All right, now I'm gonna start out by saying this, you're in chapter four right of James. I'm gonna tell you this, this is a tough study. If you wanna leave, you might wanna go now. It's very direct, it's a direct study. This is coming from the pen of James, the Holy Spirit being the author and inspirer of his words, keep that in mind because I'm telling you, it's a very strong portion of scripture. And I'm hoping to divide it in such a way that we as the church can receive from what the spirit would have the church to know. And I'm hoping to keep it in its context so that we understand why this is being said at this time. But again, you'll hear, even as I'm reading to you, it's a very strong portion of scripture, very direct. And you'll see that in just a moment. I'll do my best to honor the Lord as I present it to you, but I ask that we all might listen to this with ears of faith and apply it as the Holy Spirit would lead. So beginning at verse one in chapter four of the book of James, reading to verse six. James begins, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desire for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So we begin our cherry study today with a reminder. Let me remind you of where we've been up to this point and then move into the reading and application study of the verses before us. Last time we were together, James had given a warning and you find that warning in chapter three. James had given a warning to those who desire to be teachers. Let me remind you of a few of those things because in that chapter, what he did is he contrasted the fruit of a false teacher with a fruit or the production, we'll say, of a true teacher. And so as he was speaking concerning the false teacher, he identified the false teacher with certain traits. He said the false teacher has bitter envy, self-seeking, arrogance and he is one who undermines the truth. And James identified this kind of wisdom, if you will, as earthly, as sensual and as demonic. In other words, this wisdom is not of the Lord. It's rooted in demonic deception and the flesh. So that's what actually inspires, he was saying, a false teacher, a teacher who was not anointed by or called by God, equipped by God. He said he used his own flesh and a demonic, fleshly wisdom to communicate the things that he wants people to identify with. And then he went in contrast to this by giving us the fruit of a genuine teacher. And he said the fruit of a genuine teacher is that he demonstrates good conduct and meekness, a pure wisdom that he is peaceable and gentle, willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits. He's without partiality, he said, and without hypocrisy. And then in chapter three, verse 18, he closed with the final insight into the fruit of a teacher's ministry. He said the true teacher of the word of God will sow peace into the hearts of the people. So in contrast to the false who is creating strife, and we'll see that in just a moment, the true teacher sows peace. The fruit, he says in verse 18, the fruit of righteousness is sonian peace by those who make peace is how he put it. Now the reason they sow peace is because peace is an essential part of the kingdom of God. When you ask a person what is it that makes up the kingdom of God, how can you define or describe what is called the kingdom of God? And if I were to ask that question amongst us all and we were to begin to brainstorm and try and remember, well the answer is found in Romans 14, 17. Because in Romans 14, 17, Paul said the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Spirit. So it's not material eating and drinking. It is actually spiritual, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And so with this in mind, the true teacher is one who makes peace. And peacemakers are those who sow the word of God which when someone receives it, results in him having or her having peace with God. See the Bible makes it clear and I'll say this briefly, but the Bible makes it clear that there's no peace for the wicked. The wicked is at war. The Bible teaches us and throughout the New Testament Paul especially made this clear to the Corinthians and second Corinthians throughout the book but he made it very clear that humanity is at war with God. We are in what is called hostile opposition to God. Isaiah tells us that in the book of Isaiah, he tells us if God says something is sweet, you say it's bitter. If God says something is black, you say it's white. If God is to say something, that it declares something to be so, he says it's a human nature to go in opposition to that. That's called hostility. So what God says we will argue with and you see that throughout scripture and so peace makers are those who sow the word of God in order to bring peace and the first kind of peace that you have is when you receive the word of peace, which is also called the gospel. It's called the gospel of peace. When you receive the gospel of peace, you cease your warfare, your hostility against God. The war is ended. In Romans five verse one, Paul said it like this. He said therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So now you have peace with God. The hostility, the war is over. God is declared the victor. He's declared the victor in what is called the gospel, the gospel message, which is called the gospel of reconciliation. Reconciliation speaks of bringing two warring parties together in order that they might have peace and the kind of peace the gospel brings is not a negotiated peace. The kind of peace the gospel brings is an unconditional surrender because God won when Jesus died on the cross, said it is finished. Jesus bought us when he was buried and when he was resurrected the third day, ascended into heaven, that is God's declaration of victory over the devil, over sin, over death itself and the gospel message is a message declaring terms of peace. And so when you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're actually receiving his terms of peace and it isn't a negotiated peace, it's unconditional. That's why I said to him and so did you if you're saved in whatever words you used at that time, God forgive me a sinner. I have sinned against you. I unconditionally surrendered and I did so through the declaration of what is called the gospel. So now I have peace with God, my faith in his son Jesus Christ. So this peace from Jesus Christ is to govern me, to preside over me, to control my life. In Colossians 315, Paul said it like this, he said, let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. That word rule speaks of governing or presiding of controlling. That's what it speaks of that God's peace is to control me. It calms every agitated part of my soul and it preserves my heart and my mind. And when it rules in my heart, peace is something that I have with God but it's also something that I can give to somebody else. In other words, peace is something that I have received that I now extend and it's something that I'm supposed to pursue. In Psalm 34 verse 14, the scripture says, depart from evil, do good. Seek peace, pursue it. And so that's what we're called to do. In Romans 12, 18, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. So it's something I seek, it's something I pursue. It's what I want. All right, this is Pastor Dave Rosarosa. I'd like to thank you for tuning in today. And because words inflame, a true teacher desires to motivate people to live at peace. We'd like to hear from you. And this is the true teacher's ministry. Sewing sees a piece through the message of the cross. In Colossians 1, 19 and 20, it says that God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus. And through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. And so he made peace by his, pouring out his blood. And now we take the message of reconciliation and we give that to others, that they might be in peace with him and peace with others also. In 2 Corinthians 520, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. Now, the reason that they sow peace with God is because these teachers who are true teachers have what is called wisdom from above. Now the term wisdom from above is what is called a rabbinic phrase. It's understood as a peculiar inspiration of the Almighty. And so the elements of this wisdom from above include purity and being peaceable and gentle and willing to yield and all that I mentioned a moment ago. But the fruit of the insincere teacher is always gonna be division. There's gonna be strife. Selfish zeal always destroys spiritual life and work. An unchecked carnality earmarked by competitive comparisons will be rampant in the church. There's strife and that's why he begins by asking where do wars and fights come from among you because there's a competitive spirit within and it begins to actually infiltrate and poison the church. Verse 16 in chapter three spoke of envy and self-seeking and that revealed the sinful flesh being expressed without restraint. It's fostered by our own loss. It's left unchecked by the spirit and the word of God. And insincere teachers produce this environment through their selfish ambition. When you have a false teacher or an insincere teacher he's always gonna create strife because he cannot produce something that is filled with peace. He can't do that. There'll be confusion he says, there'll be evil because confusion and evil are never addressed but genuine teachers address evil because we're commanded to do so. Paul when he was speaking in his own defense to the book of 2 Corinthians and when you read 2 Corinthians you might wanna keep this in mind. 2 Corinthians was really an apologetic from on the part of the apostle Paul who in fact was addressing situations in a church in Corinth where there were accusations being made against him. And when you read 2 Corinthians you're gonna find no less than 21 times he defends himself against the accusations. And as he's doing so he's presenting himself in contrast to the false teachers who had infiltrated the church at Corinth and were undermining his ministry. And one of the things that they were saying about him is that he changed the gospel for his own benefit. And so in 2 Corinthians 2 17 Paul answered that and this is how he did it by saying, unlike so many we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary in Christ we speak before God with sincerity like men sent from God. And so when you read that that's the true teacher, that's what he does. He addresses evil, were commanded to do so and you don't change the message for personal profit. So purity, peace, gentleness, willingness to yield are the fruit of good teaching. If that is the case then the question is asked where do wars and fights come from within the church? And that's what James is beginning to address. He's addressing discord within the church and he begins by in chapter four verse one asking the question where do wars and fights come from among you? And then he answers it. Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? When he speaks of wars and fights the word wars is speaks of a chronic state of war. The word fights represents a separate battles in that war. James is not referring to wars between countries. James is speaking about what we would today call a church war. Now the same things that motivate wars between kings can be found in the church. Kingdoms went to war over coveting someone else's property or wanting somebody else's goods. James is saying that the church has the same kind of mentality because they're fighting for personal space, for territory. So instead of the church having a climate of peace it's an atmosphere there that is of fights and quarrels. And he's pointing out that difficulty in the church originates in the heart of the individual members. There are people who will say well the problems in the church really start with the pastor. Well that may be so in some cases. Not to say that's not true. But very often if not more commonly it's the wars amongst the people within the church that causes it to spread to others. Difficulty in the church originates in the heart and it often originates in the heart of an individual member. And the failure to die to self and to walk in the spirit of God will result in tension in the body of Christ. And that's what he says in verse one. Notice he says do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members. Now when he says that war in your members the word members as he uses that word could be in reference to the principle of sin that resides in them in their flesh if you will.  Peter would refer to them as fleshly lust that war against the soul. And Jesus spoke of this principle of sin in Mark seven 21 through 23 when he said from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. And he said all these evil things come from within and defile a man. So he's speaking about what our flesh produces. The flesh being given freedom to express itself results in wars in the church. That's what James is saying in verse one. Where do wars and fights come from among you? So they're having some church wars, they're having problems. And he answers do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members. Is it not originating in your own flesh? If you're busy serving your own interests the fruit will always be strive and division. It's impossible to serve God with all of your heart and to remain selfish. It's hard to do that. It's impossible to do that. You cannot seek God with all of your heart and be mean to other people constantly. That's just a fact. In Luke 16 13, Jesus said it like this. No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he'll hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in mammon. You cannot serve the world and God simultaneously. That's what the Bible teaches. That's why Joshua would say, choose this day whom you will serve. And as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. That's how that works guys. It's making a decision to follow after Christ. And James is speaking about the situation here by pointing to the fact that the church is not really walking in the spirit. It's been infiltrated by bad teaching. That's why he in chapter three was speaking about the false teachers and the fruit of a false teacher because he says the fruit of the false teaching will always be division. It's going to be carnality. It's going to be strife. But the fruit of a true teacher is going to be righteousness sewn in peace by those who make peace. That's why he contrasted it and then went right into discussing with him in chapter four, problems that they're having. The church that he's writing to or the churches really, there's several of them are not experiencing that peace. Personal pleasure is the passion of their life. And nothing is being allowed to get in the way. And because this is true, the believers are now in conflict. Now, division amongst Christians springs from the failure to recognize the flesh for what it is. We almost always initially think that we are the one in the right and the other person is wrong. And that's usually the response of our sinful flesh. My wife and I, personal experience, usually she thinks she's right when she knows she's wrong. It's one of those things. It's taken me a long time to teach her that, but. No, we usually think we're right. And you're wrong. And we believe that we've carved out this little territory of our rightness and we defend it. And that's what we do. That's a human thing. But it's not always a noble thing. Sometimes I think sometimes you will have to draw a line and say, this is where I stop. I will go no further. And sometimes that's exactly what we must do. But there are other times when we draw the line in the sand because it's our personal preference and we don't want to give in or admit that there's something wrong that we've done or said. And that's where the problems very often will arise. And it's coming from our flesh. It's like what Paul said in Romans 7, 18. And he said, I know that in me. That is, in my flesh was no good thing. For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find it not. You see the Christian message is, we can live together. We can be united against our real enemy. And that is made possible through making a decision to submit to the Lord, walk in his spirit and love one another. The fruit of the spirit is love. And love is like a garment that we decide to put on. Colossians 3, 14, Paul said above all, these things put on love, which he said is the bond of perfection. So when we love one another, we learn to put up with each other. We learn to accept one another. It gives us the ability to cease being nitpickers and it helps us to become accepting of other people. You know, the church, I'm sad to say, and we're members of the body of Christ. Every person who's been born again is part of the universal body of Christ. And let's face it, we're not always kind to one another. That's a fact, we know that. We have our divisions, we have our arguments. And sometimes they're just fleshly arguments with no real purpose other than to win a battle or an argument with somebody else. We know that, that's the way that we are. But we also need to die to those things in order that we might live in unity and harmony. We need to learn to get along with one another and accept one another. And the way that we do that is to make a decision to love God with our hearts and to serve people, to love people also. When Jesus was asked what is the great command in the law, he said, "'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one, "'and you shall love the Lord thy God "'with all your heart, soul, and strength.'" And he said, there's a second commandment like the first. He said, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. In other words, I can say I love the invisible God, but if I don't love a person I can see, then I really am not in love with the invisible God. Because how can I say I love that whom I can't, the one whom I cannot see, when I cannot love the one whom I can see, John asked. And that's a fact. So what do I do? I learn to love God and then pour that love out on people. And the only way I can do that is by being filled with the Holy Spirit knowing God's word and being willing to yield in the proper moments for the right kinds of things so that we might have unity amongst us. In 1 Peter 4-8, Peter said, "'Above all things have fervent love for one another, "'for love will cover a multitude of sin.'" When he says, love will cover, that word cover simply means does not look at something in a critical fashion. It speaks of willingly forgiving injuries. And it's that kind of love that makes it possible to get along with others. We don't remember every single thing that somebody has said or done to us. And let me tell you something over a lifetime as you gain years, there's a lot more to remember. It's better to let those things go. Why be mad all the time? Why always be angry? Why always be hurt? Why always feel that somebody did you wrong? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, I don't know. But what good does it do you to carry that burden all the time? You know, the word forgive when it speaks of forgiving our debts, the word forgive speaks of releasing someone of a debt they owe you. Either you're gonna carry that burden of that debt on your own shoulders or you're gonna release it and no longer carry it. A long time ago I learned to begin to just release those things because after all the years of life that you have, there'll be many debts that you have collected over time that you could be carrying around all the time. So rather than doing that, release those things to the Lord and walk in peace and love for others and ask God to help you and he does and accept one another. In Romans 15.7 how it says that receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. And so he's speaking about that. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that warn your members? He goes on in verse two, you lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. So he begins to mention principal sins that they're dealing with. He speaks of them as lust and murder and even coveting. Now obviously these are not literal. These are figurative. They're not going to church and stabbing people in church, they're not killing each other. They're doing it with their words and the way they're treating one another. So these are pictures of how they're treating one another. He speaks of lust. That's eager desire. It's a longing for something. It's an anxious self-seeking. You lust and you do not have. He's saying with all of your bitter self-seeking and covetous attempts to acquire what you want, you are still unable to obtain what you're, what you're still unable to obtain.  These are the kinds of sins that divide churches and create terrible problems. Eager self-seeking destroys unity and love within the body of Christ. And church wars are always destructive. The actions of the flesh pollute everything about your walk with the Lord. When the flesh is allowed to dominate and infect your desires and infect your prayers. And because these desires are overwhelming, their prayers are not being answered. And that's because in their prayers, they are motivated by their selfish desires. Notice verse three. He says, you ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Sometimes you actually pray for what you're trying to obtain by fleshly means. On the outside, you appear to be righteous and to depend upon God. It's like that Pharisee who prayed on a street corner and the people who would walk by would see him and he appeared to them as righteous. Prayers sometimes can appear very righteous when in fact we're praying for things to consume on our own for our own desires. When I first got saved, I was told that God will provide all my need. And I didn't work, I didn't work at that time because I had allergies. I was allergic to work, I wouldn't work. I was comfortable with it. I could lay down right next to it and sleep but I just wouldn't do it. And so I didn't get a job. And now I'm reading the Bible and I'm being taught about God providing and being generous. I'm being taught these things. And at that time, again, this is in 1971. It would have been 71. On radio stations in California and coming out of LA, there were AM stations. Some of you are old enough to remember KRLA and all of that. There were three stations that we would listen to and one of them was always having these contests where if you were to call and you were the sixth caller or the eighth caller, they'd give you $100. Now someone had told me that if you pray for anything, God will answer. Here there too, have you asked nothing in my name? Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full. And so I said, oh, okay, I have not because I asked not. So, because I was reading my Bible. And so Jesus, I need $100. And if you make me the seventh caller, I heard somewhere, I was a brand new Christian. I heard somewhere that I should give you 10%. So I'll give you $10. And I sat next to the phone for hours. This is a true story, I was a brand new Christian and I would call and I wasn't getting through. And this is a fact. By about the afternoon, I finally said, I only need 10 bucks. Lord, if you give me that 100, I'll give you 90. I was trying to cut him in on the deal and I didn't win. And I finally discovered and guess what? That's kind of, that's not an abnormal thing. Lord, I want this. Lord, I want that. Now, are you not glad that God doesn't answer every one of your prayers? Yes, I tell you, I prayed for girls that God would give me and I've seen them. Thank you, Jesus, for saying no. Thank you, you're a good God, you're a good God. But there's truth to that. Of course there's truth to that. You want to consume it upon your own lust. You ask and do not obtain because you ask wrongly. You ask amiss because you want to consume it upon your own or asking for things for yourself with no concern for the will of God or the blessings of others. He said, you fight and you war. You have church battles going on. There's carnality within you. The bad teaching has infected some and there's unbelievers also in your midst that are probably infecting you with the same kind of mentality. And he's saying, this is not right.  You're not dying to self. It really has nothing to do with the glory of God. You want your will to be done and not the will of the Lord. We're supposed to pray, not my will but yours be done but you're saying, may my will be done and not yours. In Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. Proverbs 15, 29, the Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous. Verse John 5, 14 and 15, this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desired of him according to his will. You have not because you're asking wrongly is the point he's making. And so now he continues to speak to them and addresses the motivation of their prayers and the center of their church problem. He gets very strong here. I'm uncomfortable to read this but this is what he says, adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Think about that for a moment. You want the world more than you want God. You're trying to walk a fence. You're trying to serve God and trying to serve the world at the same time. Now, remember who he's writing to. He had introduced this to the tribes that are scattered abroad. So this is a mainly Jewish readership that he's writing to. So when he uses the term adulterer and adulteress, that's an Old Testament way of speaking. An adulterer or an adulteress is one who stops loving their spouse in order that they might love someone else. In the context of the Old Testament and its application now in the new, James is rebuking Christians who are trying to walk the fence and he's saying that they are neglecting God in order to satisfy themselves. You have broken your marriage covenant with God, he's saying, by loving the world more than you love him. And in this case, instead of loving God completely, you have misplaced your affections. Now, adulterer and adulteress is a reference that's common in the Old Testament and it speaks of unfaithfulness to God. For example, in the Old Testament, Israel is referred to as the wife of Jehovah but she's also referred to as the one who became unfaithful. In Isaiah 54-5, it says there in the book of Isaiah, your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called the God of the whole earth. So he's speaking to the nation and he says, your maker is your husband. So Israel is referred to in the Old Testament as the wife of Jehovah. They are God's wife, but they became idolaters. They became unfaithful to him. So another prophet by the name of Jeremiah in chapter nine verse two wrote these words.  They were idolaters is what's being said and that's the point in context. You cannot love God and the world simultaneously. You see, to love the world is to be on the devil's side and at war with God. And Jesus in Matthew 1230 said, he who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Now, why would James say that to enjoy friendship with the world is open hostility to God? That's because the world rejected Jesus. The world put him to humiliation and the world put him to death. So to love the world is to reject Jesus. To be in love with the world system is revealing a divided heart and no servant can serve two masters again. Either he will hate the one and love the other also be loyal to the one despise the other. You cannot serve God and men. You can't love them both. Believers live in the world, but we're not of the world. We're to be salt and light. We're not to let the world press us into its mold. And by the way, does it 24 seven? When's the last time you saw a commercial that told you, hey, it's a good thing to pray and to love God? Very seldom do you see that on TV. Very seldom. If you watch TV at any time, you know, at all. You know, that's true. If you watch TV and you see a commercial after commercial that comes on, how many of those have ever said, love your wife, love your children, love your husband, go to church? Very few if any at all and only at certain times. You know, read your newspapers and how many articles are good news things about good that was done by believers who love the Lord and did good things. You don't hear that. Why not? Because the world is in opposition to the gospel message. That's why, because the world is in opposition to God himself, the world is in opposition to Jesus Christ. That's just a fact. You know, I again, I mentioned this last week. I'll say it very briefly, but I've never listened to a lyric of what Kanye ever put out. I don't, I haven't got a personal relationship with his words. I don't know. I've only heard that the things that he said were not good things. I don't know. I've never read them or I don't listen to his music. I don't know that. But I can tell you that now that he's changing, yes sir, his album that he brought out, his latest release that he's brought out, is number one and all the songs are, people are buying them and everything like that. But again, I said this last week, I'll say it briefly right now. Just keep them in your prayer because what happens when a celebrity comes to faith in Christ, that becomes celebrity for a while. But if he stays faithful and true to the Lord and people begin to see this as an activity that is gonna continue for some time, that's when they begin to resist in force. And that's when he's gonna have to ask himself, is it worth going through all of these things? See, it's very unwise to put a novice in a position of authority and teaching. And it's very unwise to model yourself after a novice or a new believer because they haven't gone through things yet that will sharpen their faith and strengthen them. They haven't gone through that yet. So that's why you pray for them and you pray for them to be mentored because what's gonna happen with him is he's older. You know, he's in his 40s. You know, and how many people do you think are really cool at 50 or 60? Do you think he's still gonna be rapping at 70? I don't think so. His gold chains will just be dragging. I don't think so. I mean, you've got a short shelf life when you're cool. That's what happens. And we know that. We know that. Because a lot of the people when I grew up who were the beautiful ones, none of you even heard of, they're dead. Farrah Fawcett. Everybody had Farrah Fawcett who remembers her very few. The older people do. They had posters of her in the room, the guys did.  But you know what? She's old, she's dead. Because that's what happens. That's what happens, right? And so celebrity never brings people to Christ. Keep that in mind. It gives you opportunity to speak of him. It gives you a platform or a forum. People wanna hear for a while. But when you don't change and you're always saying the same thing, you become old news, let's look for somebody else. That's why again, I'm praying for Kanye so that God will give him a platform to charge. But people need to be saved and may the kingdom continue to move forward. But we need to understand that you can't be both. You can't be in the world. And you can't be in the kingdom. There's a choice that you make. And when you seek the friendship and admiration of the world, you will compromise your faith in Jesus Christ. Because they hated Jesus so much, they killed him. What will they do to his followers? We aren't gonna be the most popular people. That's why Jesus prepared us to be hated by all men for his name's sake. Because we are not the most popular people. We are the outcast, the off-scouring. We are the refuse. We are the trash, that's what we are. And it's okay. It's okay as long as Jesus is number one. It's okay. That's how it works. We need to be aware of that. We live in the world but we're not of the world. In Romans 12-2, do not be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So instead of receiving the admiration of the world, we can expect the opposite. We make a decision concerning whom we will love and whom we will serve. To love the world is to kiss the tip of the spear that was plunged into the sight of Jesus Christ. You become friends with the world by deliberate, settled choices over time. Listen, you get saved and maybe you had a wonderful experience of coming to faith in Christ. And as you came to faith in Christ, everything seemed to become lighter. Everything seemed to be better. But after a while, you have friends who will begin to say to you, why don't you do this anymore? Can't you do this anymore? How come you? And before you know it, you say, well, I can do that if I want.  You begin to kind of move a little bit back. It's now I'm walking with God. Now I'm more mature. Now I'm able to do these things. I won't be entangled. I know the dangers. I know where I can stop it. I know at the point where I start getting a little high. So I'll only drink this much or whatever. It's like that. And there's a group called Casting Crowns. And some of you are familiar with them. And a few years ago, they brought out a song called Slow Fade. And I like some of the lyrics. And so I'll repeat them. That's what happens. You see what happens is, it's not a, you don't turn around one day and say, I'm just gonna go back to the vomit. I'm gonna go back to the mud that I was cleansed from. You don't do that. Dogs return to the vomit. Pigs go back to the mire that they at one time had been in. But believers don't do that. But you can be drawn back to that and it's slow. It's not an immediate thing. You don't stand up and say, I think I'll go back to the vomit. It's an immediate thing. It's not immediate. It's a slow thing. It's a slow fate. And so in the song, it says, be careful little eyes, what you see. It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings. Be careful little feet where you go. For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow. It's a slow fade when you give yourself away.  Thoughts invade. Choices are made. A price will be paid when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day. It's a slow fade. It's a slow fade. The journey from your mind to your hands is shorter than you're thinking. Be careful where you stand. You just might be sinking. It's a slow fade. You don't go back immediately. You just begin to entertain some things. You start beginning to wonder how come. And before you know it, you start moving back to where you used to be. And you begin to once again, align yourself with the world. And James is saying, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? And whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. In verse five he says, or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. Again, he's speaking to Jewish readers and God here is pictured as longing for his people, longing for us to be faithful to him. His desire is for us to love him completely.  Deuteronomy 4, 24, the Lord your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. And you say, how can God be jealous? Well, I'm a husband and I'm jealous for my wife. I'm jealous for my wife. Not in that weird don't look at her kind of thing. But in that she belongs to me, her love is mine. We're committed together by oath before God and witnesses. That's my girl. And I protect her and I want her love exclusively. I don't want my wife to say, I love you. You're the third most wonderful guy in the world behind doing my new boyfriend. I don't want to hear that. Do you? Would you want to hear that? Who wants to hear that? There is a godly jealousy. This is us. This is ours. We belong together. This is what God has done and God is a jealous God. You belong to me. I paid for you.  I bought you with a price. You belong to me. You worship me. That's what God demands. That's a command. That's not a suggestion, is that it? If you'd like, you didn't add that. If it's cool with you, if it fits into your schedule, you didn't say that.  Love me completely. Oh, you got a real problem, God. You need love that bad. No, I did that much. I did that much. My son suffered and died for you so that you'd be free from what you keep running back to. Have you ever had a friend who runs back to somebody they shouldn't be with? Have you ever? Most of us have.  They use you. They're lying to you. You don't know. You don't know. How would you know?  Sometimes they're hurt. Sometimes to their own death. Sometimes people actually get killed by abusive lovers. And here you are saying to them as one who loves them, don't go back there. There's, don't go back there. And God is saying to us, I love you. I did for you what no one else will do. And James says, adulterer, adulteress. Don't you know friendship with the world is hostility to God? Don't you understand that? The spirit yearns jealously for you. He loves you and he wants you to love him. When we don't walk in the spirit, then that gives rise to the flesh. Abandoning the grace of Christ will leave us with no power to conquer our evil nature. But verse six, he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If we acknowledge our inclination to evil, he gives us power to withstand and to triumph. He resists the proud. He's actually at war.  Those who put their trust in themselves and follow their own wisdom, they are opposed. He rejects them, has no fellowship with them. He thwarts their undertakings. But the humble, the humble understand they need him. God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. It's all grace. It's all grace. You know God, how close in this way? God has done an amazing thing. If you look at your life, if you're a believer right now, take a moment and we'll do that as we're about to close. Take a moment to think of where you were and what you were doing before you got saved. If it doesn't matter to you then ask yourself whether you are saved. It's a good chance you're not. It's a good chance you're not because if you think the world is more pleasing than God, you haven't been walking with the God. That's just a real obvious thing. You just don't know him. You don't know him because he is so incredibly wonderful and loving and kind and compassionate and gracious and caring and he has done more for you than any person ever could. If you don't love him, you don't know him because like the old saying is to know him is to love him. To have a relationship with him is to love him for what he's done to you and for you. And I do that. I do that often. I think of what the Lord has done in my life. I do. I think of how gracious he's been to me. I think of how kind he's been to me. I think about my parents who came to know and love Jesus Christ. I think of my siblings who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of my wife who is the most gracious gift I could ever have received. My wife who loves me with all her heart and there's no reason that she should but she does and I thank God for that. I thank God for my kids. I thank God for my grandchildren. I thank God for you for the church. I thank God. Look at how good he's been. Look how wonderful God has been. How gracious he's been. How can we not love him? How can we not? He is so good. He gives more grace. When you're going through it, God gives grace to the humble. God in Jesus' name, I need your help. Lord, help me. I need your strength. God be with me. And he says, turn away from your sin. Turn to me. And I will give you grace. Understand your weakness. Understand that your flesh rises up and tries to dominate. Understand that. And I will be there. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. My hand is there to deliver you. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will walk beside you. I will not abandon you. You'll never be alone again. I love you. That's the God that we serve. And that's why I remain faithful. Somebody says, how can you remain faithful? He's faithful to me. He's faithful to me. He's not abandoned me. He loves me. He loves, he loves you. Fall upon his grace today. Fall upon his grace. This world stinks.  And a lot of Christians are getting on the cart to go there. They're living for the world. And not for Christ.  Pray for your loved ones who are lost. Pray for them. Pray for that brother. Pray for those sisters. Pray for that uncle, that aunt, that grandma. Pray for them. Live for Jesus Christ. And ask God to pour his grace out. That they might see the truth and be set free. Because God is a wonderful God. Just in between services, I'll close with this. I was speaking to one of the members of our fellowship who said that his mother-in-law just went home to be with Jesus just recently. And he was saying, you know, when we tried to share with my mother-in-law, she wouldn't listen. And he said, you know, she became very ill, began to live with them. It was there for a while. And so she said, I don't want to go to church because all they do is ask for money and they're demanding and had all these reasons. But they said, well, why don't you come? And she visited here. And he said, you know what happened? You didn't ask for lots of money. You didn't do those things. And she started coming regularly. We would bring her. Finally, she started saying, I'm getting ready for church. It's time to go to church. And before you know it, his mother-in-law was wanting to come to church. And he says, before she died, and she died recently, he said, before my mother-in-law died, my mother-in-law gave her heart to Jesus Christ. She said, she did that. He did. He just tell me in between service because of the goodness and the grace of God that she saw all around her. Whereas before, whereas before she came from a background where they were always demanding that she do this and do that and be this and be that.  He said, no, she finally heard the Bible being taught and she owned this church as her own. She called it her church. And then she gave her heart to Jesus Christ. And she said, heaven now, he gives grace to the humble.


If you are an insurance agent who wants to write 100, 200, or even 300 policies per month in your P&C insurance agency, then I'd like to give you access to the most powerful sales script in the insurance industry called the six step script to the one call close. Now this is the script that I personally use to write over 150 policies per month, month after month after month and many insurance agents who have implemented the sales script in their agency are now seeing results where they're writing a lot more business. Take Trent for example. He used to average about 100, 150 policies per month. In the first month of him using the script, his team wrote 242 policies in one month. Nothing else changed. They were calling the same leads, the same people were working in the agency. The only thing that they changed was they implemented the script or take Jeremiah. Jeremiah hired two brand new team members in his agency. These two team members have never sold anything in their life, never sold insurance. And in the first month of them going through the training course, they ended up writing 107 policies in one month. If these agents can do it, then you can do it as well. So I want to take you back six years ago when I first started selling insurance. I worked in the State Farm Office and my goal was to come up with a sales process that would allow me as one producer to write 100 policies in one month. And the reason that was important for me was because I wanted to open up my own agency and hire five team members and not just teach them theory on how to sell, but demonstrate to them how they could write 100 policies per month. And if I was going to expect my team members to write 100 policies per month, then it was important to me that I was able to do that myself. So when I started selling insurance on my first day, I started calling old leads, people who asked for a quote a while back, but we never closed. So I would call those people and ask them if they were interested in getting a quote and I would get it rejected time and time again. And then eventually I came up with a sales process or a hook where if I started a conversation in a very specific way, people would say, sure, give me a quote. So things that worked for me, I would repeat and do over and over again. And things that didn't work, I would just stop doing. So it took me six months, six months to come up with a sales process where I could call any lead, whether it was an old lead or internet lead, it didn't matter what lead that was. And I could walk them through a 15 to 20 minute call and close the prospect in one call and not just do the auto insurance, but do auto insurance and homeowners insurance. So on my sixth month, I wrote 100 policies in one month as one producer. Now, during that six month duration, I was establishing a referral process so that I could get realtors, lenders, apartment complex managers, and my current clients to send me referrals. And on my ninth month as a producer, I wrote 152 policies in one month. And I continued to write 150, 150 or more policies month after month after month. And then eventually, other agents took notice and they started sending their team members and they said, we hear you have this great sales process. Can you teach that to my team? And I would teach them my sales script, my referral program, they would go back to their agency, implement it, and they would get amazing results. So that's when it occurred to me that, you know what, maybe this sales script in this referral process is very unique and different. So I started traveling the country and teaching agents all across the country how this script works. And I started realizing that, man, this doesn't work just for state form agents, this works for all state, for farmers, for independent brokers, American family agents, for all agents and staff members who sell personal lines, PNC insurance. So what I did was I converted my entire sales script, my referral program into an online training course. And that's what gave birth to the one-call-close masterclass. The one-call-close masterclass is my sales training, my referral program bundled in one package. It is without a doubt the most powerful sales training that exists in the insurance industry. So what's included in the one-call-close masterclass? A total of four things. The first thing that you get is the six step script to the one-call-close. The six step script will teach you how to start a call, how to build value, how to multi-line, how to present the price, how to ask for the sale so you can collect the payments information in the first call and how to wrap up a sale and get referrals from your clients. So if you follow the six step script exactly as it's intended, you should be able to close sales in the first call even if your price is more expensive. And that's key. Anybody can sell insurance when you're less expensive, but what do you do when your price is substantially more expensive than the competition? That's what you're going to learn when you go through the six step script training course. So that's the first thing that you get. The second thing that you get is the lead follow-up blueprints. The lead follow-up blueprints is a training course that will teach you how to get your leads to call you back. I know one of the hardest parts in selling insurance is simply getting people to answer the phone. So that's what you're going to learn in that training on how to leave voicemails in a very specific way so that people actually return your calls. Now, the third thing that you're going to get is my referral program. I mentioned earlier that I was writing 150 policies per month from referrals. I'll show you how you can establish referral partnerships with realtors, with lenders, apartment complex managers, with your current clients. So you don't have to make outbound calls, but you have people contacting you and asking for an insurance quote. So that's what you're going to learn in the ultimate insurance referral program. Not only how to establish those referral partnerships, but how to nurture them once you do have them established. And the fourth and final thing that you get in the one-call-close masterclass is the daily structure and team accountability training course. Now, this training is special because it'll show you how to organize your agency in a very specific way so that you get the most production out of each team member that works for you, whether it's a salesperson or a service person or account manager that does both sales and service. I'll show you how to structure your agency so you get the most production out of each team member without you having to micromanage them. And you know what's interesting about the one-call-close masterclass is that a lot of agents who have gone through the training, they have told me, especially those agents who have been selling insurance for 10, 20, 30 years, they have said that going through the one-call-close masterclass, the two days they spent and going through this training has provided more impact in their agency. And they learned more from those two days than over two decades of going through conferences, workshops, buying other training courses. And why is this training producing better results than any other training course out there? Well, it's simple. It's because it's built by someone who has personally written over 150 policies per month, month after month after month. Nothing that we cover in the masterclass is based on theory. It's all based on practice and trial and error. Unlike other training programs that say, look, you need to watch a video every single morning and do that every single day. And that's what's going to produce results. We're not in that kind of business. I'd like to just give you the shortcut of word for word. Here's what you say when you start a call. And here's what you need to say throughout the call so you can close the prospect in one call. So if you want the shortcut, the most powerful sales script and the most powerful referral program in the insurance industry, then you can get that by enrolling in the one-call-close masterclass today. All the questions that you might have about this one-call-close masterclass will be addressed below this video. There should be a link that you can click on. You can process the payments and get set up with the one-call-close masterclass today. So if you're an insurance agent who's serious about getting results and you want your team members to sell more and close more business, then enroll in the one-call-close masterclass today. With that, I want to thank you for watching this video. And if you have any questions, please reach out. But I hope you take me up on this offer and I'll see you on the inside. Take care.


This is Alex and I think I'm gonna have to call this series of videos the invasion of the wafer locks because I Parative bought a whole bunch of them on eBay this is an American series L Lima 50 SFK whatever that means and Yeah, so did not come with a key So let's see how much of a fight it puts up. It feels like it's in pretty good condition actually So a little progress There it is picked that was quick, okay, that's weird.  There's a screw in the bottom of the lock Which like a flashlight you can see see the screw. I Don't know what that screw is for let's find out Deming out could be that some very nasty thing will come shooting out of the lock. I don't know. I have now removed the screw and I don't know. There's something happened. Nothing seems to have happened It just looks like it's screwed into the bottom. I don't see any plate or Any way that this could possibly come apart but Core seems pretty fixed in there Lock it back up I'm not sure Hmm, I was off to pick it back open to get the screw back in but well if anyone knows what that screw is for There it is right there It was down in down in there no idea but It was I don't know it looked suspicious So I pulled it out and It's not immediately obvious what it's there for so And now I've got to pick the lock back open to get it in so oh Luckily it's a wafer lock well, I don't think it affected the function in any conceivable way, so I'm gonna put the screw back in so I don't lose it and call it a day Well call it the end of the video at least so um anyhow someone knows what that screw is for Please comment or reply back All right, this is Alex. This is an American series L Lima 50 Wafer lock brass in decent condition and One I don't have so that's kind of neat picked open with the two pronged South or Bogota from the whiz was all set one of my first pick sets were very fond of each other Yeah, okay. This is Alex. Thanks for watching. Have fun and please keep it legal


Hello, I'm Eric Berg, I'm a professor of meat science in the Department of Animal Science here on the main campus in Fargo.  In fact, every swine production practice from conception to consumption will have an impact on the size, the taste, and the toughness of that cut of meat. Here are a few examples of some of the meat science research that we do out of our lab. We worked with the Carrington Research and Extension Center on identifying ways to reduce the stress of feedlock cattle through facility design and the identification of cattle that are less genetically prone to be temperamental. We have collaborated with Dr. Rex Soon in Biosystems Engineering using thermal imaging technology to identify illness in feedlock cattle, as well as to track the stress of animals through their working system using high resolution imaging so we can see their pupil dilation. Because you see calmer cattle more efficiently convert feed to muscle, they put on more fat as marbling so that rib eye tastes better, and they'll have less tense muscles that result in more tender meat. In more recent years, my lab has shifted its focus to study how food and food combinations impact the development or even prevention of obesity and obesity related disease. More specifically, we focused on how eating nutrient dense meat can lower an individual's risk for developing pre-diabetes or insulin resistance. To accomplish this, we work with pigs to serve as a model for humans. Pigs are omnivores just like us, and the food they consume impacts the release and function of insulin the same as it does in us. We found that by substituting beef for sugar in a diet that was based on what the average American eats, we can increase muscle growth, decrease external fat deposition, and improve the concentration of insulin receptors in muscle. If you'd like to know more about our research, you can look at a TEDx talk that I did a few years ago. It's titled, You Eat Like a Pig. Thanks for your time today. Hello, my name is Shenan Shimshe. I am a professor and weed quality specialist in the plant sciences department at NDESU. Part of the spring weed from North Dakota is globally recognized as the best quality spring weed in the world. It has high protein content and superior baking and gluten quality. And my job is to highlight why North Dakota weed has the unique quality aspects so that North Dakota growers market their weed to overseas customers. Each year, weed quality laboratories at NDESU receive hundreds of samples from North Dakota and surrounding states to be analyzed for quality. Then we publish the quality information in crop quality reports and share it with the world. Because more than 50% of states' hardwood spring weed is exported, much of my work involves international buyers. I meet with the trade teams to provide technical information about North Dakota weeds, chemical makeup, so that buyers will understand how to use the weed to fit their needs. Each country's quality requirements are different. I often travel overseas to talk about North Dakota weed and provide technical support. Besides working with growers, I also work with NDESU weed breeding programs to develop future varieties for farmers. Because of the large export market, all work has a significant impact on North Dakota's economy. I am passionate about promoting North Dakota weed, so if I hear a baker from far, far away country talking about North Dakota weed quality being number one in the world, that makes me happy and proud. Thank you for your support. Hi, I'm Julie Gardner Robinson and I'm a food and nutrition specialist for NDESU Extension located on campus. Each of us makes daily decisions about how to fill our plates. We also like to know where our food comes from. Along with being vital parts of the economy, North Dakota plant and animal-based products provide robust nutrition for our state, region, nation, and often the world. Regardless of our age, we all need nutritious food to maintain our health and well-being. People also expect safe food. Both food safety and labeling recommendations and regulations evolve with research. We at NDESU Extension educate growers, small businesses, and consumers of all ages to help maintain food safety and also make healthful food choices. We work with entrepreneurs who add value to North Dakota products. Improving health behaviors through research and outreach can increase the quality of life and save millions of dollars in collective health care costs for North Dakotans throughout their lifetimes.


How can I set up payment for my courses? As an administrator you can set up payment gateways on your side and allow teachers to charge for courses. Moodle uses PayPal as standard but other payment gateways or methods are available as contributed plugins. First, as administrator, go to Site Administration, plugins, payment gateways, manage payment gateways and enable payment gateways. From settings you can specify a surcharge if needed. Then click Payment Accounts to create accounts. You can have more than one account if you have more than one teacher for example with paid courses. Enter an account name, save the changes and then click in our case PayPal and add the client ID and secret. You now need to go to Site Administration, plugins, enrollments, manage enroll plugins and enable enrollment on payment. From settings you can set defaults for example the currency although teachers in courses can change these. Now in a course we go to Course Navigation, and from the drop down select Enrollment Methods. You as admin can add this enrollment method to courses. If you want teachers to be able to add it themselves then you need to give them the capability Enroll Fee Config. A new student with an account on the site now sees that he has to pay to enter this course. To summarise, administrators can set up payment gateways so teachers can charge for courses.


Glenda, go ahead. Great. Thank you. Everybody can see my screen, I hope? Yes. Great. OK, nice to see everybody. I'm going to get right into it because I know we are very tight with time. So today, I will be presenting with my colleagues, Michelle Wilmers and Bianca Masuku, who are in the room. And we are going to be presenting our first kind of foray into producing models of open textbook development. And this particular work is based at the University of Cape Town. Our project is called Digital Open Textbooks for Development. And it is a project that has a research component and implementation component in that academics were given small grants to produce open textbooks. And it also has an advocacy component. So we'd like to thank the IDRC for their support in this particular project right up front. And that is our Creative Commons license. So part of our process and part of our thinking, and this is still developing along the way, is to find a and suggest a definition. As Leanne also started her presentation looking at Open Pedagogy and trying to define it, we were also trying to define open textbooks. We find the idea of a textbook quite attractive to people who are not aware of openness because they understand the idea of a textbook. And here, I'm not going to read this now because we don't really have that much time. But we're looking at the idea of it being scaffolded around a course with all those multimedia affordances that the digital provides, including collaborative authorship models. And we'll be talking about that collaboration as we go along. So we're going to be talking about participatory pedagogy and suggestive kind of way of models of that. But what we also want to tell today is a little bit of a story in a very short time around open textbook journeys. So introduce the people that we're doing and talk a little bit about what they were doing. This is not going to be a heavily theoretical presentation. We really want to focus on the models, which are going to come up in a little while. But we must mention and reinforce that our approach is informed with the social justice imperative. And it's just the way that we view open textbooks. And we feel that open textbooks can provide a way of redressing social injustice. And we look specifically towards Nancy Fraser's work as a way of framing our research. At the bottom of the slide, you will see there's a reference we did produce a paper earlier this year if you're interested in reading more. So what we've done very briefly is we're very interested in the drivers and motivations for open textbooks. So what we're trying to tell here is a story of these open textbooks. So it's not only what did they create, but why did they create it and how did they go about creating it. And we feel that the motivation in the driver is very important in the actual success of the textbook at the end. And they're quite typical drivers that this audience might be aware of. So perhaps it's affordable access. That's why you want to create an open textbook. Or maybe you want to translate a textbook. Or you want to look at curriculum transformation. And in our context, that is directly related to decolonizing the curriculum. But that's our emphasis there.  And we can see in the second column all these map to the social justice dimensions. So we've done quite a bit of this mapping. I'm not going to get into too much now. But we see in our textbooks that there's an affirmative response in the textbooks towards addressing these injustices. So we see that textbooks are saving students money. We see that we have examples of terminology being translated. We see examples of local cases and relevant text being included in these open textbooks. Collaboration with colleagues empowering their voice. And we also see examples of deliberately changing teaching practice, pedagogical practice to include students. So this slide, and you'll see a few more versions of this particular slide, shows all our participants. And so to start developing these models, we've started working. We're showing you the back end of how we're working out what these models could be and what's actually happening with these open textbooks. So here you can see that eight of the people involved in our study, the open textbook authors, were driven by affordable access. It seems to be a theme. But curriculum transformation was certainly very important, as was pedagogical change. So you can see how we're mapping out drivers. And you'll see later on when Michelle talks how we've mapped out other areas that we feel are important. I think I just skipped a slide. Oh no, there we go. OK, I'm going to hand over to Bianca, who is going to be talking about our wonderful authors. Thanks, Glenda. Hello, everybody. So what we wanted to do here with this slide is showcase the Dot4D open textbook authors. And this cohort of academics made up the sample for our study, the Dot4D study, and comprised largely of grant recipients from the Dot4D grants program. And as study participants, they informed the research arm of the project through various research activities that we've undertaken in the past two years. And as you can see, this cohort of academics represented a variety of disciplines. We have people who come from chemistry, architecture, mathematics, marketing, et cetera. And because of the very disciplinary backgrounds that the authors emerged from, their open textbook projects were based on their different disciplinary contexts and the varied principles and influences within them. They were also motivated by different kinds of social justice drivers, as Glenda has mentioned already. So some authors wanted to prioritize student voices in their work. Other authors wanted to better reflect local context and local experiences. And other authors wanted to change the dynamics and practices within their own classrooms. And what we wanted to highlight here is the fact that because of their varying backgrounds and their varying drivers behind their work, all of our authors made use of very different approaches in terms of their content creation, in their authorship, in terms of their quality assurance processes, and also in their publishing. And this reveals the different kinds of paths and options available for open textbook journeys. And so within these journeys, the varying approaches and strategies and processes that were employed by these academics in their open textbook projects resulted in varying degrees of success and different kinds of outputs being produced. And so the rest of our presentation will be elaborating further on this and showing the different approaches and models that have emerged from the different kinds of work that each of our authors did. But if you would like to get a closer look or get to know authors a little better, you can click on the highlighted links here where we've kind of told a very shortened story about who they are, what motivates them and what kinds of things they were wanting to produce. I'm gonna hand over to Michelle now who will elaborate a little further, yes. Thanks Bianca, hi everybody. So we're very interested to try and drill down a little into what we're seeing around authorship, quality assurance and publishing processes. When we look at authorship models, we see a range of different approaches, probably not surprising to you. We do see that the approach is strongly context driven and driven by drivers in terms of what inspires people to do the work in the first place. I think one of the standout features of what we see in authorship models is that authors rarely work alone. And I think this echoes the work of some of our colleagues, the idea that open textbook development, it takes a village, it's hard to do it on your own. And even in cases where authors choose to work as solo entities traditionally, they invariably bring students and colleagues involved into the authorship process. Interestingly in the authorship models, we also see that academics are often thrust into what we call the editor in chief role, albeit sometimes slightly reluctantly, but somebody is in the position of needing to corral content to both write, coordinate and quality control. So we see our academics being kind of, as I said, put into this new role, which there I think are still making sense of themselves as part of the new roles and professional identity that they take in some of these functions that they play. Within authorship, we see in a number of instances that the content creation approach is embedded in the classroom with the teaching. So students are producing and reviewing work as part of their coursework. And I think this speaks to another challenge in terms of authorship models overall, which is the issue of time, both the limitation on academics time and the challenge of using students in authorship processes where content creation timeframes don't neatly align with semester or academic year timeframes. Moving on from authorship models to talk about quality assurance models. Similarly, we see a range of approaches. I think we're starting to see that there's a spectrum or a continuum of quality assurance processes. The one instance in which there was a Delphi consensus study we see as an interesting case in which quality assurance actually takes place before a resource is produced. So in that instance, a study was done to identify gaps in the curriculum and the textbook was developed in line with the outcomes of the study. And certainly in this context, rather utility and accessibility are very important components of quality assurance for us. Again, strongly you see a student component in terms of student review. Nine of the 11 initiatives worked with students in reviewing content, which also was embedded in the classroom approach around the development of the work. And finally on publishing models. This is an area particularly that we feel academics are still grappling with seeing themselves as publishers and probably not a surprise that we see a strong focus here on authors and initiatives as self-publishers but we are seeing some other models emerge particularly in terms of our library functioning as a publisher and in some instances, authors working with open access publishers to make their work optimally, openly available. Linda, I'm going to hand back to you. So, you know, I will win presentation, I'll do the last few slides. So I just wanted all of you listening here to think about why you would want to create an open textbook. And as we've emphasised this idea of drivers and motivation, we're quite interested for you to also reflect on that at this point. And what we're going to just highlight now the next couple of slides is some emerging pathways that we've seen. So what we've tried to do here is to try and elaborate the first kind of direction of different kinds of models that we're seeing. And as we saw, as we've mapped out in our tables, a key driver was curriculum transformation. And it was about curriculum change, curriculum transformation, local examples, local content and that decolonisation that is so important in our context. And it came to the form of collaboration. So the collaboration of colleagues and collaboration with students and this particular orthopedics textbook was an example of great success in this area. And we have other models around this, but this seems to be a cluster around this driver transformation but this work that is collaborative. And here quality assurance through students and colleagues. In the bottom left hand of the corner, we've just put in a little block around this small amount of money that was given to this lead academic to actually do this project. Really didn't cost a lot of money. It was quite remarkable actually how little to produce something that is available easily online. So collaboration model, we've also found a pedagogical change model which for us has been very powerful. Showing the affordance. Thanks, thanks for them. Showing the affordance of open textbooks to allow a change in the classroom. And when I say classroom, our classrooms are virtual now but that teaching space to really explore and explicitly arrange the classroom space so that students are creating content that can be in the open textbook. So not only student review or students perhaps examples but actually students creating content. And then students also as part of the quality assurance process. So this was a very powerful model that we found. And also slightly more resourcing here but still relatively inexpensive I would say with the work that these people have actually produced. So then I suppose we have to talk about what didn't work and so not all of our projects were completed. And I think this is inevitable that this is going to happen. And these people set up with grand aspirations of student empowerment and pedagogical change and curriculum transformation almost too grand. And it's not really about the solar authorship because we know that solar authorship can work. So Michelle mentioned earlier it's is an issue of time. That's whether you have the time to do this but it's an issue of timing. So we had a year for these people to use the grant money and perhaps in that time there was another project that was more pressing for them than this open textbook project. So they're all open textbook creators but they can complete what they started off to do. So perhaps they will have this opportunity at a later stage. So this is the final slide. I'm hoping that there might be, it's not even ringing. There might be one minute for questions. But yes, so this is what we're kind of looking at these kinds of models but we're recognizing behind the authorship approaches as a social justice approach, approach that's looking at producing cost of textbooks but more than that curriculum transformation is very important. We're looking at a range of very interesting quality assurance mechanisms often at concern but crucially we want to emphasize the idea that there needs to be some support. And for some of these authors that little bit of grant money made all the difference. We didn't have to support them after we gave them the grant in a lot of ways. Some people needed more support than others but that bit of money just enabled them to be able to get students to help them to be able to get colleagues in or some editors or some, but the grant cannot be as under emphasized as something that's a real stuff for this process. So that's all from us. So perhaps William there's a minute for questions. If there are any questions I can't see the chat as presenter. I'm hoping there might be a question. Yeah, thank you very much Glenda. There's a question and that's why are not the university publishers involved? A lot of universities have a publishing unit so why aren't they involved? So we do have examples of that. So we encouraged a range of different publishing opportunities. We didn't say you have to go through the university the library system. We let people choose what they wanted to do whatever time, whatever would work for them. So we do have a wonderful example of a textbook a marketing textbook that will come through the library publishing system which is a very new system at UCT. So this was quite exciting to be able to experiment with it. Okay, thank you very much. Time is up and so thank you to Bianca.


So, today we shall take up one of the most salient features of the coherent topology which allows us to practical way of constructing continuous functions. As a consequence we shall prove the existence of partition affinity on series of the complexes. This will essentially prove that they are para-compact because if you have a host of space then para-compactness is equivalent of existence of partition affinity. Of course, the theme of constructing functions by step by step namely skeleton by skeleton will occur again and again in other contexts also. The only thing that we assume is that you are familiar with partition affinity especially if the space is compact and host of then you must be knowing how to construct partition affinity. Nevertheless, whatever is required here I will recall them, I will recall all the definitions and so on. To start with the topological space, a partition affinity on X we mean family of continuous functions. That continuity is important here. Some family indexed by some set lambda say so these functions theta they are all defined on the whole of X taking values in the closed interval 0, 1 they will satisfy one of those two conditions. For each X you can find a neighborhood of X in X such that that neighborhood will intersect only finitely many supports of theta alpha which is same thing as saying that only for finitely many alpha theta alphas will be non-zero on an X. It is called local finiteness of the family theta alpha. The second condition makes it possible, the first condition makes it possible to put the second condition. The second condition says that the sum of all theta alpha at any given point is equal to 1 and that should be true for all X inside X. In any given X summation of all theta alpha must be equal to 1. Some makes sense because of condition 1 essentially because though the family may be infinite the sum will be finite at every point. So that is the definition of partition of X. But now it has to do with many relations with other things namely starting with a covering open covering of X a family theta alpha is said to be subordinate to you the covering. If you have a function on the indexing sets, see lambda is the indexing set of theta alpha and I is the indexing set for the covering. So function should be from lambda twice such that support of theta alpha where alpha is inside lambda which is by definition closure of all the points wherein theta alpha of X is not equal to 0. That is a subspace of closed subset of X that must be concerned inside u of something and that something is beta alpha. So that beta is a function. That function beta is called refinement function. So each support is contained inside some open subset of this cover corresponding this cover. It is a standard result over any Euclidean space any subspace of Euclidean space. There is always a partition of infinity subordinate to any given cover. This is much easier to prove than proving such a thing on a Paragom practice space is whatever they are. Similar to our earlier lemma 1.2 of extending neighbor roots and functions. The key result that we need is to if the following was relative version of union partition of infinity so that functions can be patched up using the patching a process in a CW complex. So what we need is a relative version which means if you have some partition of infinity on a part of a space there must be something extending that to the whole space. So that is what I am going to define here and these are temporary definitions you may not find them in literature elsewhere. So start with a family now I am trying eta alpha here a family of real wide functions 1x. An open cover W of x is said to ensure local finiteness so we want to bring that local finiteness condition more active here condition 1 more explicit. So it is supposed to ensure local finiteness of theta if for each W in W the set of all alpha in lambda such that W intersection support of eta alpha is not equal to empty set this is finite. See local finiteness ensures there is some such cover so if W is such a cover open cover then you say that W ensures the finiteness for theta. So that is just the reference so this is followed by point 1 there and so I am making this definition here so that we can keep talking about what is the cover which will ensure the finiteness. And definition is take y contending z x a subspace now you have an open cover for x and a partition affinity on y subordinate to restricted cover the restricted cover is defined by taking any member of U and intersecting with y so collect all of them that will be obviously cover for y and it is an open cover for y. So for the best cover should be subordinate should be the dominant namely the partition affinity must be subordinate to that ok and correspondingly let beta be the refinement function and let W be an open cover for y which ensures local finiteness so all these things play important role in the definition of extension. Now let us have theta hat ok this is the definition theta hat a collection of psi alpha where alphas are inside another another indexing set lambda prime ok suppose this is a partition affinity subordinate to you such that such that what these are the conditions so it is going to be quite lengthy definition first of all these indexing set here the new indexing set must be the larger than the original intercept ok this containment may be equality also is allowed that is not a problem. For each alpha in lambda for the old members this psi alpha restricted to y must be eta alpha so that is the meaning of psi alpha extensions ok psi alpha restricted to y is eta alpha. And for each W inside W the ensuring local finiteness there is an open subset VW of X so the extensions of now the these open curves themselves VW of X such that VW intersection Y is W so each W is extended to an open subset of of X now and what is the property of this extension the extension set of all the the FW I have defined set of all alpha belong to lambda prime which support of psi alpha intersection with W is non-empty ok so this was remember this FW was all alpha belong to lambda such a support of psi alpha intersection W was non-empty now I want this FW equal to this larger set look at all psi alpha which may intersect W VW the extended thing ok no new member should come there that is the meaning of this FW is equal to this one FW is already inside this one but I want FW is equal to this right hand side ok which just means that you are adding extra members here in the indexing set those functions ok support of those functions should not enter the the open subset so coming from W at all old W's they should be away from them you should not enter even an extensions of those so small extensions must be there so this is a very strong condition ok you have to understand this one carefully ok the fourth condition is there is a refinement function beta prime from lambda prime 2I for theta hat and this beta prime must be an extension of beta that means for old members lambda lambda elements inside lambda beta prime must be beta itself so with all these the indexing set indexing function the definement function is extended indexing set is extended functions are extended ok. And the third condition is that the new functions are somewhat away from the old functions that is something important here ok we then call psi alpha an extension of theta alpha alpha belong to lambda it is a technical definition so that instead of repeating all these four conditions I have just say this is an extension of theta alpha ok thus an extended portion of unity consists of extensions of all old functions to the larger space together with some extra functions to cover up the rest of the larger space it is important that we make the technical assumption that the support of these extra functions do not enter into a neighborhood of the smaller space this is ensured by extending the cover which ensures the local finiteness finally we shall also need to extend the refinement function the extra portion is needed when we want to build up the partition affinity in the inductive process ok all these four points here are important to keep in mind. So here is an elaborate proposition which will ensure the step by step extensions that x be obtained from y by attaching k cells ok so you can put an indexing set for these k cells also j and j that u be an open covering for x theta be a partition affinity indexed by lambda on y ok and subordinate to this restricted covering then there is a partition affinity theta hat which I am indexing by lambda lambda prime on x which is an extension of eta alpha and it is subordinate to cover you ok the statement is over here but we want to say what is happening to all these local covering which ensures local finiteness also ok moreover given open neighborhoods w y y belong to y such that this w y y in y of y is an open cover ensures local finiteness of theta you start with this also hypothesis here you start with instead of just eta alpha and this one you you fix this also then there are open neighborhoods w x hat of x such that the open cover w x hats of x ensure the local finiteness for theta hat but these w x hats are nothing but w whenever this x is inside y w x hat which is w y hat intersection y is w y this is for points inside y so even this will happen ok while extending we can keep track of that this also happens this is the statement of the presentation ok now why you need such a thing that is more curious to you than than the proof of this one I would ensure sir therefore let me go to the proof of the partition affinity using this one first demonstrated that then you will know the role of these these extra assumptions and so on so that later on you can figure out how to prove that ok so assuming this proposition let us first prove the main theorem ok so what is the main theorem main theorem is start with any open covering of a c w complex sense ok then there is a partition affinity on x which is subordinate to you the final real theorems are always neatly stated as briefly as possible ok with all the hypothesis included that is that should be a style of the final theorem so that it is quotable without all the paraphernalia of the the notations that you might have introduced in the proof ok so take an open covering for a c w complex there is always a partition affinity subordinate to that open cover that is the statement ok now how do you begin we start with the zero cells the zero skeleton what is a zero skeleton it is a discrete set ok that discrete set itself will be used as indexing set for the partition affinity now ok so put lambda naught is going to be at the indexing set equal to x naught namely the set of all the vertices of x naught the zero skeleton define these two functions have now indexing the first zero corresponds to the zero level x corresponds to the indexing level the indexing set from x zero to i by the formula p zero x of y is equal to 1 if y is x that means these are indicating indicator functions they are delta functions if x equal to y it is 1 otherwise it is 0 so at each point you take the function identically 1 at that point and 0 elsewhere so that is the first stage construction obviously when you take the sum of all these what happens you get only at any point you get only that function and that function is 1 everywhere else it is 0 so sum total will be all other things are 0 sum total is 1 so it is automatically a partition affinity and since x naught is discrete each point is an open subset here so it is a closest also so support is contained inside there itself right so each x naught by the way is contained inside some number of of u because u is a covering for the whole affairs so it will be subordinate to you also so you shall fix up even the subordinated function here since x naught is discrete this is clearly a partition affinity on x naught put w naught equal to singleton x x naught belong to x so that will ensure local finiteness because there is the only only p 0 x will be non-zero here all other things will be 0 so clearly dubbing naught is an open cover which ensures local finiteness of p 0 x so it is an open cover for x naught okay so it is actually all the singleton 0s are taken singleton points so let beta naught this is the refinement function lambda naught to i be a refinement function I have to choose for each point x belonging to x naught some member of u and if that is i I can write with beta naught of that beta naught of that x goes to that point that i whatever you can choose any so you have freedom here okay inductively now immediately we put the induction step and the previous proposition comes into picture so what is the induction inductive step is precisely we have defined correctly here okay each x n is obtained by attaching n plus 1 cells to x n minus n n cells to x n minus 1 right applying the previous proposition we get a sequence to begins we have constructed already the lambda or not so that will get extended to lambda 1 so now we have partition affinity on lambda 1 that will extend to lambda 2 and so on so you get a tower of what indexing sets they may be all equal I do not care but one is contained in the other is all that I need we have get a sequence of indexing sets that is the first thing for each n n is fixed set x n a partition affinity which I will denote by p n n but it is indexed by the indexing set lambda n now so p n alpha double indexing okay alpha ring of x lambda n n is fixed here and these are partition affinity on x x n this nth skeleton which is an extension of p n minus 1 n minus 1 state p n minus 1 half alphas of course these alphas will will range over lambda n minus 1 okay it is an extension of that as we have seen namely whenever we take an alpha inside lambda n minus 1 restricted to p n alpha take p n alpha restricted to x n minus 1 it must be equal to p n minus 1 of alpha that is for each n a family w n which ensures local finiteness for w n we shall index w n x x belong to x n of neighborhoods of x in x n which ensures local finiteness for p n alpha such that whenever x is in the lower skeleton we must have w n x intersection x n minus 1 equals w n minus 1 of x okay so this was the part of the proposition so we have all these things here okay the fourth condition is for each n the refinement function is also an extension of it so I am just repeating the the things that is ensured by the previous proposition here okay now what we do we put lambda equal to union of all these lambdas you see increasing union of indexing cells for each alpha inside lambda I can choose a k such that alpha first time appears in lambda k that means it is not in lambda k minus 1 or the previous ones the first time it appears in lambda k okay and that k is unique define p alpha okay from x to for each alpha I have defined function right x to i now by the property that p alpha restricted to any n skeleton is p n alpha restricted to n if I knew that these restrictions okay are continuous first of all secondly that they agree see when you restrict this one suppose you take x n plus 1 x n plus 1 the function restricted to x n must be the whole function then only it makes sense that is what is guaranteed by this condition okay that they are extensions right condition one says they are extensions of the whole thing right so once alpha is inside k right so that is the first time some p n alpha will appear there after that it is getting extended only so this makes sense from popular tool it follows that each p alpha is well defined and continuous on x okay that is the property continuity follows because because of what the fundamental property of the coindist apology on the seed of the complexes okay we claim that this theta alpha is the required partition of infinity subordinate that will complete the proof okay and according to you means I have to define a function beta which is a refinement function to take beta from lambda to i to be such that beta restricted to lambda n is beta n for all n remember if I restricted to beta lambda n minus 1 it is beta n minus 1 because beta and restricted to lambda n minus 1 also beta n so this makes sense for all n okay so this makes sense and beta is very defined suppose now alpha is in lambda choose n n such that alpha is in the first lambda n so like here okay so alpha is in lambda n but not in lambda n minus 1 then for all m bigger than n what we have support of p alpha intersection with x m which is the largest skeleton which is simply the support of p m alpha when you interested when you restricted to it is simply a p m alpha by the very definition here okay p alpha restricted to x n will be p m alpha okay support of p m alpha and that is contained inside u beta m of alpha by the very definition of beta m but beta m on alpha is beta alpha because because alpha is in x m once alpha is in lambda n it is also in lambda m bigger than equal to x u beta therefore support of this one successfully is containing u beta so support of support of p alpha itself will be contains a u of beta so is that just beta therefore beta is a defined function for theta and hence theta is subordinate to u so here I am assuming that once this is there the support of this is you know it doesn't go on keeping going increasing it is equal to this one so this is very important okay so x m its larger larger than that once m bigger than n this will be always the support support p m alpha and that we are keeping extending the same alpha for all of them therefore beta is refinement function for the entire of theta subordinate so which gives you subordinate into u now for any x in x say again x is in x k minus x a minus 1 that such a k is unique okay here we define w x to be union n greater or equal to k all w n of x starting with x inside k you get first w k that is the first time you get then you take w n x and so k plus 1 x k plus 2 x k plus 3 x and put union of all of them okay they are successive extensions of the previous ones follows that if you take this w x x in x this is an open cover for x y is an open set intersect with any n it will be w n x and w n x is open inside x n all right of course below x below k it is empty so the empty is fine so this is an open cover for x okay now we claim that this ensures local finiteness for theta okay after that taking the sum it is equal to 1 that part is very easy so let us see how local finiteness comes for f of w f a w x so w x is by definition this one okay this will be union of all the f of w n x and greater or equal to k because these are indexing sets at points here they will have to be in one of the indexing sets on this side at conversely so you see union of all this n greater or equal to k is the starting point k is the starting point so it is n equal to k it will be k no f of w x k for each of them is finite by our inductive step okay and for each n bigger than equal to k what happens the view of f of w n x is equal to f of w n percent and this is the condition that we have ensured here left hand side here there was that this point this condition appears there okay so new entries from n plus 1 n plus 2 etc lambda n plus lambda n plus 2 etc they do not come inside that is why so this is equal to w f of x n plus 1 for this one and this is the same thing as this one successfully keep going on like this therefore f of w x is equal to f of w x k only the k thing with all other things are same as this one which so though it is the infinite union the same set the beginning set is f of w k so it is finite okay that is the meaning of that that this cover ensures the local finiteness finally now again x is inside x k minus x k minus 1 as before after all every x is inside some x k k k k k may be different but that is a unique k like summation p alpha over alpha is summation p of alpha alpha is only lambda k i can beyond those things whatever new things come say for lambda k plus 1 you know that the new functions are not actually 0 on x k okay they are they are not entering so this summation is only p alpha where alpha is inside lambda k i do not have to take a full lambda at all but then this is same thing as p k of alpha because x is inside x k so each p alpha is p k of alpha okay the sum total is equal to 1 because this is a partition of infinity on x k so that completes the theorem so next time we will take care of this proposition okay this proposition will be proved in a two steps okay thank you


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