مرحباً بجزء أعيني وابسلام عليكم زايدنا مرحباً قبل أن نبدأ فقط أن نعطينا مرحباً كتشفاتك في المدينة الكربلاء إذا لم تفهم مرحباً السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته لأسفاتنا الذين مرحباً في المدينة الكربلاء المدينة الكربلاء is increasingly increasing day by day if I can say so by the early hours of the morning if you leave your place of residence and start navigating through the streets of Karbala starting from the street of Karbala street of Karbala of Imam Hussain moving on towards Bain Al-Haramain and going to the shrine of Abdul-Fad Al-Abbas the street of Al-Abbas you will be able to see the more the more what they call takyat where each group of people have organized their own area and they've lit with candles and with the colorful lighting and they spend the day in the Mawaqib from the early morning until the evening where they will each area starts in their own precision and come to the shrine of Abiy Abdullah Al-Hussain to conclude their day and during the day you see the the processions of of Zanjir hitting the back with the chains and the lamentation crying Majalis so it's one huge Majalis if I can say Karbala turns into one big major Majalis I think what's amazing is comparing I think a lot of viewers have been granted the opportunity to visit Karbala during the 40th of Imam Hussain in Al-Bain as we know there are many narrations that encourage us to come during Al-Bain but when I compare the taste of Al-Bain to Muharram the one thing that I feel is the best way to describe it is that Al-Bain is when the world comes to Karbala but Muharram is when Karbala itself is in mourning so you see all the as you said the Mulkibs which are the local groups of mourning processions from all over the city designated by the areas of the city that they reside in whether it be by a certain shrine or street Karbala was surrounded by walls with gates so each gate has and each Mulkib is designated to that area and you see throughout the day as you said they're coming in and pledging their allegiance to Imam Hussain and lamenting Imam Hussain and it's something really it's got a very special taste to it something very beautiful about seeing the people who live in the Holy City of Karbala who live and breathe the shrine of Imam Hussain and the shrine of Abbas making it having these 10 days as their opportunity to mourn obviously there maybe you crept me for a moment while I understand is if you would like to live I said that it is important for you to recommend to serve the visitors of Imam Hussain yes so these are people who dedicate their lives to serving the visitors of Imam Hussain but during these 10 days while they still do that they also dedicate a lot of time to lamenting Imam Hussain himself and going inside the shrine and doing those possessions which I think it's something very very beautiful and you can see so much history and so many generations of love just in these groups that go inside of course in these shows exactly the story of Imam Hussain in regards to his journey from Medina to Calibla and just trying to understand more about Imam Hussain and what we can take from his lessons into our lives and in the show today we shall be discussing deviate and how far one can deviate and SubhanAllah when you think about someone like Yazid or Imam Hussain or people who fought against Imam Hussain the first thing we often jump to think is how can anyone even dare to do that how can someone dare to be head Imam Hussain how can that even happen and the first thing we say is oh if I was there I would be the first person standing there to defend Imam Hussain but when you read the story of Calibla when you look at exactly what happened the enemies who were against Imam Hussain were telling this and our hearts are with you but our swords are against you you know they were dare I say the common Muslim at the time the same way we are the common Muslims but they couldn't bring themselves to go the extra step and serve Imam Hussain and it shows you just how far someone can fall and just how scary is to start getting into sin and start getting into injustice you know you slip up once twice three four times and any of us can become you know an enemy of Imam Hussain and I think that's what's scary and I'd like to quote one of my favorite poets is a suddenly a Sufi brother he talks about the Prophet Muhammad's story and we can use that parallel for the Ahl al-Bait he talks about the movie The Lion King so he comes right we were all in The Lion King and he says The Lion King is about what The Lion King is all about The Simba it's about the story of Simba so the movie studio everyone who came together the thousands of dollars millions of dollars they poured into that movie were all there to facilitate the story of Simba the characters his father whoever else there in the film is there to facilitate the story of Simba and the enemy of the film Scar is there to show us what a villain looks like he said in the same way this whole universe everything that is created in the story of the Prophet Muhammad and by extension we can say everything that is here in this world is here to facilitate the story of Muhammad and we have to ask ourselves who are we in this story are we the enemies or are we the good guys and Subhan Allah Allah has allowed for people like Yazid people like Omar bin Sa'ad and Simba to come about to show us what an enemy of Muhammad looks like and again show us how far someone can fall so tell us how did people like Yazid and the enemies of Muhammad saying how did they fall so far to be trying to kill the grandson of the Prophet just a mere 50 years after his death I said well if you allow me and give me permission in one or two minutes I quickly summarized just for the benefits of the brothers and sisters who are joining us these nights the first night we spoke about the importance of the position of the land of Karbala and what it means for the monies of Abiyab Abdullah Al-Hussain to be in Karbala the second night we spoke about the the figure this whole emotional atmosphere is rotating about and tonight we want to know the enemies who stood against Abiyab Abdullah Al-Hussain and their characteristics and what caused their deviation and what were the results Insha'Allah we will start with a short verse of the Holy Quran and we will continue describing the causes of deviation and the results الله سبحانه وتعالى in Surah in Surah Al-Israa in chapter Al-Israa verse number 60 there is a portion of this ayah where it says والشجرة الملعونة في القرآن there is a tree which is cursed in the Holy Quran if you go back to the tafasi and the books of the Mufassireen in the commentary especially نور of the Qalain for example in chapter book number 3 if I'm not mistaken page number 179 the author comes and explains this portion of this verse والشجرة الملعونة في القرآن he says إمام الباكر says this tree which is being cursed by Allah in the Holy Quran refers to the clan of Bani Umayyah the family tree of Bani Umayyah so when إمام الباكر comes and says that there is a family by the name of the Umayyids which have been cursed in the Holy Quran we have to go and investigate why does Allah سبحانه وتعالى at times speaks positively about an individual or a family or a group and at times Allah curses a group of people and Allah سبحانه وتعالى no doubt has a reason behind everything and the reason for Allah to come and curse باني Umayyya may Allah bring down his punishment upon them is because of their deviation from the path of Islam and when we say Islam we say the religion that came as a result of the propagation of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the message of the Holy Prophet these 23 years that Rasulullah spent pulling and dragging and accommodating all of those Arabs amongst all of the problems and the the wars and the battles that they had between themselves the tribes and the clans رسول الله سكرافاست everything so he he saves those Arabs and imagine during the 23 years what the Holy Prophet had to go through from people abusing the Holy Prophet neglecting his rights disrespecting him his family torturing him depriving him of his privacy depriving him of his of livelihood living in a comfortable place with his family honor, dignity, respect here some of those that participated in abusing the Holy Prophet was Abu Sufyan and his wife Hind Abu Sufyan and Hind were the clan were from the clan of Bani Umayyah Umayyah being the the great grandfather and Abu Sufyan being the father of Muawiyah and Muawiyah the father of Yazid so it comes down in the lineage the grandfather abused the Holy Prophet the mother the grandmother ate the the liver of Hamza in the battle of Uhud seeking revenge for the death of her father and brother and family members and that ran in the blood of Bani Umayyah those characteristics they took from Abu Sufyan and Hind so the son and the grandson did the same thing with the grandchildren of the Holy Prophet after 50 or 60 years we shouldn't be surprised when we come and read about individuals like Muawiyah and Yazid and when we speak about these historical figures unfortunately this is a misconception that some of the followers of the other schools of thought they as soon as they hear the Shi'a mentioning the name of individual like Muawiyah or Yazid they say these people the Shi'a those who love Ahlulbayt they say we love Ahlulbayt they are against the Sahaba they are against the companions of the Holy Prophet whilst this is not the case we highly respect the noble companions of the Holy Prophet whilst there were people who sacrificed their lives for the Islam and for the Holy Prophet and for the name of Allahu Akbar there were other companions who were busy diving and swimming against the tides trying to accumulate wealth in the name of Islam looking for power in the name of Islam so و الشجرة الملعونة في القرآن is the family of Bani Umayyah so what are the the characteristics of this family when we search the books of history we see like individuals like Abu Sufyan and Muawiyah they did not enter Islam as everyone else did everyone else came heard the message of the Holy Prophet sat down next to the Holy Prophet they received admonishment they received advice they received the beautiful sermons of the Holy Prophet and they willingly they willingly out of their own choice they made the decision to leave the worshipping of the idols or whatever they were worshipping and to join Islam but this is not the case with the clan of Bani Umayyah Bani Hashim and Bani Umayyah they are cousins they are relatives because if you go back and search in their ancestry you will see that the great great grandfather was brothers with the great grandfather of Bani Hashim Hashim himself so صخر and Hashim they were related so hence there is this grudge from the side of Bani Umayyah against Ahlul Bayt عليهم السلام because Ahlul Bayt they were always received well received well behaved and helped and I think subhanAllah even today we have people that tell us why do you have certain families of others and Allah himself has preferred certain families of others in the Holy Quran we see all the prophets many of them related by blood you see Ibrahim and his sons Dawood even Moses and Haroon and so many other prophets are related and it shows us that certain families certain lineages in Islam that are blessed by Allah SWT and of course when people see that it brings about jealousy in them because they can't understand or have the faith to appreciate that some families will be more blessed than others Brother Noody what you're saying is very beautiful and just reminding me that Allah SWT as human beings has given us the brains the intellect and we're not blindfolded our eyes are not closed we can read we can investigate Allah has given us the brains we can read the books of history and find that Allah has said I've given you the choice I've given you the brains and you can decide for yourself who would you choose would you choose someone who gives you a rose or would you choose someone who wants to attack you with a knife of course you're going to go with the one that has noble akhlaq noble morals smiling in the face of others calling people towards Islam with the wise words with the smile with the good behavior but this is not the case I swear to you we don't have any problem with those Sahaba on a personal level we haven't seen them and they haven't seen us they haven't done anything to us personally but it's because we read the books of history and we read we investigate the books that have been accumulated and written by the other schools of thought and they mention in their books things about these characters that doesn't fit the akhlaq because against the Holy Qur'an exactly when we say akhlaq we mean the Holy Qur'an the sayings of the Holy Prophet and the the wise way of thinking of the normal people so many Ummayahs characteristics carried infidelity kufr they were individuals Abu Sufyan himself on many occasions when he used to sit down with his family members he used to ask in the last stages of his life he turned blind he couldn't see so he used to ask his family members is there anyone sitting amongst us who is not from Bani Ummayah and there were times where people were sitting like the Holy Prophet Amirul Mu'mineen other Bani Hashi but Bani Ummayah couldn't come and say yes there is or there isn't so they used to stay quiet and then Abu Sufyan used to make that statement تلقفوها يا Bani Ummayah كاتون تلقوها يعني The power the leadership because leadership was in the house of Bani Hashem تلقفوها تأقف الكره take it as you take a ball فهما جاء به what he says Muhammad صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم the message the Islam is not true فلا جنة ولا نعرف فالذي يحلف به أبو سفياً the thing that I believe in and I swear to which he means the idols هبل وعزة علاد he says فلا جنة ولا نار there was no message and there is no hereafter which means that I Abu Sufyan I don't believe in the message that Muhammad came with I think it's just a quick side note two things that you can take from that is number one someone even at the end of his age his days are coming to an end there is nothing left for him in this world can be so arrogant to continue holding on to that belief of anti-monotheism number one and number two it reminds me of a quote that someone said about the Ba'afi regime in today's context they said if someone rules over you of power 20, 30 years and you take away his power he will never be happy with sitting in a house he will never be he will support anyone that will help him get in back to power even if it's ISIS or terrorism or whatever and you see that again with Abu Sufyan who was in power taking out the power by Rasool Allah and could not bear to think about the fact that his lineage would not continue to be holding on to power I'm sure Ma'awi as he kept thinking you know what our grandfather was in power we have to be in power too because we can't live like normal people after having tasted power so when we come to the grandson of the Holy Prophet he comes and describes when we mentioned last night that they said to Abu Abdullah you have to pay allegiance and after saying that when we discussed last night he described himself and his lineage he comes and describes Yazid and his characteristics he says he is uninhabitable he is lewd he is engaged in obscene activities he is always drunk always has lost his mind لاعب القرادة والخنازير he wasted his time with playing with animals instead of engaging in curing and advising people and answering their questions متجاهر بالفسق which was the most dangerous thing that a leader, a ruler ruling people the so-called Islamic Ummah can openly be disobeying الله سبحانه وتعالى and he still says I am the leader of the Muslims متجاهر بالفسق وقاتل النفس المحترم these are the characteristics of this person there wasn't anything left for Yazid to do drunk all day bringing dances musicians organizing parties inviting his friends over these things if you think about today there are some people in some corners of the world engaging in these kind of activities all of these things they push us towards deviation if we practice these kind of things these are the things these are the characteristics that are encouraged these are the activities that are encouraged by the shaitan by the devil not by the Malai they were all in the Islamic leader of the Ummah at the time احسن for someone to come and assume leadership and take allegiance from important characters characters in Islam like أبي عبد الله الحسين and as books of history عبد الله ابن الزبير عبد الله ابن عمر who were characters looked at in Makkah and Medina for someone like that you come and say okay what do you carry what are your experiences how do you behave for me as someone living in this time and age to come and follow you are you someone who is a professor are you someone who has invested his time and his life to educating himself to researchers so he can benefit the humanity you come I asked our viewers today sit down and read about the history of Yazid so you understand what obscene things he used to do and why that resulted in his deviation by causing the death of أبي عبد الله الحسين in the tragic way in the land of Karbala Fisk Fujor درانتنس واستن time with playing games with animals he used to have a monkey called أبو قيس he used to sit him on a donkey and sit down and send that donkey racing around a place and that donkey once upon a time fell from the back of the donkey I know this is funny because it's so pathetic exactly this is so called the Imam the leader the representative of the Holy Prophet so he placed himself as a and you compare this with Imam Ali who was two caliphs earlier who was going out in the middle of the night feeding four people making sure no one was making sure no one was in his entire state exactly you compare the two you ask why people ask why I'm saying because he wanted to bring back the name of Islam and wanted to give back people the way they wanted to live not the way that Yazid wanted people to live ويزيد رجل فاسقون شارب وخمر قاتل النفس المحترم معلل بالفسق ومثلي someone like me أبي عبدالله الحسين with my characteristics and with my lineage ومثلي لا يبايع ومثله someone in my stature and my position which is the position of Imamate and leadership this responsibility which has been given to me by Allah سبحانه وتعالى which no authority on the face of this earth is able to deprive me of this position I am not going to pay allegiance to someone like Yazid who him he himself positioned himself there his father did the same and they forced people to believe in that way and anyone that disobeyed them and did not agree with the way they wanted to rule people and anyone that they believed that was the lover of Ali ابن أبي طالب they used to attack the house demolish the house upon its people we had the husband and take the family as captives and cut their financial means from baytulman which leader does these kind of things so you shouldn't be surprised to read the history of Karbala and to read about the tragedy of عشورا and أبي عبدالله الحسين and question who would come and do this kind of things only a deviated person would come and do this kind of thing سبحان الله it just boggles the mind and we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to keep us safe from deviating because I feel like deviation it happens so so quickly there are plenty of stories how the most pious of people have fallen just by committing one sin and a second sin and a third sin then they came I remember there was one story which I'll just quickly very quickly mention I think it was about a scholar and I'm just paraphrasing the story I don't remember the exact details of it but there was a very pious scholar who ended up I think killing someone or something and he kept trying to cover up his tracks and Shaytan kept coming to him saying just do this and you'll be fine and it happened and it was going on right until the end where he was about to be hung and Shaytan said okay I'll save you if you prostrate to me right now and the scholar said okay I'll prostrate to you and then he was killed and that shows you he was one of the most pious scholars but because of his because of one sin a second sin a third sin kept going down that road he died in disbeliefs say it now of course you mentioned of course and as we know the battle of Karbala is one of tragedy and we see how how far someone like is he can fall to be able to do such tragedy things to anyone alone the house of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and we have about 12 minutes left so if you can please just take us on a journey into the Masaib of Karbala Insha'Allah just before I enter the realms of the Masaib and the tragedies of Karbala I just would like to end with a small insightful story just to give something to our dear viewers to go back and ponder and think about in the Holy Quran there are many stories and Allah سبحانه وتعالى uses these examples to show us that even if you live in the most ridiculous of times where everything around you pushes you towards sinning there always is a time or there is an opportunity for you to repent Asya the wife of Pharaoh she was living a life of luxury there wasn't anything that she didn't ask for and they would bring it for her she had power she had beauty she had wealth she had maids and servants serving she had everything everything one can think then she had the Pharaoh as her husband Pharaoh someone who used to say أن ربكم الأعلى I am your lord I am your creator whilst he was oppressing people whilst he was depriving them of their rights Asya was observing all of this but she wasn't saying anything whilst Prophet Musa عليه السلام was conveying the message of Allah سبحانه وتعالى she heard the call of Prophet Musa and then she sat down and thought with herself okay I the wife of Pharaoh in the palace of Pharaoh Pharaoh as a husband that says أن ربكم الأعلى with all the power and the wealth that I have I am the first lady in the government now I am between two roads either I stay as I am and neglect the call of Musa عليه السلام which is calling me to leave everything around me and it's very difficult if you're living in a high position you've got wealth you've got servants serving you there isn't anything you need which isn't provided for you and you make that split decision that you're going to leave everything for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى for the sake of that Nur that light that you've been looking for you take yourself out of darkness and you enter the light so here Asya decides and that decision was costing her her freedom and her life and eventually when she took that decision Pharaoh started torturing her torturing his own wife you see how deviated one can be the wife that the previous night you loved and you cherished and you took as a partner for you in your life the next day because she changes her ideology you want to kill her so here he started torturing he crucified her and he ordered his ministers and his army generals to torture her and then that didn't result in her coming back to what she was on before he ordered for a huge rock to be thrown on the body of Asya and Asya called الله سبحانه وتعالى oh Allah you see that I have left everything ابني لي بيتن عندك في الجنة I don't want this pretty world what I am looking for is the hereafter معاوية and Omar bin Sa'ad they were looking for pretty things in this world of course they didn't believe that there is a hereafter and Omar bin Sa'ad says if there is a hereafter and there is a judgment day إن شاء الله I will go to Hajj and repent within 2 years this is a story that we can learn from from the Holy Quran and there is another story narrated by علام النراقي in his book he says that there was a lady in Basra I called Sha'wana Sha'wana was a dancer and had a beautiful voice and she had a group of women around her helping her to organize parties and the wealthy people of Basra those who were engaged in parties and dancing at that time used to invite her this Sha'wana one day she was moving with her with her maids and staff going to a function during the way she heard a house noises coming from the house people crying and lamenting and shouting she sends one of her servants one of the maids she is going to investigate what is that sound what is the cause of it the first lady went she never came back Sha'wana sends another one until the third one goes and comes back and she says Sha'wana this is a majlis this is a religious function there is a speaker speaking to people admonishing them advising them asking them to repent telling them that there is a hair after make sure you fear Allah سبحانه وتعالى because Allah is going to judge you for everything Sha'wana says I wanted to investigate this myself so Sha'wana goes in she starts hearing that preacher advising people reminding them of the qiyamah and the adab and jannah and nahr Sha'wana starts crying heavily if someone wants to really repent and has the chance and takes that chance Allah will guide them the killers of Abiyab until the last moments of their life Abiyab gave them the chance even shimmer sitting on the chest of Abiyab Imam told him do not Imam was going to die because of the thirst because of the wounds Imam was going to die and Imam told him I am going to die but I don't want you to be the cause of my death and I will promise you that I will intercede for you on the day of judgment if you truly repent but shimmer did not he had that chance he didn't take it Sha'wana did Sha'wana started crying heavily and she spoke to that preacher and said oh preacher I have someone full of bad things I've done many sins many wrongdoings the preacher said Allah will forgive you even if you was Sha'wana and Sha'wana thought with herself will be upon me that I have become an example to other people of how sinful a person can be how deviated a person can be and she repented and she became one of the best worshippers of Allah SWT so deviation has devastating effects and that effect is that you will lose everything around you in this life and you will lose everything in the hereafter we'll say that we have about 5 minutes left so if you can take our souls to Karbala and take our souls to the story of Aijra Insha'Allah Insha'Allah tonight is the third night and I would want to invite you to the land of Karbala where today the caravan of Abdullah al-Hussain after leaving the city of Medina and leaving behind the little little ill daughter of Abdullah al-Hussain behind who stayed with Umm Al-Baneen the caravan of Abdullah al-Hussain arrived after months of traveling between Medina and Mecca and Mecca and Karbala on the second or third day of Muharram they entered the land of Karbala Abdullah al-Hussain upon reaching the outskirts of Karbala his horse stopped moving stopped traveling Imam noticed that there is something about this land Imam of course knew that this is the land of Karbala but he wanted to inform gradually inform his companions his sister Zaynab his brother Abbas his son Ali Al-Aqbar that we have reached our destination Abdullah al-Hussain asks his companions ما اسمه هذا الأرض my companions what is the name of this land they say سيد أبا عبدالله تسمى الغاذريات أبي عبدالله الحسين asks once again ما اسمه هذه الأرض they say أبا عبدالله they call this شاطئ والفراية أبي عبدالله calls again ما اسمه هذا الأرض it was then that one of his companions says أبا عبدالله هذه أرض Karbala أبي عبدالله upon hearing the name of Karbala سدئنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون ها هنا والله محل رحالنا بايا الله this is where we will base our camp ها هنا تقتل رجالنا this is where our men will be killed ها هنا أقتل أنا أتشانا وريبا this is the land that I will be killed in with a thirsty tank all alone لا نصر ولا معين Imam continues سيقها هنا تقتل وطفال ولا on this land they will kill my children and this is the statement that broke the heart of Abel فضل العباز الليدي زيناب it is when Abel says وها هنا تصبان وساءنا سيستر زيناب we have reached the land that you will be taken as captive from Abel says أخي عباز إذهب إلى أختنا الحورة زيناب because she has heard the name of Karbala Abel father comes to the camp of Lady Zaynab he says Lady Zaynab are you okay sister Lady Zaynab says أخي عباز is this truly the land of Karbala why sister Lady Zaynab says because I have heard things about Karbala يا يا يا Karbala لازل تكاربان وبلا ما لقي عندك آل المصطفاء كم على تور بكلام ما صرعو من دم إنسان ومن دم إنجراء أحسنتم سيدي الله نصلي على محمد محمد ومحمد السلام عليك يا با عبدالله وقد قمنا بسيطة بسيطة عليك وإن ده يوم أشرا يوم أشرا يوم يوم when our hearts will break and the day when our eyes shall weep أبناء بلا with إمام الحسين عيسلام ونقص كما يوم أشرا يوم يوم أشرا يوم يوم أشرا يوم يوم أشرا يوم ور Lars صلى الله عليه وسلم يوم它 would make these days days of change in our lives as I mentioned earlier it takes 40 days to change the habit, they say we have 40 today we have 40 days from the first of Muharram until the day of Durbaayn فب gün可能 في one day حتى نكون something we want to work on something need to improve on something that a habit or floor all is a floor all is firms something that we can work on إن شاء الله أتمنى أن أستطيع أن أقوم باستخدامنا وإن شاء الله أتمنى that my dear viewers alongside myself and my respected guests you too will pick something in your life that you can improve and do it in honor and in the service of Imam Hussain A.S. إن شاء الله I'll be joined by Said Ali al-Hakeem who will be reciting some eulogies after the break إن شاء الله we'll see you then السلام عليكم ورحمة الله


Okay, good morning, morning everyone, morning trust that you're all doing well. We pray and we'll continue to study about believers authority. Now we are learning about the workings or the methods of workings of Satan and what are some common tactics that he uses against believers. So we touched on temptation. We'll go to all of the other common practices that he uses. Before that, let's pray and then we can proceed. I just want to check if somebody from the online batch can please lead in prayer today. Anyone kindly unmute and pray please. Then I pray sister, have a good father. Please give us a moment. We are not able to hear. Please give us one moment. Then you can start. Yes, please go ahead sister. Can unmute and pray please. Yeah, heavenly father, thank you a lot for this time you have given us my master to gather to learn your word my master. I pray that your word what we learned today my master will be transformed in our spirit my master and that will be rooted to the ground my master and we have a strong foundation my master. I pray that we will use what I will learn in our daily life my master to use it and grow and grow in maturity in the Holy Spirit in the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you sister. Let's now get back to what we were learning. But before we get into the other tactics, I want to just ask us so how to overcome temptation? How do we overcome temptation? What were some things we discussed? Speaking the word. Okay, speaking the word then anything else we can do? Yeah, praying, spending time in prayer, submitting ourselves to God, surrendering ourselves to God, and also another important thing which I think I didn't mention, but that also helps is to just remove yourself from that influence. You know, sometimes we feel tempted. I'm just giving a simple example. If let's, if it is about food, and we are so tempted, we just want to keep eating, then maybe we should avoid being in those places where we are tempted, like we want to eat those foods. So it's something as simple as that, but you can apply it for everything else. We know ourselves really well, and we know in which area we are weak, and we don't want to fall in that area. And remember, we said that Satan, he has a strategy. He knows our weaknesses. Okay, and we know our weaknesses. So it's best not to expose ourselves as far as possible to that temptation. So we can do our best. I know sometimes it's difficult to avoid, maybe you end up being there. And at that time, you have to exercise self control. But in general, if there is a setting or something which tempts us, just don't go there, right? Or as scripture says, flee, flee youthful lusts.  That's how it starts, isn't it? How does sin happen? It's not going to happen overnight. Remember, we saw from Hebrews 12, we say sin entangles.  And we're not able to break free. So that is why these are all personal strategies for temptation. So a good exercise for us to do is maybe write out on a piece of paper, some of the areas where we are, we may be weak, we have to be very honest. Okay, we are not trying to impress anybody. It's our own. We are just being very transparent with ourselves. And we are saying yes, you know, in these areas, I am struggling. Just write it down, be very honest. Once you write it down, then you pray and see God, what are the strategies? What are the scriptures? So then what happens? You're trying to keep yourself safe. You're trying to protect yourself, which is very helpful. Will Satan tempt? What do you think? Yeah, he won't spare anyone. All of us will be tempted. Even if we are standing strong, he'll see how to have you all seen that house of cards, which they make with cards, they'll build like a house or a tower, right? How do they make it fall? Just one card, just remove one whole thing will fall down. So he tries to do that in all believers' lives. Because if he gets that one thing enough, the whole building will come down. Okay, so we have to be on the guard. You have to be careful. Because sooner or later, temptation will come. Okay, it's not surprising. When we are tempted, it's not surprising. So in this way, just be prepared for to face that temptation. Now, we let's move on. We'll go to the next tactic of the enemy. It is called intimidation. Okay, intimidation. What does intimidation means? Intimidation is to cause fear in our hearts. Okay, along with intimidation, one of the common things that Satan does is accusation. He likes to accuse the believer and speak lies into a believer's mind. So where is the battleground? Where is the battleground or the mind? The mind is the battleground. If we lose in the mind, we will lose in life. So in the mind, he would like to inject thoughts. What kind of thoughts? When we say accusation, it will be opposite to who we are in Christ. Now, if the Bible, like the Bible says that we are loved, Satan will tell us opposite. You're not chosen. You're not beloved of God. You're rejected.  Lies, a lot of lies against the position in Christ. You got it. So whatever we are in Christ, in Christ Jesus, we are the children of God. Satan will say no, God doesn't care. Or if the like we know in Christ, we are redeemed by the blood, the blood has done a mighty work for us. Now, we have become a part of the kingdom of God. Satan will accuse and say, no, God doesn't accept you. God doesn't accept your worship. God doesn't accept your prayer. God doesn't accept your life of devotion. A lot of lies, accusation. You are not good enough. You can't do this. So it will be opposite to what the word of God teaches us. Got it? So this is a common and one of the major weapons of Satan. See, he cannot, if Satan could destroy us, he would, isn't it? But he cannot. Why? Tell me why? We are believers. Satan is our enemy. See, what would an enemy like to do? He wants to destroy. Isn't it? Why is it that he is not doing it? Why all this, all this methods, temptation, intimidation? Why all these methods? Because the Holy Spirit is in us. Holy Spirit is in us. Okay. Okay. Any other answers? Why? Okay. Correct. Yes. Correct. So, see on the cross of Calvary, we'll go to that. It'll come in some of the subsequent chapters. Jesus has already destroyed the devil. That's what the Bible says. So, he is already destroyed, defeated and powerless. So when somebody is already defeated in a war, they're actually not, not even in the war. You understand that? There's no, there's no battle anymore like. Jesus has already won the victory. Jesus has won the battle. So now, what's happening is, we'll, again, everything, we have to come to it later, but just so that you can understand. Because he is powerless. If he had the power, he would just destroy us. He doesn't have the power. That's the whole point. Jesus has won the victory. We carry the authority and Jesus has given us the power. Satan does not have. So, he has to do all these side kind of attacks because he just cannot destroy us. He is powerless. That's the reason. Okay. And that is why all these indirect methods, indirect, I'm calling it indirect because when he uses the indirect weapons, he wants to convince us. So, the day I am convinced that, yes, God has rejected me. God has not appointed me. God has not called me. I am, I am not blessed. I am a failure. The day I am convinced, Satan will win. He cannot win directly. It's very indirect. The only way he can defeat us is when we accept our defeat. Got it? So, that is what he tries to do through the temptation, through the intimidation. And that is why we have to be so strong in the word. Every time a lie comes, we have to stand up and say, No, what you're saying is a lie. It is written. It is written, right? Go back with faith, go back with power to speak the truth against the enemy. So, intimidation and accusation is another weapon of Satan. Bring all these thoughts and thoughts of fear, failure, anxiety. Many, I've heard somebody say this that, like, usually, right, even, even when we are serving God, some of the biggest challenges that the enemy throws is in the area of accusation and intimidation, because he doesn't want us to serve God. So, we may go through this challenge that constantly we are, we are hearing this thing that, No, you can't, you can't, you're not good enough, you won't be able to, every time we have to overcome it and say, No, I'm not going to listen to this and take a step of faith. Okay? So, great warriors can be defeated by this one thing, they accept lies in their minds. Okay? And that's the way Satan tries to defeat us. And we have to overcome it at all times. Yeah. So, what are some, some methods that they use Satan and his demons, they may remind us of the past. We all, we have, we have a new life in Christ Jesus. So, we are, we are living according to that new life now. Now I'm born again. And I am a child of God in the kingdom of God. The old life, the past since the corruption that I lived in, it's all under the blood. It's over. Okay? I've already given it to Christ. He has already forgiven me. And that's how we are living now. We're living the new life. But what Satan will do is he'll bring memories of past past sins. You know, this is what you did. This is what happened and how can God forgive you? God cannot forgive you. A lot of such lies will come into our minds. At that time, we have to say, No, the blood of the new covenant, the blood of Jesus washes away, you know, the sins of mankind. So my sins are forgiven me. You can't keep bringing it back. So it's like a battle. It's a battle. So he may bring up past sins. He may bring up some weaknesses and say, Oh, every time you fall in this area, you won't be able to do it. Or he may bring a sense of unworthiness. Unworthiness is when we go into God's presence, we may feel that God is not happy. God is not considering me. God is listening to everybody else, but He won't listen to me. You know, all kinds of thoughts that come to us and we get stuck in it. But it's a battle. We have to come out of it. We have to find healing in the deepest parts of our heart for all these areas. Okay, now there is another subject about the human soul and how sometimes over the years as we were growing up, many things have happened in our lives and we develop our emotional person and we may really be in pain, in sight and we have to find deep emotional healing, which also the word of God offers us because in Psalm 23, the scripture says, He restores my soul. Okay, so even our emotional person can be restored and it's very important for us to find healing for our hearts so that when we are strong, then whenever Satan comes, those hearts are already healed and so it won't be triggered. Got it? So we have to find, we have to be very strong in the word, strong as a person. Okay, then we'll be able to deal with this intimidation and accusation. Any questions about this kind of attack of the enemy? We'll keep moving on to the next ones. Okay, Brother Sanjay is sharing, Pastor Paul once taught us, if the enemy reminds us of our past, remind him of his future. Okay, yeah, of course, we can do that. That's quite powerful. We can remind him of his future. Alright, let's move on. The next one would be intrusion. Okay, so intrusion simply means unlawful entry. Okay, or you may want to call it illegal access. What did Jesus say in John 10, 10? Yeah, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. And how does he come in that same passage?  But the thief will come from the back door. Who's the thief? Satan. So that's what he likes to do. He wants to check every door and every window. Anything is open. If anything is open, just come in. That's the job of the thief. Right, they are studying. Anything has been left out or there are cracks. Some weakness will enter. So that is the tactic of the evil one. And we have been saying this again and again, right, that the evil one cannot touch us. We belong to Christ. Our body belongs to Christ. Okay, scriptures tell us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Okay, and God dwells inside our body. So when Satan tries to come in and cause anything, right, maybe sickness or some pain, anything, we can take authority and say, hey, I have been bought with a price. I belong to Christ. When we belong to Christ, then the kingdom principles or the laws for that kingdom apply to us. Now we belong to the kingdom of light, isn't it? And so we can go against the enemy and say, you have no access. I've been redeemed. I've been bought with a price. I belong to Christ. No, I'm God's property. If something is somebody's property, can someone else come and take it? You can't legally just cannot because the papers declare that that object or that piece of land belongs to a certain person. In the same way, all of us as believers, we are God's property. Now if we are God's property, can God allow someone else to come touch and take or harm? He just cannot. He cannot. Now we as believers, remember we read in Genesis, God gave us the authority and dominion. So we have to use it. Whenever Satan comes, you have to say, hey, not here. You can't enter here because I belong to God. You have to take a stand and go against the devil and say that you cannot touch my family. You cannot touch my finances. You cannot touch my mind. You cannot touch my body. You cannot touch my things. So we can speak like that because we are God's property. I'm not reading the scriptures. It's already here in our notes. I'm speaking on the basis of 1 Corinthians 6 20. So we should not give him access and it's only when we give him access, right? How do we give him access? How might we give access to the devil? Any idea? By yielding into temptation. Yeah, by yielding into temptation. Any other way in which we may give the access. Yes, Shani. What about through our mind? Yes. So our minds, that's Shani's point. Definitely, that is the place where it all starts. Whenever we come in agreement with the devil, then starts the attack or whatever you want to call it, the downfall. So in the mind, when we agree with him on any matter, then he gains access. So if I say something like, you know, in this season, everybody usually gets very sick. So I may get sick. I am speaking sickness for myself. Now, it may be normal and natural in a sense, but what am I doing? I'm agreeing. So that's what he wants. When you agree on anything, I'm giving you a simple example, then access. Because we are telling the devil, yeah, it's okay. I can get sick, you know, I will be sick. Then he is able to enter. So in that way, anything else that we say, that I will never, good things will not happen to me. Every time something good starts, it ends up in something bad. We say all these things and we don't realize that it's giving access to the devil. That's not what the Bible says. Right? So when we confess these things, it starts to become a reality. How is it becoming a reality? It's not supposed to, according to what God has done for us in Christ. But what we are doing is access. You know, I always, when I start a business, I always have a loss. We said it and Satan says, okay, great. There's my backdoor entry. Let me get inside access. So the point that I'm trying to make is when we are walking with God and align to the word, then Satan cannot enter. Just cannot enter. When does he enter? When we give access and we keep giving access in all these ways. As Shani said, in the mind, first we start in the mind. We agree. And you remember the thought, we said thought will go to imagination. Imagination will go to reasoning, arguments, stronghold. At that point, it's very difficult. By then he's, he's come in, he's robbed the place. Okay. And the Lord of damage has happened. So the point is, don't let the devil get into God's property. That's intrusion. It's illegal. Okay. It's not according to the law. So what should we do as believers? When we feel like Satan is trying to come in, what should we do? We should take authority and stand on the word of God. Okay. So speak the word, take our authority in James. Sorry, first Peter five versus eight and nine. Can we quickly read that passage, please? First Peter five versus eight and nine. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, step past in the field, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. Okay. So we know he is roaming, but that scripture also says resist. Okay, resist. If somebody is trying to rob a house, will we let them? We'll say, okay, please come. Most welcome. Open the door for them. Do way. Right. We make a noise. We'll call the police.  We'll do whatever it takes to stop that person from coming inside. That is resist. And when Satan tries to attack through intrusion, legally he can't do it. Okay. But somewhere something is just trying to come in and cause damage. We have to resist. We say, no way. You can't do this. You know, sometimes you got to get angry with the devil and say, come on, I'll do whatever it takes prayer, declaration, fasting, I'll do everything. I have to stop you. We are going to stop you. Right. So resist the devil. Don't let him do what he wants to do. That's the way to deal with intrusion of Satan. And of course, shut every open door in Ephesians chapter four and verse 27. It says, don't give Satan a foothold. Okay. A foothold simply means that point of access through which he can come in. And usually, usually these things are wrong belief, wrong declarations, then sin, sinful lifestyle, all these things become the foothold and Satan comes in. Right. And it's not that God is not helping us or God is not God has allowed it. God has permitted it. I think like that. It's happening because there are other reasons. Maybe we have not yet fully resisted the devil. Will he try to include? Yes, everybody's life. We will try to, but we've got to learn no foothold and resist and stand up against the devil. So that's the manner in which we have to come against intrusion of the devil. Okay. Any questions about this? Any thoughts? Okay. Let's just quickly go here. Okay. So Sanjay is saying our ignorance of the word that is lack of spiritual food to build us up in our faith. Okay. So that again is a challenge which might make us a target for Satan. Okay. So intrusion we have understood. Now let's move on to the next one. It is called opposition. Opposition as a name itself suggests is when Satan comes against us, he will oppose the work of God. He will hinder. He will try to put up, you know, like he'll counter whatever God is trying to do, the purpose of God. Even Apostle Paul in 1st Thessalonians 2 and verse 18, he says that Satan tried to hinder me. Satan tried to oppose me. So there are certain circumstances where we see that there's a very real opposition of the devil. You know, we may try to do the work of the ministry. Let's say we are going to a certain place and we want to plant a church. We go through the process. We are praying.  We are preaching the word. We have worship. We have everything, right? Spiritual warfare is going on. We may find that there are challenges. Something happens, which will try to stop the work. Something else happens, which will try to stop the work. So is it true that Satan tries to stop God's work? Yes, he will. Why won't he? Because it will be a problem for his kingdom, right? But it should not be a surprise for us. We know that that's what he'll do. So then we become smarter. How do you go to war? You're always smarter than the enemy, right? So if they have those weapons, you think, okay, I'll use the other weapon. I'll use intelligence. I'll use this and that smarter than the enemy. So we are expecting Satan to try to oppose the work of God, the purpose of God. So we have to arise and again resist and do the needful, right? And don't give up. Basically, don't give up. Just because there is opposition, don't think that, oh, I won't be able to do. Let's stop. Don't think of stopping. We have to fight it. The opposition of the devil. We have to fight it. So when we say we have to fight it, should we fight the people?  We go fight with them. Because ma'am said you have to fight in believers authority class. Yeah, so our battles are not against flesh and blood, but they are against, you know, the powers of darkness. So when we say fight, we are referring to spiritual warfare. Okay, so spiritual warfare, when we rise up in faith, when we rise up in prayer, worship, declaration, we overcome the devil, the demonic authorities over that area. Remember, we said over regions, you have demonic strong holds. So all that through prayer, through our faith, we have to overcome. So when we keep overcoming, eventually we'll find that it's gone. We'll try to fight for some time to check whether how strong these people are, will they keep resisting us or not. Then after a while you'll be like, it's gone. They just left. Okay, so we must not give up. There will be opposition to the work of God. We may find this true in our personal individual lives or as a church family. We may find all these things happen, but don't let it discourage you or stop you. It's an usual tactic of the devil. If you read about Paul's missionary journeys, he'll go city by city. He'll do the work, but there'll be some problems. Somebody will start saying this, saying that, but with God's wisdom, deal with the problem and keep moving forward. Okay, so opposition is another weapon that Satan uses. And we must remember that Christ has given us the authority. So when Satan comes with opposition, use your authority. Keys of the kingdom. I've given you the keys of the kingdom to bind and lose. So we can exercise in binding and losing. We'll come to it later. Binding means we won't allow. Okay, we don't allow it to happen. Losing means you're allowing it to happen. What did Jesus say, I give you the authority to bind or you don't allow and lose. You allow. So we take authority and say, okay, the spirit of something, I'm just saying oppression, I bind you in the name of Jesus. We have to do it. We have to say it. Okay, so when I do that, what I'm doing is I'm saying, I'm not going to let you do what you're doing. You spirit behind whatever is going on or you spirit of strife, you spirit of confusion, you spirit of anxiety, I bind you in the name of Jesus. That's part of spiritual warfare. Prayer, all that is okay. But we have to use our authority also. So we can say that and we have to say those things. Okay, or we lose something. God has given us authority to lose. So what, how does that work? You allow something to happen. So you can say, I lose a mighty work of the spirit to take place. Let the spirit of God work in this place. You know, we lose the love, the peace, the joy of the kingdom of God in this place. You can say that for your own family also. But when you say that what happens, you're allowing those things. But there are other things that we are binding. So in this way, we can also take authority. So there is a very interesting dream which pastor has written. Usually journals is dreams. So one of those dreams he has shared here. And you can read it later. I'm not going to get into it. But basically it's it's something about he sees how once he has, he's fighting with, he's handling something small snakes. And it's very easy. He overcomes them, he throws them away and then he moves from there.  Okay. There again, he is able to do something. He's able to jump crossover and he moves. Then when he keeps going, he finds himself before an anaconda. It's like a huge snake which can swallow you. Okay. So it's a bigger snake. And over there, he's wondering, now what shall I do? How shall I escape? Then God gives him an idea. He finds suddenly some, it's all a dream, right? God speaks to us in the dream and dream has a lot of what can I say, like all this figurative language and imagery happens in our dreams.    Then the snake gets distracted. It moves towards the chicken and he escapes. So apparently like he woke up in the morning and he was thinking, what is the meaning of this dream? What is God trying to say?  We need God's strategy. See, each time there was a different way of dealing with the devil. So that strategy is needed for every battle and we can only get it from the Lord. And maybe we are going through a particular situation. Last time we did something else to come out of that situation. Okay, that is last time. This time, we have to again ask God, what you tell me? What should I do? How should I? So see God, get his strategy, get his wisdom and then overcome the devil. Okay. The ultimate strategy of our Lord Jesus Christ is what? Yeah, the cross. The Bible teaches us that the cross is, it's like foolishness to the world. I mean, think about this. A person died on a cross. That seems like failure. That seems like the end. But to the Corinthians Paul writes, but this is the wisdom of God. We'll never be able to understand. Okay, but it is the wisdom of God. And through this work of Jesus, he saved the whole world and God's wisdom. It's so great. It's nothing compared to the wisdom of man. So God knows what he's doing and he is the God of wisdom and we must seek him. His ultimate wisdom of course is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So these are some thoughts that are given here in the section that talks about opposition. There's a small note on Paul's thorn in the flesh. So just want to repeat that the thorn in the flesh, Paul says, right, I prayed three times and it God said my grace is sufficient for you. Why did this happen to Paul? We've already given the answer for this in the previous courses. Why did Paul have a thorn in the flesh? We've already finished this. Why did the thorn continue to be there even though Paul prayed and he said Lord, you know, remove this thorn? Yeah, correct. No, my grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in your weakness. So the thorn kept misturing him but it was God's word which ultimately said that my grace is sufficient for you in this particular thing that you're going through and in your weakness, this my strength that has been made perfect. But why did Paul, see that thorn could have been removed? No, flourishing. So we have to go by the context. This passage is in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. When we study that passage in the same passage, verses 6 to 9, Paul himself explains, he says that thorn is a demon which came to oppress Paul. So thorn is not a human being or you know, we can't say, oh that person is a thorn in my flesh. You can't say that because the thorn in the flesh here is a demon and apart from that, we know that it was not a sickness or a disease. It was a demon that was oppressing Paul. So what is a thorn? It was a demon and why did God not remove the thorn? It's clear from what Paul shares that because of the many revelations that he had, God did not want him to become proud. Now can we use this and say, I have a thorn in the flesh and God is saying, he won't remove it? Yes or no? Yes? No, just give it a try. Don't feel it's not about right or wrong. I want you to interact. Can we say that I have a thorn in my flesh when I pray, then I ask God to remove it, God is saying no, my grace is sufficient for you. I can only see agreement even though you're not saying yes, some heads are shaking and all that. Okay, yes, Shani, something? No. Okay, I saw your hand raised. That's your answer. Okay. So Shani is right, we cannot use this example from Paul's life and apply it to our life. The reason is, do we have revelation like Apostle Paul? He wrote half of the New Testament. Okay, when we're talking about his level of revelation from God, it's something else. None of us can compare to that. No current apostle, because these are all the founding apostles through whom the scriptures were inspired and they wrote it. So the revelation that Paul carried, nobody can compare to it. So there's no question of God sending a thorn in our lives. Okay, so it is not applicable to any one of us. So we should not just take that passage and use it, you know, if you are sick or if you're having a problem, if you're having a relationship problem in our family, we should not say, Oh, God has given me a thorn in my flesh. It's always troubling me because and God is saying my grace is sufficient for you. It's not applicable to us. Is that clear? Did you understand what I'm trying to say? See, I'm saying that that particular thing, the thorn in the flesh, right? It was in the case of Paul because of his many revelations. Okay, but to keep him humble, but none of us can claim that we have those kind of revelations. So then where is the question of keeping us humble? Got it? So that is why I'm saying it's not applicable to us. It's fine. Okay, fine. I think that is clear. And I'll just go to a question here, Sister Gertrude is saying, can we cast demons from a distance? Yeah, there's no distance in the spiritual realm. You can. You can, Sister. It is a possibility. But the normal way in which we do it is, you know, it's good if the person is there, we'll see the steps of deliverance a bit later on. So if the person is there, then it's a lot easier to minister to them, speak to them from time to time and all of that. But yeah, you can pray for someone and deal with demonic strongholds from a distance also. Remember in our meeting, somebody said that pastor's meeting on the phone, they were casting out demons, right? If there's a demon possession, just call this pastor, he'll cast it out on the phone. It's possible because it's all about faith, right? So, yes, yes. Yeah, I have a question. I think it's probably from last class when you were mentioned that the devil is not like, he's not omnipresent like God. So can you explain to me how he puts stuff in somebody's mind to put stuff in somebody else's mind at the same thoughts at the same time if he's not omnipresent? So he has demons working for him He's like the boss, but he has an entire army and that's how he does it. Oh, okay. Okay, thank you. Yeah, sure. All right, class, let's take a break. We'll come back in about 10 minutes and continue with the next method which is deception. So we'll stop for now. Thank you.


Welcome to Computer Science 75. All of the material in this course will be available through Canvas. You can get to Canvas from the evc.edu site by clicking Canvas in the Quick Links. This takes you to the single sign-on page where you enter your My Web ID, which is the first two letters of your first name, the first two letters of your last name, and the last four digits of your college ID at stu.evc.edu, and then your password. This takes you to the dashboard where you can select your course. I've logged into the course as a student. Let's take a look at the detailed course syllabus. If you want to contact me, you can either send me an email, but it's probably easier if you use the Canvas inbox to send me a message. You can read the course description and the student learning outcomes on your own. There are two required texts for this course. Think Java, how to think like a computer scientist, second edition, and an additional required book with exercises and other material. Both of these are available for download for free. Programming assignments will be graded on functionality. If a program doesn't work, nothing else matters. There are different degrees of not working, ranging from minor errors to catastrophic failure, and grading will range accordingly. Organization. Does it look as if the program were planned in advance, or just thrown together? Readability, which includes proper use of naming and indention. For example, if you have a program that calculates discounts, using a variable name like discount percent is much more understandable than an abbreviation like DP. Appropriate use of programming constructs. If the assignment is about, say, loops, and don't worry if you don't yet know what those are, and you do the assignment without using any loops at all, then you haven't used the appropriate constructs. There are 500 points possible in this course, and here's the grading scale. If you decide to drop the class, it's your responsibility to do so. If I've noticed that you've missed several assignments or class discussions in a row, I might drop you, but I'll contact you before I do that. If there's some emergency, you have to be out of town, or some other circumstances, drop me an email or send me a message via the inbox. A short message is fine. Just say, hello, an emergency came up. I'll turn in my assignments when I return. Deadline dates for dropping a class with and without a W are in the EVC schedule of classes. What do I do about late assignments? If an assignment is one week late, I'll take off 10%, one letter grade. If it's two weeks late, I'll take off 20%. More than two weeks, it's my option whether I want to grade it or not, but if I do, it'll still be 10% off per week late. You can discuss assignments among yourselves, but you each have to do your own work. Cheating and plagiarism will be met with an F on an assignment. I realize that sometimes people get stuck on an assignment and the deadline is looming, and there's the temptation to go out to one of those homework helper sites and copy someone else's solution. Please avoid that temptation. If you're totally stuck, contact me. This is my job to help you get past those problems. I would rather see a badly written, half-written program that's your work than a perfect program that you don't understand. The EVC catalog has details on the college honesty policy. If you have any learning or physical needs that require accommodations, make an appointment with the Disabled Students Program, and please notify me in writing via email or Canvas inbox message. The other important part of the syllabus is the course outline, where you'll find the schedule for readings and assignments. If you get ahead of the schedule and turn things in early, that's great, although I can't guarantee I'll grade them early. I do participate in the Early Alert Program. Please read about this. It's fairly important, especially with an all-online class if you're in one of those sections. The best way to go through the course is by using the Modules link in the navigation bar. This will have links to the topics of each module and the assignments. I also have discussion forums. These will be set up so that you can't see or respond to other students' posts until you've posted something yourself. Finally, we have Zoom, which allows video conferencing, and I'll set up at least two Zoom conferences a week where you can join in and ask questions or discuss whatever's on your mind. When you use Zoom, I recommend the Chrome browser for best results. Now the most important part of the orientation. How to succeed in the course. Read the book. If you try to do the assignment without reading the material or viewing the videos, you're setting yourself up for a very difficult time. As you go through the book, when you see an example program, type it in. If all you do is look at the code, nod your head and say, yeah, I got this, then in all probability, no, you don't got this. Instead, as you type each line of the program, ask yourself what that line does and why it's in the program. This makes a connection between the code and its purpose. If you're adventuresome, try modifying the programs. Make them do something different or something extra. Finally, and perhaps most important, plan your programs before you write them. Either draw a flowchart or write pseudocode, part English, part Java. But no matter what method you use, plan. Programs written at the keyboard look like it. And that is not a compliment. Remember that a few minutes of planning can save you hours of frustration when you're writing your programs. If you do get stuck, ask for assistance. Email me or ask for suggestions in the discussion forums. Now let's get started.