Is a Free Gift Really Free?

Who wouldn't want a free lunch? Tons of people. Why? Because they know that it often requires sitting through a pitch, paying a sneaky fee, or "paying it forward" later. Today we talk about why the gift of Grace is indeed free. When you realize why it absolutely cannot be paid for by us, the offer of Grace is compelling. We hope you'll accept it!

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the subject of free gift. It kind of just weighed on my mind. And I started, you know, I always go to scriptures and see what does the scripture say about free gift? Off to the races. I'm curious, for example, the, I I think one thing you mentioned the Greek words, and we'll get into the Greek words for free gift. I think some context is helpful for me and, and others, the Greek words, like, I guess, why can we trust the Greek words? So I know when I read like the English words, right, the translations, sometimes they're a little bit off, or it requires what you do, which is to kind of peel it back into the Greek words, or where the translation maybe had options, and then also understanding the context. So in this example, you're like, oh, actually they put two words together, and when those words are together, they mean divine gift. And I'm like, wasn't that convenient? So gimme a little bit of like, you know what I'm asking? Like, can you help? Yeah. Can you help formulate some of that? Cause it's like, damnit, like, I don't, I don't want to think that man just like crafted this together so intelligently, but why do I reach back to Greek? And then it's all of a sudden perfect. Well, it never is perfect, but you as a Spanish, uh, speaker, a student of Spanish know about transliteration. And, you know, when we translate in, in Greek or in any language, sometimes we lose, we lose, um, the small nuances. And so the New Testaments written in Greek, so good hermeneutics, it's just a study of interpretations. So what we try to do is go back to the original language as close as possible. So it was written in Greek mm-hmm. So we want to go back and try to see what the early writers were saying. And a lot of times, uh, when we translate or transliterate, we lose a lot of the, the, the, the meaning of what the writers wanted to say. So if we go to a concordance such as Strongs concordance, and, and we can find every word that's in scripture, and we look up the Greek meaning of that word. And when I looked up free, every single verse where free is used in scripture means to let loose without obligation. Okay? So then we go to gift, which most people think gift as I gave you a fishing rod or a puppy. In the Greek, the gift means sacrifice. So if you kind of put those two together, and I found it interesting that only in certain places where free and gift is used together, it's a different word. Mm-hmm. So I was like, I, I went, I looked that up. And it means divine gratitude, not the puppy or the fishing rod, but def um, divine gratitude, meaning that wherever this word, uh, Hang on, hang on. So we'll get, we'll get to that. I want to, I just want to kind of wrap off the fact that the, the language thing with transliteration, her hermeneutics, all the things that are kind of go over my head, but basically what did make sense to me is, and I think would make sense to other people. If something I kind of take, if I wrote something in English, there's tons of different ways that I could write that down. And in the direct translation to Spanish, Greek, whatever, it, it might not sound quite the same. So if you wanted to get the most authentic, yes, it's written by men. So we didn't get, we didn't get rid of that. So These scriptures, these that we're talking about, at least they were, they were written originally in Greek. So that's just the way they were. So the the best you can do is kind of go, go to a, a person that's Greek, or someone that understands Greek, and you'd say like, what did they mean when they wrote the original thing? Not what my English says. Because you might get a slightly different understanding of, of what they're trying to say like that, right? Our words can only do so much to try and illustrate what we're trying to say. So that's, that's why when you go back to the Greek, to your point, it's not that it's perfect, it's just in, in the exact way they wrote it, you'll likely find more of the context or the meaning behind what they were trying to say versus some of the dilution that happens in translation. Yes. All right, cool. So that, that make, that helps me just say like, you know, why is it helpful when, whenever you go back to the, to the Greek? Cuz I, I look at it in English and I can't get all that, and it's kind of frustrating. I'm like, talk about a blocker, I'm just like, I read it and kind of, kind of flat. In, in every instance where that word is used, it's always a divine gift. So, you know, as I wrote, uh, I thought about gifts from God. If we look at that beautiful sunset that we talk about, and, and it takes us to another level of free gift in that, it's a gift that is humbling to a point where I can't do anything to that sunset. There's, there's nothing I can do with that, which parallels what Christ did for us. You know, when God gives you a gift, it's different than when man gives you a gift. So I found it interesting that every single time that word was used, it was a spiritual gift. It was, it was a divine gratuity. And in fact, in, uh, in King James version, and if you look at different versions, the free and gift is only used in a s in several verses where we see it in Romans 5, 16, 17, and 18, where even in the English it says free gift in all of the other places, it just says gift. So, such as I could bring a gift to the altar, that's, you know, that's my, uh, sacrifice if, if you will mm-hmm. But wherever this word is used, carma, um, it's always connected with a divine gratitude. So, you know, like you said, we can bring this thing around full circle, um, and talk about free gifts. You know, you said LA in our last podcast. Why We Yeah, I was gonna say, we should probably step back and talk, like, why, why do we even get stuck on this, on this topic? And, and the last time we spoke, I, I started thinking about like, who wouldn't accept something that's actually free or free gift or free lunch? Like, who doesn't like a free lunch? We all like it, but we, as we talked about it, we actually figured out that us humans, I think we're kind of trained to bucket the fact that anything would actually be free. So there are no free lunches or, you know, what's the catch? And, and that, that starts to be a bit of an obstacle, whether it's in our heads or it's real. We don't think here on earth, we don't think anything really is free. And then we were talking like, but, but this gift is free. And you started peeling that back, right? Yes. And, you know, free gift, it, it parallels what we're doing with obstacles because what is the obstacle? Wow. Pride is the big one. Just to give you a quick story, I went in Starbucks ordered muck tall coffee guy gave it to me. I had my cash out ready. And he says, Who pays in cash? It's It's on us today. It's on us. And, and I went, well, what do you mean? He goes, well, local church has given us money to hand out coffee. And he gave me the card for the church immediately I thought, how can I reciprocate? Because mm-hmm. I don't need, I don't need your free coffee. So what I did was put $2 and 18 cents for a couple bucks to be exact into the tip jar to free me from the obligation. So I'll admit everybody From the obligation that there, there, there was no obligation. You felt like there was an obligation? Yes. Which on the back, which I'm, I'm guilty, you know, I don't, I personally don't like free gifts. I love to give free gifts, but I don't like to receive them because of my pride. And which is a big stumbling block when, when we're expected to take this free gift from God after all of these covenants and all of these rules, and all of a sudden he says, I know you couldn't do it, so I did it for you and it's free Let, let me match the story of at Starbucks. So well, I'll match it and raise you one, because I think a lot of people have heard this. Uh, it was more recently, I think in the last one or two weeks. Um, similar thing, I don't know if it was started by a church or if they, you know, gave money to Starbucks to do this, but I was reading, uh, this like 16 year old going through the line and one of the fancy fruit free drinks, you know, it's like eight, nine bucks pulls up and they're like, it's already been paid for by the person before, you know, would you like to pay it forward? And so I'll, I'll wrap this in that. It's funny you mentioned reciprocating, and yet there's also, there's this other notion around getting a free gift and then feeling the weight of paying it forward or, you know, doing the same for someone else. You're like, okay, I can't possibly repay he who just paid for my drink. The car drove away, he's gone. I can't get to him. Kind of, uh, mirrors what we're talking about, but then I gotta do something, right? I've gotta do something for others. And I, I feel this weight, right? And so this, this teenager asked, he was like, all right, like, what did they order behind me? And the, the Starbucks person's like, honey, it's a carload. It's like $55. And he was like, Nope. And he drove off, uh, Wast, he was not gonna pay it forward and get, and get, uh, robo dope into, uh, like six x what he, what he had ordered. And he, he broke the chain. Um, and then there was a huge, um, kind of cry of support for him. I think it was social media that was basically like, oh, I'm a chain breaker. You know, like, if the next person's drink is too much, uh, they break the chain. So a funny quip in that, that that part doesn't directly mirror. We kind of talk about it, but they're twofold. In the free lunch, like I think people feel one of two of those weights often with free gifts is, I need to repay it. And so in this case, you need to repay it to God. And he's saying, no way. And we'll talk about that. Or you're just like, now I have to do a bunch of good stuff. And that definitely mirrors I think a lot of people in their walking Christianity and maybe people that are looking to believe they might challenge that as well. Like, okay, I can't pay God back. Like I get, I can't see him. I can't, I can't give him anything. But now I gotta do a bunch of stuff on Earth. And I liked my earthly life just fine. I was having my coffee, having my drinks, making my money, spending my money. Like I was happy, but now I gotta do some stuff. So that resonates in terms of the free gift. Like, okay, you give me a, but now I gotta give a bunch of gifts and bear a bunch of fruit. Hear a lot about that in the Bible. So I, there's a lot of places we can go beyond the free gift. Let's park it on why it's actually a free lunch, and then maybe we can talk about why all of those other things are, those are additives to the Bible, right? The Bible did not tell us we had to do those things, or we have to do those things for the free gift of God. So there are blockers yet again. We, we make those up. And I think often I have to clear myself of those to really know that I am free and, and kind of know the truth. I think I, I wanna just piggyback on what you said a little bit, um, what you just talked about and, and I caught a word, the key word being weight, you know, obligation is weight and pride. And, and, uh, you know, these things that we talk about is obstacles. They all are wrapped up in this subject of baggage. I mean, think about, we talked about religious doctrine and, and rules. What we have to do, they all lead to this one biggie. And that is baggages. We're bound by something and Christ says, no, I've, I've, I've set you free for freedom. That's so beautiful. In Galatians one or five somewhere in Galatians that says, Christ set us free for freedom. What a great gut check then. Because everything I, i named, you're right. I don't know the Greek word for it, but wait, or baggage, uh, you know, if we start to feel that what a great litmus test, then that must not be the gift that we're offered or given, because it doesn't say that in any scripture. Jesus didn't say that the joke is light, right? It actually hits on weight in baggage. Like, nope, it's light there, there's no way. Right. Took it all. So as soon as I start feeling baggage, I'm, I'm probably adding to it. Yes. Not to say that's not a natural feeling to have here on earth, but it's just not the truth. Like, he didn't say, here's a free gift, put some bags on top of it. Doesn't say it. You're right. It is a litmus test and it's, and it's telling you something's wrong. So when you sit down in any, um, church or institution that adds that weight, then you know, the flag goes up, wait a minute, something's wrong. But how do we check that? We go to God's word and, and we find what you just said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Well, I don't feel so light when I have to go in every Friday and do this. Or if I do that, I feel burdened. And wait a minute, Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light about us when we accept. Mm-hmm. We we're not, uh, necessarily targeting a single, you know, religion or additive, but, but all of them. That's true. But I can actually, this is the, this I the beauty of this take religion or potential churches or institutions out of it, I just added that We were just talking about baggage. I added, like I did it to myself. And there's still a litmus test against that too, right? So to, I mean, this, this battle can happen between the two ears. So Oh, absolutely. It, it's, it's on me. Like I can just talk about the weight I can. So you need that litmus test for the things you may add to it, like the anxieties going down the road, like the weight of family, kids, wives, husbands, like, there's all kinds of things that can add weight and that pressure that's not, that's not from Jesus. So the, and the point being like just if you're curious but not really bought into Jesus, like definitely is freeing. It is, it is weightless. Uh, effectively we can add a bunch of other things, uh, kind of here on Earth. But those aren't added because you believe in Christ and take care of your spirit for eternity. They exist because we're humans living on this earth. And we, we deal with lots of things, but you would know that's not from being a believer or from buying into Christ and taking that and kind of accepting the free gift that's, that's born of us. And I, I feel like if I reminded myself about that every time I felt weight or anxiety or baggage, I would actually, I'd, I'd get to enjoy my freedom a lot More. Yes. And he wants us to enjoy it. So I think at this point we have to define what the free gift is. Yeah. So what did Jesus do to us? What did he do for us? And he, he freed us from being a slave to sin. And what's beautiful about this, and we find this in Hebrews, we see where we are under no covenants. The Jews were under a covenant. There's six or seven covenants, you know, with Noah and this one and that one. Law still exists, still, still good as you say. Except pretty impossible to keep. I'm just saying if you ignore Jesus, Messiah didn't come, which is, would be kind of the Jewish thought and not Jew. Like there's lots of other people too, right, that aren't Jewish bloodline that would maybe think that he wasn't the Messiah. I don't believe in him at all. I was then Doesn't the law still then the law still is here. Absolutely. The law Is still here. Okay. I'm just making sure when you said like he, you know, basically abolished shit or, you know, frees us from it. I'm saying it, it's still there if you don't go his route. So just making sure it was like, it's still, it's still around live And well, so, so again, you know, he said I didn't come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it, so, Hmm. The law is still good. Good point. If you can keep it, go ahead but nobody can. So, but to answer your question, everyone can come to God through the finished work of Christ and the Jew and everyone can come to that. But I just look at it just being a person human, like trying to figure this stuff out. You talk about, um, him giving us that free gift, freeing us from sin and from the law, which effectively freeing us from sin if, see if I got that right. But how, how will I know, like, I feel like before we, you know, I started on my journey, like, once I believe in Jesus, what do I need freeing from? I, I don't like, what does that feel like? Is that, I don't know, anxiety? Is that the baggage? Like what is it to be held captive by sin? Because a lot of people would be like, dude, uh, my life's just back to my life's just fine. Like, I'm living it, I'm doing a thing and it's, I, I like my worldly things. So why would I think I needed to be free from that? To even give this a second thought? That's, I'm always like, what's the give the second thought to why you'd give a crap about this. So sin is separation from God. Sin is missing God's mark. Ask any of the billion people that live on this planet if they think they've ever sinned. So, sure. And and why is that? Because man was born after Adam, and, and I'm using scripture here now, man was born into Adam because Adam sin first, and every man that's ever been born takes on his nature. We were slaves to sin. And I've asked people before, how many times do you have to sin to become a sinner? And people will say, one, no, none. Scripture tells us that we're born in Adam and we can't be reconciled to a holy God without being freed from that sin. I think for me, that that's, that's the word, that's the truth. You know, I, I believe it. I would just, for people that listed like that's a raw deal, I would just like to say, like I right there, I probably often would be like, you literally, I was just born and you're telling me I'm already slave to this thing. Not that it's unbelievable. I just say I'd set that aside that I feel like that comes for me. like that came with some maturity to like accept that and Right. Peel back the onion layers of why So go farther down the line. Yeah. As most people listening are not three years old. Yeah, let's come. So somewhere in there, you definitely commit the first one. So fair, like it's zero is the answer, but when you ask people, and it like, it only takes once, let's go with the once. Cuz you can remember the first time, you know, you sin like you, you killed something, some, a well an animal killing's, not a sin. Tons of other things that you could do, uh, to sin, right? Like, you know that you did it right? It's easy, at least to, it's easy to stomach one. Like we can talk about one zero is like a harder Concept. Well, you know, let, let's, let's, uh, we're not responsible for Adam's sin, but we have that nature, okay? The reason we missed the mark is because we sin. So if we were born in the Adam, you're still going to sin because you have that nature. Got it. So let's That, well, let's bring it up to today. Just today. Ask 8 billion people on the planet. Do you think you've sinned? Okay, so how do I know I sinned? And that's why we were given the law to show us that we sinned and no man could keep it. And Christ kept it for us. So he gives us his righteousness, we give him his sin. That's the free gift. Don't a lot of people though, self included, probably well self included at some point in my, in my life, two, two things would happen if you asked that question to however many billion people are around the world. You said eight. I feel like it's less still, but we're creeping up there. Um, so two things would happen if you asked me that question. I'd say like, ask me if I've sinned today, it's 6 39 in the morning. Yes. But then I would say at, at a certain time, if, if maybe I was listening to this and I'm curious, but I'm not bought in yet. I'd say, and so what, because you go through this whole like, like, look, I only did this thing, it wasn't that bad. Or I'd say, you're right, I don't want to sin. And then it can quickly get confusing. It's like, all right, but like, if you're interested in the me, the free gift of Jesus taking that away from us forever, every single other time you do it today, tomorrow, the next day, and all the ones you did before, all finished in a single moment on the cross, I'd say, I st but I don't want to sin. But you're still gonna. And then they'd be like, well then this is a, again, a trash deal. But the key I think is you're not being saved from doing it. You're being saved from consequence of it. No. Okay. The consequence of sin is still there. Be and and look, the reason we go back to Adam is, is because you still have that sin nature in your flesh. What Christ freed us from is the guilt and penalty of sin. We're gonna, we're still gonna sin because we're human. But what happens when we accept Christ and we give God a little credit, he says, when you accept me by faith and this finished work, this free gift, I and the father will come and live in you. So what happens is that because of love, not any burden, you now don't want to sin anymore. You're freed from the penalty and the guilt of State. That's what I meant by the consequence, by the way. You're right. You're freed from the pen, the penalty of it. Yes. Not not Consequence For earthly consequences. Like if I, yeah. If I go, yep, I mean I go murder someone I and get caught, I'll still be in jail. Yeah. Like that's a consequence of it here her, Right? So we're not freed from that. But what, what's important is that that's why we talk about Adam, because that sin nature is still in us. But see, we are freed from having to be a slave to it. We're free from the penalty. And you won't hear this in church, am I free to sin? I've never heard a pastor say that. Once you accept Christ, you're Now you're being a little critical. Come on. Wait. You could hear it in a church I've never heard. Okay. A Path that's better to say that you're free to sin. And, and when we get saved, it's not a license to sin. We don't need a license. We sin You are in fact free though. But We are free to go do it. And what happens is we won't want to anymore. And that's the beauty of this free gift is that burden's not there anymore. Mm-hmm. So that's what we're freed from is the penalty and the burden and the rules and the laws. We're free from, we're free. Now think about how big this is. We are free to now walk with the God of the universe. Before we couldn't, we were separated. That's the free gift. Christ is the door. He allows us to now come into this realm where the God of the universe lives. So that's like a wow. Yeah. And It's free. That's, yeah. And for, for any, for anyone that's just like, um, I mean, it's a lot to chew on, right? Like, it's even once you, if you, if you believe it, it, it cycles through my head right. At certain times. Cause I can't, I can't even get how big that is, but I can, at least I know it's big. And then I just, I spend some time spinning my wheels a little bit about that. But ultimately I'm just thankful for how big it is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, And that's, that's The trick part. And think about what are we freed from? We could go on and on. We're freed from hell. We're freed from an eternity of damn nation into an, an eternity of bliss. We are freed. Appreciate the that one. So again, that's kind of like the thing about zero sin, one sin. I appreciate that. In a way you almost compartmentalize that when you were explaining some of the, the, the freedom because that, that is just, again, a big, big topic for, for people. Like, why should we even give Jesus a second look, talk about this. Maybe give it some time in your day, your one-on-one that would go straight to like damnation in hell. That's like, it's just so big and not here. I appreciate that you actually hit on things that would benefit me today. And that we don't have to wait for like, when we close our eyes and you're heaven or hell. Like that's, that's the really big ticket. But I like that you talked about the freedom here that you and I enjoy. Like I, we're free to go walk with God and, and live a life like I, I fe no fear, no guilt. I don't feel those things on a day-to-day basis about the things I do. Like I know that I am free and I get to enjoy that here and now. Yes. And that's, that's really big because I can't, I can't quite, um, conceptualize that really, really big one yet. That's just a bonus that's gonna be frigging awesome. But now I actually feel something incredibly different that should be of interest to people that are listening and maybe not there yet. That's what crack the door open for that crack the door for what you could actually be benefited in like today. Yes, absolutely. And you know, we don't, we don't have to die to, to have this physically die. We have it the moment that we, and you know, but I do wanna back up a little bit this, this free gift from God, even our belief and our faith, when we come to a point, we have to get over ourselves. We have to see something bigger than us. And the moment we call on him is when this starts and it's done by calling on him and having a, a sincere heart that there's something bigger. I need something bigger. And I'm miserable in this burdensome, I mean, how many people walk around with burden that's not, and that's not what scripture says. That's nothing says he won't take you. Nothing, never ever says It. No. He will take you and he finished the work. And that's what people just can't get their heads around. And, and you know, the other thing people talk about the new covenant. We're not under the new covenant. What? No, the new covenant will come about at a later time right now because of the cross. We are in a parenthetical time in the age of grace. We have the benefit of the new covenant by grace. In other words, it says that God forgets our sin. He, he, he he takes him away as far as the east is from the west. I mean, would anybody not want to be reconciled freely to an amazing God of this universe? Good segue to ask the question that I think we haven't covered yet that often, uh, used to be on, on my mind, which is, all right, we've talked about the, the bigness of that free gift and we, we made sure we keep talking about free gift. You don't have to do anything and you don't have to be enough. Like abortion come, murder come, guilt stricken person come, alcohol, drug, whatever. Come literally did it for everyone and anyone. Okay, but how do I know it's really free? So can we, what, what do you, what do you have for us? What are the, what's the cheat sheet and the nuggets on like, how do I know? It's like I don't have, like, I don't have to do anything for it, right? And because how are we ever gonna prove that one way or the other? I'm gonna start to feel this feeling like I need to pay it back. Well then it wouldn't be a gift, but you know what I mean? Like Yeah. I mean, start to think through that. So how do we know it's free? Like how can we feel confident? I'm accepting it. And because if we can understand that one that really keeps the baggage off and we can go back to, Hey, let me remind myself and ground myself, it's free. And then that leads us. I, I feel like that lets me be thankful. Just be thankful for it. But not because I have to be, but just be thankful for it and live in it, right? And rest in it. And we talk about that. We always give a shout out to Andrew Farley. Like I, that was I think a little bit game changing for me when he talks about like, just resting in it and, and scripture tells you to just rest in it. But it's like, what does that even look like? Like I can't even get there. But if I know it's free and there's actually like, there's just nothing left to do. You can actually just be thankful and like, li go live. Go live your life. You tell me like, you've got it. Go make a go, make a billion dollars if you want. Like go do whatever, like, sets you on fires. Just go like you can go be now. Well, there's a lot in that question. Um, for me, you know where I go and in scripture in many, many, many places, if we read Paul's epistles, we see all of that freedom. We see that in John 1930 when Christ died on the cross, he said it's finished. So to answer your question, where would I go? I go to the word of God and it tells me in so many places that you know, in Ephesians 2 89, were saved by grace through faith not of works unless any man should boast. So there's, it's so me. The entire, um, collection of Paul's epistles, which he became the apostle to the Gentiles, is this freedom, grace message. So, you know, it's all about grace, which is unmerited favor. Not one of us deserve to walk with a holy God. But God made a covenant with himself, not with man anymore. And we find that in Hebrews eight, he made a covenant with himself that he would reconcile us through the person of Christ. God became flesh and took away what kept us separated from God. And how on earth could we ever pay back a holy God. Free gift, Free gift. A lot of pe we talked about it before the pay it forward this. So, all right, you've just gotten, you've established it's a free gift. It's on this bigger wavelength, bigger picture, then we can possibly pay it back. So I accept that. So now my human logical brain goes to, alright, then I'll pay it forward. Like now I need to do all these other things and, and someone that wants to argue with us who then get in. See, it's not free. I gotta do all this stuff in the way. I mean for me it's pretty simple. You don't gotta do anything. None of it is going to pay. You've still got the gift. You could go sit in a box and never do another thing. You can go out and you are free to sin as we talked about. You can go make money, you can go make no money, you can go be a bodybuilder. You can go be a hermit. You'll still be free and you'll still be saved. Free gift, Right? Yeah. But a lot of people, a lot of people want to do some stuff, Right? How do you, how do you like, cuz feel, feel free to feel like because you're thankful because you've got this free and now you're free to do things and you decide to do good. Like that's awesome, right? But how do you just remind them? Don't tie that back to, don't you dare make that you trying to like shuck up there. There's a movie if people have seen, it's called Burnt. Um, is that what it's called? I think the movie's called Burnt and uh, the, the lead star effect in the very beginning he's shucking oysters and you see him shut this final oyster takes a slur and you see this little book and he hits this last tally and I think the number 10,000 or a hundred, a hundred thousand. He felt like he had app penance for effective, like something he did in his, in his in his life when he was just like a drug addict. He was a chef, like just crazy. He needed to go shut these 10,000 or a hundred thousand oysters, right? And like, he wasn't quite even paying it forward at that point. That was like how he decided he had done what he needed to do to get back to where he wanted to be. See, what you just told me though was what he, that was a key word that I caught what he thought he had to do to reconcile. So we gotta back up and give God the credit. He says, if you accept me by faith, we move into you. So when the God of the universe moves into you, you're gonna do good work. We don't do good work for salvation, but after salvation we have this want and need because we have now the love of Christ in us. We have compassion for that person. Uh, love being, um, thinking of the, of the good of the other person over yourself. And we start to take on the mind of Christ. We start to take on the heart of Christ. Why? Because he lives in us now.