Welcome back everyone, we look at Isaiah 58. So far we have seen that God wants our fasting to be a one that pleases Him. So in the same passage, Isaiah 58 verse 5, look at verse 5 there. It says, is it a fast that I have chosen? So think about that. We can do a fast. We can do all kinds of fasts. We've just looked at the list of categories. But doing the fast is one thing and when you are fasting for an audience and in this case it's God, God has to select it or in other words, choose it or bless it or be pleased by it. That is more important. So that's why I'm saying how many days we are fasting, what we are thinking most about those things at all. In fact, those are things to be very humble about because the ultimate judge of whether the fast is a good fast, effective fast or not is God. Only He knows. He knows the matters of the heart. And see this. It says, is it not the fast which I have chosen? So never forget that. God wants to choose or be pleased or see that our fast is acceptable. Acceptable is another word for that chosen. We must fast. It must be part of our spiritual discipline because it has a lot of benefits, but it must be an acceptable fast unto the Lord. And that is what we see in this passage. You know, God is saying many things. See, you have done this and that and you have all these standards. Then how can I be pleased with the fasting that you are offering? So we will look at a little bit more about the right motives or why? You know, always answering the question why is very important before we do something. Why am I doing this? It will help us, you know, get a grip of everything in perspective, manage our time, our resources, everything well and also make changes. Okay, if I'm not able to answer that question why with a good answer, maybe that's not what I should do. I should be doing something else. So the why is very important. What is my motivation for fasting? So you see, there are many things which I mentioned in this passage itself.  I'm looking at it from the beginning, from verse one.  Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob, their sins. So God is giving a response to the fasting which people are offering. So verse two, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. So it simply says that here are these, you know, these Israelites. What they're doing is or, you know, God's people, what they're doing is that keeping all the rituals. Okay, and they are going by the book, so to speak, and they want God to respond. They want to respond and grant favor to them. So God is saying, look, these people are saying, have we not done this? Have we not done that? And, you know, they are asking for my response. So verse three, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen. Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? So look at the attitude or the motivation. What is the motivation? We want to, you know, we just need God's attention. Did you get it? So their goal is, we'll do all these things more like a show and say, look, God, we did it. We did this, we did that, we did so many things. We did all the rituals, we kept all the traditions.  You're not giving us your attention. You're not giving us the answer. What is this God? So that kind of an attitude where our goal is just God's attention. And we have done all these things. Yeah, God, I am fasting. I'm a good believer. You know, pre-week I fast, but what is the motivation? You see, the people had a very irreverent kind of an approach towards God. Not to say that God, it's my worship to you. It's more like, you know, I'm doing it, I've done it. Now you better do what you need to do. So to get God's attention and that's not right. That's what God is pointing out and he's saying, look, I'm letting you know that this is not correct. Okay, then let's move on verse 4. Indeed, you fast, okay, we'll back up a little verse 3. In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your neighbors. So notice, God is pointing out many other things. He says that, you know, one is finding pleasure during the fast. So the way we understand this is, you know, the Jews who used to fast, they had this whole regimen that, okay, today I can't work. You know, you should do all the work. Today is my fasting day. Everyone will know that it's a fasting day. They will dress a certain way, they'll behave a certain way. So they will, who knows, maybe take a lot of rest on the fasting day because today I'm fasting, you know, they behave differently. So that's what God is pointing to and he's saying, the focus is not me. Even when you're fasting, the focus is not me. The focus is you because you find pleasure when you fast. That's what God is pointing to. And today for us, it may apply in many other ways. Yes, we may claim that we are fasting, but maybe there are things on that, you know, day of fasting that we do or the way we behave, but it's all about us. It's not really about God. Okay, like, no, I have to eat only this kind of food and it's such a big thing at home that, oh, you're fasting. Okay, you know, so others have to ensure that your fast is not broken. So we can do it in so many different ways, but we have to bear in mind, God is the audience. Pleasing him with an acceptable fast is more important. And God is pointing to the people and he's telling, look, look at your attitude. You want my attention. That's why you're doing it. And then he points to them and he says, even on the day of fast, you find pleasure. Then he says, and exploit all your labourers. So as I said, these people might have been rich and they had workers and on the day of the fast, they may have done something like, oh, today is my fast. So my share of the work I can't do, I'll distribute it to all of you. So if everybody was doing X, now they have to do two X. So it's like exploiting the workers. Okay, the people who serve us, that did not please God about these people. He knew their attitude and their heart and said, no, you are exploiting people and he called this a fast and then he goes on. It's pretty intense. Okay, the rebuke verse four. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. So it just shows an attitude of pride and that resulting in behaviors like quarrel and arguments and it also shows just dishonoring people and having a wicked heart and to strike with the fist of wickedness, God says. So basically it's showing how people treat their relationships. We can fast, but if we are not relating rightly with people, there's strife, there's a fist of wickedness. So many things that we are doing, the way we are misbehaving. With all that, if you want God to accept our fast, he's saying, I'm sorry. I'm seeing the whole picture here and it's not acceptable to me. Okay, let's go on. It says, you will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Verse five, is it a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? A afflict his soul is when one humbles themselves and one puts themselves through difficulty. When we don't eat food, it's like that, isn't it? It's not easy. It's never easy to fast. Anybody who says fasting is easy, I don't know which planet they are from. Okay, because it's never easy. It's like you're afflicting your soul, but you see that's not the only thing. Where God is saying here, what were the people doing? They were afflicting their souls to get God's attention and the people are saying God, we have done it and you're not taking notice. Okay, so these kind of attitudes where there's no proper, there's no right motivation towards God in the first place. Second, there's no right motivation towards the people. Relationships are bad because when there are workers, they are being exploited even on the day of the fast. When there are people in our lives that is strife, debate, fist of wickedness. So what God is saying is we need to set all these areas right. My relationship towards God. Second, my relationship towards people, my relationship towards those who work with me, for me. If I treat them badly, automatically my fast is not going to be acceptable to the Lord. You see, so many things are there in this passage. Let's go on. So verse 5, he asks, is it a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul?  Would you call this a fast? So he's talking about all the expressions of the fast where people used to put on sackcloth in those days. They used to show that very sad mountainous. Even Jesus talked about it. He said, when you fast, don't do like this. Let it be between God and you. And notice Jesus said, when you fast, not if you fast. So that also shows us that every child of God, every believer, it's important for us to have this discipline of fasting in our life. In our spiritual work within us. So when you fast, you fast the right way. So right attitude towards God, right attitude towards our workers, right attitude towards the people who we relate with. And pretence, we should stay away from that. This is saying, pretence, show, you know, trying to be noticed by others. That's not the correct way of fasting. And then it says verse 6. Okay, so now God is saying, this is the way it should be. This is the way it should be. Is this not the fast that I have chosen? So now God is saying how your attitude or my attitude should be when we fast. Is it is not the fast that I have chosen now to lose the bonds of wickedness. So what is God saying? He's saying you need to live righteously and you need to rule righteously. Now let's say, you know, we are in charge. We are the boss, we are the master. In those days they had terms like master or not. But today we may be a team leader or maybe we don't have a name, but we're still leading people. How do we do it? Don't do it with wickedness. Do it right. Live righteously, rule righteously is what God is saying. That should be the life and attitude of a person. So lose the bonds of wickedness. And if we see anything wrong, you know, we deal with it to ensure that righteousness is established. Then he says to undo the heavy burdens. Remember we said these people, they were exploiting their workers, giving them extra work. But what does God say? Actually, you should undo their heavy burdens. If you're treating the workers badly, you make sure you treat them correct. Remove the burden. Don't exploit them on the day of your fast. So it shows compassion. Isn't it? If somebody who has the authority is undoing heavy burdens or they are not putting too much of work or sort of requirements on their workers, it just shows that that individual is compassionate towards the people who work for him. That's what God is saying. I'm looking for compassion. Even with the people who work for you, then to let the oppressed go free. So wherever we have the authority, we must release freedom for people.  So oppression in our day and time, it may mean many things. In our own setups, if people are working for us and we make it easy for them. If they are indebted to us, we let go of them. We don't hold on and make things difficult for people. So if they are oppressed, you let them go free. And that again has to do with compassion. It has to do with justice. This has to do more with justice. Having a heart for justice. Then what else does God say? He says that you break every yoke. Simply it means that we are working for justice. We are working for freedom of people. We don't bring people under bondage or slavery. Today we may see many such situations around us. But does it move our hearts? Maybe we are not able to go and do something about it. But do we even pray about those matters? Do those matters disturb us? If they don't disturb us, something is wrong. So having a heart of compassion, God is looking for that. Demonstrating justice, God is looking for that in our own personal lives. And extending it to circumstances and situations outside our own circle. Then let's move on. So these are the right attitudes for a chosen fast. Verse 7, is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out. See again, God is saying, isn't there a contrast? Earlier they were exploiting people. But God is saying, I am expecting kindness. I am expecting mercy. So we don't have all that. And we are saying, God, we fasted. We kept it. We did the tradition ritual. You didn't notice. God is saying, I'm sorry. It's not about your act of fasting. It's more than that. It's the motivation of the heart. And so he's saying, I'm expecting righteousness, compassion, justice. In this case, what? Mercy, right? Mercy is expecting and basically a giving heart. Share your bread with the hungry. You could say compassion, kindness also over here. Somebody who doesn't have, we can give to them.  Or having a heart of compassion to an extent where those who others have given up on, we are willing to take them, bless them. So kindness, even to that extent, you carry in your heart. So when we have that attitude, then our motivation is right too fast. Okay. What are the requirements? The same. Yeah.  So again, when you see the naked compassion, kindness, justice, and you don't hide yourself from your own flesh is more of duty and responsibility. So just because, oh, I'm fasting, forget it. I'm not going to take care of my responsibilities. I've devoted my life to the Lord. You deal with your own problems. No. What does it say? It says, no, there are responsibilities. We have maybe our family members, our parents, our siblings. What is my duty? I have to do it. God is noticing everything. Right. So, and I'm not saying this is more applicable. You know, like our immediate family, obviously, there'll be so many people. We can't be answerable for all. But the people God has put in our lives and who we are responsible for when they are in need. We need to show our love and respect by doing the needful. And that's also important. So when we have all this in place, the right motivation, that is when we saw the wrong motivation, getting God's attention, exploiting people, not having the right relationship with others, fighting, quarrelling, everything is going on, but still we are fasting with bad attitudes. God is saying, I'm sorry. You know, and showing off that I've afflicted my soul. God, you've not taken notice. That's all wrong. What is it right? Righteousness, justice, compassion, mercy, kindness, responsibility. All this is so crucial when we fast and pray. Now, verse 13, just jump to verse 13. Okay. Then we come back to the blessings which are in between over here. So we continue to look at the chosen fast and the requirements that God has up before us. Okay. Yes. So it says verse 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. So basically, you know, this is not telling us that again, you know, we don't want to get into an argument about Sunday or Saturday. It's not that kind of a rigid legalistic way of speaking. Basically what God is saying is, see, there's a day devoted to the Lord, Sabbath, the Sabbath, but we honour God. You know, when we believe in the Sabbath, it simply says that one is we choose to worship God. Second is, God is all able.  My blessing is coming from you, not only my hard work. Of course, hard work is there. I mean, don't work hard, but Sabbath is a concept where we are saying what is due to God, you know, worship. And we all set a day of the week aside to worship the Lord, to remember the Lord, to honour the Lord, okay, dedicated to the Lord. In that, our heart is seen which shows complete trust. Lord, I worship you and I trust you. I know, though I have given you my time, you are going to bless. You will multiply. Whatever I'm working with, you will multiply it, Lord. You will cause it to prosper. So it's faith when you practice the Sabbath, you honour the Sabbath. So you're taking time for worship. You're taking time to honour and magnify the Lord. One more thing that is said over here is, we are more mindful of what pleases God. You know, sometimes it says you do your own pleasure, even on the Sabbath. See, we can have our own agenda, even for godly things or godly disciplines. But it's a heart which is truly seeking God, which says, God, what do you want? What is going to make you happy? You know, which is the song which makes you happy? Sometimes we sing songs which we like. But is that the song that is going to bless the heart of God? Now, I'm just giving a simple example. So we think like that. We think like that. Okay, God, it's about you. It's your ways. So that attitude is what is required when you want to offer God a chosen fast. Okay, so honour the Lord. And shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words. So you're seeking the pleasure of God. Verse 14. Okay, that is a blessing. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob and your Father the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So we have seen how we should not be, how we should be and we can do this kind of fast for ourselves or we can do it for others, right? Or we can do it like as a community also. Let's say a city, we talked about it. City transformation, prayer for the city. All groups of people can also fast. So either we can do it for ourselves or we can do it for others. And there are many examples in the Bible of fasting. I'll try and share some of them with us. Okay, so we see that fasting is about humbling, waiting, seeking the Lord, seeking God's help, His deliverance, protection or even sometimes we want to hear from God, right? We need a word. God, speak to me. Tell me what should I do with my life? In that time, it's good to actually fast and seek the Lord. We could pray for mercy and say, Lord, something that's going on. We need your mercy. We petition God. God, let not the consequence for the wrongdoing come upon these people but we pray that you will deliver them, forgive them. Then we can fast when we also permission people. So if you recall in Acts, in the Book of Acts, these elders of the church in Acts 13, they were fasting, they were ministering to the Lord. At that time, God told them, set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the ministry for which I have called them. So even when we choose leaders, we call it commissioning. We choose them and we send them out to do the ministry work. It is a practice which we see in the Bible where people fasted before they did that. So we can do things like that. Or as part of ministry, Paul, he says, many fastings. So how did Paul live? It was part of his lifestyle. He did a lot of ministry, that much we know. But in his ministry, we are sure he would have done a lot of fasting also. So when we are going to minister, it's a good thing sometimes to take time out and just fast to develop that faith to see a flow of the anointing and all that. So fasting actually helps. So for all these reasons, we can fast. We have seen people in scripture fast for various things. Ezra, he fasted for direction from God. Ezra and the people, they fasted for repentance. Esther and her people, they fasted when they faced a challenging situation. So that's what they did and they got deliverance. Daniel fasted to seek God for the deliverance of his people but also for the fulfillment of a prophetic word.  I want to see this fulfillment. We can fast and pray. That will also be something. Because we see in the Bible, people did things like this. Daniel, he fasted for understanding and revelation. He couldn't understand. He saw visions. He couldn't understand anything. So he used to fast. When he would fast, the revelation will come. The understanding will come. So we can follow their footsteps. Jesus fasted before he began his public ministry. Remember, 40 days he fasted, then he started going and ministering to the people. So even we can do that. We can fast before we go and do our ministry. We can fast to commission leaders. I already said that. We can fast. So those are all the reasons. Now, when we fast for all these reasons and in the right motives, what are the blessings that we can expect? So we are going to look at that. There are 18 statements of promise in Isaiah 58 itself when we fast the right way. So if we are looking for blessings, fasting the right way can release at least 18 blessings on our lives. So I already told us that fasting is quite hard. It's a discipline, right? But what makes it delightful? What makes fasting delightful? What makes fasting a good practice? How do you convince yourself that, no, I have to fast? It's hard. It's very hard. But how do you convince yourself? Okay, if you know that it's God ordained, then yes. So if we know that it's God ordained and if we know the outcome, then we will fast. That makes sense. How do the others do it? There's a comment here. We are in the presence of the Lord. So when you know that when I'm fasting, I'm in God's presence, you're happy about that. No problem. I can bear it because I'm in God's presence. What else gives you the motivation to fast? So can we say you're a hunger or desire for more of God? So that is also motivation. So if I do this, I'll go closer to God as God's word says, draw near to me. I will draw near to you. Okay, great. So I'm going to get more of God. So that's nice. What else is a motivation? We need a lot of motivation. Come on. Fasting, huh? Yeah, please is God. The chosen fast please is God. Correct, correct, correct. Give us spiritual strength. So that's a good reason why we would want to fast. What else? How do you convince yourself? What are your words in your head? Phrasing God prioritizing God. Okay, okay, that's fine. Okay, more sensitive. I'll become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Okay, that's true. Yeah. Okay, nice. So yeah, okay. He's worth our time and our effort and all that. Sure. Sorry for the interruption. Just give me a moment. I think I have to plug in the laptop batteries. Thank you, everyone. So all these reasons we have to actually pursue the fast because though it is difficult it is worth it. It's like think about a mountain here who wants to climb Mount Everest. If you ask him, is it difficult? Obviously it's difficult. We can give him a thousand reasons why you will face this. You will face that. You will struggle. You will have pain. You will not meet your family for so many days. It's going to be cold. It's like I know everything and I'm going to reach the summit. If I reach the summit that's worth everything that I have done. So fasting is somewhat like that for the body. You know, it's almost like your flesh is crying out. Don't do this to me. But you're like no, I have a better reason why I have to do this to you. Okay. And self-control, right? Self-control. Remember Paul says that crucify the flesh. See, you can't tame the flesh with counseling. Okay, today you'll be good. Don't do this. Don't do this.  You got to crucify it. And fasting is a wonderful way for crucifying the desires of the flesh. Obviously the flesh feels like I'm dying. Right? But that's the point.  And when I say flesh, I don't mean the body. Got it? So we don't want to harm the body. Notice this for a period of time wisely we will not eat food and all but the intention is to crucify the flesh. Okay. Which is the sinful desires of the soul of the body. Okay, good. So we understood that though fasting is so challenging, we have very good reasons. There are benefits. There's another comment which Nina is sharing here. She says, the benefits that we are looking at to lose chains of injustice to break every yoke, whether it is regarding the unsaved or sometimes sickness or regarding your nation. This is also partnering with God to bring about his purposes. Very true Nina. So in this way, God is giving us an opportunity to experience blessings, fulfill his purposes, co-work with God, fulfill his purposes. Right? So it's when you see the value of acceptable fast, it's way greater than the discomfort that we may face. Okay, so we step in and we pursue the fast. And not just that. I said, yes Anand. Okay, so what Anand is saying is, when one is willfully sinning repeatedly. Okay, so should they fast to seek forgiveness? I would say, will it please God? See, in fact, God has made it like he has provided for us to receive forgiveness by confession itself. Okay, like 1 John chapter 1 verses 7 through 9. If you just confess your sin, if you're sincerely repentant, you can receive forgiveness. But sometimes what happens is maybe there is an addiction or where my flesh is weak. I want to do the right thing, but I'm not able to. You got it? Where my will is weak in such a situation fasting is very helpful because one of the outcomes of fasting is I've been telling our self control are the will of the spirit becomes stronger when we fast and we can tell the flesh no. You can overcome your addictions if you fast. So in that situation, what you're saying is correct. We can fast. We can show express our repentance, but at the same time receive the strength to overcome that habit or whatever it is. Yeah, sure. So all these good things about fasting and the fasting we are talking about is spiritual fasting. Okay. And I also mentioned to us if you see in the world but today there are so many researches about only fasting not spiritual fasting like, you know, you call it dieting or starving or whatever, but there are many benefits in general then people fast and no wonder God knows that. Right. He knows it. He knows how we built our body. So he knows that this is something you all can do. Okay. It's not going to really destroy or affect you in a negative way if you calculate and do it in a wise manner. So there are many benefits natural benefits as well as spiritual benefits. So what are the blessings as per Isaiah 58? We will look at them. So we saw from verse 8 to verse 14 at least 18 blessings have been recorded for us. So we will look at each one is verse 8 your light shall break forth like the morning light break forth like the morning. So we can look at it in a way that in our life if we are experiencing darkness and you know this is symbolism light and darkness. Light is God's work God's deliverance God's power. Right. His intervention in our lives we can experience God's intervention in our lives when we fast and it's a light will break forth like the morning bright after the darkness comes the night so the darkness in our lives will be dispelled this is a mighty blessing that you think wow God will intervene in my life situation when I fast so we can actually take this hold on to this whenever we we can say Lord you said in your word light will break forth so I am cleaning it light will break forth in my darkness you fast on the basis of that then we can look at we could also say look at this as darkness will flee when you put the light what happens let's imagine it's dark and we put the light what will happen will the light ask for permission excuse me can I come darkness can you please go no right it's pitch dark you just put the light on the light it's like unapologetic I've come so you have to go so immediately darkness is gone it has to retreat same way in our lives maybe there are things which are of you know like demonic strongholds afflictions so many things that the one is doing we can compare that to darkness what happens when we fast God's light will shine only thing the darkness has to do is run away so we can expect it fast lot thank you the light will shine thank you that the darkness will flee so it gives us so much of confidence to actually fast with faith the light represents many other things light represents understanding illumination revelation clarity that also we can expect God light will bring forth means I'll have better understanding you know about godly things in my life so that is a blessing God has given first aid itself it says your healing shall spring forth speedily so when we are looking for healing from God it can be physical healing it can be emotional healing it comes quickly I'm not saying it God said so we can say Lord come fasting and I believe that healing is going to come quickly you said in your word that you would bless with quickness you know of healing when we fast so you know we can pray that so wounds shall speedily be healed over and the scar of thy wounds shall be speedily removed according to you know Adam Clarke's commentary on the bible let's also look at verse 8 saying your righteousness shall go before you the righteousness shall go before you so this means that you know righteousness when we walk in righteousness what will it do it'll make a way for us you remember Joseph Joseph in Egypt he could have done whatever he liked but he was a righteous man he did the right thing when nobody was looking what happened to him he was exalted okay so that's what this means your righteousness will make a way for you if you're living rightly sooner or later you will see blessings in your life okay so that'll happen you can confidently walk in righteousness and righteousness is also a protection for us in the armor Ephesians 6 the armor we talk about that spiritual armor it says breastplate of righteousness breastplate of righteousness it covers the chest when we have a breastplate and if the enemy shoots an arrow what'll happen will it pierce me will it pierce my heart no because I have a breastplate so in other words when we do the right thing or righteousness walking rightly before God protects us you don't have to be afraid if you're doing the right thing why should we be afraid breastplate of righteousness so God is saying your righteousness will make a way for you righteousness will protect you I will make sure these things happen to you so that is another blessing we saw we may go slightly over time is that okay maybe 5-6 minutes but I'll try to finish okay so next thing is verse 9 then you shall call and the Lord will answer you shall cry and he will say here I am so God is saying do you want an answer do you want a quick answer fast because I will respond to you answers to prayer come when we fast okay so see so many promises are there so when we fast no we should think of all these promises it'll help us fast better verse 10 then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noon day this is very similar to what we already see light and darkness so our light shall shine another way in which you can look at light is that we will also be a witness a representative of God you can look at it that way as well now verse 11 what a beautiful promise it says the Lord will guide you continually now so when we present a chosen fast God God is saying at all times I will be guiding you that's the best counsel that we can get from God God tells us in our life where should I go what ministry should I do where should I invest what decision should I make God will guide he will tell us you do this do this so our life will be guided by God when we fast then verse 11 it also says and satisfy your soul in drought so you know the emptiness of life sometimes the empty places in life that we experience difficult times situations where we may feel like something is missing I need more God I need more from you God is saying if you fast satisfy your soul in drought they feel so dry you will experience God's satisfaction okay so what a promise it's like you're in a desert but God still provides like the Israelites water was there whatever they needed in the wilderness God will provide if we fast verse 11 and strengthen your bones strengthen your bones like the structure that hold us so you can say that like the understanding is wholeness healing from within quite literally it will also strengthen our bones so when we fast we can reap the benefits verse 11 you shall be like a watered garden so a dry a garden which has not received water what happens yeah it looks so dry once I had been to on a mission strip we had been to a particular place it was so hot and we had to pass through the fields and you know how it says in the Bible the fields are white it was like that so just white dry I don't even know what to call it hay like thing and so hot it's all dried up but God is saying if we fast you will be like a well watered garden how does a well watered garden look prosperous so we will be thriving prosperous satisfied ok so these are all the blessings that we can see we see that there is a promise of restoration and God is saying those from among you shall build the old waste places in verse 12 so what is God saying he is saying you go fast I will give you the grace to rebuild restore rebuild what maybe rebuild communities rebuild lives of people so maybe we are doing you know some ministry we want to see people being built up when we fast what happens God gives us that grace restore their lives broken lives restore marriages you know restore people help restore their finances families businesses whatever is lying in ruin like God who is our restorer we can also see restoration verse 12 also says you shall raise up the foundations of many generations see when a foundation is strong and the building can last for many many years it's somewhat like that so whatever we do God is going to give it lasting strength when we do something for example I am just giving an example ok I am not exactly relating to that but Abraham you think about Abraham's faith even today we talk about it wow how strengthening similarly you could think whatever I do in my life is going to be a blessing in the kingdom God will make sure if we are blessing for generations to come it will be fast so many great promises we have from the Lord we will restore we will raise strong foundations verse 12 also says repairer of the breach meaning if there is a breakdown between communities between family relationships whatever it is I will give the grace for those things to be restored so we can fast verse 12 says restoreer of streets to dwell in again very similarly similar to what we are saying restoring communities giving them strong foundations then verse 14 you shall delight yourself from the Lord ok so basically God is saying when we fast he will also give us a capacity to enjoy God sometimes it feels like a task I have to do this no God is saying I will make you delight means you will desire you will love it to actually follow me and that can happen if we fast so he will give us the grace to desire him verse 14 also says I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth simply it means honour you want honour are you looking for honour victory in your life if you fast God is saying I will put honour on your life you will be honoured then verse 14 also says feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father so that simply means all the promises that have been given to Jacob in the bible or the children of God you can take it that way God will give it to us we will enjoy the heritage of the blessings that have been given to his people so over here just 18 are listed but from other passages we understand things like our faith is strengthened so much when we fast so I am just going to wrap up now thank you for your time just give me a little bit more time since you don't have the next class I want to encourage us to take time in fasting so maybe some of us are here saying I never fast I don't know how to fast you can start small maybe you can start with skipping a meal one meal and then you come back in the evening you come back home if you are working read the bible pray in a journal in which you write down your prayer request what God spoke to you so that way you start the habit of fasting so you can go from one meal a day to maybe two meals a day and you can even set aside a day where you do three meals a day then another thing that helps is I am sharing my own life this is how I learned to practice if you are not very strong at this you can do it with somebody else who fasts I had some sisters they used to say okay come wheel fast so they will also fast and at the end of the day we will read the bible pray and worship and close off so we used to do it that way so then I slowly started getting some strength in fasting and then slowly I learned that in certain places and ministries they set aside a day or two days of fasting like if you read about the Methodist movement John Wesley and his team he used to insist that people fasted two days Wednesday and Friday from morning to one part of the day that was mandatory for them so you know when I heard of things like that I recognized that it is possible to do it every week more regular otherwise what happens sometimes we just say whenever there is an issue I will fast and there is a problem I will fast but what is helpful is since we are also talking about discipline and walking in all these blessings every week you can set aside one day and you decide if you want to skip one meal or two meals is up to you and different seasons of your life it might look different maybe in some season you might skip two meals but some season you might be skipping one meal that's okay so don't be too hard and fast the main thing is to maintain the regularity in addition to that like when I get some holidays and all when I don't have to do work, travel you can take two days fasting three days fasting because you are at home you can manage your time and energy so things like that and it's been such a blessing I would say in my own personal life actually fast and then you can do special times 40 days 7 days 14 days, 21 days it's up to you but it's a great blessing to fast God has given that to us so it's a good thing to develop slowly so if you have any questions we can just answer them and we will close off the session anything practical sure so if you have later also you can ask me I'll be around and online students can post it on the stream page so that's a little bit about fasting and the last chapter in our notes which we have not touched is chapter 22 basically it has this incident where you know you had people praying on a mountain Exodus 17 verses 9 through 11 when there was a war going on there were people on the mountain who were praying you remember I think Moses right he lifted up his hands and then he couldn't keep it up so there were these two men who were holding his hands so whenever his hands were raised they were winning the war when they came down they were losing the war so it's simply a picture for us to recognize that the real action is in prayer okay yes hard work and good strategy and implementation all those things work in the natural but they have to be accompanied by prayer so when prayer goes up and when prayer is strong many mighty things will take place should never get that so it puts it beautifully prayer is where the action is prayer is where the action is we've learned so much about prayer we can release our authority we can fulfill God's purposes but the main thing now is put it into practice put it into practice I know one brother he works with us now he's part of our outreach team but every time I talk to him he says sister he studied in our Bible college many years ago now he's a pastor so he says whatever I learned those days whatever notes Pastor Ashish gave all these pastors notes by the way so I'm just sharing it with us till today I have it sister I've marked in the notes sometimes I preach from it many times I revisit the notes I never lost even one paper I didn't lose it it's with me I still refer it I refresh my understanding and it is helping me as a pastor I am able to maintain a strong foundation in God's word so the point I'm making is what we have learned today will never become old never think I finished prayer and intercession yeah I finished it no 2022 I finished it in APC Bible college Bangalore yeah we understand it but you see this knowledge you should never say yeah I finished it don't ever say that because the most important thing we have to apply it use it right so pray and ask God Lord thank you for what we have learned but help us to use it isn't it that's when it makes sense whatever we've learned so let's just close off this session and the course with the word of prayer I'll just pray for all of us Heavenly Father we thank you Lord Father we are so grateful that we could spend time in your word Father we thank you for Lord your word which is living and active and powerful Lord sharper than any two-edged sword Father thank you that it is shaping in a man Father God we thank you for giving us this privilege of prayer Lord we thank you that you've given us so God the Holy Spirit who aids us in prayer so Lord I pray that as your people as your children Lord you will take us on this journey where Lord we will experience so much in prayer oh God and not just experience but Lord release your power and your glory Father God through our praying Lord release your authority through our praying Father God and Lord we thank you in advance Lord we thank you in advance for going before us we thank you in advance Lord for strengthening us continually Father God in this area of prayer and Lord we pray that many mighty things Lord will be accomplished in each of us personally as a body and Father God for the glory of your name in your kingdom in this nation Lord and the nations of the world we thank you once again Father God we surrender everything and Lord we thank you so much Lord for helping us go through this entire course in Jesus name we pray Amen Amen so yeah thank you everybody you shall receive your marks both online and on campus students tomorrow your first graded assignment for the online students you will learn it's already posted the assignment questions but the Google classroom it will be different so I will be posting it you can access it tomorrow and please complete your assignments in time and for you I think they will give the timetable when your exam will be so the portions is remaining remaining chapters I am not including the first set which we did yes of course okay all right so let's close off thank you my pleasure thank you everyone God bless okay thank you okay there is a question here I will answer this Adjacent at times during fasting I find my flesh reacting more rather than on usual days of prayer I get angry quickly so I have not fasted for quite some time now today I learnt very clearly about the right attitude for fasting and why I do it matters to God rather than the length of duration of the fast I thank God for bringing me to this clarity of thought and mind about fasting and prayer sure Adjacent thank you for sharing that but one more thing I want to tell you is see sometimes no like getting angry and all it's very natural because the body when you've not seen of the body so we that's what I've been saying wise wise so maybe on the days when we fast we can pick the days when we don't have too much interaction with people or the days when we don't have too much workload these are all practical things so that way what happens though you're fasting you're not you know putting undue pressure on your body and your natural self so yeah it happens to all of us when we fast we get a little irritable but yeah we learn how to manage it as we practice fasting in our daily lives okay so thank you Jishan thank you so much and thank you everyone I really appreciate each of you especially from home connecting like this may the Lord reward you for making this effort and I hope you've been blessed by these classes and enriched for God's glory thank you once again God bless you abundantly bye bye for now


Hey everybody, what's going on? I am Greg Sussman, joined today by Jim Sannis of Fandle. Jim, NASCAR is back. Yeah, finally, it's been two months since our last NASCAR race. And finally, getting cars back on the track under weird conditions, but also appropriate conditions, given everything that's going on in the world. There'll be no practice. There is no qualifying. The starting order is set by kind of a draw based on where drivers are at owner points. So it's gonna be strange, but it'll be sweet to see cars back on the track. How are you doing? Well, it's gonna be weird having some semblance of sports back. You know, you can drive a car by yourself, which is what we need during quarantine, which is what we need to get NASCAR back in action. And that's why it will return finally here this weekend. You've made a list of some of the higher price players you like, the mid-priced drivers that you like, and some of the lower tier guys that aren't normally lower tier. So we'll get to that here in a moment. But your favorite driver, the highest price driver that you're going with this week, is Joey Logano, who's over $12,000 over on Fandall here. Why is Joey Logano one of your favorites here this weekend? Yeah, when I was trying to decide a driver I wanted to pin to in this upper-sally range, I was deciding between Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano because they've both been good to start this year. They've both been good in Darlington, but Logano is $2,300 cheaper than Kevin Harvick, as Harvick is the most expensive driver on the board whereas Logano, $12,200. That's a pretty good tiebreaker between these two guys. Logano did finish second at Darlington back in 2018, he had a top five in 2015, top five in 2016, so a good track history here. What's more important than track history is current form. And Logano has arguably the best current form in the entire sport entering this race because he won in both Las Vegas and Phoenix. And that Las Vegas race is key because it is the only race we've had so far this year at an intermediate track. Logano will start within those top 12 spots because he is in the top 12 and owner points, so he could have the potential to lead laps. And with 290 plus laps at this race on Sunday, we do want drivers who can run out front and tally some upside via lap side. I think that Logano has the potential to do that. So we're getting a guy who is in the upper tier at $12,200, that's a really good salary for him. He's already won twice so far this year. He's done well at this track. I think that of the studs, once you take salary into consideration, Logano's probably gonna be the guy I ride with most often. Logano's simply cheaper than Kevin Harvick and arguably the hottest and best driver in the game. Of course, we haven't seen races in a while, but it's good to get these guys back on the track. Joey Logano, when we last left off, was the best in the business. Let's see if we can pick up where he left off this weekend. Next for us, Jim, we get into one of your favorites. That's Martin Truex Jr., who's $11,500, another high-priced driver here. Why is Truex Jr. on your list of drivers here this week? Yeah, I think the entire Joe Gibbs racing team is intriguing here at Donaldson because those first four races, they did get a win for Denny Hamlin at the Daytona 500, but they were disappointing relative to where they were in 2019. But they've had a long layoff now where they've had time to tune things up and make adjustments from those first four races. And I'm intrigued to see what they do this weekend. But I also wanna safeguard myself because they did struggle and it's not a guarantee they turn things around. The good thing with Martin Truex Jr. is he is gonna start deeper in the order than Kyle Bush and Denny Hamlin because he is between 13th and 24th in owner standing. So he's gonna start somewhere in that range based on where they draw. That gives us a little bit of safety where Truex doesn't need to finish as well in order to score well for DFS because he'll be starting deeper in the pack. But also Truex of the JGR cars, I think was the strongest early on. He's now the finishes to show 40. He had some bad luck in all three races at Daytona which has pushed him down in the owner points which will allow him to start more poorly here for Darlington this weekend. He had an eighth place average running position in Las Vegas. He had a ninth place average running position in Fontana, a length in Phoenix. So although the JGR cars did struggle, Truex still had speed. That's a pretty big plus as we go here to Darlington. And this team has also done really well at Darlington in the past because whether it's been a JGR car or a JGR affiliated car, they've won five of the past seven races in Darlington. One of those was by Martin Truex Jr. As he won in 2016, he led 76 laps at this track back in 2017 as well. So this is a team that does well at this track and we get Truex a bit deeper in the pack to safeguard us in case those struggles from early in the season do carry over. Eric Jones is in a similar range here. He'll be starting deeper back. He has $9,800. So I think that if you want to buy a bounce back out of Joe Gibbs Racing, Martin Truex Jr. is a top guy turned to. Eric Jones is another alternative who is a little bit cheaper. Joe Gibbs Racing should be in a good spot. Hopefully this weekend, Martin Truex Jr. starting a little farther back should open up some opportunities for him. Priced pretty fairly here at $11,500, putting Truex Jr. very much in the mix. You mentioned Kyle Busch a few moments ago. What about his brother, Kurt Busch? He's $9,400 here this week on Fandall. Why is Kurt Busch on the list and not Kyle? Well, Kyle is a little bit more expensive. He is $14,000 whereas Kurt is $9,400. And I think that that makes a pretty big difference. The thing that I like about Kurt Busch too, and this kind of goes counter to what we discussed with Joey Logano. Because when we were talking about Logano, I said we should put more stock in current form than track history. Kurt Busch is very much more a track history play than current form. But I think he was good enough in those opening four races to still justify him here as a mid-range play at $9,400. Because Busch has always been really good here at Darlington. He has had a top nine average running position in three straight Darlington races, one of which was with his current team. He was with Gnasi Racing for last year's race at Darlington and had a good run there. He led 94 laps and started out front. So flexed a lot of muscle with the team he is currently with for this race here in 2020. Now let's talk about the current form because Busch is another guy like Truex starting in the middle of the pack, which means he didn't get off to a great start this year. That's mostly due to bad finishes in Daytona and Las Vegas. In the two races after that, he finished third in Fontana. He finished sixth in Phoenix. So I think the current form is good enough. And the track history is elite, especially for a driver who will be starting a bit further back in the pack. Busch is $9,400. I think that if you're in this range, he is kind of a no-brainer guy I'd want to turn to. Eric Jones, similar at $9,800, but I want to go with some veterans that had a tough track like Darlington and Kurt Busch fits that to a tee and will give me some place differential upside to boot. Yes, you want to go with the driver that was hot, a driver that's coming out of the gate rare in a rock, but horse history matters as well. And that's what you get with Kurt Busch. He's had a lot of success at the astrack and his work putting your money on here this weekend. Right around the same price, a couple of hundred dollars less, it's William Byron. And William Byron, not somebody that we go with very often here, but why is William Byron on the list today? Yeah, I got to contradict myself once again because I just talked about liking veterans than Kurt Busch. William Byron's about 20 years younger than Kurt Busch, so going a bit counter to that here. And Byron, I think there is some risk here in that he could be more popular than he should be because he got a lot of buzz for iRacing because he dominated the pro-invitational series. So the betting odds have swung pretty low for Byron, lower than they should be, and that makes him dangerous. But from a straight up DFS play position, I think that Byron still makes sense here at $9,000. The big reason there is because Hendrick Motorsports, the team that Byron drives for, was awesome in those first four races. They were crazy fast, much better than they were in 2019. And Byron is the only driver in that four car team starting between 13th and 24th in the field. So a little bit of place differential juice there. It also helps that William Byron had had a top 14 average running position in all four non-Daytona, or all three non-Daytona races so far this year, including an eighth place running position in Las Vegas, which is really good. Because again, Las Vegas is the most similar track we've had to Darrington so far this year. Now Byron, if you look at his track history, it's not great based on the finishing positions, but he had good runs in both those races. He had a top 13 average running position both times, including a 10th place mark last year. So even though he's young, he can get around this track. We also know that Hendrick Motorsports has some horses under the hood so far this year. So I don't put any stock into what Byron did in iRacing and I think that that does. Give us some danger here where he could be more popular than he should be. But if we're playing this thing straight up, William Byron is a driver in great equipment, who has at least shown competence at Darrington in the past and is going to start somewhere towards the middle of the pack. I like all that as a mid-range play at $9,000. Well, Jim, you're ignoring the iRacing history here for William Byron. Most players probably aren't, and that's why he's gonna be in their lineup. But he's also in your lineup because, well, he's a good driver and he plays for a good team, or drives for a good team. The equipment's really good too. All that makes a really solid start here this weekend over on Fandall and while the course history is not the best, not the worst ever. It's fine, making him a fine selection here in this middle tier. Let's move on to some of our value drivers. Some of the drivers that are just too cheap, and it's $7,800, yet Matt Di Benedetto here, who is another driver that I'm not exactly overly familiar with. So why should our Fandall audience make sure they get him in the lineup here this weekend? Yeah, so far, Greg, we've talked a lot about a lot of cash gameplay. I think that Byron, Bush, and Truex all count for that. But Di Benedetto's more of a tournament play because he's gonna start in the top 12. He is in the top 12 and owner points, which means he's gonna start pretty high. And for a value play, that brings a lot of risk. But I also think that Di Benedetto has enough upside to make us willing to take on the risk that he has. I think that for tournaments, he's a really fun play. And the reason that Di Benedetto is starting up front is because he's run well so far this year to the first four races. That's why he's starting up front. And that's a detriment, but it also means that the current form is good. That's what we like for Matt Di Benedetto. And we've also seen Matt Di Benedetto run well when he had bad equipment. Last year, he was on the team that didn't have a lot of speed at higher pace tracks. But Di Benedetto still finished eighth here, despite that. And he finished eighth with a 14th place average running position. That was really good. The guy who was in the car that Di Benedetto is in now was Paul Menard. And Paul Menard actually finished ninth in that race, one spot behind Di Benedetto. And that was in better equipment. So what we're saying here is Di Benedetto is getting an equipment upgrade and going to a track where he ran well last year despite not having the fastest car. That bodes really well for him at this track at $7,800. He finished second in Las Vegas, almost came through there. It was a long shot that almost came through for those who decided to back in there. He was top 13 in the other two non-dragging tracks so far this year. So yeah, Di Benedetto comes with some risks starting up at the front for $7,800. But he has shown already this year. He has top five finishing upside. He has really good equipment. The talent is there as he showed last year. So I think if you're going to take a risk, Di Benedetto would be my favorite guy starting near the front who checks in his evaluate plate. The other guy is Eric Almerola, kind of similar. I don't think that Almerola has the same upside as Di Benedetto. I don't think his win odds should be as short as Di Benedettos are. All the Di Benedettos betting odds are actually longer than Almerolas. But maybe that means you can bet Di Benedetto as well. But I think if you're looking for a value play at the front, Almerola and Di Benedetto both fit that, despite the risk. And I would favor Di Benedetto between the two. Di Benedetto is starting inside that top 12. He's run well. He's got better equipment than he's had in the past. And given his course history, you should have a good shot here on the extract to at least make some noise, make some surprises and price at just $7,800 and that Di Benedetto and a good spot for you this weekend. Our final driver, I was shocked to see he's only $6,100. I'm sure you'll explain that. It's Austin Dillon, who's had a lot of success, of course, on the tour as of late. And Austin Dillon, a popular driver in fantasy circles here. Why is Austin Dillon so cheap this weekend? Yeah, DFS player Austin Dillon. It's probably why he's pretty popular with fantasy players. And I think that it makes him fun for sure. But he also makes sense from a process perspective here. Because like you said, it's hard to find drivers who have a good blend of current form and track history who are $6,200. But Austin Dillon does check both those boxes for this weekend. Now, he's gonna start between 13th and 24th. I would like him to be on the bottom end of that range of possible. But even in 13th, I think that he would be okay, just because he's so cheap here at $6,200. Looking at the track history for Austin Dillon at Darlington, he has two top tens in the past three races here. He was fourth in 2017, 10th last year. Both those marks really good. And he also finished fourth in Las Vegas earlier this year. Now, that was a bit of a fluke finish because there was a lot of funkiness at the end. There were some wrecks, there were some pit strategies. So I wouldn't put a ton of stock in that finish, but he was running well before that too as was his teammate, Tyler Rhett. So top tens in the past at this track, top tens recently so far this year, and RCR cars tend to have really good speed at this track type. They tend to out qualify themselves for DFS, which is generally a detriment. But here, we don't have to worry about that because he will be starting at the highest 13th. I think this is good for Austin Dillon, $600, really good salary for him. I think that same line of thinking applies to his teammate, Tyler Rhett. Rhett is actually more expensive than Dillon at $6600, but will be starting deeper in the order. So I think that both the Richard Schilder's racing cars of Austin Dillon and Tyler Rhett make a lot of sense. If you're trying to get below $7000, they'd be the first place I turn because they can get you a top 10 while starting a bit further back in the pack as well. Well, Tyler Rhett, Austin Dillon's have shots to get into the top 10 and get you those points that you're looking for while starting all the way back. Both drivers in a good spot, Austin Dillon a little bit cheaper, and that's why we like him a little bit more. That's gonna do it for us here on the FanDuel Hurry. Jim, we appreciate the time.  We're gonna do it again next week. Yeah, we're gonna run it back on Monday. There's another Cup Series race on Wednesday, four races in 11 days of the Cup Series. I could not be more excited. So I'll talk to you then to preach you another race. It is great to be back and just flying through the schedule now. Let's keep it rolling.  And for Jim Sannes, I am Greg Sussman. Thanks so much for watching the FanDuel Hurry Up. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the race and stay safe everybody.


What is up guys this one is a big old 20 by 24 one of the biggest ones that I offer. Let's get this Let's go love Liggen bio Guys, let me show you. It's just it's too good. Look at this Just imagine that sealed an epoxy. Oh my oh gosh Gosh, I love this


In module 20, under the topic of microeconomics and micro, now we will explain what is the importance of microeconomics. So microeconomics will help us to formulate various economic policies, government will be able to decide various issues available in the economy with the help or the knowledge provided by the microeconomics. To definitely hear the concept of opportunity cost, concept of available resources, concept of the pricing, concept of the strategic moves, it will provide the capacity to the government to decide various economics issues through various policies. So it explains the working of the capitalist economy, it explains the working of various market structures. It explains how the exploitation of the various market structure or the capitalist economy can be reduced and how the ownership of the resources can be redistributed in the better form. And microeconomics can also explain that if contrary to the capitalist economy, the free economy has to be developed. So individual units, how they will attain their equilibrium and in the free market, how the resources they will be utilized under the laces where, how level playing field has to be provided to every economic agent. So this has to be decided under the microeconomics and it provides the facility to explain all these features and formulation of policies. And this microeconomics, it also helps either to the government and also to the entrepreneurs to decide about the price policies. Actually these price policies, they are the basic tools or the signals through which the markets they are going to work. So if we look at the different price policies, then we will understand that it is a very easy thing. We sometimes listen to the name of sport price policy, sometimes we listen to the name of minimum wage, sometimes we listen to the name of maximum price, sometimes we listen to the name of floor price, sometimes we listen to the name of ceiling price. So these are actually the different forms of price policies in which the government sometimes decides the minimum sport price for its employees, its employees, to give its minimum shorty. Which means, at least in the market, whenever it is afraid that the employee will not get the right job, then it is decided that when that thing will come to the market, it will not be less than that. Similarly, we can support consumers or producers to decide different prices. Then to take it to the next market signal, because if the entrepreneur does not get the proper pricing, then the next time it will lose, then it will reduce the birth rate. Because when the birth rate is reduced, then next year, without its production, when there is no supply, then for the government, to meet that demand, you have to import more amount from it. So here, the government, with the help of this pricing policy, does a true allocation of resource, and this allocation of resource is the basic unit, which is used for every factor of production's actual value judgment. And for efficient employment, this resource's right prediction, the forecast of business, and its total availability, its technology, and its capacity assessment. All of this is dealt in microeconomics, and the knowledge of all these things is helped by entrepreneurs, consumers, different agents of the market, policy holders, and institutions to decide how to attain better economic growth.


Community leaders gathered on the Bemidji State University campus today to discuss ways to improve the diversity and inclusion at the school. I'm sure all more has a recap of the vision meeting. Bemidji State University's current diversity and inclusion plan is set to expire this May. So to generate ideas on what to strive for next, dozens of staff, students, and community leaders were recruited into the conversation. We're looking to think forward about what we want to do over the next five years. What do we want Bemidji State University to look like and to be related to diversity and inclusion? And so people were invited to come. We have the sheriff. We have the superintendent of schools. We have the United Way director. The vision meeting lasted four hours and used various different strategies to determine BSU's current strengths and weaknesses. As we think about the plan for diversity and inclusion, it goes much more beyond, okay, let's have another cultural event. It goes really into the way that our mindset is and how we are embracing of diversity and a variety of opinions. Before today's meeting, officials actually sent out a survey to students, staff, and faculty members to see what they wanted to see in the next diverse strategic plan. Next, the committee will take what they learned from this survey and what they learned from today's meeting and put it all together for the next diversity strategic plan for the next five years. I personally hope that we can take steady steps to make everything we put into the strategic plan in action. Yeah, and then that is definitely a required collaboration from faculty, staff, and students. At the end of the meeting, the group had acquired dozens of goals. Common themes included becoming a destination university for American Indian students as well as exceeding current diversity requirements. It was opportunity for me to be reaffirmed around some of the areas where we need to go. I'm looking at some of our areas of focus, looking at our American Indian students, looking at what plans and strategies that we have for recruiting faculty and staff of color and American Indian students and faculty as well. Reporting in Bemidji, Sheryl Moore, Lakeland News. The new BSU diversity and inclusion plan will be completed by the start of the next academic school year. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Greetings and welcome to the Introduction to Astronomy. In this video we are going to go through the simulator used for the Lunar Phases Lab and demo a little bit about how that works. Now what you need to do is to go through and there is a lab worksheet that will be provided and the first few questions actually require you to go through the background material so make sure that you are not ignoring this. You do need to go through that to answer some of those questions. If you try to just jump into the three simulators you will have some difficulty. So go ahead and follow through the instructions it will tell you when you need to access each of the specific three different simulators that you will use in this lab. So what I want to take a look at here is a little bit about each of those simulators and how they work. So the first one we use is the moon bisector demo and that will load here and then what we'll see is there are a number of controls to use and really what you're using for this one is the set of controls up here for the phase determination. You'll want to click on each of those in turn and for example it will show you where the sun direction is and it will label that. It will then show the sun bisector and then it will show the shadows meaning that you can now see what part of the moon is illuminated by the sun. This half pointing towards the sun is illuminated and this half pointing away is not. However that does not just tell us the phase we also need to look at what the phase determination is and we can click on those four buttons. We can show the earth and moon line between them. We can show the bisectors and then we can determine the moon's phase and we do that by looking at the part of the moon. What we can see from the earth is the part of the moon that is facing us and looking at the sun bisector this only this quarter section of the moon that is illuminated is actually facing the earth. So you can do that for what you're asked to in the lab exercise to kind of emphasize that. Now one of the main things that you'll use in this as we'll go back to the area here we'll go to the lunar phase simulator which you will use for a lot of the lab. This has a number of different windows. First of all it has the moon phase window over here which will show you the phase and you can use the drop down menu to select different phases. It will show you the horizon diagram which you can turn around. It will give you a few options if it will let you know if you need to do those and then the time controls and then the main window really showing what you see here. So what you're going to do on these various sections it will go give you through the instructions but let's look at an example of the first quarter phase. So we can then take this to first quarter and it will adjust everything here for you. And you can then look at what the time is. So where our observer is happens to be located. Their location on the earth tells you what the time is. So with this case with the sun being as high in the sky as it can be and we can see that also here on the horizon diagram that this time would be local noon or 12 p.m. At that point we can see where the different phases of the moon would be located. In this case we've gone to first quarter. The moon has moved from the new phase one quarter of the way around and we see that it is 50% illuminated. And we also see then that where it will be in the sky. So at noon the sun is high in the sky but where is the moon? And we can see it very far off here on the eastern horizon. So depending on the location you can then look at where the moon will be relative to the sun. And for the first quarter moon it will just be rising around noon time. Now you can do a number of different activities with this. It will ask you to rearrange some of the coordinates and then look at what you find for the phases of the moon. You can also run the animation straight through if you like and start the animation. It will allow you to go through and you can watch how the moon phases work over time. And you can look at the horizon diagram here. You can even turn that and watch the sun and the moon in their relative positioning to each other. Here as we approach full moon it will be exactly opposite each other in the sky. The sun setting is the full moon rises and now the moon will be catching up to the sun again. And we will approach head back towards the new phase. And we're not going to let that run the whole way. You can play with that as you like to take a look at it. But you can watch it in different areas so that you can see as the demo runs. You can see the actual orbital view that you would see here. Where is the moon located in its orbit? We can see the phase as it's now approaching third quarter. And you can see the relative positions compared to the horizon. So let's go ahead and stop that and look at the last simulator that we want to look at. And that would be, as we go back here. That would be the moon phase and horizon diagram simulator. So as we load that, we will see that this is a little bit simpler. And this has a couple of different things. And it really comes down to the fact that if you know two of three things, you can figure out the third. If you know the phase of the moon, the time, and the location in the sky. And one of the things that you'll look at is be given two of these three. And then ask to determine what the third one is. So as the example, as this is set up right now, we are at first quarter phase. So if we know it is first quarter phase, and we know the time of day is 3 PM, you can set to those two things. And then find out where is the moon in the sky. And you can use the diagram then to find that again. Like the others, you can turn this around. To find that when you have first quarter moon at 3 PM, the moon is going to be in the southeast. So it has already risen off the horizon in the east and is a little bit further up in the sky. We can look at one more example of that. If we want to change the phase of the moon, so if we want to look at a slightly different phase, what if the phase were a, let's say a, and let's say it were a waning crescent moon. So now we've changed the waning crescent, the phase. We have not changed the time, it is still 3 PM. Where is it going to be located? Well, the waning crescent moon will always be at 3 PM, will be located on the western horizon just setting. So if you know any two of these, the phase, the time, and the location, you can then figure out the third of them. So that concludes this video on how to work through the phases, the phases of the moon simulators that we will be using for one of our labs. And we'll be back again next time for another topic in astronomy. So until then, have a great day everyone, and I will see you in class.


So what's your name? Jacob. And where are you from? Courtney. And what are you doing? We're from Fisheries and Oceans, Sam Enhancement at the Pummet River Hatchery. Basically, I'm a fish-sane support. And what does that entail? It's for fish health. So just making sure the fish are being treated properly, handled correctly, and then the water is good quality before they get taken away in the buckets. And how does that kind of tie into the overall extended supporting? So, yeah, we're transporting the fish, obviously, by bucket. And if they don't get to the other side in good condition, then they're not going to be able to keep swimming upstream, and they'll just die on the other side or swim back down through the slide site, and then we'll just catch them all over again. Defeats the purpose. Defeats the purpose, exactly, yeah. Perfect. And then is there anything you want to say about how everything's going? I think it's awesome. Like, I'm working with a crew from the Skeena First Nation, and then I got the IA crew from BC Wildfire. And, of course, us, and everyone's just a great team. Everyone's working really hard, and everyone's for the same goal, and they'll save the salmon.


The 2002 MLB All-Star Game, we're tied. Bottom 11, 7-7, go ahead, run on second base. But Freddie Dwayne, the Rock, Johnson, Garcia strikes him out, and that ends the game.  A tie? We're on the national stage, and that's where we give the American people a tie? We can't have this, we can't have this. So he freaks out and he goes to the drawing board and he says, does home field matter in the World Series? Yes. Look at all the Game 7s. Look at all the Game 7s where the home team won. Home field matters. This time it counts. So the MLB All-Star Game now shows who had home field advantage in the World Series. So every day Eddie's in there. National League are up by a lot, but this matters.  Fans are like, we'll try hard, too. Geige has a nice grab there. Interference called. Fur call, scores.  They're gonna send you back. We had interference. This guy almost got it. I think he even gets a finger on it. Oh my God. Finger touched that ball. Then he lost it. Now they're gonna go to their perfect, beautiful three-camera replay where they have 1800s antique mirrors because of course that's what they chose. Why?  Anyway, now look where Fur call was when this ball gets interfered with. Bam, like right there. He's like halfway to third, closing in on third. Look where he is called time. He still hasn't touched third base. What do you have scored? Probably. Dude was pretty fast. Is there a chance he wouldn't have scored? Maybe because the ball was touched way ahead. So Socia, it's the All-Star game. He has to go argue this, which you're just weird to think that a manager has to go argue with an umpire during an All-Star game, but no, this time it matters, man. It really matters. And it didn't matter after all because he would have scored on the next hit. Anyway, NL takes a huge lead. They're up by four every day. Addie's like, look at my hand. What? Look, it's gone. But Hank Blalock comes up, says that doesn't matter. I'll just hit a home run. I'm Hank Blalock, two-time All-Star. A rod, he starts clapping in the dugout. He says, I'm out of here.  Didn't matter. AL wins. AL has home field advantage in the World Series and that didn't matter at all. So I guess just nothing matters.


වනරඳුаждන්බ අයා හින්දෙන ලේරත� though it explains mind in terms of mechanical way or in the scientific way the scientific,weight of mind 정도로 beyond the scientific ܍ලනඳයহල  destro�මනඦලේ සිමඩයු පමන් දක් සම different පි ම්මනරයතු කර඾ු ශ෫ඩා . වවජṦද එමතර වතු, බෙඤ්, ව� fruits වෙලයු assumptions which include psychological, epistemological, biological, ontological assumptions about the nature of human knowledge and understanding. And we will see what these assumptions are now. The psychological assumption is that the mind can be viewed as a device operating on bits of the mind according to formal rules. Thus in psychology the computer as a model of the mind is conceived of by the cognitive scientist. The epistemological assumption is that all knowledge can be formalized in terms of logical relations and more exactly in terms of Boolean functions. The logical calculus which governs the way the bits are related according to rules. A biological assumption is that the brain has neurons which operates so as to process information in the brain according to a neural network. But in the case of ontological assumption is that computer model of the mind presupposes that all relevant information about the world everything essentially to the production of intelligent behavior must in principle be analyzable as a set of situation free determinate elements. The psychological epistemological, biological and ontological assumptions have this in common. They assume that man must be a device which calculate according to rules on data which takes the form of atomic effects. Dreyfus argues that all these assumptions can be criticized on philosophical grounds. Each of the assumptions lead to conceptual difficulties. He says among philosopher of science one finds that an assumption that machine can do everything that people cannot do followed by an attempt to interpret the what this boards of the philosophy of mind. While among moralists and theologicians one finds a last ditch retreatments to such highly sophisticated behavior as moral choice, love and a creative discovery claim to be beyond the scope of animation. The assumption that machine can do everything that human beings can do is definitely false as the human capacity exceeds that of all machines. All the above mentioned assumptions are definite because they assume more than they can prove. The idea that the human mind functions like a digital computer is according to Dreyfus inadequate and misleading. Dreyfus in his famous article misrepresenting human intelligence points out that the research in artificial intelligence has misrepresented the nature of human intelligence because it emphasizes that the computers have capacity to understand language processing, pattern recognitions, the problem solving etcetera. But this is the only a poor imitation of what human beings can naturally do. Dreyfus points out that artificial intelligence feed of research dedicated to using digital computers to simulate intelligent behavior soon came to be known as artificial intelligence. One should not be mislead by the name no doubt an artificially nervous systems sufficiently like the human one with other features such as sense organs and a body would be intelligent. But the term artificial intelligence does not mean that the workers in artificial intelligence are trying to build an artificial man given the present state of physics chemistry and neurobiology such as understanding is not feasible likewise the term intelligence can be misleading no one expects the resulting robot to reproduce everything that counts as intelligent behavior of human beings according to a artificial intelligence scientist any complete description of behavior should be adequate to serve as a set of instruction that is it should have the characters of a plan that could guide the action described. But as Dreyfus argues that what instructions could one give a person about to understand the actions perhaps some very general rule such as listen to the instructions look towards an object make your selections etcetera it is not clear why or how a complete description in psychology should take the form of set of instructions. Again artificial intelligence scientists say that human bodies are part of the physical world and objects in the physical world have been shown to obey the laws which can be expressed in a formalism manipulable on a digital computer to be more particular if the nervous systems obey the laws of physics and chemistry then it is bound to be a part of the physical world accepting the fundamental assumptions that the nervous systems is a part of the physical world that all physical processes can be described in a mathematical formalism which can in turn be manipulated by a digital computer one can arrive at the strong claim that the behavior which results from human informations processing whether direct formalizable or not can always be indirectly reproduced on a digital machines against the above view Dreyfus argues that every form of information processing cannot be principle be simulated by a digital computer therefore the strong claim that every forms of information processing can be emitted by a digital computer is misleading arguing against the epistemological hypothesis Dreyfus says that either reason to suppose that there can be a formal theory of what linguistic called pragmatics there are two reasons to believe that such a generation of syntactic theory of impossible firstly an argument of principles for there is to be a formal theory of pragmatics one would have to have a theory of all human knowledge but this may well be impossible secondly a description objections not all linguistic behavior is rule like we recognize some linguistic expression as odd as breaking the rules and yet we are able to understand them more clearly there are cases in which a native speaker recognize that a certain linguistic usage is odd and yet is able to understand for example the phrase the idea is that in the pen is a clear in a situation in which we are discussing promising authors and here the idea is in the pen is not referred to a particular physical or a material things but here we are referring to a promising authors but in fact an idea cannot be in the pen because obviously an idea is not an object it is a one of the quality which is existing in a conscious human being as we know for grand behavior is either arbitrary or strictly rule like therefore in confronting a new usage a machine must either create it as a clear case failing under rules or as arbitrary a native speaker feels he or she can recognize the usage as odd not falling under the rules and yet can make sense of it gives it a meaning in the context of human life these usage which are arbitrary are likely to be understood in the context of human activities the refuse critic therefore is not addressed against computer for say but against one particular way of programming them refuse seems willing to grant that machine intelligence can replace human intelligence this shows the limits of artificial intelligence as a program now we will see pen rose arguments are against artificial intelligence pen rose one of the most important physicist and as well as a philosopher in his classic books on what the shadows of the mind said that very difficult to simulate the human mind and while arguing against a artificial intelligence he says that we accept our own belief that true intelligence requires consciousness and we are implicitly suggesting that intelligence cannot be properly simulated by a arithmetic by a computer in the sense that we use that terms today he argue that there must be an essential algorithmic ingredient in the actions of consciousness and his suggestion is that unconscious actions of brain are one that proceeds according to algorithmic rules whereas the consciousness acts of the minds are null algorithmic pen rose discusses the nature of consciousness and competitions and provide an answer to the questions whether our conscious awareness of happiness, pain, love, aesthetic sensibility will understanding etc can fit into a computational model of mind his argument consisting in the following propositions all thinking is computation that is all cognitive acts can be mathematically computed physical actions of the brain can be simulated computationally but this computational simulation itself cannot evoke awareness thirdly awareness cannot be explained by physical computational or any other scientific terms awareness understanding consciousness intelligence perceptions etc are all our intuitively given mental activities these cannot be computational explained according to pen rose therefore according to him for example intelligence requires understanding and understanding requires awareness and awareness is the basic feature of consciousness and these mental activities are basic to the human mind pen rose remark that a person's awareness is to be taken in effect as a piece of software and his particular manifestation as a material human being is to taken as the operation of this software by the hardware of the brain and body however human awareness and understanding are not the result of computations undertaken by the brain understanding is the inborn activity of the human mind which cannot be simulated by a computer human understanding cannot be replaced by a computer simulations the strong AI much against our ordinary understanding of the mental activities tries to reduce them to computational functions according to strong artificial intelligence the differences between the essential functioning of the human brain including all its consciousness manifestations and of a thermostat lies only in this much greater complications perhaps higher or structure or self referential properties or some other attributes that one might assign to an algorithmic in the case of a brain most importantly all mental qualities thinking feeling intelligence consciousness are to be regarded according to this view merely as a aspect of this a complicated functioning that is to say that they are features merely of the algorithmic being carried out by the brain it is therefore obvious that the strong AI cannot explain the mental activities properly because it misses the very non computational and non algorithmic nature of the mental activities penrose says that in the human mind there is a non variability of thought you know to make his argument stronger he quotes from Francis Galton who said it is a serious drawback to me in writing still more in explaining myself that I do not think as easily in words or otherwise it often happens that after being hard at work and having arrived at results that are perfectly clear and satisfactory to myself when I try to express them in language I feel that I must begin by putting myself upon quite another intellectual plane I have to translate my thoughts into a language that does not run very evenly with them I therefore waste a vast deal of time in seeking appropriate words and phrases and I am conscious when requires to speak on a sudden of being often very obscure through mere verbal maladro tiness and not through want of clearness of perception this is one of the small awareness of my life once it is accepted that much of conscious thinking can be of a non verbal character as described it follows that the non verbal thought can never be computational in character therefore the mathematical activities is very teeny area of conscious activity that is indulge in by a small minority of conscious beings for a limited fractions of their conscious lives there is a vast area of human consciousness which does not follow the mathematical rules of competitions this non computational consciousness is that which is that allows us to become directly aware of something this direct awareness plays a very important role in our mental life as we have already mentioned thus human understanding and consciousness awareness cannot be reduced to computational processes following argument think there is something essential in human understanding that is not possible to simulate by any computational means some philosopher believes that consciousness is a computational property but the fact is that not even scientist nobody know how to design a conscious machines machine interpret the concept of machines in two ways in the narrow sense and in the wider sense the narrations to refer those machines which are constructed by a human being such as motor cars computers and etc in these machines consciousness can be found in the wider sense of the world machine there are mechanical devices which are the artifacts or the intentional products of some kind of intelligence in these conceptions machine put forward the following questions could a human artifact be conscious could an artifact of any considerable consciousness the first question concerns whether human beings can produce a conscious artifact with his superior technological power it is like asking whether we shall ever travel to another Gagalski the second question raises the issues of whether the concept of an artifact is such as to eliminate the positions of consciousness machines does not rule out the possibility that an artifact could be conscious according to him suppose there were an intelligent clever enough to create beings physical just like us then I think this intelligence would have created conscious beings or consider the doctrine of creationism and if we are the artifacts of God this is not a reason to suppose ourselves unconscious after all that is a sense in which we are artifacts for we are the products of natural selections operating upon inorganic materials to generate brains capable of subserving consciousness in the wider sense the human beings are artifacts of nature and are conscious even then all artifacts like tables and chairs are not conscious consciousness is an increasing property of organisms and so in the strict sense only organisms are consciousness that is only living things can be conscious and so a conscious being must be animate organic and alive as urgenstein put it only of a living human beings and what resembles behaves like a living human beings can one say it has sensation it sees is blind here is deep is conscious or unconscious that is a conceptual link between being conscious being alive according to this view a conscious being either must be alive or must like what is alive whether the similarity is between the behavior of the things in questions in other words only of what behaves like a living things we can say that it is a conscious our concept of a conscious states is the concept of a state with a certain sort of behavior expressions we cannot really make sense of conscious stone because the stone does not behave like conscious beings the point is that being biological alive is not same as being consciousness but it is necessarily that a conscious being should behave like a living thing instead of identifying consciousness with the metallic composition of the brain we should identify it with certain higher order properties of the brain which manifests in conscious behavior for example pain is a higher order property of physical states which consist in having a certain pattern of causes and effects and certain outward behavior now coming back to the problem of artificial intelligence it goes without saying that machines do not have consciousness the so called artificial intelligence does not entail consciousness the computing machines of artificial intelligence are limited in a way the human beings are not so that it is out of the question for a conscious mind to arise merely in virtue of computations now this is all about refuse argument against artificial intelligence and also penrose argument against artificial intelligence and now we will see some of the argument which has been put forward by got gaudel and gaudel has given very interesting argument against artificial intelligence let us see what gaudel says against artificial intelligence gaudel's theorem state that in any consistence which is strong enough to provide simply arithmetic there are formula which cannot be proved in the system both which can see to be true such a formula is the formula which is unprobable in the system if this were provable in the system then it will be unprobable in the systems so there will be a contradictions so the formula this formula is unprobable in the system is not provable in the system but unprobable in the system further if this formula is unprobable in the system then it is true that the formula is unprobable in the system that is this formula is unprobable in the system is true the whole effort of gaudel's theorem is to show that all consistence adequate for simply arithmetic that is contain the natural numbers and the operations of additions and manipulations thirdly they are incomplete that is contain unprobable through perfectly meaningful formula which we can to see to be true standing outside the systems gaudel's theorem must applicable cybernetic machines because it is of the essence of being a machine that it should be a concrete instantiation of a formal systems it follows that given any machine that is consistent and capable of doing simply arithmetic there is a formula which though true is not provable in the formal system of the machine thus it follows that no machines can be a complete or adequate model of the mind that is the minds are essentially different for machines as we know a cybernetic machines is a device which performs a set of operations according to definite rules normally we program a machines that is we can that is we give it a set of instruction about its functioning and we need we feed in the initial information on which a machines is to perform its calculations when we consider the mind on the model of cybernetic mechanism we have a mechanical model in view if human mind is such a model mind is determined by the way it is made then there is no possibility of its acting on its own as it is governed by certain rules of constructions and certain inputs of informations but this is not the characteristics of mind as the mind does not act under ready made rules in the machines there are some formal rules of inferences having been applied to some previous formula we can construct gaudelian formulae in the formal systems this formula cannot be proved in the systems thus the machines cannot be proved the corresponding formulae as true but one can see that gaudelian formulae is true we can now see that any mechanical model of mind must include a mechanism that can elucidate truths of arithmetic because this is something which minds can do in fact it is easy to produce mechanical models which will in many respects produce truth of arithmetic far better that what the human beings can do but for every machines there is a truth which it cannot be proved but which can be proved by the mind thus in the words of Lucas this is not to say that we cannot build a machines to simulate any desired piece of mind like behavior it is only that we cannot build a machines to simulate every piece of mind like behavior we build machines capable of reproducing bits of mind like behavior and indeed outdoing of the performance of the human minds but however machine cannot do much better understanding of truth factors of the any kind of computational work but in the case of machine that kind of truth is not there according to gaudel gaudel argument shows that the mechanical model of mind because of its inherent limitations cannot simulate the functions of the human mind human mind which are infinite and indefinite further it shows that machines are finitely closed and hence cannot compare with the human minds the way gaudel is explaining is criticizing that the possibility of any kind of rules which formula which can be proved in the systems but is very difficult to find in the truth of that therefore machines are incapable of doing any kind of mental activities in this two lectures on limitations of artificial intelligence I have explained some of the arguments against artificial intelligence some of the next lectures I will be explaining on how Cartesian mind is non-computational and how the supervenience and emergentism are a thesis of mind establishing one kind of parallelism and then some other arguments on the theory of mind which will not only establishing the existence of concept of mind which is distanced from the body at the same time some of the arguments are arguing against artificial intelligence thank you