring them in for a workout. Nobody did that But the saints going out on a limb Doing what nobody else does And they worked out a b and I mean That would clearly show their interest in him, right? But i'm not sure what the status is of antonio brown right now um, I believe because the the investigation hasn't concluded yet So i'm not even 100% sure if he would be able to play or not if he was signed I would assume that with the saints working him out that uh, that he would be eligible to play If they were to sign him Because I mean i'm sure saints they could hit up roger could they'll be like, hey Uh, what's up? Would they be right now man and roger could they'll could be like, oh, yeah We uh, we've been investigating him and going through that whole process But we kind of put it on pause because we don't we don't really want him to play in the league this year anymore, but I'm sure saints if if if he ends up being eligible to play if he can play Then i'm sure that they they wouldn't even waste time if he couldn't Like i'm sure they wouldn't even waste a workout if he wasn't eligible to play So i'm gonna assume that if if a team does sign him right now Then he would be eligible. Um, and saints they have been They've been a team to go out on a limb with some of these receivers that Maybe nobody really wants to touch um So receivers that may have been given opportunities Earlier in the season, but then later in the season people don't even just don't even look at him It happened last year with a dad's brian Ravens wanted to sign a dad's brian dad's brian turned him down and then after that just crickets It was crickets. You didn't hear anything about dad's brian from anybody from any team from anywhere Then the saints they say, oh, you know what dad's brian come on man. Come on And then unfortunately for him He got hurt Like right away like in the first week or something after being signed. He got hurt um And with uh, antonio brown, of course, we know the stealers the stealers They traded them to the bills But he shut that down and then they traded them to the raiders and then that didn't work out So he got cut from the raiders and he got signed to the patreous and played with them for like a week And then they cut him from the patreous and then it is just it's just been a wild ride for antonio brown But ever since the patreous cut him nobody's brought him in and like I said, we've heard rumors hearing there Oh, this team may be interested or this team may be interested. Oh, uh, there's only one playoff We are here one thing that said there's only one playoff team that wouldn't be interested in antonio brown It's like we didn't get anything definitive anything concrete Anything really even substantial man.  Would he not be Better than a taggin not be better than a treyquan smith And again, that's y'all know that ain't no offense to them But he would make these wide receivers this group that much better He would make them that much better Now I just I'm the thing with antonio brown. I just I just really don't know what's going on with him now I saw the whole 2020 campaign thing he was saying And like I don't know what's going on didn't the music video that he was I don't know man I don't know what that's about. I don't know what's going on with him Um, but hopefully hopefully he's just trolling.  Hopefully he just got he just has too much free time on his hands Because that whole it's uh, it's just I don't even know what to say about it, man But we'll see We'll see So I mean imagine him with michael thomas, man with michael thomas one thing again michael thomas Love michael thomas. He's a nice receiver. I do feel uh, his his stats They do get inflated because you get the ball so many times, but at the same time it's like You know, he was like for a long time now. He was on pace to break a record You know, you know the same's one to break the record too with him having most catches in the season If it's like all season, you know That's why at this while on one side you can say yeah, his stats are getting inflated But at the same time, it's like nobody's stopping him though For the most part, you know, this guy's gonna get the ball You know, he's gonna get about 20 passes thrown his way in a game And he's gonna catch about 15 of them But teams still have not been stopping him They still ain't been stopping them So and and he don't drop he don't drop He does not drop the ball So if you got him on one side Then you got Antonio brown if you got Antonio brown on the other But everybody already know about Antonio brown And then like again To again who has been He's been around for so long Then Trayquan Smith been around the past couple years and then Jared Cook He been coming along coming along a lot stronger the past couple weeks Of course, you still got killer. Come on ak 41 Still you still got him too. Of course Drew Brees dotting everybody up Had a little skin that Titans game I was like wait, I said wait a minute because I'm over here watching my Ravens take care of business I'm like wait a minute. What's up? What's up with the Saints? What's up with the Saints? Like they down 14-0 to there with that, but then they came back. I said, okay, there they go There they go They had to put a little put in a little scare for a second, but they took care of business But again, if they are to get a B if they get a B. I mean, whoo, whoo That'll be something That'll be something. I just hope that uh, he got everything up here straight Because I mean from from the neck down He's good to go Great football player. We know that but he got to have it up here first. So we'll see what happens So anyway team keep it clean appreciate y'all who that y'all know. I appreciate y'all. I love y'all. I really hope It's baltimore new orleans in miami in february Please make it happen. I'm out


All right. So, welcome. As I mentioned, our previously scheduled talk on Ghetto, our speaker was unable to attend to an unforeseen illness, and so my name is Seth Hillbrand. I'm officially one of the lead developers for the KeyCAD team. Oh, thank you for reminding me. But today, I'm going to talk about something that's only tangentially related to KeyCAD because Wayne already had all of the details that you need from the very beginnings of KeyCAD. So, I'm going to talk about a pet project of mine on how one of the issues that we run into in KeyCAD. KeyCAD has, if you're not aware, one of the largest, single largest 3D model libraries for electronic components in existence. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of 3D models that are open, open source, freely available. We use CAD query, if Adam's still here too, yes, we use CAD query predominantly to generate, and we use CAD query through FreeCAD. And FreeCAD was also talking earlier today, and we output using OpenCascade, our talk just finished, to do step files. Now, with so many files, we have kind of a unique process where we're not actually generating a single model that we then output to step files. In this case, our dedicated librarians who honestly are vastly underappreciated in the whole KeyCAD ecosystem, they work tirelessly to expand and curate and create these models for people to integrate in their electronic designs. Now, the difficulty becomes we have to store all of these models, and when you go out to a package manager, the package manager also has to generate the packages for these files. And what that looks like on a package manager, say like Fedora's, is you will first download the repository, and then you will install the repository inside the CH route, and take that and then archive the output of that into your final package. That means you have three separate copies of whatever the output is. In the case of KeyCAD, we're pushing about six gigabytes worth of 3D models that get downloaded, installed, and then finally packaged, meaning that the build environment for package managers gets larger and larger, and for our end users, the downloads get larger and larger and larger. This is an awesome problem to have. It's a great problem to have, and it's still a problem, and so maybe there are some ways that we can address that in the future. So, step files universally accepted in any 3D editing and modeling program worth at Salt. It is an open specification in the sense that you can go and look what the specification is, and if you can read it without actually having someone walk you through it the first time, then I really want to meet you, because you're a very smart person and you can teach me a lot. However, it is an open specification, and so we can look at it and we can understand exactly how we utilize it in order to potentially optimize what we see from the output. So, in this case, step files are inherently redundant. They're text-based, and we have output information for, for example, here I'm going to try to use my cursor here. Oh, there it is. So, we have output, in this case, we have a 16-pin dip package here from the KeyCAD model library, and we have 16 pins. Those are all exactly the same pins. All you're doing is you're taking pin, pin, pin, pin, turn around, pin, pin, pin, pin. You are making the exact same part, and if you were to utilize all of the tools that Step gives you, you could just make that one part and say, copy it in this offset and change the offset, but you can also generate it in another fashion, and all of the step file output engines will typically generate it in another fashion, and that fashion is I have pin one, and I'm going to start by creating the origin, and then I'm going to create a vector from that origin, and now I can extrude along that vector. Oh, I need to extrude again in the same direction while I start with another origin, and then I create another vector, and then I extrude along. So you have this repeated function throughout the file. It's a very safe way of generating. But what happens is, when you generate with this safe way of generating, we're 5.8 gigabytes worth of data, and Diptrace, which also has an open, I'm not sure if people are aware of this, another EDA software package, they provide an open library as well in that they provide the step files that you can go out and download there at about 4.7 gigabytes total for all of their models, and manufacturer models, if you go on, say, Samtech for some high density throughput, 300 pin connectors, that 300 pin connector is going to cost you 40 megabytes worth of step file, because it's generating an origin and a vector for every separate element that it is extruding in that model, but you get your information. The end result is good for the user because you get guaranteed information as long as you're willing to give up that disk space, that bandwidth, and critically, that load time, because once you have to load up that 50 gigabytes worth of data for that model, every time you do that, you need to pull all of those data in and that slows down your overall process, which slows down your iteration, and so we can optimize this a little bit. So there's content redundancy, I'm gonna, this is actually a step file, you're looking inside, you see the text here, and that first element, this step file happens to come from the OpenCascade 6.6 processor, so it's a little outdated, but it's still generally valid. The first one is a key, it's a string key in the step format, it just needs to be unique, and what the output from OpenCascade gives is it gives you a unique number, which is a perfectly valid way of doing that, and then everything else will reference those unique numbers, so you can see on here, say, say, you know, element 11 here is setting up an axis placement in three dimensions that references elements 12, 13, and 14, so you're gonna look at 12, 13, and 14, well 12 is a 0, 0, 0 Cartesian point, 13 is a direction in the Z-hat direction, right? One in the Z-hat, and 14 is a direction in the X direction, so what we're doing here is we're setting up a coordinate in the Z-x plane, or we're setting up a plane, the Z-x plane. Now we're gonna do something else, we're gonna say, all right, we want another plane, what do we start with? We start with the origin, or in our, we don't go back to the original origin, we make a new origin, and so there's a new origin here that is also a reference, but step files are inherently references, so what we can do if we intelligently walk through this file is that we can take, we can look at that, and say, this reference is the same as this reference, all of the origins are exactly the same, we don't need to output them, we just remember what number was the first one, and we tell everyone to look back at that original reference, so all of these, all of these can be incrementally optimized to bring it down to a much faster load speed in a substantially smaller direction, and how do you do that? Well, you step through, and you can either parse out the individual elements, in which case you have to recognize there are in the step format, you can have, trying to remember the exact number, I believe it's about 400 different commands, so you could parse those 400 different commands and figure out how you do that reference, or you do it something a little bit A, safer, and perhaps more naive, which is what I chose to do here, and you do a string comparison. It's also perfectly valid, because if you have two lines that represent the exact same string, they're the exact same thing, so what we do is we take all of those and we put them together, these exact same lines from the exact same file, and now we have our Cartesian point here, number 12, and instead of when we're setting up the two planes, both planes in number 11, references the origin at number 12, and the second plane, number 15, references the origin 12, rather than setting up a new origin every single time. So this works out pretty well for us, because what can we do with, say, an individual model? In this case, a QFN68, what we're looking at here is a 68 non-leaded quad flat pack here, that what we get here, originally, I have two here that I pulled from Diptrace, and one from the KeyCAD library. The KeyCADs was originally about 1.7 megabytes for this one file that represents a 64 pin model, and after you take that down and go get rid of all the repetition and just put in references, well, we're down to about 600 and 660 kilobytes, so we lose a little over 50% of that file size just from repetition, same thing with Diptrace. We go from about a one megabyte file to a 530 kilobytes file, we save this without losing any information, and that's the critical part. We're not talking about compressing this and actually losing any information about the content of the step file. What we're doing is we're saying we don't need the same information in multiple places in the step file, and step supports this natively, so we're not creating a different file format, we're just creating a step file format that is actually slightly more optimal. Critically, we leave a few cases of duplication in there, where you might be able to reduce it further if you wanted to. You might notice here that element 14 is the same element as element 16. Element 14 is a direction in the one zero, negative zero direction, and element 16 is in the one zero positive zero direction. This makes sense to computer scientists and not so much to physicists. So in this case, we actually have the exact same direction, but we don't want to bring it down any further because this representation for a computer scientist is actually something different. We don't want to make an unnecessary optimization that we might end up regretting. So, we play it safe on this front. We get our compression without the additional issues. Now, immediately when you talk about this, talk about reducing step files, the first thing that people say is, well, what about step Z? Step Z is great. In case you don't know, step Z is a light wrapper of Zlib that goes over a step file, and Zlib does a Huffman Tree compression, so you take the Huffman Tree and you represent all of the data, and you get generalized textual compression that when you repeat text commands over and over and over again, Zlib will kind of create a code tree that represents those more effectively in a binary format. So you get a binary output, so automatically you get about 50% savings from the binary output, and then you also get to provide a reference window for the Huffman encoding to take commands, the later commands that get referenced back to an earlier window if they repeat a lot. So you get a lot more compression, but that's an orthogonal compression to what we're doing, because we take a first level pass understanding what the references mean in the step files, and then intelligently replacing those repeated commands with step references themselves. So you get to combine these two approaches together, and suddenly you get the benefit from the step Z format, as well as this additional benefit from our replacement technology. We combine these together, and independently, step Z is pretty good. So here you can see again, dip trace on the top and key cap models on the bottom. Just going to step Z, you go from one megabyte in the dip trace model to 176 kilobytes in step Z, but if you start already from the 500 kilobyte step reduce function, and take that step reduced file, you also get that additional compression on top of that. So you get down even further. You want to take both of these methods together, and this gives you the most bang for your buck. What does that get you? Well, that gets you the ability to support a much larger library for a given bandwidth use, for a given hard drive storage, and it prevents having to deal with resizing easily. Each of your build partitions in order to support a rapidly growing 3D model library. There are also some additional savings in server storage, as well as load time that you get to benefit from. Larger benefits even from the key cap models. The key cap models are, in case you didn't know this, we're a little bit more accurate than the dip trace model. So we have a little more information in there. So we actually get a larger benefit from this, but companies like Samtech, similarly, the output of that is similarly small. So how do you know after you've done this that you get the exact same thing out that you were putting in? And critically, the 3D models, any MCAD person will tell you, if you're modifying a 3D model, you need to make sure that nothing has physically changed in that output of the 3D model. Because if you change an output in the 3D model, you might as well just break the whole thing. So it doesn't matter if we save anything, if we don't get an accurate output. And the naive way, of course, is to go through and just kind of look at it, and you say, all right, you know, there's a regular one on the left, and there's a compressed one on the right, and they look about the same. They look like they are probably, but we're not picking up all of the details. We're not critically going to be able to evaluate hundreds of thousands, potentially, when we get hundreds, we're only at a few thousand right now, but eventually, we're not gonna be able to evaluate every single model that is generated in the library to ensure that we have an accurate transformation by eye. We just don't have the manpower. So what do you need to do? You need to evaluate this in the code. So what do we do with the reduction code is we go back to OpenCascade, and you just heard about all of the Boolean operators at OpenCascade supports on solid models. This is fantastic, this is exactly what we need, because we take the original one, and then we load up our reduced one, and if we get the same thing in OpenCascade, loading one file and loading the other file, then if we subtract one from the other, we get zero. And so that's exactly what we do. We use a BREP algo API to cut the two models between each other, and if we are successful, then we don't see a difference. And in fact, we do get a null result for our entire library on the difference between loading OpenCascade for the zeroth order models that are directly output from CAD query, as well as our smaller models. So what does that overall get us? Where do we stand in a larger library? Well, the KeyCAD step library goes from 5.8 to 1.5. So this means that we can support four times as many models, four times as many models within the same build volume, and within the same download. So, but more importantly, for the work that I do, when I'm sharing models, I'm usually sharing it over email with colleagues at remote workspaces, because not everyone is on board with Git yet. So sending over an email as soon as you hit that 20 megabyte or so limit, most of your mail servers are going to kick it back, at least mine will. And so I always need to get these large board models down to something that is addressable for a mail server. And so the largest board that I've had to output so far is about 60 megabytes. And now we can, now I actually, with this, I can actually get that through the mail server. So this is what I get, and where this goes. So this is a single use library. You can check it out for yourself. If you want to take a look, give it a test drive. Let me know if you find any issues with it. So GitLab address here for the actual library. It's just command line utility, call it on your file, give it a different output, and you can see the two. So thank you for your time. I hope I'll take any questions.