 Well, that's good. Let's really bring it out tonight on video and audio. Let's start with something from the Bible. The wages of sin is death. Let's talk about that. The wages of sin is death. Because wages fits in a little bit with cost, you know. Wages getting paid and then cost is almost like the flip side. That's how people can afford to buy things. Wages is more like the filling the wallet up and cost is what takes it out. And I do have a copy of the Concordance and cost you know, I would say it probably got cost you your peace of mind, cost you your serenity, you know, cost. In Christian theology, and I'm not talking the Course in Miracles, but in traditional Christian theology, the atonement was paying a ransom. A ransom is a big cost. The ransom, like human kind had done something terrible to God. Take a bite out of that apple. Here's a tree. Here's a tree. And it has fruit, but there's rules. There's rules with this tree. It's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And I put it here in Paradise. And it tells me how duality was placed by God into Paradise. It doesn't make any sense why God would put a dualistic tree in the pure oneness. It's ridiculous right away, but there's a tree of knowledge of good and evil and there's a rule. Just like telling a kid, don't do this. What happens when you tell kids, don't eat from the candy jar. You don't even do it. So here's God, don't eat from that tree. And then they eat the apple. And then there's a fall from grace. And the fall from grace, you don't think God's just gonna sit around and let you fall, be a disobedient, you know, break the rule, break the one rule, and then I can't let you get away from that. It's gonna cost you. You have to pay back. You broke the rule. So now you have to be punished. And there's a ransom. You're gonna have to pay a cost, not just a small cost, but you're gonna have to pay a big cost because that's a bad thing you did. It's the worst thing. You're disobedient, you broke the rule, now you have to pay the cost, and the wages of sin is death. Now you're condemned to die. And you're gonna die, and die, and die over and over. Even if you have a bunch of begats, don't create any of them. Begat, begat, begat, begat, begat. Die, die, die, die. Well, you think it's so good. Have sex, have fun. Begat, begat, begat, begat. Die, die, die, die, die. You're gonna pay a cost, the ultimate cost, and you're gonna keep dying over and over if you keep sinning and you don't know who I am and who you really are and all this and this, you're just gonna keep, as if God was really interacting with this crazy play that you didn't create, but that somehow there's going to be a cost and you have to pay the cost. And in this world it's a world of scarcity and it's a lack where everything costs money. You pay for many things in this world because it's a world of lack and it's a world of reciprocity, it's a world of cost, and so on and so forth. But all of these, you boil it down, the big cost is the belief that you separated from God. That's the big no-no is separating from the source. So in Christian theology, then it's like, well, there has to be a ransom. It's a pretty big thing that you've done as separation fall from grace business and you have to be a ransom, just like somebody kidnaps something of your son or your daughter or your dog or something important and says, I'm not gonna get it back unless you pay the cost. You have to pay me something for me to get it back. There's kind of like the ego's Christian version of it playing, is that you did something wrong to God. You know God's very loving. He's not really happy about separation. Kind of ticked him off. He's loving, he's loving, he's loving. Don't cross him. He'll be firm. He definitely needs a ransom now to get back there. And then Jesus is going to be sending his son on a suicide mission, come and say, no, no, no, this is the way that it should be. And then, boom, he's gonna get crucified. And by Jesus Christ, the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the innocent one and so on and so forth, that will pay the ransom for all humankind and all will be free as soon as this innocent one is slaughtered and it's solved. Makes no sense at all to me. But that ransom is the biggest cost. That's a cost. It's saying something cost things. Now, I would say that to believe in the ego, cost you the awareness of heaven. Cost you the awareness of God. Cost you the awareness of Christ. Love, oneness, joy, happiness. And using that word in that way, it's like, wow, that's a pretty severe cost. In awareness, not in reality, people say it's really impossible in reality. But in awareness, in consciousness, it's a big cost. And so, it doesn't surprise me that the Course uses that word cost. Because I think if you went through, unless Jesus is speaking kind of tongue-in-cheek, which he does sometimes, and humorously, when people read it, they go, what's he saying? He's speaking a little tongue-in-cheek. Give him, he wants to joke. Let him joke. But sometimes, I believe he said it. But actually, I think that's the cost that is talked about in the Course. You're talking about, you've found so many times. And then people don't like that saying from the Bible, the wages of sin is death. But sin is missing the mark. If you go back to the original Hermes, you know, sin is not hitting the bullseye of love and forgiveness. It's missing the mark. But what would you expect from missing the mark? If the mark is God and love and Christ, joy and happiness and peace, and you miss the mark, what do you think? You're often to death land. I mean, the bullseye is love and the rest of the rings are all death. If you miss the target, oh, God doesn't go, that's all right. That's close enough. It's more, it's like you're often to error. Sin is really error. So the wages of sin is death. The wages of error is the experience of separation, which is what death is. People don't like that saying. I think that's just good divine metaphysics. The wages of sin is death. It should be joy. Say, well, that's it. I'm going to really learn not to sin. If that's the case, I don't want to keep missing the mark. I want to hit the mark. I want to know thyself. If the Greek talks about, I want to realize, I want self-realization, or may as well call it self-actualization. I would rather have that than missing the mark. And yeah, I think there is a cost to seeming to miss the mark. Not in reality, but in awareness when we're not tuned in, when we're not aligned with the source, then there's the illusion of suffering. And I would say when people ask me about suffering, it's just not fun.