Food and family is a big part of our way of life. Family is important. Food brings us together. I never thought I'd be working in the food industry, but then my father-in-law gave me a job at Wood-Fruitacre. We're a fourth generation family-owned and operated food distribution company. We have a culture here in terms of how we do things. We're always trying to do the best thing for our customers, our employees, and everyone's families. That's probably why we've been around for over a hundred years. Being a food distribution company with customers in six states, we've got a lot of people out in the field. We want to make sure that our folks have everything they need to deliver the best customer service without eating into their own family time. For our local Apple store, we learned about the FileMaker platform. We built a custom app that allows our field team to stay connected, manage operations right from their iPhones or iPads. This means that our people can say, be at dinner with their families on Sunday evening, not drowning in phone calls and emails. Knowing that our customers will get the right orders by Monday is the peace of mind that allows everyone to relax and enjoy life. It's pretty cool to be a part of this history. People don't always see what's happening in the background, but custom apps enable businesses like ours to do things better. Focus on what matters. For us, that's family.


It is with great pleasure that I announce today that for the first time in this school's history, the University of Alabama has been selected to represent this school and perform in the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Because of the pandemic, there are major changes for this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The 2020 parade is going virtual. That means no high school or college marching bands walking the parade route. It was definitely hard, you know, when obviously we're here, we want to perform, we want to cheer on Alabama. We knew we had worked so hard to get there. We were chosen for a reason. We were really hoping, especially as a junior, going into my senior year to be a great senior year send-off. The senior class that was ahead of me, it was really unfortunate, you know, that their time was up. It was time for graduation. It was a super sad time in our program, but luckily we all have good attitudes, we're all optimistic. I wasn't worried too much. I'm sure our band will figure something out. We have good directors and it won't be long until it's re-announced that we'll get back in. There is breaking news really this noon. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is officially back. The 95th annual parade will kick off Thanksgiving morning. I'm just so excited to go to New York. Macy's been around for so long and to have the honor to be able to go. I mean, that's just like a dream come true.  I'm a senior, so it's really exciting that my last marching band season is going to get to be in New York. I feel like every marching band student dreams of going to New York and marching in Macy's. Getting to go to Macy's on my senior year, I mean, what better way to end it, right? I'm most excited about doing the actual parade and then being in the star in front of Macy's. So we're going to get to do a little show and there's a lot of surprises that I can't necessarily unveil, but there's a few things that people will be able to see, so look out for the million dollar band.


So, in her 25-year career in health communication, she's specialized in social marketing, multicultural health communications, and specifically in Photonovella development and production, which you've all seen today. We've actually passed out some of the Photonovellas that she has helped to develop with the Ryan White program, and I actually have one more for you. So I'll pass that out in just a second. Let's see. She's one of the first health communications specialists in the United States to use Photonovellas as health education tools, and is the most experienced educational Photonovella producer in this country. So please give me a round of applause for Ms. Anamatea.  I'm not going to stay up here because it's hands-on, but, yeah. So thanks a lot for coming. I think this will be, hopefully, useful to you guys as we'll get roll up our sleeves. So you already saw these two slides. That's just an introduction, how to make a Photonovella. All right. So the first thing I want you to do, did you bring paper and pen? Yeah, because you're going to write stuff down. I don't know how you want to do this. If you want to work individually, if you want to work in a team, however you want to work, it's fine with me. And you can just decide. I mean, some of you came from the same organization, and you might have some ideas. Are the two interns here? Oh, hi. You and your friend, the young man, why did you develop a Photonovella here? Okay. All right. Well, I thought you would be here. So it doesn't matter. All right. So the first thing I want you to do is think about what is the problem you're trying to solve. Okay? I always like to look at it that way. It's like, yeah, you can start with, well, we're trying to educate people about dental, you know, dental care. But it'll get you closer to your messaging if you ask yourself the question of what is the problem you're trying to solve? Okay? And then the second thing I want you to do is define your audience. Who do you want to reach? And I want you to define your audience as specifically as possible. Okay? So try to avoid saying, oh, I just want to reach Latinos with diabetes information. I want to know more specifically. I want to reach Hispanic moms, you know, 40 to 55 who want to teach their children how to eat better or something like that, okay? So be very, very specific. And then zero in on your message. What do you want your audience to do as a result of reading the Photonovella? Okay? So let's start with those three questions. And then once you do that, I'll come around and I'll look over your shoulder and I'll talk to you about it. But for now, answer those three questions. And then we will reserve the writing, the educational objectives to after you answer those three questions. And you know, I'm going to ask you to share, I'll ask for volunteers to share. I don't know that we'll have time for everybody to share, but I'll ask for a few volunteers to share the answers to those three questions and then that way we can give you input based on what you do. Okay? So hopefully you all have paper and pencil or pen or computer. If you want, there's, I think you have Photonovellas, but there's some Photonovellas here too. If you want to see what inspires you, all right? So I'm going to give you, this is very quick, I'm going to give you 10 minutes to do this, okay? You better go quick. I want you to share and then we'll give you input based on that. You okay with that? No, I'm okay. Walk around the audience? Because I'm going to walk around. Okay. We'll maybe, huh? Because yeah. You know what? Do you mind? My voice is so funky. I don't want to. That way I don't have to raise my voice too much. Okay. It won't be very loud. Okay. Just to help a little bit. Excellent. So let's clip this. You want to put it on my belt? Okay. Thank you. All right. It's that. Ya está prendido. Oh, okay. Okay. So what you're doing is you're going to answer these three questions.  Okay. And so the first question is what is the problem you're trying to solve? Who's your audience and as specifically as you can define your audience as possible, not like just Hispanics or, you know, get down to age, you know, female, male, as much as you can. Okay. Who do you want to reach? And then what do you want them to do as a result of reading the fotonovela? So, yeah? Okay. And you can work individually or together or whatever. Yeah. Okay. I gave, I'm not like two minutes, but I have 10 minutes. You have 10 minutes to do it. So I'm walking around. So if you have any questions or if you want me to come to your table, just flag me down. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So the first is just choose one problem just for today's exercise. Right? Choose one problem you're trying to solve. So say you're saying that one of the problems we have on our campus is that our students drive when they've been drinking. So that's a problem. And we would like for them to stop, right? Or we would like for them to, you know, designate a driver. All right? So then, so that, you know, something like that, like just one problem you're trying to solve just for today, right? Because you're doing a 12-page fotonovela, you might be able to do three problems, right? But for today, you're just going to choose one problem. So what is the problem you're trying to solve? Or you're saying, okay, some of these kids are coming underage. They're not of age yet, yet they're drinking. So we're trying to cut down on underage drinking. That's a problem that we're trying to solve. And then by that, when you identify the problem, you get pretty close to defining your audience. So you're going, okay, we're going to target, say you know that it's higher among boys and girls. We're going to target boys under the age of 21. So then that's your target, right? Not to say that if you had 12 pages to do a fotonovela, you could say we're going to target boys and girls, but the more specific you are, the more successful you're going to be. Okay? So just remember that. And then zero in on your message.   And because you're just learning about the process right now. Okay? Does that answer your question? Yeah. Okay. Great. Just questions. One, two, three. You already did it? Okay. Good. Women in care. Okay. So the problem you're trying to solve is that a lot of pregnant women who are HIV positive stop their care, their treatment. They might not come in or they might not take their medication every day. Oh, okay. Because they have to take it every day as prescribed throughout their pregnancy so that they can have a very low viral load because that's one of the things that prevents the transmission. Uh-huh. Okay. All right. Okay. So your audience is perfect and it's HIV positive pregnant women under the age of or all child-bearing age. Carrying your message. Stay in medical care. Take medication to reduce viral load as possible. What's this? To become undetectable. Oh, oh, undetectable. In other words, you want that viral load to be so low that they can't detect it with a test. Okay. Okay. It uses transmission down to like 1% of the real. Okay. And then, but it's a two step because the other thing is after the child is born. Yeah. They have to be on medication first. The baby has to. Uh-huh. And so we want them to bring the baby in to see the doctor because they have to be tested also at a certain interval to be able to determine that he's undetected. A lot of mothers bring them for like the first appointments and then after that they never bring them back but they're never actually told your son did not become HIV positive. They just fall out of there. Yeah. Yeah. They just stop coming. And then, yeah. Okay. By the third test that the doctor does, they'll know if the baby's positive or not and sometimes the baby, I mean, the mom just won't bring him back. So they need to go three times? At least. But it's like two months, six months, you know. Right. Okay. There we're getting into the educational objectives. Okay. Right? So this is good. This is really good. What do we, and with this particular problem we would have, it would be a two, you know, it's not just one message. It's two messages. Yeah. This calls for a little, yeah. And we can talk about that a little bit more when you start thinking about, well, what do we have to do, you know? Like when you start, when we start with the educational objectives, this is very good. You're really on target here. The only thing that I would challenge you on is if you could zero in on the age group of women, you know, like, yeah. But child bearing age, you know, the message may be tailored different to an eight-year-old than to a 39-year-old, right? So, you know, so I would, but there's also a way to do that. But I would challenge you on that.  Then you could really zero in on that. Then you could do another little story for women because they're slightly different circumstances. Or, yeah.  It's going to be easier to craft your message if you really control your audience. But, you know, you could have a longer fotonovela with three different audiences, right?  Remember, there's that sabido methodology that you have one person that's, right? So then, but you could, we could apply that later. You could go, okay, now apply that. Sabido methodology to this possible storyline. And you could, you know, I don't want to, yeah, three different characters, right? So, yeah. But this is very good. I might ask you to present that to the group. Okay. All right. Let me see if our time is up. Okay, you have about 13 seconds left on that. Okay. There. Okay. You can stop now. All right. What time do we have to wrap this up? Does anybody? 2.45. Okay. So we have an hour. All right. Okay. Very good. Now, I want volunteers to present their, their work on one, two, and three. But I would like to ask these colleagues to present it first because I actually looked over their shoulder and so this is an example.  The audience will be brought in to the doctor at different intervals. So, we need, and they are also a measurement before the treatment. So, we need to talk to you that you're, that you're newborn, so you might not care about the treatment. Okay. Very good. That was, that was pretty succinct. Now, as you might know, they already started kind of to segue into the educational objectives. So, you're going to have good material there to segue into your educational objectives and we'll talk a little bit about that next. Okay. So, anyone else? Anyone else want to volunteer on their first, on their three steps for crit? Yes? Okay. Okay. Okay. Very good. Excellent. Now, again, in zeroing in on your message, one of the reasons to take this little formula and do it is that as you can see, again, you segue right into the educational objectives. So, it really helps to separate that out. So, it's the same kind of input that you've got a very well-defined audience except that is it all parents or is it Hispanic parents? Is it, can you zero in? Because, for example, in terms of your audience, because it has to do so much with food, culture is going to play a really big role in that. So, you, but when you're putting out a photo novella to get them possibly one of the cost to action is for them to come to the demonstrations, right? That would be one of the cost to action is you actually want them to come to the class. I would challenge you to think about who you would like, is it African-American folks that you want to target? Is it Hispanic folks? Or is it, I mean, you could say it's a neighbor, it's an African-American, kind of like the approach that we took in the Barbershop talk is that, you know, the reality is that we're in a multicultural environment, right? So, your neighbor could be African-American or Native American or Asian American. So, but zero in, so that way you don't have a whole conversation around, you know, so general, but if you had an African-American mom and a, you know, Hispanic dad, say, talking over the fence or whatever, they could say, oh my god, you know, my kids want to eat this all the time, and so they could, there could be a way to have a conversation around that, very specifically because, again, you want it to resonate with them, you don't want it to be so general, you want it to be specific, but you also got into educational objectives almost a little bit, but again, I want to make a case for writing really specific educational objectives because then that's what you're going to hang your story on, on those educational objectives.  All right, anyone else? Does that make sense? Does that input make sense to everybody? Yeah? Yes? The conversation comes up, like, you know, doing a healthy alternative, you're not going to do it if you don't see it first and you know that you like it, it's like you're not going to waste money, you're not going to waste your food stamps, you're going to get it on something that you know it's going to be something that your kids like, because it's usually that's what we have to give to a treat, so it's like a reward, because if you don't have money, you use food to reward at the time, so like that, like including that into the story, because I think that is part of the culture, even though it's not like the typical, stereotypical, like Mexican culture, it's like using rights and all that, but it's like those are the challenges that our families are facing, and like to reflect that in the story, I think it would really speak to a lot of the moms and why they don't do it, you know? Again, because we want you to involve your audience, you've just hit on an important mark, and that is we come up with these ideas, we went, you know, one, two, three, now, these questions, you take it to a focus group, you get a group of moms, you know, in the room, dads in the room, and you say, here's our idea, and so then you start leaning ideas from them, and start blending those ideas into what you're going to do, right, so that you can get based on the message, it's really important. You had a question, yeah? You want to share, all right, some, all right. I'll show them other ways to deal with problems besides shooting somebody or killing them, because someone, it's like he said, he said, Bob, no? Or, it's like when I, when people grew up in the neighborhood, you would think in the 90s, I don't know, in the 90s, in the harsh neighborhoods, it was like that, and you would think, when you were growing up, you would think that was cool, like, oh, it's cool to be with people, it's cool to do that, so they were thinking it was a good thing, so how I worked on moving to the neighborhood. I wouldn't try to do it without knowing that that's not the right way to do it. I lived there, I've done it before, and this is how you should deal with problems. We didn't get to the educational objectives quite yet. You guys got ahead of me. But we'll come back to that. But let me hear them anyway, because I have some input that might be redundant after so what did you come up with objectives? Just because you worked on it. Let's hear it, because I might send you back to the drawing board. Go ahead. There are other ways to deal with problems. The other ones are like, well, you're not alone out there in the streets doing this, but you think I'm by myself, I don't know how to do this, no one's going to help me do this. I'm going to have to learn it and deal with it myself. And we're trying to to know that you know we lived and done it. That's not the way to do it. And the third one was standing up is here to help you. We should help you. Call stand up, okay, so the call to action, which is really important. It's a call to action. It has to be very direct. It's call so-and-so at stand up or call stand up. Call this number. Stand up is here to help you. It's fine, but it's a very indirect message. So what you want, you want to get right into what you want them to do. Stand up is here to help you is not what you want them to do.  It's really important that it be direct. But we'll get to that. We'll get to that. So the problem you were trying to solve is violence in neighborhoods, right? Specifically, shootings among teenagers. Great. Okay, so your audience is teenagers, black and Mexican teenagers who are resorting to gun violence, right? That's your audience. And your message, your general message, because we work on the educational objectives, is that there are alternative ways to solve a conflict, right? It's a very general message. But it's okay. It's a good start. There's choices. Now, one of the things that I would challenge you to do, and you probably know this already, and if you don't, you could go to the neighborhoods and you could have focus group interviews or discussions, listening sessions, call them whatever you want. But go talk to the people that you're trying to reach. And say, listen, we're trying to do this and this. You know, share what you just what, you know, why you've got to find out is it anger management? Is it what is at the root of that, right? I don't know. I'm not a violence expert. But you probably know, and your people probably know, what is at the root of it that you're trying to get to? You know, that is really important. There's got to be a specific is it territory? Is it what is it?  So that's, but we'll get to that. All right? Very good. Does that help? It's like, but we'll be holding on to the educational objectives because I'll come by and give you some pointers on how to write them. Because again, if you write your educational objectives very specifically, you will be able to write the story very specifically. You won't lose control of the story. Do you understand what I'm saying? Okay, one more. Yes. Decreasing what kind of Okay, got it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's good. I like that. Get tested, right? That's that's exactly what you want. One concept at a time. It's not that's good. That's really good. Yeah. All right. And we'll get to educational objectives with you as well. Okay. I'm going to go on to educational objectives so that we have time to, do you have any questions about this? Anything that is confusing or is it pretty clear that it's a step by step process? The other thing that I always do, like when I work with a client, I always develop and I challenge you to do the same thing. I always develop a concept paper and I write the questions and I write the answers because that's my map. That's my road map. I always develop or a creative brief if you will because then you have story ideas that come from this work. All right. Now the educational objectives. We could do a whole thing on educational objectives but just to be really brief, keep it really specific like list. That's an action list. Three things you can do to prevent passing the syphilis onto your baby. Define with you guys you're going to have to define there's going to be a concept in there that you have to define, right? Can I see that for a minute? Because you said that, for example this thing about this what is this? What is this? And then reduce this. Reduce the viral load. You're going to have to have a definition of what that is. Right? So one of your educational objectives is going to be reader will define viral load and then your challenge is to come up with a simple definition of that that can be understood by your audience and this is where dialogue is super great, right? Because one person could say one person could say but the viral load and then the other person could say what is that? Like I've never heard of that or whatever. Then there could be dialogue back and forth, right? So you're going to use some of your real estate and your fotonovela on defining what that is because you have to explain jargon. You can't just use a terminology that people don't know. So you have to define it and you have to define it really simply. In the story I highly recommend it and then in the didactic information. Lots of times the first inside cover will say what is viral load you know and you so that you could get at it in different ways, right? It's my old mentor used to say tell them what you're going to tell them and then tell them what you told them, right? Especially with something like that that has to be you have to revisit you have to build in repetition because if you don't you're going to lose that message. So building a repetition is really important when you're writing educational objectives. So define list explain. Explain is good if you're going to use this educational tool for processing. The reason you're going to use it is because you want to have small group discussions around around this issue then you can actually test that. You can test that your reader can explain it. If you're just leaving them it's really hard for them to explain, right? Because you need to be able to verify that they can do that through your field testing. So does that give you an idea? Try to use those very simple define list explain identify those kinds of words, okay? So now I want you each to write three educational objectives just three related to your first three steps and make them simple and make them easy to understand from your point of view, right? Because you're not just to be clear about sharing this information with your reader right now. Right now it's just you. You've got to identify these educational objectives because this is what you're going to base your story on. It's just for you to understand what you're doing. It's a tool for you. Alright, any questions? Alright, I'll give you five minutes. A call to action is an objective. You could say, reader will call reader. That's a coming around if anybody needs help with educational objectives. Anybody need help with educational objectives? You're good. Okay, alright. Sure. Yeah, it's smaller. It's the breakdown. Yeah, because your big goal is your message, right? This is what you're trying to solve who your audience and what your general message. And now the educational objectives are specifics so what's find a doctor. Yeah, reader will find a doctor. Yeah. Or a nurse practitioner. Remember, it has to do with what the photo novella is trying. What do you want it to do at the end of the day? So after reading a photo novella you want your reader to look up if you find a pediatrician. Yeah. Identify a doctor. List you know, list three ways that you can take, you know, like say for example, transportation is a problem. It's a barrier, right? You know, because you know about you've now done your homework on your people, right? You understand your people and but you know that these people are kind of low income. They don't, they live out in the country or something like that and they don't have transportation so finding a doctor is one objective but there might be a barrier like transportation. List three ways that you could find a, you know, go to the doctor and so then you might then have a creative dialogue between I but I don't know, I don't know how to, I don't have a ride and oh but you know, you could ask your neighbor who could you ask, you know, those are the things that you could start identifying how they're going to get to solve that problem, right? You understand that? To answer your question, yes, of course increase in knowledge is our overall objective is we want to increase in knowledge and we want to, you know, change attitudes and we want behavior change, right? That knowledge attitude behavior but that's in the big scheme of things right now you're trying to figure out what the photo novella is going to do and it's true like if you wanted to increase knowledge, like say you know you could say reader will explain why it's important for a baby to have a pediatrician you know, so yeah, you could do that but yeah, yeah, break it down yeah yeah, right? And so picture now a dialogue of, you know, two women talking and one of them says I have no idea where you are, where do I go and then you, the other person could say well, the way I found it is my aunt or my next door neighbor's a promotora or whatever and I got advice from other people and you know those kinds of things, I mean yeah, yeah, so but remember right now it's about the photo novella objectives. What you want the photo novella to do No, because see our company, our business model is that we're producers so we produce them and we deliver to you and then you distribute them so we're not publishers Yeah Yeah, yeah Yeah, exactly. If you didn't want to do it there's various ways you could like, you know, two ways one is, that's my timer go get it two ways is one with these two little ones I just consulted with them, they did it they produced it, I just consulted with them and you know I said well the dialogue's too long or whatever and then the third time they just asked us to do the whole thing but we feel tested with their people and they reviewed it, the kids reviewed it right, so they were very involved but we produced it and started to finish but these were produced here Yeah, does that answer your question? Yeah, yeah Alright, okay time's up, who wants to share who wants to share educational two educational objectives Alright we have a table over here, would you stand up and share two educational objectives for your Fotonovela, give us a quick rundown So we're going to do Okay, alright and the educational objective is Okay, okay Just switching from foods that are more rich in sugar to things that are better for diabetic Okay, alright, so your objective is number one you have to define blood sugar, right? That's number one objective so you have to write that down so reader will define blood sugar Good luck with that That's a big That's good, that's fine You can put in a definition a good simple definition This is what blood sugar is One of the most complex things you can explain but it's okay, you know it's good, it's good So that's define blood sugar and then you could say reader will list three ways that he could cut back on eating flour tortillas I would challenge you to do something like that rather than to give up a flour tortilla because, you know, like people from Sonora where I was raised man there like the people with the guns, right? They're going to take my tortilla sometimes that tortilla So I would challenge you to say the reader will list three ways that they could cut back on flour tortilla so that, you know it's incremental changes, right? If you get, you know, the guy that eats five flour tortillas is sitting to eat two flour tortillas and two corn tortillas in a day or something like that, you're doing good So what was the third area? Oh, the soda I would just stop there I would I would, I would, I would unless you're doing a long okay, right So then the next time is like he's already cut down on flour tortillas now, you know he could see his little you know, nine-year-old grandson guzzled down a Coke or something and that could be an inspiring thing for him, you know, something like that Okay, that's good, that's good But do you understand how very specific and, yeah, yeah, yeah Anybody else want to share an educational objective with a group? Yes Yeah, I think that would be too much Yeah, I'll give you an example We did some work for the National Diabetes Prevention Program and they have 16 16 curriculum lessons in their NDPP course and we developed 16 fotonovelas one on each of the topics that they did lessons, so, you know Yeah, well there's, yeah, one that is defined, well they, it's more like defined prediabetes, right and then one of the definitions of prediabetes is that if you get tested if your blood sugar is above in between like 100 and 100 I don't know what it is, 12 or 10 or something, then you're prediabetic so that's the way we did it, so it's really important to get in small chunks, right because reader fatigue see, that's the other thing too is like, now, you know, who knows these people may be reading at a very high literacy level who knows, right, but err on the side that they're not reading at a high literacy level because there's not that many people that are reading at high literacy level in the United States, right so I would challenge you to make it because people who have a hard time reading, they get tired of reading, so we're getting briefer and briefer in our fotonovelas because we realize that people don't get through the whole thing if it's too long right, so this is one of the reasons I love this little piece this is a really very nice little piece it's very succinct and it's just really, really great and you could have several of these to target who you're trying to reach with that specific information, do you understand because I, you know, believe me I've done fotonovelas that are 24 pages long that deal with, you know I've done it, you know, so it just doesn't work that well I think the more succinct focus you could be, the better so I hope that makes sense anyone else hasn't, yes this is something you ask your audience yeah, yeah when you were, you saw the digital format we did that, there's little tiny ones, you could do four frames you know, on a smartphone you could do that so that's a question for your audience I'm not the audience, you're not the audience and this is a mistake that we make we as educators are best intentions get us into trouble because we don't know, we're not the target audience you have to consult your audience, you have to even if it's five kids even if it's five kids here then go do your thing and then go show them to another five kids iterate that's really important to get the audience to give you input alright, I'm going to go on so that we can get through the agenda alright, so then you get the idea about this succinct educational objectives now this next thing it's a good segue conduct focus group interviews and share your concept so now you've got one, two, three and four you've got a little concept paper one idea, you're going to go out to the field and the ideal thing to do is to have three focus group interviews of eight people in each focus group interview eight to ten people in each focus group that's ideal, three but if you don't have money for three one is better than nothing right, if you don't have money for three two is better than one and I always like to do three because sometimes you get conflicting information from group one to group two they go group one like this message so if you have three, at least you can then triangulate literally and see what you can come up with so I always go for three but anything is better than not consulting your audience anything is better and then when you conduct your focus group interviews and you ask them questions like what's the main message and how can we improve there's lots of resources on how to conduct focus group interviews I think I even have some on my website but so you know look up how to conduct a good focus group interview it's readily available how to do that and again you know you're just trying to improve your work incrementally you're not going to do it perfectly but if you do some of it you're going to get better at it that's all I can tell you so when you take those four steps in your little concept you take it out to your audience you take it to the field you ask them store ask them like has this ever happened to anybody do you know of anyone that has gone through this kind of situation inevitably people will start sharing stories with you those are gold those little stories those little nuggets are like gold that's what you're looking for you're looking for those little treasures from people because now you're retelling a story it's not a story you made up it's a story that you found that wants to be told watch for language and expressions when I wrote and I wrote it you know with input from Charlene's team the barbershop talk I wrote a script and then we did a field test and I couldn't come for the field test we did it on the phone and the kids were awesome they were I told them you need to be honest with me okay so this language isn't working and like my language was so not working and they gave me all kinds of input and made the changes you know and it's you know I did it because my jokes were like old old jokes anyway but they were really good about checking you know reality check so that that's this watch language and expressions use expressions you know like fam I would never say it doesn't happen to you can't doesn't have to happen to you fam apparently the kids at San Antonio use that who knew but it's in there now alright so the other way that you can do this is if you have ideas you could either go and say well what are your ideas or you could create two or three ideas a little synopsis what about a story about Bertha and her you know sister-in-law who's 40 years old who's you know been in prison is HIV processive or whatever you know and like that what about this story about this what about this other story which one do you like better you know I usually give people because not always will people give you stories and then you have to go and say well here's three I thought of what about boom boom boom and then they go I know yeah yeah that happened to my neighbor or whatever so then you start looking for when it resonates when it peaks people's interest that's what you're starting to look for and then you ask it is it feasible are the one of the questions that I use in the field test is do you know characters like Javier have you ever met anyone like Javier if most of your people say no guess what you have to go back to the drawing board because it didn't resonate the character didn't resonate resonate I'm sounding like your former governor now um so it has to resonate um are they believable are they relatable are you how would you describe this story if they say inspiring you're on the right track so those are the kinds of questions that you need to ask when you go out to the field alright um alright so now we have a little time and I want to um I want you to come up with we already have an idea what the story is about but answer this question what is your story about who are the main characters where does it take place and again what do you want them to do what do you want the reader to do most of you have answered that question already the last one but again it has to be hammered in because it's so important so take a stab at it what's the story about who are the main characters where does it take place again um settings are very important right we decided we would set ours in a barber shop and you know that went they suggested that the kids suggested that and that's why we did it and so we chose a really cool looking barbershop that we could fool around with and uh but yeah so those three questions and I think we already covered what I want my reader to do so take ten minutes for that so just for a minute let me advance let me advance something just for a second do you remember this morning when we talked about sabi though methodology do you remember this I just I just want to I just want to get your attention for a minute when you're doing who are my characters remember what we talked about in the sabi though methodology that there's a person doing it right there's a person not doing it right for lack of a better word and then there's a transitional character those are three three ways that characters can inform your story so if you want to use that device for today use that and that's called the sabi though methodology okay sorry keep going the transitional character yeah he's the one that actually has learned from the other two characters and made a change lots of times the main character can be the transitional character right like in the barbershop talk one the two the two friends are sharing information with him he's coming he's coming with like whatever I don't need to use a condom but after he hears the stories right something happened to this guy and something happened to somebody this woman knew her cousin and so now that the middle the main character can go through a transformation and say okay you know what I guess I do have to worry about this I guess I will use condoms that's the transitional character the one that makes the change oh oh okay oh you are oh cool cool cool yeah there's a lot more to it you know I'm just kind of hitting on the little you know little nuggets oh yeah yeah yeah oh yeah that's cute like you could do a little strip or something an ongoing little strip do you know that there's a woman in a professor at the University of New Mexico State University in Las Guces and they're doing they're doing graphic narrative they're drawing their characters they're not doing photographs on legal briefs in in historietta format because legal briefs are so difficult to understand and even lawyers are using this method where they're actually in dialogue and they're educating lawyers on how to use this instead of all the narration in a legal brief do you believe that lawyers I mean they're the most verbose people on the planet anyway yeah yeah there's yeah it's real interesting there's a lot of cool research out there yeah because it before when I started it was just you know now there's research on it you know which is really exciting yeah all right anybody else mm-hmm but now so wouldn't yes they would yes that's perfect the only thing you have to worry about and I realize this really happened to you and it is in your family you don't want to frighten people so much you want to it's emotional arousal right it's an important process of change that's one of the ways that we're motivated to change is when you're emotionally aroused like I don't want that to happen to me what you don't want is you don't want it to be so disastrous like she loses her foot or she's in dialysis you know you don't want to take it that far in an educational material you want to put hope in there you can say my mom's you know my kidneys are failing or whatever and I went to the doctor and he said I had to make some changes and then she could share you know her story and then there's a transformation it's like any good story you want the character to be transformed some colleagues you know what's interesting is some colleagues in Las Cruces did one on diabetes and lo and behold they amputated the guy's leg right I'm like oh my god you guys he lost his leg I'm like they asked me to consult on the story but it was already done deal they had already amputated his leg there's not a darn thing I could do about it but you want to know something people liked it it kind of blew my mind anyway but just be careful because you don't want it to be so disastrous that you're going to shut people down right you can take emotional arousal to a point but not to the point where the guy's losing his leg you know please please you want to get them before dialysis okay alright let's see are we sorry about that alright oh okay anybody else have any questions nothing you're good alright are you ready to because we only have 10 minutes we have 10 minutes so I'm going to I'm going to ask who wants to share a synopsis who wants to share a synopsis no oh thank you the bravas here give them the three lives okay that's a second third one is I showed you how to do this mom with an older child that did everything right she found that she was she was pregnant she brought her baby to the doctor and everything worked out she tested as a native so those are the three terms where does it take place it's a founded family support group where this lady was pregnant and she was thinking positive and I don't know are you a specialist talk to her about the support for the family and she could bring her husband to the you know that's the life for all the kids and for the whole family so she came to the first meeting and then when the conversation came around to hit and they started talking this way when we started talking and that's how the H80 positive new mom a newly diagnosed mom where you know one anyway that's where she's getting her information from and that's where she's going to learn about all of this very good that's using the sabi the methodology yes very good very good I'm going to just for the interest of time because they said they wanted us to finish a little early I'm just going to go to the next thing which is you know this is very quick a very quick little overview of how you develop a photo novella but let me give you the format because the format for the dialogue I mean the format for a script what I usually do is I have you know the page across like that in a in a landscape landscape is this way right I get dyslexic with those landscape format and the first is the shot description and I number it I put number one shot description and I describe where they are and what they're doing the second number is dialogue and that's where your conversation is Maria says gee you know I just found out I was pregnant and the other one goes oh really right and so that's the dialogue that's the slot for the dialogue the set living room support group hall or whatever the props because you need to list the props you know you need to write down all the things that you're going to need if it's going to take place in the kitchen you know do you need pots you need some cafecito you need some cafe con leche you need so you list your props so you'll be nice and prepared and then some people draw a story storyboard we used to do storyboards when I started so many years ago she's 35 years ago I started but I don't do storyboards anymore but some people are really good at drawing and they think visually so this is really really good for people that think visually I think visually but I don't know how to draw for years it just doesn't come that easy for me but a storyboard is stick figures you know you got comadreselia here oh you know Lupita is by the stove and comadre is looking over her shoulder and you draw that in a stick figure so when you get to the shoot you gotta this is the way they do it in the movies right you got it all right there you know exactly what's happening I improvise a lot of the shots I'll just do the shot description the dialogue the set and the props and when I get into the kitchen I go okay I think this will work here here here there you know because I just do it because I've been doing it for so long but it takes the you know it take it make it easier and probably make you less nervous if you do some kind of a stick storyboard of what you know is happening in that frame okay so that's it that's the way I write the scripts so you know feel free to I think you're going to get this in your packet or whatever um all right so yeah so the sabido look up sabido methodology bandura social cognitive theory remember the first way the most effective way you learn is by going through the experience yourself but the second most effective is by watching somebody else go through the experience that's why for the novellas work because it's vicarious role modeling and they're very very good at role modeling and it's one of those things you can't do in a pamphlet you can't show you know a person doing exercise in a pamphlet because they talk to their you know neighbor that has diabetes now and is so inactive that you know he went into a diabetes or whatever right there's no but in a fotonovela you can show them walking you can show them making something healthy in the kitchen you can show them eating a salad or calabacitas or whatever so that's the bandura but do I do encourage you to to look these guys up and then um earlier I shared a reference there's a lot of applied research and graphic narrative and all you really have to do is google research and graphic narrative I was telling a colleague over here that there's a professor at NMSU in the business department of NMSU in Las Cruces that is they're doing fotonovelas well historietas right they're drawing they're not using photographs they're doing drawings like comic books to educate lawyers on how to do legal briefs in that format I mean right and these guys don't have trouble reading it's just that they have to read a lot and so doing this graphic narrative approach and they're learning role modeling watching to people to have a dialogue about a legal document a legal brief so even they're even using they're using this format you know they're using this so anyway that is it for today so tell me if you have any questions be happy to answer any questions yes I would set it up I would set it up the way we do it is we hire we hire you know but community people are great it's so much fun to do a fotonovela that you just need a good director someone that can tell people what to do right you need a bossy person to tell somebody what to do that's what you need and you need expressions and you need to so yeah I hire people to do it and I hire community people to do it all the time but you know there's ways I mean I suppose you could that would be a I've never done it that way you could try it you know get a bunch of pictures and see if you can create a story back up into it any other questions did that answer your question yeah okay any other questions you guys no alright well thank you


We are here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Today we're checking out the underbody of this 2014 Ram 3500. This truck is out of Massachusetts. You can see the frame and underbody and steering components are in pretty nice condition. Just a little bit of surface rust, which you'd expect on a five-year-old vehicle. Nothing too bad though. The frame looks like it's been undercoated in nice condition. As has pretty much the entire underbody of the truck as all the remaining factory exhaust. This one does have the ice and transmission. Doesn't look like it has any leaks or anything on the motor except by the drain plug right there. Just a little bit of seepage. As we go underneath here. Very clean. The rockers are all in really nice shape. Kind of what you'd expect on a 2014. The box looks like it's a nice shape. On the inside and very clean back here. Looks pretty good. Lots of tread on those tires. Lower rockers look good. And thanks for checking out the video. One of the services we offer here at Summit Auto and hopefully this helps make a goodbye decision. Thanks.


I think this is a very important award for many reasons. I think that it shows that brands can do a lot of good and cause-related marketing is very important. What impressed us about the winning entrant was the scope and the scale of what was attempted, the amount of people that were touched and whose lives are improved by this and at the same time the way the brand promoted itself through it in a very genuine and a very caring way.


The Senate President Ahmed Lawan has solicited with Nigerian journalists on the occasion of the 2021 World Press Freedom Day, saying the National Assembly under his watch will not suppress press freedom. Lawan, who said this in a statement issued on Sunday by his spokesman Ola Awani, also used the occasion to remind journalists of the need to respect the ethics of their profession.


It is. I think I'll be able to come on schedule to the point for I will kind of slow down. Maybe I can add leg a little bit. As I was saying, I think I'll get the statement on Halloween tipped. There's over. Scroll down the bank. Your father happened to be using it. And he started in on it. He sort it out and so on and he beat me. And so you told us that George won or they confessed. And then he started beating. And you told us that George Washington confessed that he cut down a cherry tree and his father didn't do anything to him for telling the truth. His father wasn't in the tree when they cut it down. We have about four and a half minutes. George said about his interview with that sleazy character in. No. Well, the interpreting is a very robust casting to all the people of the Soviet Union. And when he made that declaration about getting out of Afghanistan and so forth. The interpreter just didn't interpret that. They understood English why they cut the rest of it. I think that gives us a new thing in these relationships. We've offered an interview or something on the air. I think from now on we ask, okay, we'll provide our own interpreter. ABC Radio full broadcast of the president's radio address. One minute from now. One minute. This is the ABC radio full broadcast of the president's Saturday radio address. Thirty seconds from now. Ten seconds. My fellow Americans, this week we commemorate Easter and Passover. Annual events of profound religious significance. It's appropriate that during this holy time our Secretary of State journeyed to the Soviet Union on a mission of peace. And I'm pleased that the word from that trip is good. While in Moscow, Secretary Shultz presented a new American proposal and made constructive progress toward reaching an agreement to reduce our respective nuclear arsenals and establishing better relations between our countries. Building a more peaceful world is our goal. Secretary Shultz reports to me that headway was made in his discussions with his Soviet counterparts on several issues. He made clear, for example, that Americans take human rights seriously as is evident during this week of religious import. We cannot and will not close our eyes to the suppression of religious freedom. Be the victim a Christian, Jew, or other religious faith. Secretary Shultz demonstrated this when he represented all of us in a Passover dinner, a Seder, as it is called, with Soviet Jews in Moscow. Secretary Shultz noted that the favorable resolution of several human rights cases is a good sign. There are many cases of divided families and separated spouses that are virtually resolved, and we'll be watching. In our contacts with Soviet leaders, we've also pushed for the settlement of regional conflicts that have brought destruction, misery, and death to the peoples of Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Nicaragua, and elsewhere. If an overall lessening of tensions is expected between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Soviets and their clients will have to show a readiness to accept peaceful, negotiated solutions instead of prolonging bloodshed. The issue of embassy security was forcefully raised as well. Secretary Shultz let it be known that recent Soviet espionage outrages have gone beyond reason. Today, the United States and the Soviet Union have an opportunity to take tangible step-by-step progress toward a more peaceful world. This is in both our interests. Nowhere is that more evident than in our talks about reducing the number of nuclear weapons threatening mankind. An actual reduction in the number of nuclear weapons would be an historic first. An accomplishment both sides could build upon for further progress. Secretary Shultz reports that his talks in Moscow left him optimistic that an agreement to reduce the number of longer-range INF missiles is within reach. Significant issues remain, and our negotiators will intensify their efforts to clear them away when talks resume in Geneva later this month. When Mr. Gorbachev and I met in Reykjavik last year, we reached an understanding on some of the basic tenets of an agreement to reduce intermediate-range missiles. In the intervening months, we've been encouraged by signs of Soviet willingness to remove the roadblocks that have been holding back progress. In Moscow, Secretary Shultz sought to clarify the Soviet position. He reaffirmed the basic structure of the Reykjavik formula, and both governments agreed to the principle of on-site verification. Shorter-range INF missiles, weapons that are of direct concern to our European allies, were also part of the discussions in Moscow. Both sides of the table agree that a limit should be set on the number of these shorter-range missiles and that a global framework will be the basis of discussion and that the principle of equality will govern. Secretary Shultz has briefed our allies on the details and has given me a full report on their initial reaction. Direct consultations with our allies will continue on further negotiations and plans. We must look at this issue in a calm, careful, and deliberate manner. When I return to Washington, I will meet with the bipartisan congressional leadership to review this week's progress. It's my hope that the process now underway continues to move forward and that Mr. Gorbachev and I can complete an historic agreement on East-West relations at a summit meeting. Finding the pathway to a safer, more peaceful world will take unity among free peoples, as well as all the courage, tenacity, and hard-nosed bargaining power we Americans can muster. Secretary Shultz was scouting out the way in Moscow. Our message is, we are proceeding. Until next week, thanks for listening. God bless you. Cut. I gave him back about three or four seconds. Three quarters. You got some photos outside. Yeah. Here's the thing I gave him. What's next one? Shouldn't go out there without it. Where is it? There's somebody here. There's something to it. Oh, I need to give him a lot. Thank you very much. Well, I appreciate that. Going down to Santa Barbara for a few more years. It's a good time to retire in two years. It's a good time to retire in two years. It's a good time to retire in two years. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Very good. Good luck today. Thank you very much. He's the best. He's the best. Let him go. Thank you. He's leaving us after five years. We are going to put up here at the ranch. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Commander Barrett. Commander's been up here for two years. He's responsible for all the people up here. He's a great person. Yes, well, I'm just going to be delighted to see what it means in the Navy to bring something back here at home. I've got something coming. We all, I was asked to be tested and we were all a little bit pleasantly. Duck College, you know. There is a story of ducks in their egg list. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. You only have to mention something that's delivered, the answer. Oh, great. I think that came by way of Frank Carlucci. Oh, yeah, that's great. I was wondering who did that. Yeah, I didn't know that he was an authority on ducks in the Navy. Oh, great. Well, goodbye again. Thank you for the invitation. Don't make me. I usually don't make the arrangements. They just tell me where I'm going.


That's drunk. Carl Sagan once famously said, and I'm paraphrasing here a bit, The significance of our lives is determined by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. Knowledge is preferable to ignorance, better by far to embrace the hard truth, than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal. Sagan was a brilliant writer, not just because of the depth of his knowledge and wisdom, but because he was such an effective communicator, he was able to sum up complex and nuanced ideas in ways the layman could understand. And he was never afraid to confront the really hard questions that we all eventually face as human beings like, what is the meaning of life? Is there a god or some kind of creator? Is there a heaven or a hell? Development team Manly and Associates made a bold statement in an attempt to answer these questions with their game Wizard of Oz for Super Nintendo made in 1993, proudly declaring that life has no meaning. But don't get the wrong impression here, because while life has no meaning for them, evidently they do believe in some kind of afterlife, because Wizard of Oz cheerfully and joyously delivers the player to the slobbering mouth of hell, via a meager grey plastic cartridge. As you can see this is a 2D side scrolling platformer where you play as Dorothy, although that looks a lot more like Kristy McNichol, or even Joe from the Facts of Life. You have 3 lives and no continues to get through 4 countries made up of 7 or 8 stages each, and you end up with zero faith in God after trying to play through this game. The BNA buttons both jump, why does a projectile attack that has limited ammo you collect along the way, and the ammo here is not easy to come by, so you really have to pick your spots when using it, and it doesn't help that the game doesn't even bother to tell you how much ammo you have. When you run out, and you will, you have to rely on the X button that does a kick with a pretty pathetic range, and that brings me to the hit detection. This is one of those games where every freaking thing in this game wants you dead, and it doesn't even matter if they're on-screen, off-screen, or not even on the same plane as your character, like I'm standing on this fence, and tons of stuff is hurting me, then what's the point of the freaking fence? What is this thing shooting spitballs at me or something? Even the hands of a clock can hurt you. And even better, you can't kick while jumping. Ugh. Oh and of course the hit detection isn't just bad when taking damage, it's even worse when jumping. You regularly fall through platforms, there's no rhyme or reason to it, it's just sometimes you don't land where you're supposed to. I swear this game is possessed or something. There's two other huge problems that jump out immediately when playing this one. First, there are certain enemies that are like 10 times faster than you could ever possibly react, like these vulture things. Ugh. An imbalance of speed that big is game breaking. But no, Wizard of Oz doesn't stop there, it also throws in lots of confusing perspective changes, like making the player guess what they can and can't jump on, leading to all sorts of annoying problems and cheap deaths. And not only that, the game also implements this confusing maze layout where you're going through these doors and trees, but the problem is, when you enter a door, the game just places you off to the side. Wait, which door did I just come out of? Where do I go next?  So the main objective here, other than just completing each stage, is to collect bricks that will build a bridge to advance to the next country, as well as tickets that will allow admittance into the Emerald City at the end. One positive I will point out is that you can eventually play as a few other characters, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. And not only can you switch between them at any time, they each get their own life bar! Hey, great! So now I can suffer through this thrown together level design, with these enemy patterns that had like 30 seconds of thought put into them, with 4 life bars! It doesn't help that Tin Man can't jump or duck. And every other character's attack range might be even worse than Dorothy's. Switching characters sounds nice, but all it does is extend your misery. Sure, there's items you can collect that can kinda sorta help you or whatever, but who even cares?  And just one last kick in the nuts, if you lose all your lives, you're doomed to this 24 character password system. No freaking thanks. To go back to Carl Sagan's wise words, if you do crave a cosmic purpose, please do find yourself a worthy goal. And for the love of God, make sure it doesn't include playing Wizard of Oz for Super Nintendo. Instead, make sure it includes a happy, funny little guy like Clyde T. Dog. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.


We'll begin reading together here in Hebrews 4 at verse 1, and I'll read to you to verse to verse 4, and we'll get into our study Hebrews chapter 4 beginning at verse 1 reading to verse 4 The writer writes therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest Let us fearless any of you seem to have come short of it for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them But the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it For we who have believed do enter that rest as he has said so I swore in my wrath They shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world For he has spoken in a certain place on the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his Works, we'll stop there. We're going to be looking at all of these verses up to verse 13 in just a moment But the writer of Hebrews here is encouraging the people not to fall short of the promises of God last time We looked at this in chapter 3 verse 19. He was speaking of the people who had In the Old Testament who had who had not entered into the promised land And they gave the reason why he said they couldn't enter in because of unbelief And so he's speaking here now saying that you need to be careful that you enter into the rest that God has prepared for you You see within the confines of every congregation are people who are informed but unresponsive They know what the claims of the gospel are they just don't respond to them And so these are the ones who are being warned by the writer of this particular letter remember with me that the letters would be Read within the confines of a church congregation And so there would be people there who are being tempted to return to the Jewish religion And so this letter is being written to warn them to remind them that that the children of Israel in the wilderness Had refused to trust the Lord and to follow him completely and as a result of that they had perished in the wilderness And so he's speaking to these people who are informed but are unresponsive He knows that they're hearing what God's word has to say but they need to respond what God is saying to them also And so he had concluded with a very sober reminder unbelievers do not enter into the rest of God because of unbelief now as we're looking at this We're really looking at entering into his rest. That's what we're going to be looking at And so he's writing concerning finding rest of faith the rest of faith. What does it mean to find rest? Well The rest simply means to cease from work of any kind It speaks of freedom from worries and anxieties. It speaks of lying down No longer anxiously seeking for God because you're settled in him It it speaks of resting in him because you are confident and and when you rest in the Lord You're leaning on him because he is your support If you don't have your rest in Christ, you're going to try and create a rest for yourself And in your own efforts, you will never satisfy the demands of God in your own efforts You're only going to fabricate something that is never really fully effective anyway because when we try our best no matter How good we are at what we're trying to do We will always fall short because God's demands are much beyond anything that we could ever do Our our fabrications our attempts sometimes fall so short of what could be done if we only had God's help our father's help I was talking to one of my kids the other day I don't know if you'll think this is funny Perhaps you will I was laughing at it and I'll laugh again because I think it's funny if you don't I'll laugh by myself and And I'll just dub in some laughter for the tape for those who will buy it and they'll think everybody laughs, but I Was noticing in our video bulletin that we have Pine a pine car kind of derby and and I was remembering something when I was about nine years old I was a cub scout and We had pine wood derby basically the same thing and so we all were you know for like a quarter or whatever We all bought these little blocks of wood that were made out of they were they were pine and They gave us a kit. They gave us the wood and they gave us two axles with tires And so we were supposed to to whittle we were supposed to carve this little block of wood Into a car and then you know you fasten the tires on it and and then you you race down this little platform and everything And and so I went home and and I was just remembering this the other day And and I didn't know how to whittle you know I don't come from a whittling family and I didn't know how to do that We were whittling challenged people and so I I had this knife And I had the little pine block and I went to my dad's garage and maybe for about ten minutes I tried to kind of shape it into what I thought a car would look like right and and then I got some glue or something and I And I put the axles on and the tires and and I brought that's what you know It looked like it was just a block of wood with just a front end kind of peeled off a little bit. I Just remembering that I remember going in and all of my friends Had their dads had whittled and shaped And painted they had numbers on them and flames and you know and and you know Windows that had been painted in and and I came with a block block of wood, you know Then we raised I'm sorry mine didn't make it down the track, you know, I got stuck, you know Sitting there with tires We can do the very best that we can But without a father's help, we're not going to make it I Didn't even know my dad was supposed to be involved in that see so I tried to do it myself And as I was thinking about that the other day I realized that also in my walk if I don't have a father's help, I'm not going to make it The best I can do is whittle a little bit off the block, you know, but I'm going to get stuck down the track I need somebody to help me to be able to achieve the the the goal that I desire to achieve And and if I'm not resting in the Lord fully relying on him confident in him Then I'm going to be relying on myself and my own efforts are never going to be enough I'm never going to win the race Because my efforts are never going to be perfect God's efforts of course are perfect And so that's what he's speaking about. He's saying we need to rest in faith in Christ The people who didn't enter into the Promised Land didn't do so because they were operating in unbelief not trusting God To provide and so he's giving a warning and that's what we pick up here in verse 1 in chapter 4 is the warning He says therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest Let us fearless any of you seem to have come short of it And so we are to enter into God's rest because there's a rest that remains for us to enter into God's promise that he gave in other words is still in effect and they need to make sure that they receive this promise They still have an opportunity to be saved and and in being saved They can come to the end of themselves and enter into the rest of God and when you enter into God's rest Your life can be radically absolutely radically Transformed there. There's an individual by the name of Mal Trotter I doubt very very much were whether many of us in this room have ever even heard of his name, but Mal Trotter was a was a preacher of the gospel and and I was reading about Mal Trotter and and the writer speaking Concerning him said that Mal Trotter's children were starving Because he spent his money on alcohol His little girl died of malnutrition when she was about four years old So the neighbors gave enough money to buy her some new clothes and a casket to be buried in In the middle of the night Trotter broke into the mortuary Took the clothes off his dead child and exchanged them for a drink Not long afterward. However, he got saved the Lord changed his life And he became one of the great preachers America has ever known God can radically Transform your life When you trust him and you enter into his promises through faith And so that's what he's exhorting his readers to he says there remains a promise of entering in his rest In other words, that promise is still applicable. You need to just take him at his word. He says, but he said you should fear He says let us fear unless any of you seem to have come short of it When he says let us fearless any of you seem to have come short of it Let us fearless any of you think that somehow you have missed out on being saved His point is there's there's only one way into the rest of god And that's through total trust in the finished work of jesus christ And you need to remember how god treats unbelief which causes you the motivation to fully trust him Notice how he says in verse 2 indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them But the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith and those who heard it The gospel was preached in the old testament in a sense that it it called people to a salvation arrest And sometimes we think of the old testament and we think of the laws and we think that well If I if I kept the law perfectly then I could enter into god through efforts of my own Nowhere does the bible ever teach that you are saved by works of righteousness that you've performed nowhere The bible makes it very clear that the that the commandments that were given to us by god Were really intended by god to reveal to us our weakness and our inability to be pleasing to him They actually exposed us to ourselves in all And so every saint is saved in the same way whether old testament or new It's always been by faith that we're saved I think of a man by the name of abraham abraham has mentioned all through the bible but in romans chapter 4 And abraham has spoken of in romans chapter 4 and verses 3 through 5 and And as I think of him he who is called the father of the jewish nation I think of a man who who is looked at as being a very faithful man But when paul's speaking about him he says what does scripture say? abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness Now to him who works the wages are not counted as grace, but it's as debt But to him who doesn't work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness abraham believed god and he became righteous as a result of his faith It wasn't the actions alone. It was the faith that motivated the work And so you hear god's word and you respond to it So he says the gospel was preached to us as well as to them They had a message preached to them that they could enter into the rest through faith But the word which they heard did not profit them white. Well, that was not mixed with faith and those who heard it So it's like tonight hearing a bible study you hear it, but you don't apply it He says that's the danger. That's what keeps you from entering into the rest of god Because hearing without action isn't sufficient to be saved you believe and adhere to the gospel Hearing the good news isn't beneficial to the one hearing if they don't act on it And so he's pointing that out. It was not mixed with faith and those who heard it 4 verse 3 we who have believed do enter that rest as he said So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world Now notice we who have believed do enter that rest assurance is given to the believers We can rest it's the point he's making we can rest we can rely on god and trust him and actually have confident Relaxation if you will in him we have this assurance because we can rest in the work of god that has been finished through jesus christ We can have rest because we have believed the message of god We can have rest because we receive jesus christ as lord and savior, but in verse 3 continues to say So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest if you don't believe You don't enter into rest Although the works he says were finished from the foundation of the world After the world was created god initiates that period of rest He rested from his work of creation and this rest began on what is called the seventh day And he goes on to clarify that in verse 4 for he has spoken in a certain place Of the seventh day in this way God rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this place They shall not enter my rest Since therefore it remains that some must enter Enter it and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience Again, he designated a certain day saying in david today after such a long time as it has been said today If you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts For if joshua had given them rest then he would not afterward have spoken of another day The remains therefore arrest for the people of god Now god rested from all of his works. That's what he speaks about in verse 4 following. He rested from all of his works All of his works I want you to think about this for a moment because when it says god rested from all his works that would include all works That he was to perform Including the work of salvation If he rested from all his works That would include salvation a work of salvation that occurs when jesus christ came and died on the cross One of the things that I find interesting to note is that salvation was not an afterthought with god He was not in other words surprised that man fell. It was not an afterthought with him He didn't look down from heaven see adam and eve and And we discover what they did and then suddenly say now what am I going to do? The bible is interesting when it states that his rest were all completed when god rested on that seventh day When you go to the last book of the bible revelation chapter 13 verse 8 The bible tells us there That jesus christ is the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world And so salvation wasn't an afterthought. It was actually something that god had already intended to do to save people In first peter chapter 1 verse 20 the bible says he indeed was for ordained before the foundation of the world But was manifest in these last times for you So god has what is called a seventh day And the seventh day is the seventh day rest now It's referred to as a moral rest In the seventh day God gave this seventh day rest To the children of israel and this might answer some questions that i've been asked a question I've been asked in the past too as I as I take this direction for a moment God when he gave the law to the children of israel as you first see it being mentioned and itemized in exodus chapter 20 When god gave the law to the nation of israel in chapter 20 verse 11 He gave to them a Sabbath rest I have been asked by people in the past If the lord god gave the Sabbath day rest that rest from from work And commanded people to take that Sabbath day rest Then why is it that the church meets for for services on on sunday When the jewish nation observes Shabbat You know Friday at dusk into saturday at dusk. That's the seventh day. Why do we meet on sundays? And not on saturdays if god commanded that there should be a day of rest The basic answer comes in two in two ways one is the church meets on sunday To remember the day of resurrection The first day of the week When jesus christ was resurrected on the first day of the week The church began the habit of meeting on the first day of the week to commemorate the resurrection of christ And so that's why we gather together on sundays Now paul made it very clear that one man thinks one day is special and another man treats every day alike Each person is to decide that within the confines of their own conscience We don't believe that the only day to worship god is sunday We believe that you worship god and serve him seven days a week But we gather together Specifically on sunday because jesus was resurrected on the first day A second reason though is in exodus chapter 31 the bible tells us i believe at verse 17 That the sabbath is a memorial Not for the church of course, but for the nation of israel And so the sabbath day is what israel commemorates or rests on Whereas we the church Recognize the first day of the week as the day that we gather for services because of the resurrection of jesus christ But when you're looking at the rest what he's basically pointing out here in this passage before us Is salvation rest was already Instituted by god when he rested on the seventh day because all of his works have been complete Now of course jesus was yet to come to be delivered to die and and all that he did But as far as god was concerned when he rested on that day That's because all of his works had been fulfilled even though yet in the future They would actually take place And so that's what we have now the sabbath is really a picture of rest We as christians understand it now as being the rest that we have in the lord jesus christ We recognize it as a picture of the finished work of salvation what god has done for us in jesus And therefore we rest because he has rested on our behalf Now notice in verse 6 how he says it remains that some must enter it Now the generation under moses did not enter in So that promise is still yet to be fulfilled Israel's earlier failure doesn't mean that the promise no longer is being offered though Because he says in verse 7 Again, he designates a certain day saying in david today after such a long time as it has been said today If you will hear his voice do not harden your heart So he's designating a certain day and notice how he speaks of it as being david david is the one who wrote the song That's being referred to and and david wrote that song some 400 years after moses And so even though moses had been given the command to rest 400 years after moses came david and yet it's still applied And yet god is saying today today if you hear his voice Now when he says today, that's a call to immediate action One of the things that grieves me is how sometimes people will say I'll listen to you about this on another occasion. Let me think about this God's call is always one of urgency It's always now I have never met an individual who's ever said to me Perhaps I have someone in here and maybe you'll approach me later on but I I have never met anybody not up to this point Who's ever said to me man. I wish I would have waited longer to get saved I just have never met anybody who's done that I just haven't the people that I have met and said I wish that I received christ earlier Why because man my life would have been blessed and I would have saved myself so much pain I wish that I'd have gotten saved earlier before I went through the crises that I went through I wish that I've gotten saved the first time I heard the gospel I'll tell you the truth though. I I lived a crazy life and everything I can tell you Man, I wish that I was raised in a christian home I wish that I was raised with the word of god and and the things that are appropriate to a true faith I I wish that I didn't have that And I was I was still young when I got saved I was 20 But man, I wish I'd have heard the gospel in a clear way before I started doing the drugs and the alcohol I can tell you that And so I've never met anybody who says that I wish I waited longer And so god's word is always one of urgency It's when I say to my kids and I say, you know, follow the lord From the time they were small follow the lord love the lord serve the lord Open your heart to the lord, you know, let god move in your life Don't put it off. Don't think that you have to fashion your own testimony Don't think you've got to go out and taste the world to see what it tastes like Because I've tasted of it and I can tell you as a person of experience It doesn't have anything to offer and so I would tell my kids that I still do it their age I'll say, you know what stay straight with christ.  Don't do it next week. Don't do it next year Do it today today if you hear his voice and that's what the cry is According to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2 Now is the acceptable time behold now is the day of salvation And so in verse 8 continuing he says if joshua had given them rest Then he would not afterward have spoken of another day Joshua was moses's assistant Joshua was the one that the lord used to bring israel into the promised land Now he brought them into canaan, but he didn't bring them into salvation He could only bring them into that which was physical But he did not bring them into that which was spiritual only god can do that And so Jesus today is capable of taking us Not just into a physical property like they were entering into the promised land Jesus is able to bring us into a spiritual life Jesus is the one who gives that to us in john 6 verse 35 Jesus said i'm the bread of life He who comes to me will never go hungry. He who believes in me will never be thirsty In john 651 he said i'm the living bread that came down from heaven If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever This bread is my flesh which i will give for the life of the world And then he went on in john 6 at verse 54 and he said whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood As eternal life and i will raise them up at the last day joshua moses No prophet could bring you to the place that jesus brings you to Jesus said if you drink of my blood if you eat of my flesh you have life Within you fully partake in me Open your heart to me And i will give to you what the world cannot give to you And i learned a long time ago that all the world gives to you are broken promises That's all the world cannot fulfill the promises It only gives you a hope that it can and it keeps you going and pursuing but always leaves you disappointed But on the other hand jesus christ is the one who never disappoints because he never breaks his word And when you come to a relationship with god through jesus christ He sets you free Now he says in verse nine there remains therefore a rest for the people of god For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as god did From his so entering into a relationship with god through faith in jesus christ causes us to cease from our labors I can still remember More than one time as a young person crying out to god saying god help me i can't take this anymore Something has to change here i'm going to go crazy I can remember that especially my 19th into my 20th year I can remember doing that more than once i can remember crying out saying and i literally would cry out to god and i'd say god unless something is done Unless something happens i i just don't know that i i i just i got to the point where i just don't want to live anymore I just do not like my life And lord i wish that you would do something i wish there was something that could be done I wish that there was something and there was something to be done Just resting in him just coming to him I can remember having conversations with friends on occasion and we'd speak about spiritual things and all and And how i how i would have this hunger in me to have some contact some connection With with with god and and i didn't have that and i remember one time dropping some uh Some hallucinogenics and and trying to read the bible and because i believe that god somehow could communicate to me And i had been hearing that you know if you drop acid and these other hallucinogenics That you could actually come into contact with that which is spiritual and i and i started trying that on occasion not all Not often but i did Read the bible see what it has to say You know try to open yourself up to something else you know some power And it wasn't until i heard the gospel of jesus christ it wasn't until somebody actually said you know it's by grace that you're saved through faith Not by works It's it's through opening yourself up and just trusting god and i thought that sounds too too easy You know there obviously has to be something that i do that can get me to the position of of uh receiving this there's gotta be and And the answer to that question was no there's nothing that god calls you to do other than believe him and trust him And so that's entering into the rest of god when you finally as he said when you finally hear his voice And you don't harden your heart to him You can enter into his rest and in doing so you you seize from your works even as god did from his You stop trying to earn heaven and you simply begin to live as one who's going there Therefore verse 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience for the word of god Is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit And of joints and moral And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart And there is no creature hidden from his sight But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account God's word actually distinguishes From the true believer the one who really clings to christ and the one who doesn't believe Because god's word actually reveals the thoughts and intentions of a human being's heart In the day of judgment God's word is going to open up every human heart and reveal its contents Whether I believed or whether I did not believe One of the things that I believe as a pastor teacher that is really important to me Is that god's word needs to be read and studied and divided and applied Because we're living in that season of last days Where people are caught up with wanting to feel god experience god But not necessarily to know him And one of the things that I have discovered is that god communicates to us by his word His word is that lamp and that light to our path and to our feet God's word is that which that opens our hearts up to reveal the contents So that we might be convicted of our sin and and and and call on god for help God's word declares to me what he wants from me and god's word gives to me promises that he will do on my behalf It's god's word. It's all about his word And so he's saying to us listen. It's god's word that is alive It's god's word that is powerful and it's god's word that is sharper than any two-edged sword God's word cuts both ways God's word can be something that wounds and god's word is something that heals God's word does that and so the lord works through his word And he works in such a way as to demonstrate his love for us I was talking to somebody a couple days ago a lady And I said, you know, I don't know if I ever told you this but when I was 14 years old I said, uh, I got stabbed. I got stabbed in the side You know, I have a scar right here from when somebody plunged And and cut across here. I was 14 when that happened and uh And I was sharing with her about that and I said, I don't know if you know that she said I didn't know that I said, yeah, I said and the thing that really was weird about that is my mom was there when it happened And she let it happen As a matter of fact, my mom gave permission for it to happen And she goes you're kidding me. I said no, I had an appendix that was removed And they plunged the scalpel into my side And sliced it open I said they had to do that Because if they hadn't removed my appendix, it was about to burst and it would have poisoned me and I could have died Sometimes the scalpel plunges deeply And it slices But being guided by the hand of a skilled surgeon, it removes that which is going to destroy you God's word Plunged into my life removes the cancer or the tumorous things that are destroying me The things that need to be removed. It is sharper than a two-edged sword So rather than me just kind of like oh, that's just your opinion. Oh, I don't really believe that Oh, I'll listen to this some other time The writer says you need to enter in today today.  Do you really? And god's word will cause me to to look at it like a mirror in a sense And I see myself and I say in reality No I don't know you and then god says this is a way for you to know me Because his word is so sharp it divides not only that it it reveals What is within us even the thoughts and intents of my heart are revealed to me So god's word does that and it's through his word that he brings us to relationship with him When he says there is no creature hidden from his sight all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom We must give account God knows our movement at all time. I've shared with you how that when adam took of that forbidden fruit And and the bible says that he and his wife fashioned these fig leaves And they were basically hiding from the presence of god and and how the voice of the lord comes wafting through the Garden of Eden and and the and the voice of god as you read your scripture It says that god cried out and god said adam. Where are you? It wasn't that god didn't know where adam was My my grandson josiah the other day.  I wonder where he is And he's laughing under the blanket You know And I said I haven't got a clue I can hear him But I don't know where he is and marie and we'll walk around him and we'll sit next to him and And he'll stay under those blankets And then he then he'll take the blankets off and say here I am and we act like so surprised like there you I didn't see you well Adam where are you There he is behind a fig leaf Anybody ever feel a fig leaf They itch He was not a very bright man Adam, where are you? Was that cosmic hide and seek? Now, you know what when the bible says that god said adam, where are you? It was god calling from adam for confession So adam can say I'm in this condition because I did this that's what that's all about It's not that god doesn't know where adam is. It's that adam doesn't know where adam is Adam's in sin God says, where are you so that adam could have some introspective moments to reveal himself I'm hiding from you Because I have broken your word So god's word is sharp And god sees our movements I can't hide from him So the wisest thing to do is simply be found by him And agree with him Lord I blew it And god will put his arm around And he will forgive you My Josiah once again another Josiah illustration My Josiah sometimes because he's a clumsy little baby He's only three He will drop his milk or he he may be doing something and And it falls out of his hand and it may make a mess and he does that Often as three-year-olds do And the first thing my Josiah does First thing is he looks at me and you'll go Oh papa, I'm so sorry He does that and he has such emotion. I'm so sorry papa And I'll look at him and I'll say you should be you little rat.  You know what? Papas here take care of it. No big deal. It's all right Thank you for saying you're sorry because sometimes we make mistakes and we need to say that But you want to know something? It's okay. Let's take care of it. Listen. I'm an evil man.  He's aware of you He loves you. His word makes it clear what he wants He reveals to you so that you can turn away from your sin and turn to him And like he said to adam, where are you? That was so that he might bring him back into relationship with him Because sin makes separation But when sin is dealt with fellowship is restored And so the writer is simply saying listen Unbelief kept the children of israel from entering into the rest of god Do not let it keep you from enjoying the presence of christ Don't let