Yeah, I don't know. I thought we came in with a good purpose today from the get-go. Obviously, it took us a little while to get going, and I think Zimmerman had a big deal to do with that. I thought he threw the ball really well, and then, you know, and then Guardi really lit a fire for us there, and then we were able to put up a big inning and then continue to fight after we gave back the lead. So, I don't know. I just thought the guys really rallied today and played a really clean game overall. Could you explain what your issue was because you got pretty animated out there? We've never seen you like that in your role as a Yankee manager, at least. I just had some issue with the zone on a couple of pitches, key pitches that I felt like were missed, and I took exception to it, and, you know, I guess he had heard enough. Where were you watching from when the explosion occurs in the sixth inning and your guys come back with you? I was down in the video room watching, so it was good to see. How about Gleiber Torres and the hitter he has been? Obviously, he was this guy at the beginning of the season, but the hitter he's been recently much more comfortable, much more disciplined than obviously taking advantage of a hanging slider there. Yeah, I mean, more really good at bats from him tonight. They had bat before against Coleman, who's really tough on righties. The 3-2 pitch he's able to go the other way with and then pound one to left there. He's a really good hitter. He went through a tough stretch there, but like we've seen him and all our young guys really been able to make adjustments, and he's gotten himself back to a good place in the box, and he's starting to string together a lot of big at bats for us now. And you've talked about Severino recently and seeing signs and hoping all those signs would come together at once. How would you evaluate what you saw from him tonight? Good. I thought he was really good. Another positive step. Not all together for him yet to where he's the dominant dude we know he is, but he racked up a ton of strikeouts obviously. I thought he commanded the zone well. I thought the slider, which was slow to come around tonight, really in the second half of his start, we started to see it. I thought he implemented his change-up really well early through a lot of change-ups. I think got a couple strikeouts early with it. He didn't have the same electric fastball that he had in Baltimore in his last start, but I thought he really pitched tonight and gave us, for as much as we talk about his struggles, it was probably the third time in a row he's given us a strong start. So he continues to build momentum and get back to the guy he was for really his first 15-20 starts. George, to the right. Aaron, were you trying to stay away from Dylan? And at what point, what have you brought him in? If we would have run Robbie's Count up there and maybe we needed a strikeout or something, it would have been a situation where we brought him in, but we were going into tonight going to try as best we could to stay away from him, but obviously if we got into a situation as we showed, they got him up. But yeah, initially we're kind of trying to stay away. Yeah, just over 30 last night. Yeah, we just felt like we were going to try tonight. Aaron, back to the argument for a second, which was a big highlight of the game. It seemed like the bill of your cap hit the umpire at one point. Were you ejected at that point or was it something you said afterward? No, he ejected me from the bench. Yeah. Did you make contact with him even inadvertently? I don't think so. Aaron, when you go into the catcher's crouch there, what is the point that you're trying to make? What kind of discussion is going on there? I hadn't stretched yet tonight, so I just wanted to make sure I was good and loose. So I was just, I don't know. I guess giving my kids something to make fun of me about. Right here in the middle. Aaron, Zach just didn't seem like he was getting much bite on his fastball. When he has outings like this where whether it's his command or the fastball just isn't sinking.  No, because I feel like for the most part he's been building momentum. Now obviously tonight he struggled a little bit with the command of that pitch and when he did get hit he left it up and doesn't have that movement on it. So I feel like we're seeing a lot of signs, especially the last several outings before this one to where he's starting to dial it in. Again, we're seeing the stuff come out properly. Again, just trying to build him, build him, build him to be the Zach Britton we've seen throughout his career. So I credit Tigers for being out the discipline to layoff pitches and then the one Victor hit that almost was in the dirt. So the stuff is there. I think it's just really zeroing in his sights and getting into that good rhythm to where I think he'll be that dynamic guy we've seen throughout his career. Anthony, to the right. Aaron, if you were in the video room, did you see the Voigt check swing and did you think they might have missed that one? Gardner seemed to think so. The walk? I thought it was good at that. Worked the walk there and set up labor nice.


Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We will begin now. Can I ask any one of you to please lead us in prayer, please? Anyone? Nobody wants to lead us in prayer? Dear Heavenly Father, we pray you should acknowledge your holy name. Thank you for this wonderful moment, Father. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to learn and seek you, Father, to grow in wisdom and stature. Father, thank you for this class. We pray for the past Salina. We pray for each and every classmate, Father. We need your divine intervention. We need your holy spirit, guidance, so that we can learn and grow in your own image, Father. Thank you so much for everything. I ask this prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you Prabhakar. Okay, so we were looking at Romans chapter 8 and we were looking at verses 24 to 28. Okay, and in verse 25, we saw on Wednesday that Paul talks about the hope that we have. Okay, what is the hope? Though we can't see it now, there is a hope and that's why it's called hope. And the hope is something to be in the future, you know, when our bodies will receive the full redemption. You know, we would receive our glorified bodies. We would no longer face death, but we will receive that. Glorified bodies, we will receive our redemption in full as we have received it in part now. Okay, and Paul says, you know, even as we have this hope, we can eagerly wait. And because we have this hope, you know, we can have this endurance and perseverance to go through all the weaknesses of the flesh that he's mentioned, which he's spoken about also about the sufferings that he's mentioned and he's spoken to us about. And all the difficulties and the hardships that we face. He says, we go through all these sufferings, we go through the weaknesses of the flesh. We struggle through in our journey in life, but you know, we have this hope that in the future, you know, we will receive this glorious bodies where we will be redeemed from everything that we are suffering of, from the corrupt, from sin, the bondage of sin and, you know, from the body that is subjected to death, with death, which is talking about corruption and decay and sickness and pain and suffering and the suffering that we are having because, you know, because creation has also, you know, fallen because of Adam's sin has also is going into degradation is also, you know, going slipping down. We see corruption in creation as well and death in creation as well as decay and, you know, this degradation of things. And because of the fallen world that we live in, you know, we experience sufferings and pain and he says, you know, we can look at all these things with the hope and what is the hope, you know, that we have is in the future, we will receive redemptive bodies when we redeemed from death, and we will receive our glorious bodies. He says, because of all this, you know, look at that and continue to run your race with perseverance and endurance. And even if you are struggling because the weakness of your flesh or even because you're going through the sufferings, you know, this is going to give us the confidence. This is going to give us the hope. This is going to give us the strength that one day, you know, we would be redeemed. And then hence we can run our race with perseverance and endurance. Now, interestingly, we see that, you know, Paul moves on or transitions to prayer. Okay, so in verses 26, 27, you know, he's talking about prayer. He says, and he's talking about another aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit. So in this chapter and in the preceding chapter in chapter seven, he's introduced us to different, the person and the work of the Holy Spirit is given different titles to Holy Spirit, the spirit of life, you know, the spirit of Christ, you know, so he's again introducing us to another work of the Holy Spirit. He says, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, in our weaknesses. He helps us in our weaknesses. So what is the weaknesses he's talking about here in chapter eight verse 25. If you look at it in the overall context of what we've been studying or what Paul has been writing in his letter in his episode, the overall context of this word weakness or weaknesses is a weakness of our flesh. Okay, this is the overarching theme starting from Romans chapter six, that Paul has been talking about the weakness of our flesh. But in the immediate preceding context, Paul is talking about sufferings at the present time. So what is the sufferings of our present time he's talking about the corruption and decay because creation has fallen from its original intent, design, purpose and the plan of God. And because there's corruption and decay in creation, and hence we also are going through suffering because that's why we all have sickness and disease and, you know, health issues and all of those things. And it also can be referring to the demonic work or the work of Satan that brings suffering into our lives. It can also refer to wicked people who have wicked intentions, you know, who don't mean good for us. And so they can, you know, think wicked things they can bring about the wicked plans against us. So there are times when we go through the sufferings of life, when we feel weak and we don't want to pray and we don't know what to pray for. And so he says, you know, whether it's these weaknesses of our flesh or it is the journey of the sufferings of life. That is happening the present time. We can say, God, I do not know what to pray for in the situation. I'm just feeling so overwhelmed. I'm feeling so drowned. I'm just feeling so down that I can't even say anything. I can't even pray. My mind is totally, you know, dull. It's totally tired and exhausted. So, you know, there are times when we go through all of these sufferings, this weakness of flesh and we don't know what to pray.  And he says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  So, the same Holy Spirit, you know, is also there to help us in our weaknesses. And he makes intercessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. So, the Holy Spirit that is dwelling in each one of us, what does he do?  He does it along with us. He does it together with us and he does it through us. So, it's not just the Holy Spirit who is interceding or praying for us when we are going through these difficult, challenging situations, sufferings, the weakness of flesh when we don't know what to pray for. But it's the Holy Spirit together with us, along with us. So, the Holy Spirit who puts in the groanings into our spirit man. So, he does it with us, he does it through us. So, in verse 26, all says likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. So, he also means he's talking about a different aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit. Okay, he's mentioned so many things of Holy Spirit for us. He's a spirit of adoption as well. He testifies to us that the sons and daughters of God that we are has with God and has with God and God has with Christ Jesus. So, he's also a spirit of adoption. He's also the spirit of life that we saw. And it's the Holy Spirit that helps us to keep the commandments, to keep the laws, which all what Paul has been mentioned to us. So, he's saying also helps us. This is another work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He also helps us in our weaknesses. Now, the Greek word for help here literally means to take hold of together with us against. Okay, so that gives us a very good idea and explanation of what this really the work of the Holy Spirit here is. It says the Greek word really means to take hold of together with us against. So, it's the Holy Spirit taking hold of us or together with us against our weaknesses, against our sufferings, against the problems that we are going through. So, it's not the Holy Spirit going off somewhere and just praying for us. But so, Holy Spirit together with us, along with us, taking hold against our weaknesses, enabling us to pray. So, whether it's weaknesses of the flesh or whether it's the sufferings that we are going through the present time. The Holy Spirit takes hold of us and together with us, he prays for our weaknesses, which we do not know what to pray for. And how are these, you know, this prayer coming out says, growlings that cannot be uttered. Which means, you know, the expression is coming from the Holy Spirit. Its actual intercession is coming in the form of groaning that cannot be expressed in speech. So, it can be, groaning can be inarticulate speech. It's not, you know, the words that we really speak because we are in a very dire situation. The situation where we are down, we are given up and we really don't have the words. So, it comes out as groaning means, comes out as inarticulate speech. It can come out as, you know, it can come out, it can be expressed in tongues. It can be expressed crying, weeping, whatever fashion, you know, is the Holy Spirit releasing the prayer through the life of a believer. Verse 27 says, he who searches the heart. Now it's coming back to the heart of the individual. So, God is looking into the hearts of the individuals. So, where are these groanings being released from? You know, the groanings are coming from the Holy Spirit, but it's released from the heart of the believer, from the spirit of the believer. So, this prayer, this intercession that helps us in our weakness, it comes from the Holy Spirit and it is released into our hearts and into our spirit as groanings. And these groanings, which cannot be expressed through our own words, you know, just comes out in, whether it's expressed through tongues or, you know, weeping, moaning, crying, whatever. But it says here that God looks into our heart. That means God knows, and it goes on to say, God goes on to say, He knows what the mind of the spirit is. So, God knows what the Holy Spirit is saying or what the Holy Spirit is giving intercession for our weaknesses or the suffering that we're going through, because the intercession is the intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So, whatever the Holy Spirit is telling us, we need to know always that it's not from Him, but it's coming from Jesus according to the will of God. And it's, hence, it's the perfect intercession. So, even when you don't know what to pray for any situation, you don't even know what to pray for. You can just pray in tongues, because, you know, when you're praying in tongues, we're actually praying mysteries, which is mysteries to us, but not mysterious to God and to the Holy Spirit, because they know. And, you know, we were just speaking those mysteries, which is accordance to, you know, God's will plan for our lives. It can also be speaking to our situations, the problems, the difficulties. God, and we're also speaking what God is orchestrating towards our difficulties, towards our situations, towards our problems. So, it can be all of these things, but it's mysterious to us. But what we are saying is in alignment to God's plan and purpose, it's in alignment to His divine will. And even though it's mysterious to us, it comes into us split man, it's released into us split man by the Holy Spirit. You know, we can also receive answers to the Holy Spirit can also give us solutions to the problems that they're looking to answers to the difficulties that we are going through. Okay, so God looks into the heart and this kind of intercession, what the Holy Spirit does for us is perfect intercession, because we are praying according to will of God. We are praying just as God wants us to pray. Okay, so in this process, we see who is having the weakness? Who's going to the weaknesses? It's we, right? We the saints. Okay, who is helping us in prayer? The Holy Spirit. Who is, how is he helping us by making intercession along together with us? Okay, who is doing the intercession? Who is doing the intercession? Yes, correct. The believer who's doing the intercession with the help of the Holy Spirit. So where is the intercession coming from? It's coming from the heart of the believer, but who has put that in the heart of the believer is the Holy Spirit that is put it in the heart of the believer. And who's listening to us when we're in the city? God is listening to us and he already knows what is in the heart and mind because it is put in by the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit reveals the mind of Christ to us that we read in the preceding verses. Okay, so God looks into the heart of the believer, he knows what the Holy Spirit is saying. He knows the mind of the Spirit and this intercession we know is in accordance with the will of God. Okay, so we see that the Holy Spirit helps us to pray in our weaknesses according to the will of God. It comes out as groaning and it's prayer that comes from the Holy Spirit. It's been expressed in inarticulate speech, it's not something the believer because inarticulate we're saying is because it's not coming from the mind of the believer. Okay, he does not bring up these things but it's coming from the heart of God. I mean the Holy Spirit is releasing it and these points can be expressed in tongues through crying, weeping, whatever fashion. But what is the result of this kind of prayer? It is accordance to the will of God. Okay, and what does it do also? What is the result? It helps the saints in their weaknesses, gives them answers, solutions to their problems. Okay, so the light of this, you know, looking at Romans 8, 28 says, And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose. Okay, so these are the sufferings that we're going, all of us are going through suffering in the present time. We are going through this but you know, this is our confidence. What is our confidence? Not only that we will have the seful redemption of our bodies but Paul also says that our confidence is that all things will work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. So when we go through sufferings, difficulties and tribulations, trials, you know, this should be our hope, this should be our confidence. This should be something that, you know, we can endure through that, you know, and all things God is going to bring out His good. Even though we go through the suffering, we are not able to see anything good, God will bring out something good. The ultimate result will be something that He brings out which will be good because, you know, we love God. We're called according to His purpose and also, you know, what He brings out will not just be something good but will also be that God's purposes will be brought about in and through the sufferings and the difficulties and the tribulations that we go through. Okay, because we are loved by God and we're called according to His purpose. So all things will work for our good. Amen. So this is our great assurance, this is our great hope. This is something that we can hold on to. This is our anchor when we go through sufferings that all things will work together for good and whatever is happening, you know, God's purposes will ultimately be fulfilled and His purposes will be brought about in our lives. And so that can give us the endurance and the perseverance to go on. Then He says in verses 29 and 30, what is His purposes? What is God's purposes? So can Hamlet please read verses 29 and 30 please. God knew His people and plans and He chosen to become like His Son so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him and having called them, He gave them right standing with Himself and having given them right standing, He gave them His glory. Thank you, Asha. So just beautiful verses here and what Paul reveals to us. He says, for whom God foreknew is basically talking about the omniscience of God. God is all knowing, He knows everything. He says that whom God foreknew, He also predestined. So that means He predestined means that He planned before time. Now everything that God planned to happen in history that we are seeing unfolding before our lives will happen in the future is something that He has done arbitrary. That means it's not something that He does randomly, comes up with some idea now. But it's everything that is something that God has already planned even before the foundations of the world. So even before we even were conceived in our mother's womb, even before the foundations of the world, God even knew who you would be, what you would do, what your choices would be, where you would go and all of those things. So He knows everything. All the days of our life are in His book even before even one came to being. So He's planned everything beforehand before time. He's decided everything. So what did He predestined? He predestined means He did not predestined our choices. Now this is very important for us to understand and catch. God did not predestined the choices that we will make. That means He did not beforehand, before we were created, even before the creation of the world, He did not predestined. That means He did not make it our choice. He did not destined Adam and Eve to make the wrong choice. It was their own choice that they were going to make. But did He know beforehand that they were going to make the wrong choice? Yes, but He did not cause them or He did not make them to make that wrong choice. They are able to understand. So He predestined us before the creation of this world. He knew beforehand what are the choices each one of us are going to make. So He did not say, OK, I'll get Asha to make these choices to choose me, to believe in me, but I'll make Koon to refuse and not accept the gospel. That's not right because when we say that, we're saying that God is a partial God, which is going against His very nature. So predestination basically means not that God makes us choose, but He has given us the free will to choose. So that is why I said last week, last Friday, He created us in His image. That means He gave us a mind of our own. A mind that we will be able to think and understand and discern what He is saying. He gave us a will to choose. That is why He created us in His image. That's what it means in His image. A will to choose. He helps us to choose. When we go to Him and say, God, what do I choose? He helps us. He gives us the leading and the guidance through the inner witness, the Holy Spirit, to the audible voice of the Holy Spirit, to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit, to prophecies and to the gift of the Spirit. But He does not make us choose what we choose. It's our own choice. So He predestined means He did not make the choices for us. But He predestined means He knew the choices that we are going to make. So He knew that each one of us are going to choose Him as our Lord and Savior. He knows who is not going to choose Him as Lord and Savior. And those He predestined, He also conformed to the image of His Son. So He knew beforehand who is going to choose Him. And those who choose Him, He predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. So it's all of them who by their own will, their own choice, choose Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. Those He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. So it does not mean that God predestined each one of us to choose Him. Some of them not to choose Him. No, that's wrong. The choice is for everyone. So God knew beforehand our choices. So we are the ones who are making the choices. God does not determine the choices that we make. He does not determine the choices that we make. He knows the choices we are going to make. And He knows who is going to choose Him, who is not going to choose Him. But those whom He knows are going to conform, are going to conform them to His image, to conform them to the image of His Son, conform them to the image of Jesus Christ. So those who make this choice, they will be made in the image of Jesus. And that's why He says, because He is the firstborn among many brethren. So it says that we should be like our brethren of Jesus, like Jesus. So we would become like Jesus. That is what God has predestined for us, that we would be like Jesus. So what's predestined? It says more over whom He predestined. These He also called. Whom He called, these He also justified. And when He justified, it says that these He also notified.  Those who make the choice and choose Jesus as a Lord and Savior, these are the people who become the called of God. So the question is that does God only call those He predestines or does He call everyone or is the invitation extended to everyone? So the question again is, does God only call those He predestines or does He call everyone or is the invitation extended to everyone and those who respond to the invitation are those who are called. Okay, to everyone, yes? Yeah, it's extended to everyone. It's extended to everyone. God only discriminates against anyone. He desires that everyone come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. So yes, it's extended to everyone. Yes, thank you. So it's God's good pleasing will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He calls everyone. Does that mean God knows ultimately who is going to be saved and make it to heaven? Yes, because He knows beforehand the choices that each one of us will make. Yes. Okay. So, you know, we need to answer this question. This is very important because one school of thought, you wanted to say something, Siddharth? Okay. So one school of thought says that God has already predestined things. He's predestined who are going to be saved and they are going to be the called. Now, if this is true, then there is no need for us to preach the gospel. Right? There's no need for us to busy ourselves and to give our lives to preaching the gospel because, you know, we already know, okay, these are the ones who are going to predestine. He's already predetermined. You know, they're going to be saved. So they will, they will just automatically be saved. Let them be saved. By the way, we have to spend our time and energy doing this. But that's not what the New Testament tells us. Okay. The New Testament tells us, Jesus tells, gives us a command, go into all the world and preach the gospel, preach, teach, and make disciples in, you know, to all. Okay. That was even the command that he gave, the great commission he gave even before he ascended to heaven, you know, preach the gospel to everyone. And also the invitation is open to all. We have to go and preach the gospel to every creation.  So Jesus died for everyone but whoever believes in him. So the invitation is basically open to all. Anyone can believe.  Okay. The called ones.  They're going to make. Okay. And those he calls, he also justifies. What's the meaning of justifies? He makes them righteous, right standing with God. They also saw what was the benefit of the right standing in grace, right standing with God. Okay. And those he justified, he also glorified. So what's the meaning of glorified? Okay. Just in the preceding verses we saw, you know, made his children. Made his children. Correct. Yes. How are we glorified? Which means we become hares with God and co-hares with Christ Jesus. Okay. So that is the glorious redemption that we can have. That's what Paul talks about, the glorious redemption, which means we become hares and joint hares with God and joint hares with Jesus Christ. Okay. So this is how he, you know, just beautifully just sums it up. So it's very important for us to know, because there are many theological arguments about predestination.  He can display his glory, which is not fair. But it's not God who hardened Pharaoh's heart. I mean, that's how it's written in scripture. But Pharaoh basically had a hard heart. God knew that. And God knew the choices he's going to make. And it's not that God is going to harden his heart, which means if you're saying God is going to harden his heart, that means God is going to cause him to sin. God cannot give us anything that he does not have. God does not have sin. He cannot cause us to sin. Right. He's totally going against the nature and the whole theology of who God is. So God did not, when we read it, we can literally say God, see God hardened Pharaoh's heart. It's written in scripture. It means that, you know, Pharaoh's heart was already, he was a hard hearted person. God just used him and, you know, his stubbornness, his hard heartedness. He was not letting go, but he just used it to reveal his glory. Now God does not need to use our sin to reveal his glory. Right. He's a holy God. He does not need to use our sin to reveal his glory or his power or his might. Okay. Irrespective of that, he does not need to use us or our sinful attitudes to show how righteous, how good, how holy he is. It's a long theology that we will be preaching. So it's important for us to know that, you know, wherever it says God caused them to do this and all of those things, you know, we also saw that in healing and deliverance, God put the sickness on this person, that person. It's not that God put the sickness. He can't give us sickness because basically he does not have sickness. But it's because of, you know, we saw the various reasons. In the same way, we interpret this likewise. Okay. So God does not pre-test in the choices that we make. We have the free will to choose. That is why Adam and Eve chose the wrong. But, you know, God already, did God knew that they're going to make the wrong choices? Yes. Did he have another plan? Yes. He was unfolding his other plan. He brought about his other plan. And he's still executing his plan. You know, even though we can go away from his plan and his will, but he can still unfold his plans in our life even today. Yes. Do you have your hand up? Yes, Pastor. Would it also be correct to say, in addition to what you said, is that God knows all the possible choices that we can make and where he's never caught on our ways of what we choose at the end of the day. Yes. Yes. He knows the different choices that are there before us. He knows what are the choices that can harm us, that can seem good to us, but can harm us. And that is why, you know, he's given us the Holy Spirit.  He will lead you. He will guide you into all truth. John chapter 16, John chapter 14, we read that. And we also see that, you know, he guides us in all truth. And the Holy Spirit will also reveal things to us and tell us, you know, things to come. And also will remind us what Jesus has taught us about. So it's the work of the Holy Spirit. And we know through, you know, the inner witness, the Holy Spirit, the inner voice, the Holy Spirit, the audible voice, the Holy Spirit. To the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can receive guidance and leading in every area of our lives, small and big, significant and insignificant as well. Okay. Louis says, Pastor, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, if God knows the choices to be made, knows the choices that we are going to make. Yes, but in respect of the choices that we are going to make or the invitation, the gospel is still going to be preached to everyone because he knows who are going to hear that gospel and who is going to make the choice. So God is not trying to justify his sovereignty. He does not need to justify anything about himself to anybody because he's God. He already stands justified, doesn't need to justify. So we need to correct these statements. It's not that God knows the choices to be made, but he knows the choices we are going to make. And because we are going to make those choices, he predestines us to be called, we confirm to his image of his son to be justified and to be told to fight. Okay. I hope I answered your question, Louis. Okay. Say you have your hand up. Yes. So Pastor, in other words, what you're basically saying is that God knows the choices we are capable of making all choices. So again, he's not caught on our ways, regardless of what choice we make. He already has a clan. He already knows what to do. He's never caught on our ways, but at the end of the day, he leaves us to make that choice. Yes. He knows the choices that we are going to make because he's given us the free will to choose to give the position to choose. Yes. Yes. Somebody else has their hand up. You can go ahead. Yes, Pastor. I just want to ask you a question now with regards to the predestination. We are praying for someone and are we able to, maybe through one of the gifts of the Spirit, get a sense that this person has already been predestined, that he will not be saved. And then do we still continue? I mean, can we make a change? Can we change that predestination that will affect this person? I just wanted to understand from that point of view. Yeah. But see, the thing is, we don't know whether that what choice that person is going to make.  And we have people like that, right? 15, 20 years, they're born in a Christian family, they don't, their parents are praying, crying out for them. And then one fine day, they just they just accept. So we don't know who are these people. God knows, but we don't know. But we can still go ahead and pray because that is what we are called to do. That's what Jesus says. And he says, I know who are going to make the choice. So I'm going to lead them and show you who to go. He would have said that in that mandate, in the Great Commission. He says, go into all the world, preach the gospel, preach, teach and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So he says, go, go to all the people, preach and teach. He doesn't say, I'm going to show you who is going to, you know, choose me, the XYZ, who's going to choose me to them. You go, but he says, this whole preach the gospel to everyone. But he knows, you know, ultimately he knows who's going to make the choice. Yes.  But, you know, there are things that are hindering. It can be the work of the devil. Like we saw, even our sufferings that we're going through, is because of we're living in a fallen world. Creation is falling and we're suffering because of that snow. It's, we just catch a viral fever or, you know, we, many people died with COVID because it was just in the air.  It can be also wicked people who come in, in the garb of being nice people. And we think they're nice people, but to turn out that, you know, they really fooled us. So, yeah, it's important that, you know, we pray for people so that the eyes are opened to see the truth that is in Jesus Christ. So, you know, we need to pray, we need to make intercession for people so that, you know, they can be saved. So that, you know, the blindness that covers their eyes is removed and they're able to see the light, see the truth in Jesus Christ. Yeah. So, they will be saved no matter what, because their predestined God knew that everybody is going to be predestined like this. Then he would say, you would never have told us to preach and teach the gospel. And we would never see the early apostles and believers going to such persecutions. And even Jesus would not have come down to the earth. He would have just come down, died on the cross and gone. He would have not preached about the kingdom of God. He would have not revealed the Father's heart of God to us. He would have not done science miracles and wonders. He would have not preached about the kingdom of God. See, why do we preach and teach to the people who know the truth? They will come to the truth. They will accept the truth. So, it's not for us to say, okay, God knows when also let him save them, save him by themselves. No, we are called to do it. We will do it. That's how God has planned it to be. Okay. I hope I answered your questions. Okay. If there are no more questions, we will move on. I just want to ask one other question. So, in our prayer, we should not really try to sort of get an understanding of whether the person is being predestined to be saved or not saved. I'm just thinking that if we were to ask that question, and maybe through the gift of the Holy Spirit, through the gift of knowledge or whatever, we get an indication of that. Or can we get an indication of that so that it makes us sort of... I don't think the Holy Spirit will indicate that about us. He will just... See, the gift of the Spirit is basically to edify the church, to strengthen, to exhort, to build up a person. It's not to put them down and discourage them. So, revealing this about the Holy Spirit is what the Holy Spirit would never do. He would reveal, even just say, this person's sinless injury will not even reveal the deep intimate sin of that person. It might reveal it to the person, but not to you. So, you don't stand as a judge, but you just say, okay, I just sense that the Holy Spirit is saying, there's some sin you can, you and God, you can confess it. But what do we see from Scripture? See, we always need to interpret Scripture in the light of other Scriptures. So, what does our Scripture tell us? Scripture tells us that it's God's good, pleasing and perfect will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It just says, all men be saved. So, we don't say, who are the ones show us, who are not the ones show us, God's perfect will all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We just go with that. We just speak into that. We just pray into that. And we just want to see that fulfilled. And all of them will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Does that help? Yes? Okay. So, we'll move on to verses 31 to 39. So, here in verses 31 to 39, Paul is putting together all that he has spoken in, you know, so far in the chapter so far, you know, because he's going to shift to an entirely different theme in chapter nine. So, this is kind of, these verses are kind of a grand conclusion of putting everything together, tying up everything to gather everything, bringing everything to a closure. And he, Paul wraps it up and he goes into this, you know, celebratory proclamation. He's saying, here is all that God has done and I'm celebrating everything that God has done. So, he's bringing everything to a perfect conclusion, all that he has spoken, because there's going to be an entirely shift in the theme that he's going to speak about in chapter nine. So, he's putting forth four rhetorical questions here, which he has done several times throughout in this episode, which is something unique in this Roman episode, where he's asking these rhetorical questions, where he asked the questions and he himself gives the answers. Okay. So, what are these questions? These questions can be questions that come up in the mind of people or the questions he would like to come up in the minds of people. And because he wants to summarize the main things that he has been writing so far or saying so far. So, verse 31, what then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us? So, he says, we know that we all go through sufferings and hardships, weaknesses in our flesh, you know, but we all go through this, but what is our response to all of this? So, he says, our response is if God is for us, who can be against us? So, this is the first assurance that he gives us, if God is for us, who can be against us? The second thing is, in verse 32, he says, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not with him also freely give us all things? That means, how will he not along with the son, you know, when he's given us his only son, how will he not along with him graciously give us all things? So, we have this assurance of God's presence that God, when God is for us, nothing can be against us, which is an assurance of God's presence. We also have here an assurance of God's provision. That means, when God did not hold back his only son, you know, how will he not along with him, you know, graciously give us all things? So, while they're going through sufferings in the present times, while we are waiting for the adoption of the glorious redemption or of the glorious liberty that is coming up again, the hope that we have, while we're going through all the sufferings of weakness and uplesh and tribulations and difficulties, we can say, God, you are for me. If you are for me, nothing can work against me. And, you know, that is God's presence and say, God, I have your provision. You know, when you gave your only son, how will you not along with him graciously give me all things? Amen. Okay. So, God will provide for me. God will also be with me. So, God's presence and God's provision is the assurance, the hope that we have when we go through sufferings, tribulations and difficulties. Okay. So, the next question he asked in verse 33 is, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. So, you know, Paul has already explained this whole truth about justification. And so, he sums it up with this. He says, look, God has justified you and me, and because he's justified us, no one can accuse us. No one can condemn us. There is no accusation against us. Okay. Just to finish the last two verses, if you could speak with me, you know, verse 34 and verse 35, he says, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore, is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. So, Paul has already explained to us that Christ was dead, buried, resurrected, ascended. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. And what is he doing there? He's making intercession for us. So, we live with the sense that we are justified. And the one who justified us and made us righteous is at the right hand of the Father. So, there's no way anyone can bring any condemnation or accusation against us. And even if they bring it against us, nothing will prevail. And then, he talks about the love of God. He says that the love of Christ, you know, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And Paul says, you know, in Romans chapter 5, verses 1 to 5, Paul has been saying that hope does not disappoint us, okay? Because the love of God is poured out in our hearts. So, this hope is consolidated. It is strengthened because God's love is poured out into our hearts. So, here, he's saying that I'm so assured of this love. That is why I have this hope. This hope is, the hope that I have about the future things that is going to take place is undergirded by the love of God that has been poured into my heart or is poured into our hearts. So, we are so confident of this love. And then he talks about all the troubles and tribulations in verse 36 to verse 39. He talks about the natural things, the spiritual things that happens, nakedness, famine, persecution.  He's talking about neither height nor depth, nothing in all creation, which is a natural things, again, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. So, he says, the love of God which is poured out into our hearts, we know that nothing can separate us from this love of God, nothing in the natural realm, nothing in the spiritual realm, okay? And he says, whatever we are going through is going, we are going to come out as more than conquerors. So, which means Paul is saying, we are not just going to be victorious, we are going to be more than victorious.  And nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. And he says, this is what gives us the hope. And hence, he brings us to this grand summary of chapters, all that he's written from chapters 5 to 8, which is, he basically celebrating, proclaiming all that God has done, everything that God has already done for us, and what is the hope that we have? The hope we have is his love, and I think it separates us from his love, and that we can be more than conquerors, more victorious, and that we can be more than conquerors to him who loved us, okay? So that is Amen. Yes, Amen to that. Thank you, Asha. I hope you enjoyed chapter 8. It's just such a wonderful piece of literature, of the revelation that Paul received that we could just chew on, but I hope it will just become a reality in our lives. Okay, any questions anyone has? Any questions? So have a good, if there's no questions, we'll, yeah. Yes, Louis. Yes, go ahead. Good morning, ma'am. Good morning, class. I just want to ask, I don't know whether it's a use of language, but Romans 8, 33, 34, 35, started with Wu, Wu, Wu. If you read 35, it says, Wusha separates us from the love of God, Nazism, tribulation, distress. I thought Wu was supposed to be a personal pronoun, if I'm correct, in English language. Who is he that condemns? Well, I should not say Wu. He uses it as a person, but the things he's quantifying are tribulation, distress, persecution, famine. I thought it was supposed to be what? It's all Wu. So is he just a semantics or just accurate? Yeah, thank you for the question. So because you're asking only 34 and 33 and 34, and the 35 also has the Wu, but it qualifies the Wu there, tribulations, distress, persecution that can come through people, angels, demonic beings, we're talking about the spirit realm. So that who is already explained to us or qualified for us here, but the Wu here can bring any charge against God's elect, can be the accuser himself who is Satan. Who is he that condemns? He condemns he's an accuser, so it can also refer to him, it can refer to the demonic beings that accuse us, or it can also bring, it can be people, the wicked people or people who do not know Christ, who accuses, or who condemn us, it can even be them, people of the world as well. So talking more about the natural and the spiritual realm. That can also mean no one, nothing. Yeah, no one, nothing. But just as a word I'm saying, so nothing and no one can come against whatever relationship God has given us with him in Christ Jesus. Yes, no one can stop that relationship, that intimacy, that blessings, our spiritual standing, who we are in Christ, where we are placed. Yes, no one can descend, it's something that we've received by grace, but here he's asking, who can it be people? It can be people in the natural realm, it can also be people in the spiritual realm, it can have Satan, demons who stand, charge against us, condemn us, accuse us. We can have even people, even sometimes even fellow believers who can condemn us for things that we have done, just to put us down, put our ministry down, talk in of us, so anyone can be. So who can bring charge against God? Yeah, like for Jesus it was the high priest, the Pharisees that teaches the law, you know, who stand and condemn, it was the people themselves. You can do for both the natural realm and spiritual realm. Did I help answer your question, Louis? Yes ma'am. Thank you. I'll take you up on them. Any more questions? Okay, if not, we'll end class. Thank you all for patiently staying through for an extra eight minutes. Have a blessed weekend and just live in the celebrate, you know, everything that God has proclaimed and, you know, purchased for us on the cross, lived that life in the fullness of the spirit. Okay. Thank you everyone. God bless you all. Bye.


This is town name, F-R-A-Z-E-E, F-R-A-Z-E, right? We're in Minnesota at a rest area, we're on our way to Brainerd. I just called the customer there, they're expecting me, I'm about an hour, hour and a half away. We're going to dump this lumber off with them there and figure out what we're doing from there. I don't have any plans yet, but it's a new day. Staples, is that the name of this town? El Passenger station, it's the train station, heard all about that from Yellowstone. I don't want to go there. We're making our way towards our delivery still, enjoying the sights, thankful that it's not snowing, knock on wood, don't want any snow to come again. Apparently it was snowing pretty good in Saskatchewan yesterday. We're on US Highway 10, on Minnesota Highway 210, eastbound. I really love this part of Minnesota, it's not too difficult, it's just a straight back out the door and around the corner into traffic. Done that before, many times. This isn't bad. It's nicer if you can just drive right out the other side, but can't have everything we want every time. See someone messing around out there, park up here just off to the side, send in my paperwork to the office, figure out what's next. I think they want to send me to Belle Plain, Minnesota. Not too sure, it's a noon loading appointment and I really don't like that. I'd like to get loaded sooner than that somewhere. So we'll see what it pays and all the other info on it, maybe it's worth it. We're just going to hang out here for a few minutes while we figure out what's next, what's going on. I got the message about this next load, I just, I really don't like that loading appointment. 12 noon. And we'll see if it's worth it or not, I'm going to give them a call, see what's going on. Okay, don't need this. So we're going to Belle Plain, Minnesota, which is southwest of Minneapolis, say Paul. We've got to go right around the city to get there, it's about a three hour drive, about a three hour drive from here. Loading appointment is for noon tomorrow. I'm going to show up early though, because I'd like to get going. Hopefully get me loaded, apparently I'm going to need a crane to get loaded and that's why the crane appointment is for noon. So at least we can get there early and get everything ready, so when the crane is there, you can just plop whatever it is on my trailer and we can go. I don't know what it is that we're going to be loading. I heard that it might be over dimension, it might be a little over height. I don't know for sure, I haven't gotten a lot of information on it yet, I'll be getting more in the next little while I here, but it might be a little high from what I hear, so we'll have to get some permits. If that's the case, I'm hoping it's going to be legal, but oh well, for those of you who are truckers or flatbedders, when you say a load is legal, it doesn't make the other load illegal unless if you don't have a permit for it. A legal load means you don't need any permits, it's not too wide, it's not too high, it's a legal load, but if there's a permit required, you don't call it an illegal load, you just call it a permit load or an oversize load. That might be what we're going to have to deal with tomorrow at noon and that load's taking us into Manitoba. So I'm definitely not going to be unloading that, it's in Southern Manitoba, a town called St. Maul, definitely not going to be unloading that tomorrow then, so that'll be a Wednesday morning delivery, so it's not my favorite circumstance to be in, I mean, I'd rather be loaded first thing tomorrow morning, firing off in whatever direction that load's going, but you know, some loads you like, some loads you, you don't know, you like them until you get there, so at least we're trucking, right? It'll be fine, at least we got freight, right? It could be worse, I could be going all the way back home empty, I got something on the trailer tomorrow. 265 kilometers, that should probably take about three hours, yeah. That's, what would that be? About 120, 200 miles, a little less, off we go. There's a truck stop in Bell Plain, it looks like, looks like a smaller truck stop with only room for maybe 10 trucks or so, so I want to make sure I get there as early as I can, and get a spot.  Why don't I just go here? Is there a truck coming there? Yeah, I've been waiting at this intersection longer than Mr. Ford here, so it's my turn. Maynard, Minnesota, just on the north side of town, Washington Street. Every town has a Washington Street in the US. He's got a big deal, Mr. Washington. Park here in Bell Plain, it's the Cinex fuel stop, and I know you probably can't see my truck, but in the back, in the dark, this is where we're going to call home tonight. The short day today, I don't get paid by the mile, I get paid percentage, so I'm not always counting miles. Today was a low mileage day, yesterday was a low mileage day, so I'm kind of thankful for that. I prefer to be paid percentage. I'd rather get percentage of the load than miles, especially with what I'm doing, it just makes a lot more sense. And tomorrow at noon, I have an appointment with the crane, like just down the road here, I don't know what they're going to put on my trailer, it's at a gravel pit, so I'm assuming it's going to be gravel pit related, maybe a gravel trailer. I wish I had a stepdeck. Whenever I start my week, I always grab a stepdeck if I can, but my buddy, Caden, went and grabbed this load for me last Friday so that I wouldn't have to grab it because I was sick, right, I couldn't go into work. So he went and grabbed it for me, I'm very thankful. Thanks, Caden, I know you're watching right now. I appreciate it, it was very nice just to run into work on Sunday and pick up a trailer that was already ready to go, so he did me a big favor there. I know he was told to do it, so it's not really a favor, but I'm just going to consider it a favor that he did just for me out of the kindness of his heart and not for a paycheck. But anyway, that freight is off my trailer now, I'm going to bring those tarps back to the yard when I get back there next. Probably tomorrow, there's a lot of new subscribers on our channel. In the past couple of months, we've gained probably close to 3000 new subscribers.  You want to know more about me? There's 11 years worth of videos in my playlists on my main page, you can go catch up. If you've got a lot of time, if not, hey, we'll be happy to see you here again tomorrow. And if you haven't already, subscribe. It does help me out a lot. Hit the like button. That does help me out a lot. And leave me down, leave me a comment down below. That does help a lot as well. The more comments I get, the more thumbs up I get, the more YouTube recommends my video to more people.  It's because of you that YouTube has been recommending my videos to even more people. It's because of you that we have all of these new family members here with us. Watching the videos every day. So let's keep the ball rolling. Let's keep the train going along and we'll see you tomorrow.


Hello, this is Pastor Vlad and if you are deciding to get water baptized, I'm here to answer a few basic questions. What is water baptism and why do I need to get water baptized? Water baptism is something that follows our decision to follow Jesus Christ. It's publicly confessing that we have decided to follow Jesus and water baptism is public declaration of an inward decision. It symbolizes when we go down into water, we identify with Jesus as though we're dying to our old life and when we come back from the water we identify with Jesus when he rose from the dead that we are beginning to walk in the newness of life. The scripture I want to read to you is when Jesus got baptized. Yes, Jesus got baptized too. In Matthew chapter 3 verse 16 it says when he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened and he saw a spirit of God descending like a dove and aligning on him. I want you to see in here that Jesus was baptized. Jesus was baptized when he was an adult about 30 years of age. So this answers a question that many people ask, you know, I was baptized as a child. Does that count? It's good that you get baptized as a child. It was your parents decision to dedicate you to God but that's not the kind of baptism that we are talking about here today. The kind of baptism we're talking about here today is the one that you make the decision to follow Jesus Christ. When you were a baby you were not in control of the decision. You didn't make the decision. Now that you have grown up, now that you mature, now that you have repented of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ you have to follow the pattern of Jesus and get baptized as an adult of you declaring your decision to follow Jesus. Another thing is that when you were baptized as a child you got sprinkled with water but in here we read that Jesus came out of water. He came up from the water meaning he was fully immersed. Word baptism in Greek means immersion and so you were really not immersed, well thank God you were not immersed because you were a little infant, you were died, but the kind of baptism that Jesus modeled to us is he went fully into water and he came out from the water and he is asking us to do the same. All the followers of Jesus Christ since his baptism were always following that requirement or that encouragement that Jesus said for us and so I would like you to join us in getting water baptized in our church. So a few little things to remember about water baptism is that we have them once a month in our church, we could record a short little video of you saying how you came to Christ and I know you're afraid of speaking in public and everything but we would love to hear how you came to church, how you came to Christ and that video will be 30 to 20 seconds long where you can share briefly how you came to Christ and how you came to our church and then on the day of baptism we'll give you a t-shirt that you will invite your family and friends and create a huge celebration and we'll baptize you, give you a beautiful certificate so that you can begin those steps of obedience and steps of walking with Christ and so if you're ready for baptism and you're ready to take the decision let us know we would love to take you to the next step in this way. God bless you and remember better is not good enough the best is yet to come.


So, this meeting is being recorded. My name is Angela Mills. I work for the Town of Amherst. We will upload this video to the Town of Amherst YouTube channel. And we are meeting by Zoom. At this time, I'd like to recognize co-chairs Julianne and Matt. And I will make one of you host and you can reassign as you see fit. And then as we discussed, if you don't meet for him, you can just talk about rescheduling and then shut it down. Sounds good. Sounds good. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Angela. I will read our script, which is pursuant to the chapter. 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so, for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts, we will post the video of this meeting on the Town website to provide a comprehensive recording of the proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. And I will do the audio check for those of us here. Matt. Hello. Let's move to Cody then Cody. Can you let me know that your bike's working? Yeah. Thanks, Cody. And I guess when Matt can get back, he will do the same. Well, if anyone is catching this on the, on the recording tonight is, is a great example of how challenging it can be to be able to make a quorum. The Amherst cultural council has nine council members possible. And we recently had one person resign and we are looking to fill that spot. But hey, people's lives are really busy. And Matt was doing the audio check. So, are you there and can you speak to us? I'm here. We're recording. There's only three of us here. We're recording. So I agreed with Angela that we would stay here for a certain amount of minutes, at least till 10 minutes in or so. And if this is all we have, we don't make quorum, then we will end the meeting noting that we did not make quorum. It was just speaking to anyone who would catch it on the replay saying explaining how we can have nine council members and we did have one member resigned having relocated outside of the area and that just if anyone's catching this on the replay, you know, consider applying to come and serve on various committees. I want to pause you for a second because there shouldn't this recording should not get posted. This is not a meeting yet. Well, we can resolve that with Angela at this point it is what it is. So, and we don't have a quorum. So, yeah, I think we should officially discuss anything. I don't think we should be recording. Is it, can we pause the recording? Yeah. I will pause the recording while we wait. Whatever. So, go ahead, Matt. Well, we didn't reach a quorum and we'll talk to Angela, but I, unless the unless the meeting actually opens, I don't think we should post the post. Yeah, I'll go on record is saying on the recording is saying please don't post this recording and then I think we should let her know that we never actually started the meeting. Yeah. Okay, so we've been here till 548 the meeting started at 530 and we did not make a quorum so we are ending the recording and ending the meeting. Thanks so much for being here, Cody. Good to see you, Matt. Thanks. Bye.


Well, I think we have someone next who is equally a visionary. Franklin Sylvain Shriver. The floor is yours. Thank you. I'm going to ask for the clicker. Yeah, sure. Thanks. And I had a presentation too. Thank you for being here. I'm Franklin Sylvain Shriver. I'm the co-founder and president of Transmutex. It's a Swiss-based company. It's a spin-off of CERN. And I'm here to discuss the important role of nuclear energy and then to give you a small idea of what we do. So where we are today is a fossil against renewable. Should be better said, carbon against carbon free. But the gap is enormous and it hasn't really changed. I looked at the statistics from 1979 to today and basically gas replaced coal. But renewables are almost nowhere to be seen except for hydroelectric power. I just want to state that today in Switzerland nuclear is producing more energy than hydroelectric in winter and nuclear is producing more electricity today than wind in Germany for all the talk about wind today in winter. Not every day. If we want to understand the power of scalability for nuclear, this is what you have. You have a beautiful experiment in France versus Germany. France in the 70s and 80s over a tenure period invested approximately the same amount as Germany did over the last 10 years in renewables. Same amount of money, same amount of time. And the end result is two times more carbon free energy for France that will last 60 to 80 years when you have to reinstall solar panels or wind turbines every 25 years. This is the power of nuclear and in the summer of last year, and I didn't do it this year because it would be very unfavorable to Germany. So this is a favorable number for Germany. This was on the summer solstice of last year where you had as much sun in France and Germany. You could see that for all the renewables that were installed in Germany for the last 10 years, you had six times more CO2 per kilowatt hour in Germany than in France. So what do we want? Energy security, of course, but also reducing CO2. It is very clear that for energy security, nuclear is more scalable. And for CO2 reduction, nuclear is more scalable. There is no contest. And just to make it very clear, we went from medieval times to industrial times with a 2x gain in energy density from wood to coal. Wood, coal, 2x, wind and solar are 10 times less energy dense, less energy dense than coal. Nuclear is 3 million times more energy dense than coal. So I would like to go back to Frank. Let's stop talking about 2050, which is whatever goal it is. What's important is the future of our civilization and nuclear is the last frontier. It's the California of energy. We have to make it work. This is what we have to make it work. Let's not be afraid. Let's be engaged. We want to have a future for generation upon generation, not just until 2050. One of the things that you may not understand is that the energy transition is about heat. It's not about electricity. Electricity is the least important part of the consumption of energy. Here in the United Arab Emirates, it's about air conditioning. And that's pretty good because electricity can make air conditioning. But still, even in the United Arab Emirates with all the sun, they have two nuclear plants, two nuclear reactors that were started. They have two more. And therefore, if the United Arab Emirates need nuclear, then we have to ask, what should Germany do because they don't have the sun that they have here? And you may notice that there is transport here 30%. And this is what I believe hydrogen is going to be so important. Hydrogen is probably the, to me, the most promising vector of energy that is going to be tradable. Electricity has a problem. It needs to be hardwired. You cannot trade electricity except for a very specific case of interconnected grid. For hydrogen is like, oh, you can transport it. You can transform it. You can do many things with it. And nuclear is the best for hydrogen to make low-cost hydrogen because nuclear works all the time. All the time. So if you buy a $10 million electrolyzer, you want it to work all the time. You don't want it to work just 20% or 30% of the time with wind. Okay. So nuclear is great. I convinced you in 10 minutes, not even five minutes. But of course, we have safety and waste. And we shouldn't put it under the carpet. This is the problem. We have to face the problem. The problem is waste to me. Major problem. Safety in the end, when you look at safety, nuclear has been spectacular accident, but very little death compared. The worst actually technology in terms of death per kilowatt hour is hydroelectricity. Unfortunately, because in Bangladesh, one dam broke and killed 200,000 people. So the default solution for waste is to bury it. And this is to scale. I'm not sure if you can see the humans. But you're trying to build tunnels that are five meters high in diameter, one kilometers down in the ground. This is a major engineering feat. And it's going to be finite. You're not going to make 30 of them. You're going to make one because it's really going to be incredibly expensive. In fact, it is incredibly expensive. And the UK this year doubled its estimate of the cost. It's going to be for them to bury the waste in England. And just for the numbers, England has 10 nuclear reactors. So it's going to be $60 billion to bury the waste. Lost money. Just to bury the waste. It's going to be there for 300,000 years.  In fact, nuclear waste is hopefully underfunded. You can see that Switzerland, which is probably the best case for funding, which with the money in the bank already, has five reactors. Whereas America has 93. It's actually 100, but some are closed. So you can see that America has 20 times the reactors than Switzerland, but only twice the amount of money. And it's not in the bank. It's just a line on the general budget. The nuclear industry in my mind is bankrupt already from the get-go, if we don't deal with the waste. The liability for the waste in America, it's going to be maybe $500 billion. In France, it's not going to be $30. It's probably going to be $90. The Cour des Comtes in France said they don't know. They have no idea how much it's going to cost. So if we don't deal with the waste, we will miss out on the opportunity of our civilization to harness the best clean energy we, the world, the universe, provides us. And the UN states that if we want to reach net zero by 2050, basically we have to have five times more nuclear, five times more nuclear. This is a 2018 report. So how are we going to do five times more nuclear if we don't know how to deal with the waste? And it's already too expensive. This is the question I had. This led me to meet some amazing scientists at CERN in Switzerland, which had a completely different approach, totally outside of the nuclear industry, completely different approach to how we should run a nuclear reactor, combining a particle accelerator, which you can see on the left, together with a reactor and thorium, which is a very common fuel. I'm not going to explain in detail, but the principle is that if you stop the accelerator, then the reactor stops in two milliseconds, two milliseconds. This is not a paper. This is actually demonstrated. And we can reduce the amount of nuclear waste by 99%. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm not saying it's totally solved, but it has been demonstrated, scientifically evaluated, credible. And we have the worldwide partnerships to do it, because if climate change is going to be solved, it's going to be solved together. Let's not do it as just one company. So we reach out. We reach out to everybody to come to collaborate with us. And we have some of the most prestigious laboratories in the world. And we are reaching out to more industries now to make this effort. So this is it. And I would like to leave you with this beautiful quote from the noble laureate, Gérard Moreau, in France, who never gives quote, but allowed me to state his marvelous thing, which is this is scientifically proven, credible, and led by an exceptional team. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much. Adjust a couple of quick questions, Franklin. In England at the moment, in Britain, there's a big dispute about whether wind farms should be onshore or kept offshore. But from what you're saying, basically wind turbines, it's a false promise. It's not going to work. Well, it's a useful technology, but it is really a transition technology in my mind. And you can see there is a study in Germany that the wind turbine offshore, are much more efficient than the wind turbine onshore. It's 30% compared to 10%. So it's really quite useless in my mind to build onshore. You should build offshore. Second question. This looks very attractive, this thorium reactor, I guess you call it. How, what's your time scale? And the same question I asked Frank. If we were at war, which in many ways I think we are, we would be five years. Right now it looks like 2032. Right. Okay. Well, fingers crossed, that's only 10 years away. And there's a war in the meantime, which is an actual war. So really our fingers crossed.


Welcome to Suncoast Spotlight, the regional talk show that tells you what's happening on the Suncoast in entertainment of all kinds, including movies, TV, and more. I'm your host, Jeannie Corcoran, director of the Sarasota County Film and Entertainment Office, and this program is created and produced by Suncoast Technical College, Sarasota County's Channel 19, and our Film Commission. We have a very special guest today on loan to us from Hollywood, Gotham, and New Jersey. Michael Hueslund, also known as the boy who loved Batman, and whose fanboy devotion led him to fulfill a promise and create an inspiring, successful, hilarious, delirious, extraordinary profession that was his dream come true. Michael has a pretty simple philosophy for college students that will make you laugh and make you think. He has yet to fully decide what he wants to be when he grows up, but we're in no hurry to see him do that. Stay with us to learn more about the remarkable Michael Hueslund coming right up. Welcome back. We're here today with Michael Hueslund, a creative producer, as well as an executive producer, and the originator of all the Batman film franchise pictures. Michael, one thing that really impresses me is how much you give of yourself to students. While you've been in Sarasota this visit, you've spoken to Ringling College, you've spoken to Suncoast Technical Institute students. How do you feel about students, and how do they relate to how you got your career off the ground? When I was a student, high school and college, and I had dreams of working in the field of comic books and movies and animation and television, nobody showed up at my school or at my doorstep to offer any kind of counseling or advice, not even a pep talk to say, no, this is doable, you can do this, there's a path. Nobody. So to me, the struggle career-wise of trying to bring a dark and serious Batman to the screen, which actually originally took over 10 years to do because I was turned down by every studio in Hollywood initially, that whole process, that whole human endurance contest for me becomes validated when I have an opportunity to speak to students and to go back and impart to them the journey I've been on because I didn't come from money, I had no relatives in Hollywood, I didn't know anyone in Hollywood, and it's important they know whatever their dream is, whatever their passion is, it is doable. And I think that when they hear my story directly from me, maybe they'll understand that it's not just a bunch of hokum and that maybe this is really true, maybe this really can happen. So I think it's really important. Well, I know that the students have so enjoyed it.  And for everyone's information, his new nickname is Mick Usland for rock star status in Sarasota. The other thing about your journey to get here, I know that you were the very first college professor of comic books. Tell us a little bit about that, and then I want to ask you how you promoted that to the media. Well, it's true, not only that, but actually more recently I became the first ever recipient of a doctorate in comic books from Mammoth University in New Jersey, which was really kind of cool for a geeky fanboy kind of guy like me. Yeah, I taught the world's first college accredited course on comic books at Indiana University in the 1970s. I then helped set up about another 100, 150 courses at colleges around the country. And that to me was important, that comic books begin to receive respectability, the fact that they are an indigenous American art form. As indigenous to this country as jazz. And that superheroes are accepted and acknowledged to be our contemporary folklore, our modern day mythology. Well, when the course was accepted, all I could hear was my mom's voice in my head saying, Michael, you could have the greatest creative ideas in the world, but if nobody knows about them, if you don't market yourself, if you don't market your work, you'll go unseen. And so I actually picked up a telephone and I called a major press syndicate and I got a reporter on the phone and I began to scream at the guy. I said, what is wrong with you? This is outrageous. He said, calm down. What are you talking about? So what am I talking about? I hear there's a course on comic books being taught at Indiana University. Are you telling me as a taxpayer in this state, they're using my money to teach our children comic books? I said, this has got to be some communist plot to subvert the youth of America and I slammed down the phone. And three days later, he found me. Not that he knew I made the call, but he tracked down who was teaching this crazy course.  And my telephone started to ring. I never taught one comic book class that wasn't filled with reporters and television cameras. And it went out all over and I was doing radio and TV talk shows and it kind of opened the door for me to make my way to the world of comic books, movies and Batman. It's a great story and it's a great lesson to students everywhere about self-promotion, marketing, advertising and promoting yourself. You got to have a hook, you got to have the drive and you have to have the guts to stand up and do that. Well, part of what you have to know is this business, if you're interested in a career, whether it's film, new media, animation, telecommunications, it's all encompassed under one term called show business. And if you break it down, that's half show and half business. So it's important you have some degree of business sense going out, not only to market yourself, which is critically important and market your work, but also to protect yourself. If you're going to be dealing with your own creative ideas and work, your own intellectual property, you have to know how to protect yourself.  So one of the ways to do that is through internships. And I think internships are a critical part of an education going forward for anybody interested in getting involved in the field. And our businesses and all of our community leaders need to know that. We're going to take a quick break and we will be right back to learn a whole lot more about how Michael Euslin finally managed to weave his way into the business side of show business. Welcome back to Sunco Spotlight. And our guest today is Michael Euslin, the executive producer and the originator of all the Batman film franchise movies with many, many other credits to his name. And Michael, I want to talk to you a little bit about the reality of the real world when you graduated from college and wanted to get a job. How did that work out for you? Challenging, challenging. My senior year at college, every Friday I went down to the library and took out the magazine Variety, which is the Bible for the movie and television industry. I had a yellow pad with me. And I would write down the name of any studio executive that I could possibly find. By the end of my senior year, I had a list of 372 executives in the movie industry. So when it came time to send out my resume, I sent it to actual people, not to human resources or to whom it may concern. 372 went out. I got two job offers. One, they said, why don't you move to New York City? You'll join our agent training program here at our Big Talent Agency. First two years, you'll be in the mailroom. We'll pay you $95 a week. The next two years, you can be a secretary. And then the next two years, who knows? You could be an agent. I intended to get married after college. And I didn't think my wife and I could live in New York City on $95 a week. From LA came an offer from a producer for Universal. And he said, I like your resume. I like the fact that you've written comic books. That's very creative. Move to LA, and I'll make you my production assistant. You'll go for coffee. You'll do a lot of Xeroxing. And I'll start you at $95 a week. So plan B, I went to law school. Back to college. It was just I couldn't figure out how to get my foot in the door creatively where I wanted to. So I thought, well, I don't want to be a lawyer. But maybe if I go this route, I can then get a job on the business and legal and financial side of the movie world, learn how you produce and finance movies, and then network like crazy when no one was looking, sneak in the back window onto the creative side. And actually plan B worked for me. And you recommend everyone has a plan B? You have to have a plan B and a plan C and a plan D because the twists and turns of life are varied and multiple. They just keep coming at you. So you really, really have to have a fallback position and some alternatives. To me, it's the only way you can maneuver to kind of get to where you want to go. I think I've told you this before, but when I was 17 or so, I had read in Sarasota that a family out on Long Book Key had a son-in-law who had gotten the rights to Batman and it was going to be a Batman movie. I was so excited. I think I tracked down their name and address and sent them a card congratulating you and how great it was going to be to see a Batman movie because I was a fan girl. Never heard anything back, of course. And years and years later, when you and I met in New York, maybe a year and a half, two years ago, and we got to talking and found out you knew Sarasota, I suddenly was shocked to realize, oh my gosh, I stalked him when I was 17 years old. This is terrible. But it has been a long, long journey for you. What did you do during the 10 years that it took the studios and everyone to come on board and understand that you and Tim Burton and others were going to make that Batman that way? What did you do in between in that 10-year window? Well, from the time we acquired the rights to Batman until the time it was made, it was 10 years. And it was 10 years of rejection and a lot of silence. And what do you do when everybody tells you go away and rejects what you're trying to do? You have to look deep inside yourself. You really do and say, is the whole world right and I'm just stubborn or do I really believe in this? And I really believed in it. And my belief was never shaken, not for an instant. So you do everything you can possibly do to keep going and to hang on by your fingertips. I wrote comic books. I did my first movie ever for Next to No Money. It was a movie called Swamp Thing. Oh, Swamp Thing. I think we've all heard it back. It was, yeah, America's favorite walking, talking, spinach souffle. And I did a mini series for PBS, American Playhouse, called Three Sovereigns for Sarah, where I used my history degree. And it is the 100% historically accurate story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Kim Hunter, Patrick Magoo and Phyllis Thakster was an all-star cast. And we shot on all the original locations, still extant since 1692. My office was the second floor of the House of Seven Gables for six months, which was amazing for me. And very proud of that work. Very, very proud of that work. So whatever we could do, we did. And I also created my first animated TV series, which was my son when he was little, loved dinosaurs, loved outer space, anything about those two subjects. And I thought, how can I create a cartoon show for him about dinosaurs in outer space? Dinosaurs. And I created a show called Dinosaurs. We wound up doing 65 half-hour episodes. And we had a five-year run, which was really, really great. Now, there's a great story, too. We're going to come back to you in just a moment about how you held on by your fingertips to get dinosaurs made and where the turning point came. Stay with us. Welcome back to Suncoast Spotlight, our special guest today, Michael Usland, the originator and executive producer of all the Batman films, among many, many other achievements. Michael, you've been telling us a lot about the background and the history and how you got to be where you were in college, and first college professor of comic books and so forth. And we talked a little bit about the 10-year period between getting the rights to Batman to make a really serious dark movie and actually getting the movie made. And if I remember right, Dinosaurs was sort of a turning point for you? Very much so. Very much so. This was to be my first animated series. And you got to understand during that 10 years of waiting for Batman to happen, there were times I did not know where my next dollar was going to come from. It just kept taking longer and longer and longer. And we got to a point, I had a son. I had a mortgage, and things were getting very tough and very intense. And I'm trying to hold on by my fingertips till Batman arrives on the scene to save me. And... Literally and figuratively. Yeah, really, truly. So I had started to develop this animated series. And I began working with a well-known animation studio in Hollywood. And I ran out of money. I just ran out of money. I didn't know where to turn. And the wisest man that I have ever met, my father-in-law, who was an eye surgeon in Cincinnati, co-founder of the Cincinnati Eye Institute, he flew out. And he sat me down. He said, Michael, you went to law school for a purpose. So you would have something to fall back on. You can't call yourself a failure. You really gave it your best shot. You have produced some things. But you got to give it up.  I said, I understand that. I said, it's just so, so frustrating. Because I know I'm close. And it's not just on Batman, but I've got this animated series. And he says, how long will it be? Do you believe? He said, and I want a really good, well-thought-out answer here, till you have not a promise, not a contract, but till you have in your hands a check for six figures. And I thought about it. I said, five months. He said, five months? I got five months. He said, all right, I'm gonna pay all your bills for the next five months. But 6 p.m., five months from today, if you don't have that check for six figures in your hand, then you give this up and you go back, you be a lawyer and you do what you need to do to support your family. So I thanked him profusely. And what an opportunity. And then set to work for about 20 hours a day, seven days a week for the next five months, doing everything I could to try to make something happen. Well, everybody in Hollywood, everybody working on dinosaurs, knew about this deadline that I was facing. So they kind of conspired. And by the time we got all the contracts signed and everything was a go for series, they waited an extra couple of days and arranged on the last day of the five months, a federal express truck pulled up sometime between noon and 3 p.m. And there were all the signed contracts and a check for six figures. I was able to pay back my father-in-law and that gave me enough leeway to get to Batman. So sometimes you just need a guardian angel. You've had a lot of superheroes in your life. Yeah, I really have. Teachers, father-in-law, it's great. Parents, yeah. Wife. Wife, absolutely.  I had the pleasure to meet Nancy, great lady.  It's been great. Everybody should know in the audience that I met my wife first day of my freshman year of college. Nancy was not even unpacked when we went out for the first time. So the two of us had to endure for four years. Everybody telling us you don't fall in love with the first person you set your eyes on in college. It just doesn't happen. And now we have been married 40 years, which I think may be a Hollywood record. I think so, how, what's the record out there, generally speaking, two, two and a half years? Two, two and a half months. Yeah, a month. That's great, great. Another question about writing your book. And we're gonna, we'll come back to this a little later, but when did you decide to start this book and how long did it take you from start to finish this? The Boy Who Loved Batman, the reason I wrote the book was based on the talks that I was giving around the country at colleges. And I realized that I had an opportunity to use my story to inspire young people and make them understand dreams are attainable. There's a way to do it if you actively get up off the couch and do it. So I knew I had to write the book. And I made the contract with Chronicle Books. The problem then became when am I going to find the time to write a book? And I always work best under pressure, so. I see that with the father-in-law deadline. Yeah, yeah, typically, you know, you put a deadline on me, an immediate deadline and I'm not too concerned. I know I'm gonna do it and it'll be okay. So it was getting to that time.  I have to get into a zone when I write creatively on anything I do.  In fact, my wife, Nancy, will often see me sitting at a desk going like this and she'll go, why aren't you working? And I say, I am working. Hold that thought just a moment. I'm getting a signal that we have to take a quick break, but I just love to leave the audience waiting and wanting more. So come right back. Welcome back. We're here with Michael Usland talking about challenges, Batman, fathers-in-law, success, animation, dinosaurs, and a whole lot more. Michael, finish your story. Well, for me, it's more of a creative point. It's a writing, creative writing point.  And if you ask me, how do you define what you do as a creative writer? It's 80% is this and 20% is this. And that's really the difference. So I couldn't be distracted. I couldn't do emails. I couldn't do text messages. I had to be concentrating and get in the zone every day on this book. So I came to Sarasota and I sequestered myself away in Sarasota for three months. And there was no radio. There was no TV. It was just me, my laptop, some of my notes, and soundtracks of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s that I could play to get my head back into five-year-old Michael's brain, 10-year-old Michael's brain, 20-year-old Michael's brain. And that worked really, really well. I worked seven days a week and I wrote for 18 hours a day. My goal became to write 5,000 words a day. And if I did, I gave myself a bonus. And I would show up at Bob Evans for a breakfast or I would go to a restaurant out in St. Armands or downtown. And that was my reward incentive. There were some brilliant days that I actually went out to Lido Beach. There's a little wooden bench at Lido Beach and I would take my laptop and I would work there. And I liked whenever possible to watch the sun sets on Lido Beach. There's nothing like, you know, not to do a Sarasota County commercial here, but there's nothing like that sunset into that pristine Gulf of Mexico blue water on that white sugar sand beach and watching that sink on the horizon. And if you're trying to write creatively, it's inspirational, it's great. Can I ask you a quick question about, talking about listening to music and so forth from the 50s and 60s and so forth to inspire you. What is your take on doing movies, doing television content, period, as opposed to updating it to current day? Do you think anything is lost when they do that? Cause there are some other things on the horizon coming up that I think are gonna be brought into current day rather than being done in the period they were written for. You know, there's an old, old Hollywood saying that period pieces don't sell. And I've heard production executives in their late 20s tell me that. And I said, what's the facts on that? Or are you just regurgitating something you've heard in the hallways here? And they said, well, everybody knows it's true. I said, really, what about Titanic? And they'll go, well, that was history, that's different. I said, okay, what about the Indiana Jones movies? They'll go, well, that's different. I go, how is that different? And they go, well, I guess it's really not different. And that same guy who told me that a year later, I picked up the phone one summer and I said, what about Captain America? And then I hung up the phone. We know how that turned out. That turned out really, really well. You know what, Jeannie, it's, is it intrinsic to the story? Is it intrinsic to the characters? Batman does not have to be a period piece even though he was created in 1939. It could very well easily be contemporary. Another character, maybe the shadow that was really, truly rooted in the 30s and 40s should be based there. So I think you have to go case by case and you have to get the chains of the old rules off your back and make responsible current decisions based on the stories. And that's one of the sometimes failings of Hollywood. Your screenplay is your blueprint. And if you don't have a good blueprint, then everything's gonna collapse and it has to be what works for the story and what works for the characters. So I think if we use that to govern rather than some old marketing concept, then everything will be just fine. That's great. You know, I wanna kind of close out today's session with something that I heard you say one time about how you chose the end of your book. I think it was a great story and could you share that? I can. I didn't know how to end the book. I mean, I still have career. I'm still doing all of these things. How am I gonna end my memoir? And then it took care of itself. I got a call from West Point, from a colonel in West Point. He said, every year we have a Cadets Choice Award. This year they have elected Batman, the Dark Knight as the character who best exemplifies the code of honor of West Point. Would you consider coming up here and accepting this award and speaking to the Cadets during their lunch hour? I said I would be thrilled, I would be honored. So Nancy and I went up to West Point, which was incredible. And they take us into the eating hall, which looked like I was on the set of Harry Potter. The Vikings could have built this place. It was stone walls coming to a V with a stone balcony in the center, vaulted ceilings with the flags. And they said, all right, we're gonna give you your award up there on the stone balcony. And on the V, there were 4,500 Cadets standing at attention at their tables. I said, how long would you like me to speak? I normally speak for about 30, 40 minutes. And they go, oh no, you've got to speak for less than five minutes. I go, what? He said, our lunch hour is only 15 minutes long. I said, what am I gonna tell them in less than five minutes? He said, well, that's your problem. So I said, okay. So we were up there, accept the award and they hand me the microphone. And I said, Cadets of West Point, when Bruce Wayne was a boy, he saw his parents murdered before his eyes on a concrete altar of blood. And at that moment, he sacrificed his childhood in the belief that one person can make a difference in the world. And he vowed that he would spend the rest of his life to get the guy who did this, to get all the bad guys, even if it meant having to walk through hell for the rest of his life in order to do it. And I said, in doing this, he became a warrior and he became an urban legend. I said, Cadets of West Point, you are Batman. And with that, they started to whoop and holler and throw their hats and stand on their chairs. And this went on for minutes. And it was pretty amazing. I still get the chills talking about it. A week later, I get a letter in the mail. It was, dear Mr. Yuslin, you don't know me. I'm the mother of one of the Cadets at West Point that you spoke to. She said, next month, our kids are all going to Afghanistan and Iraq. This is serious business for our families. You have not only boosted their morale, but you have given them a clarion call. As they walk around campus now, they're bouncing off each other's chest, high-fiving each other, going, I am Batman. You are Batman. And she said, in the years to come, whatever farm battlefield they find themselves on, this will be their call together. And she said, I can't thank you enough for that. And that, to me, said, well, I have the ending for my book. That's great. And I can't thank you enough for being here today. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing with students. Thank you for all the great work you've done creating an imaginative superhero landscape, as well as all your other many achievements. We really appreciate you, Mike. My pleasure, Jeannie. Thank you so much. Thank you. And stay with us another episode, another day. Come back and see Suncoast Spotlight.