I spend a lot of time in the terminal and because of that I like to try out new terminal emulators And but there's not that many terminal emulators out there that I haven't played with before But the other day I came across one that I never really gave a chance and I see it all the time a lot of times I review these KDE plasma Distributions on the channel I do these first look impression kind of videos where I'll take a look at a Distribution and typically in these KDE plasma distros they have two terminal emulators installed So if I switch over to this VM here, this is a VM of seduction, which is a Debian base Linux distribution They have a really nice KDE plasma Distribution and by default you have console with a K I didn't need the caps lock on there, but console with a K is Plasma's terminal and it's a really nice terminal emulator if I was using plasma I would not swap this out with anything else really nice terminal But typically you also have a second terminal emulator installed on the system called Yaquake which is a strange name and most people when they see that they're not even going to have any clue how to pronounce it Is that yaquake yaquake ya ku walkie? I mean what the heck is that like whoever came up with that name They really should have put more thought into that but hey it is what it is yaquake the name It's because it is inspired by the old quake game those of you that played quake Remember in game it had a drop-down terminal that you could get well That's what yaquake is when I just launched yaquake you notice I didn't get a terminal emulator up here It's running, but by default yaquake you toggle it to show and hide with F12 on the keyboard So if I hit F12 you see I get this quake style drop-down terminal And if I hit F12 again, it'll go away now I've played a little bit with yaquake here in the last couple of days and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed with this terminal emulator One of the cool things about yaquake is it's actually built on console So if you install yaquake you have to install console with a cave because it's basically console Just modified in a way where we have this this drop-down effect And of course you can change the size and where it appears on the screen It doesn't always have to drop down from the top and it doesn't always have to be this exact size You can adjust the size. I mean I could adjust the size with the mouse if I wanted to Also, you have the ability to do some scripting with yaquake You can launch it through a startup script and you can specify exactly how it starts up You can specify how many tabs it opens what appears on each tab It's it's got some really neat capabilities now I mentioned that it's built upon KDE's console and it really once you get into the like the menu system and go to manage profiles You'll notice you have the same profiles and both yaquake and in KDE's console. I go to configure yaquake I mean all the settings and everything look like the kinds of settings that you set in Console yaquake does have tabs built-in by default you see right now We only have the one tab open and it's just called shell. I could add another one and we have shell number two Let me launch something on this so that we can tell the difference. So there's shell one shell two with htop I'll launch another one. Let's just run an LS command just to have something else on the screen. Let's do it in long format there we go and You have keyboard shortcuts, so you can move through the tabs with the keyboard. You don't have to use the mouse You can also close tabs with the keyboard shift and the arrow keys will move you from tab to tab So right now I'm on the far right tab shell number three if I do shift and then the left arrow key I move to the shell number two tab and if I do it one more time I move to the first tab and of course shift right move you back to the right And if you want to actually move the tabs as far as the order that they're in do control shift And then left and right so if I do control shift left here I will actually move the third tab to the second spot and to the first spot And if I go right with control shift move it back to the second spot And then I finally move it back to the third spot and I believe control shift D closes the tab It does. I had to think about that some of the documentation as far as the default key bindings is a little sketchy Yaquake does have a man page. Let me go to the first tab But I don't believe that the man page actually gives you actually it doesn't even have a man page So that was one of the reasons I was having trouble finding some of the key bindings Does it have like a help flag? So if I give it dash dash help? Yeah, but there's no information here So that's one of the unfortunate things about Yaquake is Just you don't have you know a help flag and you don't have a man page as far as built into the distribution Obviously, you can go online. Yaquake does have a website. Of course, it's a KDE program So you can go to KDE's website and get information about it Also, there is a really nice page about Yaquake in the arch wiki and the arch wiki page is really neat because It includes right here Yaquake scripting and it includes like a test script here For those of you that want to I play around with the scripting and what I did is I took I think I took the top part here Which launches Yaquake? With two splits actually two tabs and it launches. I think each top on a tab or on a split I can't remember if I did splits or tabs, but let me show you this back in the VM here So I'm gonna close Yaquake Let's go ahead and quit out of it and then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna open KDE's console And if I do a LS you see I created this script here called Yaquake.sh Now let me open this in VM so you guys can read it and Yeah, it's a very simple script again. It's just mainly the first few paragraphs. I got from the arch wiki It's going to start each top in a tab and split to user terminal and run IO top So that comment actually tells us exactly what's going to happen now Let me make this smaller and get it out of the way and let me now start Yaquake using our startup script And we've got a syntax error here Unexpected EOF while looking for all right so line 16 Let's go ahead and take a look at line 16 and line 17 And I can already see the error here on the very last line. You see IO top I have a quote here, but it needs one more quote of course at the end of the line So let me write and quit that and then let's try that one more time and let's launch Yaquake using the startup script All right, we started it But of course it doesn't appear on camera or on screen until I do the F12 and now you can see what my startup script does it starts Basically three splits it puts H top in one. It just puts a terminal Just a empty terminal here and then I don't know why this terminal this terminal was gonna start IO top But the command is not available. It doesn't look like maybe it's not installed But anyway, this was not supposed to be a functioning script again That was just the example script that I got from the arch wiki So some really neat little functionality with Yaquake The fact that you can actually have it start with certain tabs and splits already open running certain programs I think is one of the really neat features with it and I can understand You know people have wanted me to take a look at some of these drop-down terminals before and I've always been kind of resistant Because I didn't see the point Why do I want this terminal that just appears when I hit F12 and then goes away that's typically when I'm in a terminal I'm in it for the long haul I just I'm just gonna open it up on one of my workspaces and it's always gonna be there But as some of the other features with these terminals that are nice Like I didn't expect Yaquake to have tabbing and all this scripting capability Like I really thought it was going to be a much simpler program now me as a tiling window manager user I really don't have a use for as far as needing something that has that drop-down capability Because in tiling window managers Most of them have what they call scratch pads where you can have a program that is Always available for you as far as show hide. You have a key binding to towel a program show and hide So I can open up a terminal as a scratch pad and when I'm done with it hit the key binding to hide it It's still running, you know all my information is still there But then I hit another key and my terminal can come back But if I wasn't on a tiling window manager that had that scratch pad capability Then I could see where something like Yaquake would come in handy And I know you know millions of people out there run KDE plasma It's a very popular desktop environment and you know, it's actually not bad. I mean I could use it I get you force me to use plasma You know, I could get by with it and to be honest if I was a plasma user I would probably use Yaquake. So that was just a very quick look at Yaquake. It's a program I don't think probably gets a lot of attention It's not a program I hear about all the time and just playing around with it here in the last couple of days It impressed me enough that I thought I should do something about it on camera. Now before I go I need to thank a few special people. I need to thank the producers of this episode I need to thank Absi Dallas Gabe Lou Mitchell Allen Akami Arch 5530 Chuck David the other David Dylan Gregory Louis Paul Scott Wes and Willie they are the producers of this episode these guys They're my highest tiered patrons over on patreon without these guys this great episode that you just watched It wouldn't have been possible The show is also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen as well all these names are seeing on the screen right now These are all my supporters over on patreon because the distro tube channel has no corporate sponsors I'm sponsored by you guys the community if you'd like to help me out Please consider supporting me over on patreon.


I'm at this church for those of you who are new to our gathering this evening. I want to welcome you to the Opening Worship Service in the North Texas Conference. I'm glad that you're here. We're all glad that you're here. I want to say a special word of appreciation to the Ubuntu choir, violin choir, who played a few minutes ago, how enjoyable that was to play one of our favorite songs so many of us know, Siahamba. Thank you to the combined choirs that will be singing this evening. We appreciate you very much for taking the time to being here. And of course, if a few moments ago it was just a smattering of what we're going to enjoy and be inspired by, thank you very, very much, and thank you to all the directors. Let's thank them for their work. So we celebrate 150 years of the North Texas Conference at this season, at this time. But not only are we celebrating 150 years, we're also looking forward to the next 150 years. It's important to remember that because we are people who are always looking forward. When we begin to look backwards and begin to think about just the past, then we will not become not only the people that God wants us to become, the faithful that God dreams for us, but the communities of faith that God wishes that we could all become and we are becoming. So thank you to the people of the North Texas Conference for the way in which you live out the Christian faith and your own discipleship. At this time, I want to introduce our evening's creature. You will hear from him later. Warren Philip Rhodes is the pastor, the senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Hearst. He actually is the person who followed me as the pastor of that church in 2012 as the interim and then named by the Bishop of the Central Texas Conference as the senior minister in early 2013. Philip has been a colleague of mine at the Hearst Church. He and I worked together for 13 years, longer than I've worked with anyone in one place. That is to say, I think that's an affirmation not only of the relationship that he and I have, but I think an appreciation that I have for his gifts not only as a communicator and a preacher, but as a person who is one of the most faithful people I've ever met. All of us have people from whom we learn and from whom we learn lots of things. And I would say that the 13 years in which we spent in ministry together in that congregation, at least for me, and I hope he would say the same thing, were very formative for our own ministries and our own discipleship in Walcafe. And so it's a great pleasure that my good friend, one of my dear friends is going to be preaching this evening, and you will enjoy him and be inspired by him. His wife, Lynn, is here. She works for PT North Texas, PT Dallas, and also their son and their daughter, both who are working for Project Transformation this summer as well. Nick and Brenna. Philip Rhodes will be an inspiring speaker and I look forward to hearing what he has to say to us and what God has to say to us through him. So again, welcome, welcome to the North Texas Conference, the 150th year. May we worship our God together. I invite you to stand and body your spirit for our call to worship this evening. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Dear God, you hold the heavens in your hand. All stars rejoice in your glory. You come in the sunrise and the song of mourn and bless the splendor of the noon day. The stars in their courses magnify you. Day and night tell of your glory.  You created water to sustain us, to baptize us, and to save us. From the fullness of time, you called forth saints to minister in your name bold and faithful women and men who heeded your call and followed you. Through peril and storm, through plenty and want, through gladness and sorrow, they were swept up in the joy that is a life lived in you. We gather in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who with the Father and the Spirit is the author of all creation and the ground of our hope and deliverance. God of creation, come, ride, story, demon, come, Holy Spirit sustain, come. And let us now raise our voices together in song as we sing praise with joy the world's creator. You'll find the text on the screen. Let us sing. The beginning, when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was without shape or form. It was dark over the deep sea, and God's winds swept over the waters. God said, let there be light, and so light appeared. And God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from darkness, and God named the light day and the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, the first day. God said, let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other. And God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome, and it happened in that way. And God named the dome sky. There was evening and there was morning, the second day. God said, let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear. And that was what happened. And God named the dry earth land, and he named the gathered water's seeds. And God saw how good it was. God said, let the earth grow plant life, plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth. And don't you know that's what happened. And the earth produced plant life, plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. And God saw how good there was evening and there was morning, the third day. God said, let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days and years. They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth. And that's what happened. God made the stars in the two great lights the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, to rule over the day and rule over the night, and to separate the light from darkness. And God saw how good it was. There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. God said, let the waters swarm with living things and let birds fly across the earth up in the dome of the sky. And God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind. And all the wind birds, each according to its kind. And God saw how good it was. And then God blessed them, be fertile and meet and let the bird kind of living thing livestock. Let us make humanity and our image to resemble us. For the former heaven and the former earth had passed away and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne say, God's dwelling is here with humankind. He will dwell with them and they will be his peoples. God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And then the one seated on the throne said, look, I am making all. We received the benediction. Wow. I want to thank Bishop Mike McKee for inviting me to come and be with you this evening. I don't know how many of you have ever spoken to the bishop on the phone, but he starts his conversations in the very same way. So the phone rings and I see it and I say, hello. And he says, hey, what are you doing? I was standing in the kitchen. I'm standing in the kitchen, man, what are you doing? Well, I will need to call you later with details, but I just want to know if you would like to be the preacher at Opening Worship for the North Texas Annual Conference. And I laughed out loud. I'm like, really, I did laugh out loud. I thought he was joking. And I'm like, did you run out of money?  And then he got real serious and then I got real scared.  And in full disclosure, I have been stressing about this for months. Nobody on the planet knows this as well as my wife, Lynn, knows it. But as the great actor and theologian Will Smith says, the best things in life are on the other side of your maximum fear. Here's what that means, baby. Our lives are already pretty good, but here in a give or take 20 minutes, our lives are going to get even better. So it was a psalmist who said, I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. It's a phrase that reflects the psalmist's humility. And so with the humility of the psalmist, we turn our attention to Revelation 21. Last things first. Will you pray with me? Lord God, may the words that I speak and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer. Crisp morning air, mango dragon fruit, bow ties and bourbon, mahogany, teakwood, midnight blue citrus, black cherry, Merlot. What wonderful images these conjure up and what are these things you might wonder. They are some of your choices for car air fresheners. Seriously, it's the name of smells that you can experience every time you get into your car. Did you know that the North American car air freshener market was valued at $750 million in 2013? Let's back up. Did you even know there was such a thing called the North American car air freshener market? It's a thing. It is expected to reach a billion dollars by 2022. How in the world did this happen? Furthermore, why did it happen? I told you, I do not occupy myself with things too wonderful for me. It turns out that it all started with little green trees. They hung on the rear view mirror. They're still around. You remember those? It was a chance encounter over 60 years ago in Watertown, New York. And one day Julius Saman listened to a milkman complain about one of his occupational hazards that would be the stench of spoiled milk. The milkman complained to the exact right man, Saman, a German Jewish chemist who fled Nazi Germany and studied alpine tree aromas in Canada. And after the encounter, he filed a patent in 1954 for paper infused with, and I quote, odor-destroying air-perfuming substances. And that is how it all started.  You're really into this. And some of us, we know who we are, are really not. But none of us, I can hazard a guess, drive a milk truck. So why in the world do we need car air fresheners? See, there's two kinds of people when it comes to this. It's the kind of person who gets into the car and says, man, there's a weird funky smell in here. You know, I think I'll go to bed, bath, and beyond. I'll buy nothing for the bed, nothing for the bed, but something way beyond. And I'll get bow ties and bourbon. And we'll solve the problem. There are the other kinds of people in the world, the ones who get into the car and say, oh, my, there is a funk in the car. And then they proceed to clean the car, to look for the stink, and remove it. Come on, it's a multi-million dollar industry. It hopes you lost a yogurt under your passenger seat, and is further counting on the fact that you won't look for it. How is this a thing? How can these things be? And if you want to know what the book of Revelation says in a nutshell, it's this. Something stinks. You can't cover it up. You got to remove it. Something stinks. And what John wants to do is John wants to reveal it. See, the book is not apocalyptic literature. Eugene Bourne says it's a pastoral letter that uses apocalyptic language. It's a pastoral letter written to seven churches in Asia Minor. Many over the years have thought that John is writing to an already persecuted church, offering them this vision of hope, helping to encourage them to hang on. Respectfully, I disagree. John is addressing a problem in the church. And the second chapter of John's Revelation tells us what the problem is. It's the loss of first love. It's the poverty of the rich. It's a theology and ecclesiology that does more harm than good. It's dead or near dead lukewarm faith. Something stinks.  It must be revealed. It must be removed. It seems that the early church is suffering from an identity crisis. And what they choose to do next, how they plan the way forward, has very real implications for their very real future. If that doesn't sound a little familiar. But back to the early church. Broadly speaking, their problem is this. Paul has died. Jesus has not returned. And now they don't know how to do church. That's their question. What do we do now? I had the great pleasure of having Dr. Joette Bassler for New Testament at the Perkins School of Theology. A brilliant mind and a brilliant scholar. And I'll never forget her teaching on John's revelation. She said that there might just be a fight in our New Testament scriptures when it comes to answering this question. What do we do now? What do we do now that Paul isn't here? What do we do now that Jesus has not returned? So among other things, 1st Second Timothy and Titus are written as a corpus. Not by Paul, but by a disciple of Paul, written at about the same time as John writes, his revelations. 1st Second Timothy and Titus answered the question of what to do as church now that Paul is gone and Jesus hasn't returned. Simply put, among other things, we begin to blend into the culture so that our family structures will begin to look like Roman family structure. Our ecclesial structure and hierarchy mirrored after Roman structure and Roman hierarchy. The church begins to fit within the empire. It's the way we will survive. It's self-preservation. And John is having none of it. His revelation is an answer to that question as well. John says, we remember our first love. We put faith in God's riches, not our own. We turn up the heat on the burner of our almost dead lukewarm faith. And we stand as witness to the culture. It's the opposite of self-preservation. And I have to admit the older I get, the more convicted I am about my own predisposition for self-preservation. For example, I was much braver about what a senior pastor should do when I was an associate pastor. I remember a clergy staff planning meeting early 2012 and y'all that are in churches, you know, we do this. We get together and we try to plan out as far as possible. We all have to bring ideas. I bring the ideas for Advent. And I've got a great idea for Advent early 2012. You can use it if you want. My idea, apocalyptic Advent. I had all the scriptures. I had all the sermon titles, all apocalyptic in nature. It was fresh. It was new. It was innovative. It was out of the box. And the then Reverend Dr. Mike McKee was having none of it. Chicken. In the summer of 2012, as you all know, the Reverend Dr. Mike McKee became Bishop Mike McKee. I'll never forget my DS called me and we didn't know what to do because nobody had gotten elected out of the Central Texas Conference. And so he said, I kid you not. He said, you need to act like he's on vacation. So we figure out what to do. Okay, so I get the staff together and we know that things are breathing down our neck in terms of planning. And we're talking about Advent. And one of the staff people, I don't think he works for us anymore, said, what about apocalyptic Advent? That had so much energy for you back at the beginning of the year. And I'm like, oh no. Like why would I mess with Christmas? That's the stupidest idea ever. Self-preservation. I have since called my former boss and repented of my sin. You are not a chicken or we both are. Self-preservation. It stinks. And yet as a culture, we are obsessed with it. And at its root is fear. So in fear, what we do is we hunker down. We hang on to our stuff. We keep strangers at bay. In fear, we arm our homes and we arm ourselves. In fear, we close our hearts, we close our minds and we close our doors. All in the name of self-preservation. Churches are obsessed with it too. We fear our declining membership. We fear denominational collapse. And so we hunker down and we hang onto our precious past refusing to let all of God's children have vote and voice at God's table. In short, we fear change. We're scared to death. I had one person tell me, we were talking about church growth at our church and we were talking about if you're not growing, then you're dying. And this person said to me, I kid you not. I don't want my church to grow. It will change my Sunday school class. All in the name of self-preservation. It wasn't always that way and that's John's point. Do you remember? Lynn and I recently moved after being in our house for almost 18 years. And during the packing phase, I came across a picture. Lynn is sitting inside the trunk of our 1990 Plymouth Sundance and I with really long hair and a much bigger earring bishop, a much bigger earring, had my arm around her. My mother-in-law had taken the photo. It was the day we left the San Francisco Bay Area with our three month old son and we headed northeast to Wisconsin, the Green Bay Area. And as we looked at that photo, I asked Lynn, I said, what in the world were we thinking? It was a pay cut. The first grandchild was moving 2,000 miles away from grandma and grandpa. They're almost over it. And Lynn said, we really weren't thinking. It just felt right. In that moment, it was a faithful decision.  In the new place we live, it has suspiciously showed up. At the top of the stairs, I have to pass it every single day because I need to remember self-preservation. It wasn't always that way and that's John's point. Do you remember? We read scripture each and every week in all of our churches. Why do we do that so we can remember? Do you remember? Do you remember the first disciples? They're probably teenagers. They left their jobs to follow a 27-year-old itinerant rabbi and Mark tells us they did so immediately with no itinerary, no income, no security. I feel like I can hear their voices in my head. They hear this rabbi say, follow me and immediately they go, cool, road trip and they move. Self-preservation, it wasn't always that way. And that's John's point. Do you remember? To the church that fears for its life. Do you remember? Day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. And what John does is John calls us back to the time when following Jesus might not have made good financial sense or not the wisest choice for a secure future but our hearts raced a little faster and not out of fear, out of faith. John reminds us that Christianity was never a movement based on self-preservation. It's based in self-sacrifice. And in fact, self-preservation is a sin in light of the cross. It stinks. You can't cover it up. It must be removed. And John calls us back, dare I say, to immigrate from our kingdoms of self-preservation to cross the border, to hop the walls we insist on building, to immigrate to the kingdom of heaven. And he invites us to see last things first. Then I saw, 37 times John says that phrase in his letter, there are 20 words in the Greek that get translated into our one word, two words to see, to look, I saw. Each one of them with their own nuance. When John says, then I saw, literally, it means to see securely. In other words, you can count on it. You can bet the farm on it. In Revelation 21, John sees the last things, the end game. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, count on it. I saw it. It's secure. And then God speaks. Look, see. The home of God is among mortals. Look, see, I make all things new. Now when God speaks, when God uses that word, see, it's a different Greek word. Literally, it means take note, in fact, beware. And most importantly, remember, take note, the home of God is among mortals. In fact, I'm making all things new. Beware, the home of God is among mortals. Remember, remember. And John invites the church into that vision once more. He invites you and I into that vision once more. And it's not the future, but it's our future. And it's quite a vision, really. Some wonder if he was on something. I think he's on to something because his vision comes out of his burden for the church, a pastoral letter. And while we love the idea of vision, innovation, something new, something fresh, godly vision is gonna come out of burden first. Vision is always birthed through burden. And our burden cannot be self-preservation, not as a people and not as a church. Because if it is, our vision will not be godly.  Find it, you just might remember that the home of God is among mortals. Project transformation is birthed out of burden. Layton Farrell and Sarah Wilkie, visionary leaders of your conference got a burden for college students, for children in underserved neighborhoods, and for the church's need to deepen its connection to the community around them, to you interns that will be commissioned this evening. You may not even know it, but in your work, on your site, take note, remember, the home of God is among mortals. And God gives the vision after we bear the burden. And once you get a godly burden, well maybe that is what frees us from self-preservation and moves us to vision, to innovation, to that fresh new thing that God is already orchestrating. And you and I, we're invited to be a part of that, but only if we keep last things first. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen. My friends, there hangs in our home an angel. Not an object of typically graceful lines and smooth texture, no. Now this is an angel made of weathered and reclaimed barnwood and wire. Fashioned and painted by a contemporary artist who wrote on that angel these words. Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me. But try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero. Beloved, we are about to read the names. We are about to remember the lives of those who are real heroes among us. Who woke up every morning and loved the world all over again. As they lived joyfully and served gracefully and now have died victoriously since last we met. Those who showed us the way to wake up every morning and love God's ever-new creation all over again. So I invite you to look once again to your bulletins that we might join our hearts and our voices in our litany of the saints. Grant them everlasting rest, Lord. Those saints who lived and died for the sake of your holy word. We remember and give thanks. Grant them everlasting rest, Lord. Those whom we loved and see no more. Those saints whom we ourselves have known and loved. For these good companions, we remember and give thanks. For friends and colleagues, husbands and wives, parents and grandparents, we give thanks to you for the encouragement you have given us through them. For laughter shared and tears intermingled. For prayers whispered to and for each other, we remember and give thanks. Grant them everlasting rest, Lord. And number us among your saints. Join us with the faithful of every age. Grant that we would be strengthened by that great cloud of witnesses and supported by their fellowship so that we may run with perseverance the race that is set before us. We remember and give thanks. And as we prepare to hear these names, after each one is read, I invite you to continue your response. We remember and give thanks. And if that is a life that has particularly touched your own, I invite you to stand in sacred memory until the following name is read. And so we look to Jesus, the risen Christ, pioneer and perfecter of our faith. And in Jesus' holy name, we remember Ralph Edward Burke. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Wallace Edwin Chapel. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember James A. Gouldney. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Joseph R. Hale. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember John T. Lancaster. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Merwin K. Turner. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Lorraine Isaac's Chapel. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Faye Catherine Day, give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Dorothy Elliott. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Faith Gatlin. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Mary R. Hausman. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Janet Mayo. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Sandra McNabb. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Stella Ruth Moreing. We remember and give thanks. In Jesus' holy name, we remember Marnell Upchurch. We remember and give thanks. Gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for the lives of these, your servants. And not only servants, Lord, but we give thanks for these, your friends. You've so graciously allowed our lives to intersect with theirs and have granted us the opportunity to service fellow laborers in your vineyard. May their example and legacy of servants and friends of the resurrected Lord live on in us. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, may we be moved to love others and ourselves as they did, seeking always to be about the work of your kingdom. In the name of the God of all life, we say together, amen. Tonight, we have heard the word of God proclaimed through song, through dramatic reading of scripture and in sermon. We have remembered those saints no longer with us and we look forward to work towards the dream of God coming through new creations. Two of the ways that we work through God's dream in our annual conference are through the camping or treat ministries of the conference and the work of project transformation. Our offering tonight will be split between these two wonderful ministries. These ministries offer valuable experiences of God's love for all the people of North Texas. Your giving will allow us to offer scholarships to students unable to afford the cost of these programs. We believe that if we are going to be the church that God has called us to be, that means making sure that young people are not left out of life changing experience offered by these programs. It is imperative that you give to make sure that no kid is left out or left behind. Let us give so that the faith of our youngest generations will be ignited. Will the ushers please come forward and accept our offering? This too will happen to you. So to those of you who are going to be in ministry with us in the North Texas Conference this summer, camp as you know is one of our conference camps in which will be filled every week this summer. And so we appreciate those persons who will be connect to the kingdom that has a specific mission and ministry in the Eau Cliff neighborhood. And if you could sort of wave at us and let us know who you are. And go camp. Go camp is our camp that is literally on the go in a different area, different community, each and every week of the summer. And they've already this past week been at Paul Quinn and they'll be in Clarksville next week. And it's a way in which they will continue to minister in unique ways. And for children who are unable to go to another camp. And so those of you with go camp, could you sort of let us know where you are? Yeah, there they are. And students who are here serving in churches from Lydia Patterson Institute, where are you? And Lydia Patterson is a high school in El Paso and serving students on the border and from across the border. And we're grateful that you will be in North Texas as well. And those people who are here from Quad W who will be serving in East Dallas out of White Rock and other places. And you are where? Where are you in Quad W? Thank you. There you are. And Project Transformation, which is a unique ministry that began in this annual conference a number of years ago, which is spreading now throughout the country. Churches, children and college students.  Let us know you're here. So a commissioning is really about bidding you to go. But we want you to know that as you go, you go with our prayers and you go with our blessings. We want you to know that as you go, you go with our God. We want you to know that as you go, you go to serve and we want you to know that as you go, as you go, you will go and you will find God around each and every corner. So go. Go in the name of our Christ. Go in the name of all that is good. And may you have a most blessed summer. Gracious God, thank you for these who are giving their summer. Gracious God, thank you for the way in which you will continue to move through their lives and thank you God for those whom they will serve. So we pray this in the name of Jesus the Christ and all of us together, bless them by saying amen. Peace be with you. An invitation and an introduction. First of all, an introduction. Reverend DeAndre Johnson came into the service midpoint because of his flight from Houston was late. But DeAndre, welcome to the North Texas Conference. Thank you for the design of our worship experience tonight. Let us welcome DeAndre Johnson to the North Texas Conference. There is reception in the Bartula Family Life Center. People can guide you that way. You'll have a chance to greet Philip Rhodes, the families as well, and also together and to welcome each other and renew acquaintances. But this benediction, this blessing I give you, bear witness to the love of Christ in this world so that the stranger you meet may find in you a generous friend. And the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the love of our God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest and be with you now and forever. And all God's people said, amen.


question. Conti creators know to actually ask me. Hi. Just out just chase a clout trying to get a name or get some views that the chain work for. Hello. How are you? You might want to move your face back. Hello. I'm wonderful. There we go. What do you got for me? So I am 28. I live in Atlanta, Georgia. And I guess I just, you know, I want to know why, you know, what my, what my stats are like. For what?  Because, you know, I want to be married or whatever. I want to be in a relationship, but I feel like maybe I'm a little too picky. I don't know. Are you being serious or you're trolling me? No, I'm being very serious. I think I could be a little bit too picky, but I would like to. What do you mean? What picky meaning what?  Um, a provider, a leader, and you know, but I feel like, do I have children? No, I don't. You go to college? I graduated. I had my bachelor's. And what? Psychology. Do you want children? I do. How many?  Okay. Do you want to have to work to pay significant bills after you're pregnant with the first child? I think working is normal. I don't have a problem working. Do you want to have to work to pay significant bills after you're pregnant with the first child? Yes. How much would you need to make in Atlanta to raise three children in the middle class? I think, uh, me and my husband would probably need like a combined income of like 150,000 a year. No, no. Three children? Well, okay. Well, let's say this progressively over time, because you're not just going to have like three children all at once. So the idea is, like by the third child, I think we should have built wealth to at least like 200,000 annually. I think that's reasonable. Man, that's close to the 350,000, the three kids. Oh, okay. That's fair. How much is a psychology? How much are you going to make of it? Um, so currently I make like right around like 80,000 a year. And the idea, I actually am currently working towards like building my income substantially. So the idea is hopefully- After you start, after you're married, pregnant, having kids, you're not going to be working full time. Yeah. So the idea is that- You're not going to be working full time. Yeah, the idea is always to somehow become phantom rich before you start having babies. That's not how life works. Okay. You work and you live. But you're saying that you wouldn't own that, do you have? I have like 15,000 in loans.  I don't have any consumer debt. Okay, how tall are you? I'm five foot three. Just size. I'm like a four, a four, four or five. Do you mind backing the camera? My face looks a lot heavier. I hold a lot of weight in my face, but I'm petite. Do that so we can see up and down? Well, I don't really have like real clothes on right now. I kind of have- I recently had surgery, so I have like um- What kind of surgery? Um, I don't want to blast myself. You got like 6,000. Okay. What's the most you've ever weighed? Share. What's the most you've ever weighed? Um, 100 and 150 pounds.  I'm not. Okay. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I said okay, but I'm still saying you still talk about a man in the top. Eight percent of earners. Eight top eight percent of earners.    People are watching this. Oh, sorry. Um, like- because I mean, especially here in Atlanta, I feel like- Well, let me- let me ask you a question. An average woman? What's your father do for a living? My father, he's a professor. He's a chairman at a university and my mom's a pharmacist. Okay. Okay. They're above average. They went to college, but I mean average people get average people. Yeah. What's the average black man making this country? Um, you said 50,000, so. Yeah, well actually it's 42, but 50 is still- I mean, how old are you again? 28. Uh-huh. Have you updated a man making 150,000 dollars a year? Uh-huh. How long ago was that?  When I say date, I mean, Siri, did you just roll your eyes? You said what? Did you just roll your eyes? No, no, no. That was- I was thinking. I was like thinking. Okay. When I say date, I meant y'all were Facebook. You know, this is my man. He's claiming you. I'm not talking about- he's got another girlfriend. Y'all monogamous. Yeah. Have you ever dated a man making that kind of money? Yeah, the last guy dated. Uh, how long- how long did you guys date? Um, we were friends for a while and so- How long did y'all date? Uh, for like a year. And why didn't that go anywhere? Yeah, he- um, I think because of his, um, earning potential, he got- like, I feel like- so he was like a plastic surgeon and I feel like he start- so we started dating when he entered residency and like, I just feel like he got bigheaded. Like, he realized like all the women that were chasing him and he's like- No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No, listen. Okay, listen. Excuse me? We had a difference in values. Well, not really. Not really. Because you're talking about the way he started looking and his potential was saying where you rolled your eyes and I said, man, Black man made 40,000. No, no, no, no. Like he- okay, so he started saying like he wants to have like a polygamous family and he don't believe him. Like, he just- the things he- That's what he wants. You can get it. He can. I- I'm- Right. Well, you can't- Cause why? Cause he's in the top 8% of Black men and top earners. And you asked me, man, um, you got to rank yourselves. Well, what would you rank yourself?  I don't do sevens. You say you don't do seven? No. What is that? Like, what- what does that mean? You can't rate- you can't use seven. Cause everybody wants to use seven. Zero to ten, you can't use seven. Now you gotta see why I don't use seven. Cause everybody wants to use seven as a safe number. Okay, uh, uh, 7.5? No, no, no version of a seven. Okay, eight. Okay, eight. Okay. And you- you're- all right, now if you- now I'm gonna say something, okay.  That's not cool, young lady. I'm- I'm just an expressive person. It's not disrespect. Yeah, it is.  Okay, I'm sorry. I mean, you asked me for my professional advice, so can you respect the platform? I sure can. Thank you. And eight. You give yourself an eight. Okay? Um, who else would you rank in the eight categories, as far as, like, famous people? Musicians, movie stars, they can ask. Oh, okay. Um, an eight as a famous person? Like, in, like, a ratio? Like, not- Come on, like, Beyonce's an eight. No, Beyonce's not an eight. Who's the image consultant in real life? Okay, so you think Beyonce's an eight? I think Beyonce's a ten. No, she's not. Okay. Beyonce's an eight. Kelly Roller would be a nine. In Rihanna, even with her big forehead, would be a ten. Okay. So, like, give yourself an eight. You put yourself in the category, or Beyonce's. Okay. Okay. So, I'm not an eight? Are you in the category with Beyonce? I mean, no. This is one of the major issues you ladies don't know how to rank yourself. So, when somebody like myself comes along with some truths, most people in my profession would give Beyonce an eight. And many black women would give her a ten, because you want to guys want to give yourself higher numbers. So, are you in her category or not in her category? No, I'm not, I'm not Beyonce. I mean, we're talking about discipline of face. Okay, then what, then what would you give yourself if you know, understand Beyonce as an eight? Okay, maybe I'm like a six. Which is closer to reality. Because by giving yourself an eight, you automatically put yourself in the pretty, beautiful or gorgeous of all women across the world. And I'm sorry, at 28 years old, your live life has told you that you're likely not there, not in the comments section. Are you reading the comments? You said what? Like I said, were you reading the comments? I haven't really seen any of the comments. Okay, good. So, ultimately what I'm trying to get you to understand is um, you care, you care, don't look at the comments section.   Oh my gosh, this is on my page. You know, it's not, it's on my page. Okay. This is showing up on my page.     I said that's, that's 2% of men. I mean, but what if, what if your goal, like, I mean, I, I don't think income is really one of the first things I look at when it comes to a man. But it's where there is a factor based upon what you want as far as an outcome. The amount of, okay. You want three children, two or three children. Are you content with having to share a car? Are you content with having to drive something like, oh, I don't know. What's an inexpensive $15,000, $20,000 car? Are you content with driving a $20,000 car? This for the rest of your life? Are you content in living in like an $80,000, $90,000 home? East Point, Decatur, College Park?  Most people don't earn college money. Most people are normal people.   Because that's what your mother and father sound like to have. Pharmacists and professors. You're breaking up. I want, I believe that my parents, my parents worked hard and they afforded a pretty decent life for me and they came here as immigrants and they weren't rich. So that I like the idea that I have to make. But the difference is, the difference is, you're not them. You were born with Western sensibilities. Well, I, I came, I wasn't born here in America. I was born in Nigeria. Western sensibilities, okay. Western sensibilities, man. But what I'm, what I'm saying is, Okay, okay, okay. All right, all right, all right. Listen, okay. What do you live? I live in Atlanta, Georgia, but I hope. Do you live with your parents? Yeah, I live with my parents. Why? To save money, to build my business. Okay, have you ever lived on your own? Yes, I did. So you live with your parents to build your business. So if somebody's making $80,000, you, you, you would be okay with the man making half of what you're making. I would be okay with the man making half of what I'm making if he had a plan and a vision for it. See guys, this is what I always come down to. I'd accept it as long as he had ambition. See, this always comes down. Listen, no, no, no, no, no. We know where this goes, man. Something's wrong with your speaker. No, average purge, the average black man in this country earns $42,000. There's no more money. There's no more ambition. There's no money tree. There's no side hustle. That's what the French toast they earned. Half of the men earned that. I mean, can you listen and understand that? I do understand. I completely understand. All right. And then the men that earn more than that want a hell of a lot more, like your ex-boyfriend who told you, oh, I'm an above average earner. I'm going to go get the moon and the stars because most guys earn less than me. Okay. So Lou, can I ask you a question? Listen, the men that you want, the income, the lifestyle, no matter how you want to slice it, how you want to pretty it up. I've been, this is not my first rodeo. Please stop looking in the comments section. Look, look ahead and think of, you're looking down there. It looks like you're not looking here. When you're at the end of the day, man, you can pretty it up, but you want a certain kind of lifestyle. It's a white class, a white color lifestyle. All right. So let me ask you this. Can I have the question? If that's okay. Can I? So for women who have realistic goals, who maybe like, I guess what I'm trying to say is it okay to want a man that has a average earning potential and you guys are able to build to have more in the future? Like I feel like sometimes you're kind of distressed. No, no, no, no. You're not the builder. That's why I stopped you.  I don't do that young lady. I want the French toast is wrong with you. But you know what I do know? Is this how you act on the phone? You are tripping a relationship and I've tried to be really nice to you. Acting the way you do.  This is live. People are looking. Okay.  But thank you so much. You don't come over to somebody's place playing games.  He's so rude. No, women like her come over to somebody's business. Bucking your eyes. That's another woman. For whom the average earning man would not be good enough. See, what I want for you ladies is to start understanding every time a woman says that they need a man in the top 15, top 10, top 5% of earners, they are telling the rest of men you're not good enough. Well, if they can say that, that's fine. But they're going to have to be able to live up to that. Y'all don't seem to have any problem with women having a standard. But when the man comes along and say, well, guess what, man?  I'm like, all right. Men who earn the kind of money you're talking about are going to get women who have room to grow. Standard your mother's house, on and on business. It's too much attitude.  That young lady was very full of herself. She may not have been acting all over the place, but she was very, very full of herself. That's why the ego. And that does well for when y'all are talking out of diva queen boss stuff. And it does not work well for the kind of men that women say they want. So if you think this is rude, then not stay out of here, man. Because this is how men talk. I've said it. Men are not going to talk to you like we're women. This is my platform.   That's what I said on Clubhouse. Women are used to one way of grashing.  And men are just supposed to take it. Men are supposed to let women just say whatever, do whatever. And just because they're not screaming or raising their voice, we're just supposed to let you do it. No, absolutely not. And the bottom line is she rated herself an eight. She thinks she's pretty. Okay. She's cute. She's cute. But you're not at the Beyonce level. You're not eight, nine and 10. Life has shown that you're at the five, six area. And because I could not get an accurate estimation of her physique, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she had an average physique. But I do know what is such a full face. Men tend not to be drawn to full faced women, especially for lots of reasons. So what point do you ladies feel like you're going to have to start making? See, the problem we've gotten to is so many women feel like they're settling for being realistic. An average man is nothing to settle for. I got news for y'all. An average man is nothing to settle for. And I'm tired of hearing y'all talk about you'll be settling for that. You don't settle for an average man. You settle for a below average man. An average man is a catch. Just like an average woman is supposed to be the prize, right?


Before we were shipping to Canada, we had one of our hype girls drive across the border. She would place like a bulk order for anyone in Canada who wanted to order. If border patrol is listening. Yeah, this actually is fake. She would drive across the border and ship them out to anyone who had ordered Canada. They literally would ask her at the border, what is in your trunk?


Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news. Get ready for taxes. Bookmark the IRS.gov, IRS.gov, IRS website, resources, and online tools to use before, during, and after filing. But first, an attempt at a joke. I apologize in advance. In order to settle the tax bill, the IRS and I had to split the house. I got the outside. Okay, now you're just taking bad 20 year old divorce jokes and applying them to the IRS. What? Did you get that joke from an old married with children's episode or what? Maybe? IR 2022-12 January 13, 2022, Washington. The Internal Revenue Service today encouraged taxpayers to use IRS online tools and resources to find information they need to be ready to file their 2021 federal tax returns, including important special steps related to economic impact payments and advanced child tax credit payments. And if you're a tax professional, I would try to encourage your clients possibly to get onto this resource as well, because as we know, we got all these prepayments that are taking place, and we want to be able to verify what those prepayments are going to be. In other words, the child tax credit or advanced child tax credit is tied to the 2021 tax return that we're going to be filing by April 15 or April 18 of 2022, and we need to know the prepayments that happened in order to do that. And if you don't have the documentation for that, then you might be able to get that from the online portal. The same is true for the economic impact payments. If they didn't get that correct, or if we didn't get the proper payment from the government for that, the remedy is to do the recovery rebate credit. But in order to do that, we got to know what the actual payments were, and you might be able to get that from the portal. Note that the IRS is updating their portal as well. So I think you could still kind of log in the old way, which is somewhat doable. The newer portal that they have, the verification process is fairly comprehensive and somewhat difficult to get approval for. So if you get people on that in the website earlier, the better. So in a case, individuals, especially those who didn't usually file a tax return are urged to file their 2021 tax return electronically. There's a link to that here beginning January 24, 2022. Using tax preparation software or a trusted tax professional will help guide people through the process and avoid making errors. Filing an incomplete or inaccurate return may mean processing delay that slows the resulting tax refund. Quote, there are some simple steps people can take to make sure they avoid delays and receive a quick refund. End quote IRS Commissioner Chuck Reddick said, quote, I are it's critical this year to avoid a paper tax return whenever possible and file electronically with direct deposit. So with all with everything that's been going on, the IRS is really backed up on the paper tax returns. So so it seems that if you're getting a refund and you're depending on that refund, you might want to I would recommend filing electronically and try to do everything electronically as possible. Try to eliminate and remove the need for the manual services, given the fact that the IRS is still short on staff and whatnot. They got the COVID removing the staff and so and so forth and those kind of restrictions that are taking place, which there's a heavier burdens on the government entities in order to comply with all these kind of rules and whatnot. And so the electronic filing might be the way to go. However, if you owe them money, you know, you might want to send them a paper tax return and like a written check and they might not be able to cash it for like a year due to processing delays. And as long as you're not getting penalties or interest on it, I don't know, maybe that would be okay with you. But it's even even if you're going to be paying, I typically like to make the payment just so I can see that it cleared and I don't have to deal with this thing. Well, it got lost in the mail or got lost in the IRS or whatever. But again, it's probably more important to you if you're getting a refund and you're dependent on that to electronically file. And if you're not so worried about the refund and you don't really care if they take forever processing your return as long as they don't penalize you. Then maybe the paper returns the way to go. And it's more important than ever to make sure you're filing an accurate tax return. The IRS urges people to review some straightforward tips that can help them avoid problems and get their tax refunds quickly end quote. This is the third in a series of reminders to help taxpayers get ready for the upcoming tax filing season. A special page, there's a link to that page here, updated and available on irs.gov. Outline steps taxpayers can take now to make tax filing easier. irs.gov tools are easy to use and available 24 hours a day. Millions of people use them to find information about their accounts, get answers to tax questions and file and pay taxes. Recovery rebate credit slash economic impact payments. These two things are tied together. The recovery rebate credit being the credit that you would be getting, the economic impact payment in essence having the prepayment to the recovery rebate credit, which if you got the full amount of the prepayment, you shouldn't have the recovery rebate credit. But if you didn't get the full amount of the prepayment, then the recovery rebate credit is the remedy to the problem. Noting we're only talking about when we're talking about 2021 tax returns, the third economic impact payments because the prior two economic impact payments have the same scenario but applied to the 2020 tax returns. Individuals who don't qualify for the third economic impact payments or get less than the full amount may be eligible to claim the recovery rebate credit. They will need to know the total amount of their third economic impact payment received to calculate their correct 2021 recovery rebate credit amount when they file their 2021 tax return. And just note that problems with the recovery rebate credit, it seems in the report that they had that was issued out not too long ago that that was one of the major problems, miscalculations of the recovery rebate credit. And if there's a math error with it, then it could delay the processing time and that could delay the total refund in total. And I would imagine, we haven't seen it yet, but I would imagine you're going to have the same problem with the CTC, the advanced child tax credits given the fact that these are advanced payments as well and they could have gotten the payments wrong. They've also adjusted the calculation of the credit and therefore that change could cause people to do math errors in terms of just calculating the credit and then applying out the payment. If you get those things wrong, then the IRS is going to think there's a math error and then they're going to have to adjust it somehow. And of course that could possibly take a person, an actual person, rather than the computer doing it. And they're still in the IRS having to try to compensate for all the crazy policies that are seemingly to be applied first on the Fed. So manual processing is not their strong point at this point in time, I would think. So ensuring they use the correct payment amounts will help them avoid a processing delay that may slow their refund. Beginning in late January, the IRS will send letter 6475 with the total amount of the third economic impact payment received. People can also view their economic impact payments using the online account. There's a link to the online account here. Advanced child tax credit payments. People will need to know the total amount of advanced payments they received in 2021 to compare them with the full amount of the child tax credit. So we've never done this before and it's another one of these advanced things. But it's the same process. Maybe people are getting more used to it at this point in time. But you're going to have to calculate the credit which is different and then apply the advanced payments to it to see what the remainder of the credit would be. And if they did everything right, I believe that you would still get half of the current calculated credit which was increased from the prior year if the prepayments worked properly. So that they can properly claim when they file their 2021 tax return. People who receive the advanced payments can access their online account to check the total amount of their payments. The IRS is also sending letter 6419 to provide the total amount of advanced child tax credit payments received in 2021. Eligible families who did not get monthly advanced payments in 2021 can still get a lump sum payment by claiming the child tax credit when they file a 2021 federal income tax return this year. This includes families who don't normally need to file a return. Interactive tax assistant. The interactive tax assistant answers general tax law questions including helping to determine if a type of income is taxable or if someone is eligible to claim certain credits and deductions. With changes into income and other life events for many in 2021, tax credits and deductions can be more money to a taxpayer's pocket. Thinking about eligibility now can help make tax filing easier. Online account. Taxpayers can use their online accounts to securely see important information when preparing to file their tax return for following up on balances or notices. Taxpayers can view the amount they owe, make and track payments and view payment plan details. Taxpayers can now also manage their communication preferences to go paperless for certain notices from the IRS or to receive email notifications when the IRS sends them a new digital notice. And this is a huge deal that they're actually going to move away from the snail mail a little bit, get a little bit digital here. You might be able to get some notices from the IRS that are electronically transferred and not going through the mail. Wow, up into the 21st century here, people. They can also access information about economic impact payments and advanced child tax credit payments needed to file a complete and accurate return. Now, to create an account, where's my refund? Taxpayers can check the status of their refund using the where's my refund tool. There's a link to that here. The status is available 24 hours after the IRS accepts their e-filed tax return or up to four weeks after they mailed a paper return. The where's my refund tool updates once every 24 hours, usually overnight. So taxpayers only need to check once a day. Get ready to use direct deposit for tax refund. Direct deposit gives taxpayers access to their refund faster than paper check. Individuals can use a bank account, a prepared debit card or mobile app to use direct deposit and will need to provide routing and account numbers. So again, if you're getting a payment coming to you and you're going to want possibly the direct deposit is going to be, of course, faster than the paper checks and again, the paper checks might involve more processing time for the IRS, which of course, again, they're short on. So if you're getting money back, then it might be good to have the direct deposit. If you're paying them money, then you could give them an electronic payment in that case as well. But again, in that case, you might not be so concerned. And as long as they're not penalizing you, as long as they don't hit you with that big stick of penalties and interest they have over there and they like to whack people with, you can send them, you know, you might send, I'll send them the money in the mail and they could take a year to process it. If that's how it is, that's fine. They could sit at home because they don't want to wear a mask if they go into work or whatever, they don't have their shot or something. So in any case, learn how to open an account at an FDIC insured bank. There's a link to that here or through the National Credit Union Locator Tool. There's a link to that here. Veterans should see the Veterans Benefit Banking Program. There's a link to that here for access to financial services at participating banks. IRS free file. Everyone can file electronically for free starting January 14th. The IRS free file program. There's a link to that here available only through irs.gov or the IRS to go app, which is the super coolest app ever on your phone that you can get the IRS to go app. I don't have it. I'm not super cool yet. But it offers brand name tax preparation software packages. So basically this program is going to have third party providers like, you know, you got TurboTax I believe on there into it. The owner of QuickBooks owns the TurboTax and other big providers. I'm not trying to promote any of them. But then it looks like the IRS kind of pressured them to give a free filing of the software and use their third proprietary software for free if your income is below a certain threshold. If your income is above a certain threshold, then you could still file for free using free file fillable forms. But I wouldn't recommend it because at that point your return is probably fairly complicated and you probably want to buy the software so you have a double check on your calculations and or get tax help at that point since you have significant income at that point possibly. So those who earn 73,000 or less in 2021, they may qualify for free file guided tax software. The software does all the work of finding the deductions, credits and exemptions. I think that's a little bit of an overkill at all. It does all the work. The tax software does all the work. I'm not sure about that. That's a little I'm in any case. Some of the free file offers may include a free state tax return. So if you have a state tax return, you want to make sure that you're taking care of the state needs as well. So you'd like to be able to pick a software that does the state to not just the Fed if you have to file for the state. And that will differ by state. Taxpayers come comfortable filing out of tax tax forms can use free file fillable forms. So you could use the free file fillable forms, which is good for practice, but I wouldn't actually do it for in practice. It's good for practice, but I wouldn't do it in practice. Actually, because it'd be nice to have software that would kind of help you give you a double check, typically it is nice. Even tax professionals, they don't do the fillable forms typically. They're going to use some software because the tax code is complicated and even if you know what you're doing, it's easy to make a math error and so on. So in any case, the electronic federal tax forms paper versions to file their tax returns online, regardless of income, members of the military and qualified veterans can use a mill tax, which is great. And I think it's free no matter what your income level. If you were a member of the military, obviously it's geared towards the military, but the thing I've never really got, I'm still not sure if it's better than like a turbo tax, meaning if you were a member of the military and you could still use turbo tax and I think it has the settings to do what you need to do if you tell them you're a member of the military. But the military, the mill tax is geared just for the military. So if you have the option to get either one free, like a turbo tax or something like that, or mill tax, I'm not sure which would be better. I would kind of imagine that the proprietary software would be better because it's been tested on the free market whereas the mill tax is created from the Department of Defense and therefore it's not really competing against other proprietary softwares to be the best on the market. So I would think it wouldn't be as designed quite as well in my opinion, but I've never used it. So I'd be interested if anybody has and what their experience is on it, if anyone would like to share that. The generally offers free online tax preparation, e-filing software for federal returns and up to three state returns, free tax return preparation site, the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistant, the VITA and the tax counseling for the elderly, the TCE programs, offer free tax help and e-file for taxpayers who qualify choosing a preparer. The IRS has several options for finding a tax preparer. The IRS provides an online database to help taxpayers locate an authorized e-file provider. There's a link to that here in their area who can electronically file their tax return. Choosing a tax professional provides information for selecting tax professionals. There's a link to that. The directory for federal tax return preparers with credentials and selected qualifications. There's a link to that here. Can help taxpayers find preparers in their area who qualify, who currently hold professional credentials recognized by the IRS or who hold an annual filing season program record of completion. Taxpayers need to remember that they, not the tax preparer, are responsible for information on their tax return once they sign it. So oftentimes when you get someone else to help you with your tax return, people tend to think like they're the IRS, as if they're the enforcement agent, and know they're acting kind of more like as your agent to help you file the tax return. The responsibility for filing an accurate tax return is still on you. In essence, the tax preparer, or you, the taxpayer, who is hiring a preparer to help you out.  And so if you hear anything about the preparer, it's going to say, I'm going to take a percentage of your refund or I'll get paid based on the refund you're going to get or something like that. You're going to be suspicious that they're not going to be doing stuff properly. You want them to file a proper return, because if they file a fraudulent return, then the IRS is going to first come back to you typically, even though the preparer advised you to do that. They're first going to generally come back to the taxpayer, and they could have three years generally, that's the statute of limitations generally, unless there's fraud in it or something. They're the government, they can come back anytime they want in reality, it seems like. So they can come back three years later. So if you get a refund this year and then the IRS comes back three years later and takes the refund back plus charges you penalties and interest and causes you all kind of headache to go through the process, that's not worth the refund that you get in the front. So you want to make it accurate typically, obviously in hiring a good professional. Also note that the professional that you hire may differ on your particular needs. So you might have just a tax professional that's really good at making individual tax returns. But if you have a business, then you might need someone that helps you out a little bit with the accounting maybe or knows how to do some adjusting entries as well. And so you might want someone that that would most likely be more like a CPA because they have accounting background training and also then the taxes. Whereas if you have an enrolled agent or something like that, then they might not have as much accounting training, might not help you as much with the accounting problems, but maybe able to do the data entry perfectly fine. Okay, so then we have irs.gov get ready links to online tools, publications and other helpful resources for are available on the get ready page. There's a link to that for more information about planning ahead. See publication 5348 get ready to file. There's a link to that in publication 5349 year round tax planning for everyone. There's links to this resources and all these links and resources here. And there'll be a link to this in the description.