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Again tonight we return to the book of Revelation and I invite you to open your Bibles to chapter 9...Revelation chapter 9. And we're looking at verses 13 through 21 in this tremendous book and I'll be reading those verses to you in just a moment.
Mankind lies between two mighty opposite spiritual spheres, both touching the earth and man directly. Each of those spheres operates to conform man to itself. And as he yields to one or the other, he becomes a companion to God or a companion to Satan, a companion to holy angels or a companion to demons, a companion to saints or a companion to sinners.
And, frankly, to doubt that reality is the most momentous mistake and the most fatal error that any human being will ever make. Heaven, one of those spheres, is calling to man through Christ Jesus. Hell, the other sphere, is calling to man through Satan. And the voices of hell have always been loud...loud enough and alluring enough to charm and seduce the world. And there is coming a day, frankly, when the sirens of hell will call with a powerful seduction, so powerful that it will drown out the voice of preachers who are calling people to heaven. The people in that day who have ignored all the powerful warnings, all the calls of mercy in the gospel, all the offers of grace will see death come upon them as never before. Judgment fierce and indestructible. And in the midst of it they will not repent. The sirens of hell will totally drown out the preachers of mercy.
In fact, they will curse the God of heaven. They will make their choice to become the companion of Satan, demons and sinners forever. And that's what this chapter is all about. Let me begin reading in verse 12. The first "woe" is past, behold two woes are still coming after these things. "And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, `Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.' And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released so that they might kill a third of mankind. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them. The riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone. And the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths; for the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents and have heads and with them they do harm. And the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts."
Here you have the blowing of the sixth trumpet and in the blowing of the sixth trumpet you have another demon attack such as in the blowing of the fifth trumpet recorded in verses 1 to 11 of the same chapter. Now remember, we are in a seven-year period in the future after the Rapture of the church called the time of the Tribulation. We are in the latter half of that period called The Great Tribulation. The Tribulation time is unfolding for us in seven-sealed manner. There is a scroll which records the takeover the earth by its rightful ruler, Christ. Each phase of that takeover is revealed as the next of seven seals is broken. The seventh seal has been broken. And upon the breaking of the seventh seal it reveals seven trumpet judgments.
We are moving toward the end of that latter half of the seven years and we are already at trumpet number six. There is only one more trumpet to blow and that trumpet contains seven bowl judgments which are rapid-fire, so we're nearing the end. We are in the seventh seal, the book is fully opened. We are in the sixth trumpet, near the last trumpet which encompasses the seven bowl judgments described in chapter 16. And when the final bowl is poured out to end the seventh trumpet which is the consummation of the seventh seal, then the Lord Jesus arrives to set up His glorious Kingdom on earth, the Millennial Kingdom.
So here we are, trumpet number six, judgment to come upon the world in the end of the age. Now remember, by this time there has been a worldwide revival, many have been redeemed, many of the redeemed have been slaughtered and they're already in heaven, a multitude too vast to number, revealed to us in chapter 7. Some of them are still on earth and they'll survive all of this. The Lord will protect them through the slaughter and the judgment and they will enter into the Kingdom in their physical bodies. So there are believers all over the earth. Israel is going to come to repentance and look on Him whom they've pierced and some of them will, as well, of course, become preachers, namely the hundred and forty-four thousand and many others and they will be used by God to preach the gospel across the earth.
It is in that scene that the seventh seal reveals the seven trumpets and we find ourselves at trumpet number six. The fifth trumpet, according to verse 12, was the first of three woes. You remember the first four trumpets had to do with judgment. Judgment, it's described for us in chapter 8, judgment on the land and judgment on the sea and judgment on the fresh water and judgment on the sky. The created universe is judged. The physical universe is judged. But the last three trumpets are called "woes," because they are more frightening judgments, more fearsome judgments. The fifth one involved a demon horde coming out of the pit and running rampant over the earth and tormenting men to the point where they wished they could die but they couldn't, and so they had to endure the torment for five months, demonic torment.
And now we come to the second of those woes and we read about it in verse 13, let's look at it. "And the sixth angel sounded..." Now if you go back to verse 2 of chapter 8 you see there the seven angels standing before God, they are angels accustomed to being in the presence of God. They have seven trumpets ready to go, five have been blown, now back to verse 13, "The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, `Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.'"
Now the first point that I want to direct you to in the unfolding of this scene is the release of the demons...the release of the demons. The sixth angels sounds his trumpet, five have already sounded, the judgments are inconceivable up to now and they will get worse. God is judging man with a final flurry of judgment called the day of the Lord. Land, plants, animals, sea, fresh water, sky, and you remember even terrifying demonic pollution has already fallen upon the earth. Hell has already opened up and belched out, as it were, millions of captive demons who had been bound there. And here comes some more to be released.
Now the voice that follows the sixth angel sounding comes from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. I need to spend a moment on this to give you some understanding of it. I heard a voice, in the Greek text it's one voice, a solitary singular voice is emphasized. Perhaps it's the voice of the Lamb, after all, He is executing this take over. It's time for Him to give His order, time for Him to speak and to judge.
The voice is not identified but the location from which it comes is identified and that tells us the Holy Spirit is laying emphasis there. Notice that it comes from one of the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. Now John had already seen this altar back in chapter 6. You remember in 6:9 to 11 that there was an altar and underneath the altar there were souls praying for vengeance? They were the souls of martyred believers who had been killed during the Tribulation time and they were underneath this altar and they were pleading for vengeance. And at the time we studied that I told you that was a heavenly counterpart to the altar of incense which is the altar symbolizing prayer or petition. In Old Testament times the altar of incense was where prayers for mercy arose. Now it's become an altar of intercession where prayers of vengeance arise. Originally a place where people of God would go symbolically as the priests took in the incense and they would there symbolically have the pleading for mercy. But already we can see that pleadings from that once known as an altar of mercy have become pleadings for vengeance.
Again in chapter 8 we see that same altar, and an angel at that altar filling up his censer with the fiery incense, according to chapter 8 verse 5, hurls that to the earth. And now we see that the golden altar which once was where you pled for mercy became an altar of vengeance where you plead for vengeance, and now not only an altar of vengeance, but actually an altar of judgment because when the angel throws the fiery coals from the altar, peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake take place.
So the altar is very, very important as it begins to unfold in its meaning. This would be a visionary replica that John sees, a heavenly replica of the golden altar of incense described in Exodus chapter 30. We don't have the time to go through all of the details but I think it would be helpful, just listen to what it says in Exodus 30 about the original altar of incense that God prescribed to be placed within the tabernacle. "You shall make an altar as a place for burning incense, you will make it of acacia wood." And then He gives its dimensions and it will have horns, little protrusions on the corners which stick up, probably really decorative more than anything, giving it a unique appearance. "You'll overlay it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around and its horns," there it is, the golden altar. "Make a gold molding all around for it, two gold rings," and so forth, further prescriptions are given. "And you shall put it...in verse 6...in front of the veil." Now remember, in the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, was the ark of the covenant. Immediately outside the Holy of Holies, outside the veil that separated men from God, for God was in the Holy of Holies, on the outside was a place called the holy place, only a priest could go there. The priest could go into the Holy of Holies only once a year, he could go into the holy place every morning and every night. And right before the veil, right before the presence of God, this golden altar of incense was to be placed, right in front of the veil that separated from the Mercy Seat, the ark of the testimony, or the ark of the covenant.
Then the priest was to go in there every morning and he was to burn incense and then he was to go back every twilight and he was to burn incense again. And then verse 10 says, "And Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year on the Day of Atonement, once a year on the altar of incense, the high priest went in and put blood. Now what that was saying was that prayers can rise, prayers for mercy, pleadings to God for grace and blessing, but only on the basis of...what?...sacrifice, only do we have access to commune with God and any right to ask for mercy on the basis of blood sacrifice. The book of Hebrews puts it this way, Christ in His sacrifice has created a new and living way, access to God.
So there were two altars then in the ancient tabernacle and temple. One was the great altar outside in the courtyard, it was called the brazen altar, or the altar of sacrifice, the altar for burnt offering. That is where the sacrificial animals were placed and consumed. That was the bloody place where atonement was made. And then on the basis of atonement the priest would take coals from that altar and take them in and put them on the golden altar, put incense there and prayers would rise, prayers for mercy and grace and blessing from God who would grant that because sin had been atoned for. It is this golden altar here, smaller than the brazen altar, made of gold, not brass, inside the holy place before the veil.
Now this gives us graphic insight into the fact that prayer and worship and communion with God, access to God, a right to plead your case was always connected to atonement, right? I mean, to make it simple, no person whose sins have not been atoned for has any access to God, is that not true? Without sacrifice to cover sin, no communion with God is available. Sacrifice opens the way to God. So the work of the golden altar, the symbolic emphasis of the golden altar was predicated on the brazen altar. And once a year to carry that symbolism fully out, the high priest on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, would go into the altar which was golden and he would put blood on it. So it was an altar where prayers rose symbolically, prayers for forgiveness, mercy, based upon the fact that sins had been atoned for.
So they always knew it as an altar of mercy. But now it has become an altar of vengeance. And an altar of judgment. And here unimaginable to the Jewish reader, a voice comes out of that very same altar where once was mercy. And the voice that cries from the horns of this altar is not a voice that says, "I forgive, I grant mercy, I grant grace," it is a voice that calls for devastating demonic destruction. And I am immediately reminded of what God said to the antediluvian civilization when He said, "My Spirit will not always strive with man." First Kings 1:50 says that in the past some Jews have clung to the horns of the altar for mercy. There is no mercy left now. The angel in chapter 8 verses 3 to 5 has let us know already that this has become an altar of judgment and the terrible, terrible scene that we see in this text certainly does confirm that.
I can't resist reading you the comment on this very scene that comes out of Hebrews chapter 10. "Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy, how much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace, and everybody who has rejected Christ in this time period and the future up to this point will have done all of that." And then he says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, the Lord will judge His people, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." This is the end of mercy, folks. This is when mercy is at its end.
And so one says, to the sixth angel, the one whose voice comes out of this altar, says to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." Now this, too, is fascinating. Who are these four angels who are bound? Well, first of all, never in Scripture does it say holy angels are bound. Why would they need to be bound? The only reason you would bind someone would be to prevent them from doing what you don't want them to do, right? Holy angels don't do what God doesn't want them to do. Did you get that? There's a lot of negatives in there. You don't have to bind holy angels to prevent them from doing what they would do against the will of God. So the fact that they are bound should make it clear to anyone that they are demons, fallen angels who need to be restrained. And this is a perfect tense verb which means that something has bound them in the past with continuing results. They are in a state or condition of having been bound. So here are four bound demons, fallen angels, they're another segment of Satan's force.
Now obviously, Satan doesn't want them bound. He'd like to have his demons running loose all over the universe all the time. The demons didn't want to get sent to the pit, you remember...Please...they pleaded to Jesus...don't send us to the pit. Satan doesn't want them bound and here's another group of four that he has bound, reminding us that God controls all the demonic forces.
Now these four are apparently in charge of a massive demon horde. Not those on the earth, not those who have been up in space battling angels who now, according to Revelation 12, have been cast down to the earth, not those who have come pouring up the shaft of the pit described in the first part of chapter 9. Here's a whole new group...a whole new horde of demons controlled by these four who are bound by God.
Now interestingly enough it says they are bound at the great river Euphrates. That is a very curious thing.
Now the immediate question to comes to my mind as I look at this is why are these demons bound at the Euphrates? Why has God got them captive there? Well if you look back a little bit in history, and I don't want to belabor this, just kind of stick with me for a few months (meant moments) I'll show you what the significance might be. It was one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden, you remember there were four rivers in the Garden of Eden, there was one and of course the one that was preflood was different than the one that was after the Flood. But the original Euphrates was in the place of Satan's deception of Adam and Eve, it was in the area where Satan first beganhis assault on man. The river Euphrates has a very interesting history. The river Euphrates begins in the Armenian mountains, some of the highest in the earth, flooded in the springtime with melting snows, it goes down to the Torres(?) Mountains and down through the Mesopotamian valley to the Persian Gulf, all the way through that area of the world. It's the most important, the longest, the biggest of all rivers in western Asia. But it was the place where sin was first known, the place where misery first began, it was the place where the first lie was told, where the first murder was committed, where the first grave was dug.
The Euphrates River was the scene of the great apostasies before and after the Flood. The Euphrates River was the scene of the rise of Israel's greatest and most oppressive enemies. The area around the Euphrates River was the scene of the long years in which the children of Israel dragged out their wearisome days of captivity. The Euphrates River was the scene of the rise of those great world empires that oppressed God's people, Babylon, Medo-Persia. They're in that place. Four great powerful demons, magnets of evil are chained by God. And they have in their hands the power to do awful destruction but God restrains them.
The Euphrates, according to Genesis, Deuteronomy and Joshua, was also the eastern boundary of the Promised Land. It was also the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire which is to be restored and revived at this time under the Antichrist. It is the place where the city of Babylon is, and you will remember in Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 both the final form of world religion and the final form of world economy are called Babylon. These could well be the very demons who controlled Babylon of old, who controlled Medo-Persia of old, who controlled Greece of old, who controlled the Roman Empire of old. Interestingly enough in Daniel, just a brief note, in Daniel chapter 10, just a couple of verses to read to you, verse 13, "The prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty one days..." that's a demon who was leading Persia from the satanic vantage point and Michael had to go and get him out of the way. Down in verse 20, "Do you understand why I came to you, I am now going to return to fight against the prince of Persia so I am going forth and behold the prince of Greece is about to come." So you can see that there were demons associated with these various great empires with Persia, with Greece, certainly with Babylon and certainly with Rome and it may well be that those four great world empires had four great demonic powers over them and these are they. And they've been held prisoner.
Something else, as Satan had entered Eden and corrupted Eden in that same location, later on in that same part of the world he started another corruptive influence, the result of which is still going on because it wasn't drowned like his first corrupt effort. It's the Tower of Babel, the original Babylon in that same area of the world. And out of that complex of religions that was spawned from the Tower of Babel came this complexity of pagan religiosity that involves astrology, pantheism, polytheism, idolatry, spiritism, naturalistic philosophy, all of that garbage has penetrated all over the world and it was originated at the Tower of Babel. And when all of that was scattered and the languages were scattered, they took the religion, the false religion of Babel and populated the world with it. So you see the Euphrates is a demonic area.
You look at it today and it is utterly and totally without any Christian influence. That part of the world is as pagan as pagan gets. It is as anti-Christian as anti-Christianity can be. So, here are these four demons and they're bound there and that seems to be the focus of their activity in the world. And, of course, its proximity to Israel makes it a good launching point for all that they would want to do to destroy the people of God, Israel.
So here are these four demons and the angel blows and the voice says, "Release them." The release of the demons leads to a second point, the return of death...the return of death. Remember, death had taken a holiday under trumpet number five, according to verses 5 and 6. People couldn't die, they tried to die and they couldn't die. They tried to kill themselves and it didn't work. Now death returns, verse 15, "And the four angels who had been prepared...look at this...for the hour and day and month and year were released and immediately they killed a third of mankind." Who released them? God did. And God will now use them in the continuing destruction of the world.
What does that phrase "for the hour and day and month and year" mean? Really very obvious. At the prescribed year in the prescribed month at the exact day and the very hour which God has designed it to happen, that's when it will happen. Matthew 24:36, they were asking when is the Kingdom going to come and when is the Messiah going to come, and all of that. And Jesus said it's not for you to know the day or the hour, but God knows. He knows the day and the hour of everything. The Father in heaven knows, said the Son of Man. God has His limits and God has His timetable and at the right year in the right month on the right day at the right hour those demons are going to be released and immediately they're going to kill a third of mankind.
Back in chapter 6 verse 8 when the fourth seal was opened, one fourth of the world was killed. Now I'm not a great mathematician but I know if you add one fourth to one third you get over half. So now...by now over half the world is killed, to say nothing of the ones that have been slaughtered in the wars and the pestilences and everything and the world has been absolutely decimated. Far more than a half of the original population that went into the time known as the Tribulation have died. Just the burial of these bodies would be an inconceivable problem. And now here in a very brief matter of time, one third of the remaining world is massacred. They must just be pushing bodies into huge holes to bury them or burn them. It would take some kind of massive force to kill a third of the population of the world and this is some force.
Verse 16 describes their number. "The number of the armies, plural, of the horsemen was two hundred million." Two hundred million...and he says, "I heard the number of them," that's how many. Now remember, there are already the demons that have been running all over the earth all along. They're already the demons who have been in space all along and are now cast to the earth. And then the pit has released a massive demon horde of certainly millions of demons there, and there are still two hundred million more of them that have been bound and are now released...supernatural demon army.
Now some have suggested that this is a human army. Some have said it's going to be the Red Chinese army because in the seventies they did number two hundred million. Some have said it's probably the army from the north described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. And those who want to connect it with a human force usually associate this verse with chapter 16 verse 12, the kings of the east, the drying up of the Euphrates River so the kings of the east can come and they would say, "Well this is the two hundred million coming from Asia, certainly there would be enough people there to make an army that size if the Red Chinese Army in the seventies had two hundred million. And you see that the Euphrates River has dried up and these people come marching."
The problem with that is it's in connection with the bowl judgments which fit into the seventh trumpet, not the sixth. And it doesn't describe an army of two hundred million anyway, it just says the kings of the east. But they say it could be this same group and we now know it's possible to dry up the Euphrates. I don't know if you've been reading about the Ataturk(?) Dam. The Ataturk Dam is in Turkey. One man can walk in and push one button and dry up the Euphrates basically, taking it down seventy-five...to its fullness to seventy-five percent down to just twenty-five percent of its normal flow and do that rather simply.
But I believe the sixth bowl judgment comes later and we'll show you why as we move through the book and looks at a different army and that that is the issue of Armageddon. And I don't see this as a human army. If this was a human army of men and women marching across the land, it would be pretty big. If it were just a mile wide, it would be a hundred miles deep. That's a lot of people. And how could they march and kill a third of the world? I mean, how could they move across mountains and oceans and all of that? Those who see it as a human army when they get into the description that we read in verse 17 and following see those descriptions as descriptions of guns and helicopters and jet aircraft and tanks and rockets. The problem is, he describes all of them like that, so it would have to be two hundred million of those things, those human weapons, human machines.
The language, I think, is better understood of a demon force, particularly when it's connected to four demons who are being held back. So the cosmic war, a war of hell is hitting the earth with all its force. And it's certainly going to appear as if hell is all over the world.
Verse 17, "This is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them, they had breastplates and the colors...notice these, please...the colors were fire, hyacinth and brimstone." Now this is an amazing description...fire, hyacinth or jacinth, you could translate it either way. The color of fire is what? Red. The color of brimstone, brimstone represents a sulphur gas, the color of it would be yellow, sulfuric gas. The color of hyacinth is anything from blue to black. The red of fire, the blue/black of burning smoke and a yellow sulphur gas, the colors of hell...the colors of hell.
"And the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions," that's descriptive language in his vision, God has to represent to him to the demons in some way that he can see them visually, the vision is of these lion-headed beings, that means fierce, strong, determined, stalking their victims to slaughter. And then he says, "Out of their mouths," verse 17 at the end, "proceed fire and brimstone...fire and smoke and brimstone."
This is like again the representation of the fury of hell, the devastating power that they carry is frightening. The power has an effect, verse 18, a third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.
You say, "Can demons kill?" Sure, people can kill and demons are supernatural. Remember the demon possessed boy in the gospel account, what did he keep doing to himself? Throwing himself where? In the fire. And they do it. They kill with fire, burning people to a crisp. They kill with smoke, suffocating people. You know, of course, that people in fires, as many who...many of those who die as many die from smoke inhalation as die from flames. And sulphur gas asphyxiates them, the very gas of hell, the fire and fury and smoke out of the pit. It's really an absolutely frightening scene.
In chapter 14 verse 10 talks about the wrath of God mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever. Those are the people who worship the beast. Over in chapter 19 verse 20, the beast, false prophet, are thrown into the lake of fire and what is it? It's fire which burns with brimstone. Chapter 20 verse 10, "The devil who was deceived is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone." Chapter 21 verse 8, "The lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone, again which is the second death." Burning, suffocating and being asphyxiated with sulphur gas or gas of some kind.
If that isn't enough, John has to add verse 19. "The power of the horses is in their mouths," and then he adds a new component, "and in their tails, they seem to create devastation in both directions. Their tails are like serpents and have heads and with them they do harm." And again, remember now, this is a vision, this is imagery, and the Lord is representing to him their destructive power in some visualization: horses, lions, serpents. Those are things that he can understand because they're devastating and destructive things, powerful things. It can't describe men. And since each of the two hundred million are so described, it can't be describing two hundred million rocket launchers. Some commentators say..well these are rocket launchers coming out the back side of these guys and guns coming out the front side of them...and try to make it into humans. It doesn't seem that that's the best understanding.
So, the sixth trumpet will blow and then this...the release of demons and the return of death. Now remember, folks, don't push this off into some nebulous non-descript place, this is our world here. This is the same world we live in with newspapers and television, with schools and colleges and universities and people going to work and doing jobs and trying to eat and live and get married and raise their kids and do the normal things that everybody does, and it's just coming down around them in inconceivable destruction.
There's another point that ends it, the release of demons and return of death and the reaction of defiance. You know, I say to myself, "If I were an unbeliever and I were in this situation, I'd be converted, wouldn't you?" I mean, I'd fall on my face. But by now you have to remember the people of the world have seen it all, they've seen the furious judgments, they've seen the devastation of everything they treasure. They've seen the evil of Antichrist, Satan and demons. They've heard relentless and miraculous preaching of the gospel of Christ. They have been given grace and mercy as a gift that they will not take. Some have received and some have died as martyrs and some have been protected to enter the Kingdom alive. But there's still a mass of humanity that will not believe. It's amazing the hardness of heart. And verse 20 says, "And the rest of mankind," that would be the remaining two thirds that were not killed by these plagues, "did not...what?...repent." It's unimaginable, absolutely unimaginable.
By the way, may I remind you, and I hate to do this all the time but it's so important, repentance is always the issue. If people don't repent, they perish. Repent of what? Sin. That's why Luke 24:47 says that repentance is to be preached to all nations. But if they're so hard and they've made it all the way through to this point, they're not going to repent. It says it. They didn't repent. Verse 21 starts, "And they didn't repent." It says it twice. And when the seventh trumpet blows and the bowl judgments start, look at chapter 16, verse 1, "Go pour out the seven bowls of wrath." What happens? Verse 9, "The fourth bowl, they were scorched with fire," did they repent? No, they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues and they didn't repent.
Verse 11, "They blasphemed the God of heaven when the fifth bowl was poured and didn't repent." Verse 21, huge hundred pound hailstones coming out of heaven, they blasphemed God because of the plague. You see, they've reached the point now of resolute hardness. They have yielded to the sphere of hell. They have embraced Satan, demons, death. They literally worship Satan.
Chapter 12 verse 9 says that the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. They buy into his deception. Verse 4 of chapter 13, they worship the dragon. They're Satan worshipers, a world of them.
And in the end of this vision John identifies five sins that are representative of their defiance, five sins. One, idolatry--idolatry. They didn't repent of the works of their hands. Well what does that mean? The idols they make. Their manmade gods. In ancient times they actually replicated their gods in wood. He talks about it. Wood, stone, brass, silver, gold idols which can't hear, see or walk, they are nothing, they are not alive, but men make their own gods and here they are and they still won't turn from their own god. You say, "What's important about that?" The important point is that those gods aren't able to cope with what's happening. But they are so resolutely committed to their gods that in spite of the inability of their gods to do anything, they stick with them. Contrast that with the group on the ship we talked about regarding Jonah, who when their gods couldn't do anything to stop the storm and Jonah's God did it, they immediately turned to his God. Not this group, this is how deep and resolute their unbelief has become.
Please note in the middle of verse 20, "So as not to worship demons." Listen, anybody who worships any idol, any false god is worshiping a demon. Psalm 96:5, the Septuagint version says, "All idols are demons." What do you mean? You make a little idol and you decide you're going to bow down to it, and even though it's wood, stone, gold, silver or whatever, a demon will come along, impersonate the god you think is in that idol, and do enough stuff in response to your homage to that god to keep you hooked to a false idol. That's why the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, "You cannot come to the table of the Lord and then go in your idol house and worship demons," 1 Corinthians 10. Idol worship in one sense is worshiping nothing. In another sense it is worshiping the demon impersonating the nothing. They worship the dragon, they worship the beast out of the pit, they worship the demons. This is Satan worship gone wild.
We already have it, don't we in our world? At this point it becomes pandemic, endemic. This time of the world's history idolatry, mysticism, spiritualism, spiritism, all kinds of things that involve Satan and the occult and the underworld and demons will be in full force. And everyone, John 3:20 says, who does evil hates the light and doesn't come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. Evil will be running amuck like never before. And people will be deep into it and when judgment comes they'll plunge even deeper into it. And the forms of their idolatry will accommodate the unbridled, unrestrained wickedness that's out of control and they'll be so deeply in love with their sin that they'll worship the demons and Satan who is happy to have them sin to whatever degree they would like. Sin such as, verse 21, murder. They've been killing now and they've tasted blood. And they like the taste of it. They've been killing Jews. They've been killing Christians. They've been killing each other for years by now. Violent crime is out of control. Law and order is long gone into history. You have a wretched society of wicked people who will not respond to God or to the gospel, and they are literally infested with demons all over the place. They have long abandoned any sense of sanity or morality, unbridled worldwide bloodshed. They have tasted blood, they have murdered and they're not about to stop.
And then he mentions sorceries. Interesting word in the Greek, pharmakeia from which we get pharmacy, pharmaceutics, drugs. This is a word that is bigger than just drugs, although it literally could be translated druggings. Whatever it is that they use to dull their senses, whatever it is that they use to induce their satanic worship, whatever impure occultic practices they use to get in deep to their witchcraft, drunkenness, drugs, seances, hypnotism, incantations, mystic mantras, whatever induces their religious experience, cavorting with mediums, spirits and the deceptions of Satan. They're not about to let go of that. That, too, will be rampant. We see that coming, don't we?, in the New Age. We even see the murders coming. Certainly in our society we do.
The fourth of the sins which they will not turn away from is immorality, porneia, from which we get pornography. Sexual sin will go on unchecked. If you think homosexuality, rape, pedophilia, child molestation and bestiality, lewdness, and fornication are going strong now, you couldn't even conceive of what they would be like then. Sexual dissipation and perversion beyond description.
And then he adds thefts. Honesty will be non-existent. There will be no reprisals left. The world is left wretched, full of immoral killers who worship Satan, demons, who are drugged out of their minds by their mystic incantations and drugs themselves who follow their impulses to destroy and plunder. And nobody can do anything about it.
That's what's coming and there's still one trumpet and seven bowls of judgment left. But our Lord is compassionate. And the reason all these warnings are here is for us. Vance Havner(?), famous southern preacher, said, "The real test of how much we believe of prophetic truth is what we're doing to warn men to flee from the wrath to come. To believe the solemn truths of prophecy...he said...and then make our way complacently through a world of sin and shame is not merely unfortunate, it is criminal," end quote.
Even God said, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. Why will you die?"
This, ladies and gentlemen, if nothing else is a missionary mandate, is it not? We look in the eyes of a world headed for this. And as bad as it is, it isn't as bad as hell itself. And though unbelievers may never experience this because they will die before it happens, they'll experience something far worse, if we could even imagine such a thing.
He's right, it's not just unfortunate if we don't tell them, it's criminal.
Father, we thank You tonight that You have given us this vision. We...we're now responsible for it, it is frightening. We think about what it says in the little epistle of Jude, that You're coming to execute judgment, judgment on the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against You. And then we remember that it is our responsibility to snatch them out of the fire. Lord, help us to do that before it's too late. For the sake of Christ, we pray. Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


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subset: commoncrawl


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一定牛快三走势图:Search For Jobs
Search For Jobs
How do I perform a keyword search?
北京快三一定牛 www.sjj4.cn The Keyword search field is a powerful tool that can help you find the exact jobs you are looking for.
You can search jobs for a single word or a phrase. Keyword searches effectively search as though a wildcard were appended to each search term. Thus a keyword search for engineer also finds engineering, engineered, engineers. Keyword searches will find jobs that contain matching words or phrases in any searchable job field including job title, job description, etc.
Avoid using quotes or punctuation such as commas.
You can use boolean operators in the Keyword field to get more specific search results. These searches do an "exact match" search. That is, a boolean search for asp OR engineer finds only those exact forms of the two words. Use the * wildcard with search terms in boolean searches if you want other forms of the words considered in your results. Searching for asp OR engineer* will include engineering, engineered, engineers, etc, just as searching for engineer would. Please note that non-English users must still use the English boolean operators. For example, if you are performing a boolean search in French, you cannot type "Unix ET NT", you must type "Unix AND NT".
|Search trick (Boolean operator)
|What it does
|Finds multiple words or phrases.
|java AND basic
Will find jobs with both of those exact words within the job description. (Use wildcard to consider other forms of the search terms, such as javascript). This operator is not case-sensitive.
|Finds either one word or the other.
|java OR basic
Finds either exact word separately, but could find both words in some instances. (Use wildcard to consider other forms of the search terms, such as javascript). This operator is not case-sensitive.
|Finds the first word on a page that does not include the second word.
|java AND NOT basic
Will only return a job description with the word "java" but without the word "basic". (Use wildcard to consider other forms of the search terms, such as javascript). This operator is not case-sensitive.
|Finds words that start with or end with your search string.
Will find "telecom", "telecommute", "telecommunications", and "telephone". Do NOT use the asterisk to specify the first character of a string.
Will find bi-lingual, bilingual, multi-lingual, multilingual, etc.
|( )
|Groups words or phrases. Other search terms can appear inside parentheses.
|(java AND basic) AND NOT engineer
Will find a page with the words "java" and "basic", but not "engineer". Do NOT use ( ) around single words.


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Most of us every day cycle to work Dutch folk tend to have music on when we pedal. I'm guessing that a fair number of you more serious cyclists (or joggers) here listen to music while you're training or just riding. So why not have a music topic where we post what we like, what we're listening to (doesn't exclusively have to be music for on the bike), and maybe turn someone else on to something cool or get turned on to something new?
Sounded like a good idea to me anyway. I'll start off with my main man (there's a really cool story behind this but I'll save it for when/if this topic takes off), Joe Bonamassa
I expect that most, if not all, of you will say, 'who'? He's a 31 year old blues rock guitarist who I think has the potential to become the 'Clapton' of his age, at least as far as reputation is concerned. Joe is awesomely talented, even if you're not a fan of the genre known as 'blues rock'. Joe inhabits the same world as people like Walter Trout, Sonny Landreth, the Allman Brothers, Warren Haynes (Govt. Mule), the late Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others. I urge you to check him out if you're at all a fan of this kind of music.
His website - http://www.jbonamassa.com/ has loads of samples and free music and there is tons of his stuff on youtube. I'll happily recommend songs to start with if anyone is interested.
I listen to Joe practically every day. I absolutely love his stuff! Discovering Joe's music changed my life. No ****. I also listen to Michael Burks, Bonnie Raitt, Dana Fuchs and many others whom none of you will have heard of!
But hey, whatever your taste, whatever you're listening to that you'd like to share because it's just so good, post it here and let's see where it takes us.


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Ignore all the Jadeveon Clowney talk. The NFL draft prospect most similar to Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor is Khalil Mack, a once-unheralded linebacker from the University at Buffalo who stepped right out of a scout's dream
Nearly everything about University at Buffalo outside linebacker Khalil Mack screams that he'll be a dominating presence in the NFL. That's why you've heard him regularly mentioned as a top five or six pick, with a chance at being the top overall pick. Nothing's for certain when it comes to drafting NFL players, but the odds are tilted toward Mack fulfilling his promise.
He's got everything a team is looking for, especially most 3-4 teams, physically and on film. Mack has very good size at 6 feet, 2½ inches and 251 pounds. With 33¼-inch arms, he plays even bigger because that length is longer than the reach of many left tackles, so Mack can stack and shed their blocks. Mack has very good speed (4.66 seconds in the 40-yard dash), quickness (7.08 in three-cone drill; an unreal 4.18 in the short shuttle) and explosiveness (a freakish 40-inch vertical jump and a 10-8 broad jump).
Basically, if you were to input ideal physical attributes for a 3-4 outside linebacker into a computer, Mack would be very close to the living and breathing result. Forget all the talk comparing Jadeveon Clowney to Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor (so far off base), Mack is the much closer comparison, especially when you factor in his relentlessness and passion. Mack's just not quite as fast Taylor was.
And with Mack, the tape also matches up. He can be effective playing so many different ways, it's truly impressive for a college prospect. Mack can use power to shove back a future NFL tackle like Ohio State's Jack Mewhort; Mack also beat Mewhort with quickness. How about showing off vast athleticism by avoiding Mewhort's cut block, picking off the pass and then returning it for a touchdown? Mack possesses such a wide array of skills, you can easily make the projection that he can play anything from 4-3 end to just about any linebacker position in any scheme. Just watch the variety of plays Mack makes in the final quarter plus (in a blowout loss, but nonetheless) against San Diego State. That only enhances his appeal.
Against Ohio State Mack was the best player on the field. That's where most of the public and the media will stop. But there are some concerns that should be pointed out before Mack gets drafted in the top 10.
Even coming from Buffalo, where he didn't face good competition on a weekly basis, isn't of great concern when you consider that DeMarcus Ware, a four-time All-Pro, finished at Troy University with 27 sacks and 55.5 tackles for loss. Mack left Buffalo with 28.5 sacks and 75 tackles for loss, performing against the lesser competition exactly as he should have to project to the next level. And when he got the chance against Ohio State, Mack was the best player on the field.
If you stop right there, Mack deserves to be picked in the top five and is headed toward great success, especially when you factor in the reports that he's humble, a hard worker and plays his tail off (except for the end of a blowout loss against Baylor). Maybe we should stop right there. Certainly, the general public and most of the media will, and some NFL teams will as well. But I know some NFL teams haven't, and there are some concerns out there that should be pointed out before Mack gets drafted in the top 10.
The Ohio State game
Mack was on most teams' radar as a late first-round to second-round prospect entering his senior season. His 2.5 sacks and interception for a touchdown against the Buckeyes boosted his prospects dramatically. Making those kinds of plays against an opponent who will be in the NFL at some point, either at right or left tackle, impresses scouts a great deal. But the issue with Mack's performance against Ohio State is that besides those three plays, nearly all of his production came against sophomore right tackle Taylor Decker, who isn't considered an NFL prospect, or against tight ends and guards.
For example, look at the consecutive plays on this clip and another sack on this clip. This is not going to happen on Sundays; what he faced on those plays wasn't NFL-caliber competition. Not convinced? Watch Decker give up this easy sack to another Buffalo player. You can't simply say "Look at the Ohio State tape" when assessing Mack, without putting it in the proper context. (Never mind the fact that NFL teams hate looking at Ohio State offensive tape, both to gauge the Buckeyes' offense and opposing defenses, because it's not comparable to the pro game.) There's certainly a lot to like about Mack's play against the Buckeyes—especially going against Mewhort and showing downfield hustle—but it shouldn't be used as an open and shut case for why Mack will dominate at the pro level.
Finishing plays
Probably the biggest concern among critical NFL teams is that Mack, even though he made a lot of plays, left a good number on the field as well. His standout athleticism allowed him to win at ease on most plays, but he has not shown himself to be a good finisher. Watch any film of Mack, against any opponent, and you will see examples of this. Just a few: here, here, here, here, and getting knocked down by running backs on back-to-back plays here. This is an issue, because if Mack couldn't close out plays with regularity in the MAC, how is he suddenly going to do it in the NFL? Some players, even as limited athletes, are born closers, and that makes up for what they lack in athleticism. Some players don't fulfill their potential as game-changers because they don't finish enough plays. A variety of reasons could explain this, including a lack of optimal instincts during a play. That's what some teams are concerned about with Mack. Also, while he certainly plays with physicality at the point of attack when his responsibility calls for it, he is not quite as good when he has to read and react (this shows up more on the coaches' film than the TV copy).
Special teams
Players can be schemed against to limit their effectiveness, but one place you are sure to gauge a player's play speed and desire is on special teams. Mack played on the punt teams at Buffalo, and if there was any big disappointment with his game, this is where it showed up. Mack didn't display the same passion on special teams as he did for defense.
Bottom line
After watching six games of Mack on coaches' film, I think that while concerns about some of his weaknesses should be noted and monitored, they don't bother me very much. I'm even willing to look past the special teams issues because Mack was playing his tail off on defense and probably shouldn't have even been on those units. (Some coaches will disagree with this). If Mack is on an NFL special teams unit, I'm confident he'll give a more complete effort. I also think some of Mack's issues finishing plays had to do with being too fast and too explosive, because he hasn't yet become completely comfortable with his playing speed. That will no longer be a problem when the game slows down and he matures as a player and is able to harness his talent. Once Mack reaches that point (the time can vary wildly by player), he will be a terrific all-around player. When you combine his impressive explosiveness, length and obvious passion for the game, it's difficult not to see Mack becoming a top player at his position—whatever that may be (optimally 3-4 outside linebacker) within three years. While I do have some concerns about whether or not Mack is a top-five talent in this draft class, it doesn't make sense to argue over a few spots. The verdict here is five years down the road, when Mack will be viewed as at least a top-10 talent in a talented draft class. He may not come from a big-time football power, but there's nothing small-time about his game when projecting it to the pro level.


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- Home
- Accessories
- All Nylon Thread
- Size Z69 Thread
- Thread Size Z69 - Dark Brown
Product Description
Durable, bonded, hi-strength American Efird nylon thread.
Available in a variety of colors and sizes.
See the Needle and thread Guide for more information.
Works with the Boss Leather Stitcher Sewing Machine http://www.tippmannindustrial.com/tippmann-boss-leather-sewing-machine-p-29.html
Product Reviews
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India is becoming one of the largest auto mobile hubs in Asia and world over. There are many multinational car brands foray into Indian markets, and government also welcome proposals of establishing factories to manufacture new cars in India. Ever since India adopted Open Door policy in 1991, international cars are available at very reasonable prices; this has given local car makers a good run for their money. Domestic car manufacturers have revised their new cars price as latest car models became more popular in India.
Today, we can see posh cars like Aston Martin, Bentley, Datsun, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Renault, Skoda, Toyota, Ssangyong Rexton, Volkswagen, Volvo and more running on Indian roads. West Bengal, Gujarat and Haryana are three biggest hubs of new car in India. As India boasts rising middle-class and upper middle-class, markets of small cars have also opened up and shown tremendous growth in the last decade. Many four-seaters hatchbacks are up for grab; sedans are also in great demand as business class like to travel in luxury cars. However, there is a huge opportunity for Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in India as Indian roads throw tough challenges for drivers to drive carefully. With countless potholes and speed-breakers, SUVs are preferred partners.
This store allows you to take right decision to buy cars online; check specifications and features of all cars and get the best 2014 car price in India.


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Looking for something to do this week? Check out our list of everything going on from 12/5-12/11.
MOVIES OPENING (Friday; subject to change)
New Year's Eve
The Sitter
The Young Turks (series debut; 7 p.m.; Current)
Gossip Girl (midseason finale; 8 p.m.; The CW)
The Sing-Off (christmas special; 8 p.m.; NBC)
American Country Awards (special; 8 p.m.; Fox)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (special; 8 p.m.; ABC)
The Mortified Sessions (series debut; 8 p.m.; Sundance)
T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle (series debut; 9 p.m.; VH1)
The Long Island Serial...


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Keynote Speaker
Dr. George C. Wright
President, Prairie View A&M University
Dr. George C. Wright, noted African-American scholar, is the seventh President of Prairie View A&M University, the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas. Offering baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees through nine colleges and schools, Dr. Wright now leads the 129-year old HBCU with an established reputation for producing thousands of African American engineers, nurses and educators. A member of the Texas A& M University System, the University is dedicated to fulfilling its land-grant mission of achieving excellence in teaching, research and service.
Prior to joining the Prairie View A&M University family, Dr. Wright was Executive Vice-President for academic affairs and provost at the University of Texas at Arlington. Prior to assuming that post, he was provost and vice president for academic affairs with increasing responsibilities from 1995 to 1998. In 1993, he joined the faculty at Duke University as vice provost for university programs and director of the Afro-American studies program at Duke University. At Duke, he also held the William R. Kenan, Jr., Chair in American History. From 1980 to 1993, he served as an assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and was the holder of the Mastin Gentry White Professorship of Southern History, and vice provost for undergraduate education at the University of Texas at Austin. His wealth of experience in higher education began as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky in 1977.
Dr. Wright has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and awards. At the University of Texas at Austin, he received the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence, the "Eyes of Texas" Award for excellence in service and the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Award for "Outstanding Black Faculty Member." He was awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship at Harvard University and was the Friar Society Centennial Fellow for Teaching Excellence, the Silver Spurs Centennial Teaching Fellow and the Lillian and Tom B. Rhodes Centennial Teaching Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
To his credit, Dr. Wright is the author of three books, which include: A History of Blacks in Kentucky: In Pursuit of Equality, 1890-1980, Volume II; Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865-1940: Lynchings, Mob Rule, and "Legal Lynchings", and the Life Behind a Veil: Blacks in Louisville, Kentucky, 1865-1930. He was presented the Governors Award by the Kentucky Historical Society for Lynchings, Mob Rule, and "Legal Lynchings", and the Life Behind a Veil: Blacks in Louisville, Kentucky. He currently has another book in progress, a biography of Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin: A "Forgotten" Afro-American Leader and has published numerous articles, chapters in books and essays.
Active in his community, Dr. Wright has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the City of Arlington Chamber Foundations and the Medical Center of Arlington. He has also served as a member of the Editorial Board for the Southern Biography Series at Louisiana State University, the Board of Editors of the Journal of Southern History and the Southern Historical Association Program Committee.
A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. Wright received his bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in history from the University of Kentucky and his doctorate in history from Duke University. In 2004 Dr. Wright was awarded an honorary doctorate of Letters from the University of Kentucky.


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Neptune with Dark Spot (Blue Light)
The semi-major axis of Neptune's orbit about the sun is 30.06 astronomical units (roughly 2.8 billion miles or 4.5 billion kilometers).
Neptune has a diameter of roughly 30,800 miles (49,600 kilometers) at the equator.
Data were provided by the HST proposal 14492: M.H. Wong (PI), I. de Pater, J. Tollefson, and K. de Kleer (UC Berkeley), H. Hammel (Space Science Institute), S. Cook (AMNH), R. Hueso and A. Sanchez-Lavega (University of the Basque Country, Spain), A. Simon (NASA/GSFC), M. Delcroix (French Astronomical Society, SAF), L. Sromovsky and P. Fry (University of Wisconsin, Madison), G. Orton (JPL), and C. Baranec (University of Hawaii, Manoa).
This image is a single, monochrome filter that isolated blue light (F467M) was used to record overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image.
Blue: F467M


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Set yourself apart
This Collectibles section is where we store our primo prop replicas and our drool-worthy statues with zero points of articulation. These plaques, weapons, costume pieces, and dioramas are the objects of desire you buy furniture explicitly for. They proudly and loudly declare you a true fan. True fan of what? Well, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Batman... basically, whatever else amazing we discover in our travels through the universe.


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Full name Martyn Thomas
Born date unknown
Other Administrator
Thomas is currently the acting chief executive of the Rugby Football Union and served as chairman of the RFU's management board between April 2005 and July 2011.
Chairman of Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire RFU between 1996 and 2005 and Midland Counties from 1999 to 2005, he was elected to the RFU Council in July 2001. In 2005, he beat Jack Rowell to the position of chairman of the RFU board and two years later he became one of the RFU's two representatives on the International Rugby Board Council and Six Nations Committee.
He was at the forefront of the RFU's successful bid to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup and is chairman of the company charged with delivering the tournament - that will be staged in England.
In 2009, Thomas joined the RFU's 'Image of the Game' task group in the wake of the 'Bloodgate' scandal but was mired in controversy of his own in 2011 revolving around the hiring and firing of former RFU chief executive John Steele.
Steele spent less than a year in the role before losing the confidence of the management board in his efforts to recruit a performance director. He stepped down from the role to be replaced by Thomas on an interim basis. Thomas later stood down from his role as chairman following a review into the affair but will continue in his other roles.
Educated at Mill Hill School, he played rugby and other sports for the Old Millhillians. On completion of his secondary education he trained as a solicitor, being articled in the City of London and attending the College of Law. After private practice he moved to the commercial sector, managing firstly a financial investment group and thereafter a European meat export group.
He coached Market Rasen's first XV and their minis, juniors and colts in the 1980s and '90s before taking up the whistle with the Notts, Lincs and Derbyshire Referee Society. Chairman of Market Rasen & Louth from 1989-1998, he became a Lincolnshire County Union Committee member from 1994-98 and was Chairman of the Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire Referee Society during the same period. Thomas joined the RFU's Competitions Sub Committee and Club Finance Sub Committee in 2002.
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Beautifully Inked Red Cross Pin Stripe and Rhinestones on genuine black leather Hair Glove.
Great for placing your hair back when doing active sports also. Looks appealong as well with many colorful designs if you choose. This is definetly a conversation piece and all your friends will ask about it.
The Hair Glove is a hair management system that prevents knotting and tangling while keeping hair protected from damaging elements.
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Date/Time: 08 June 2018 - 11:00 to 12:00
Event Type: Living with MS Programme
Organiser: South East: Una Goan, Community Worker
Region: South East
St Louis Day Care Centre,
Co Wexford
Brief Description Of Event:
Physiotherapist led exercise programme for people with MS.
Contact Details:
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This week Rosie Farrell talks about grief and in particular, how she has dealt with depression. Read on for an enlightening piece on what can be a very challenging experience. The way we each deal with grief varies. The grieving process is anything but linear; something that my rational side hates. I've had so many people tell me at different points that I've been in denial - that I've got to allow myself to grieve. So my brain constructed the stages of grief as this box-ticking-type exercise that had to be completed and at the end you would have this magical sense of acceptance. But grieving can't be forced. It may have taken me months to shed a single tear, but 'denial' allowed me to run a half marathon, refusing to be stopped by a disease that eventually did just that, and a year later it allowed me to view a wheelchair as my ticket to freedom rather than a symbol of what had been lost. After diagnosis I started to hear about the grieving process and how depression is a part of that. I started to fear that feeling sad about my MS would trigger my depression again. I was first diagnosed with depression at the age of 10 after enduring horrendous bullying at school. After that, I struggled with depression throughout my teens, thinking the way I felt was normal and would never change. How wrong I was. Pieta House in 2010 saved me, they helped lift the veil and behind it was this amazing world I was ready to leap into. They set me free and I'll be forever grateful. I had three beautiful years before my MS diagnosis. I felt like I was living for the first time. In a way, when the diagnosis came in 2015, that attitude was what got me through. I knew I had survived depression and I was going to survive this too, I was going to learn to live with it because I still so strongly wanted to taste all that the world has to offer. The fear of becoming depressed if I allowed myself to get upset about my MS, however, took me down the path I wanted to avoid. The depression I feel with MS is totally alien to what I experienced before; it's wrapped up in a daily struggle to survive with a host of symptoms and pain that often reduces me to tears. It's wrapped up in a loss of identity, the loss of a version of myself I felt I'd only just found. I remember watching the "It's the little things" advert about depression. But what happens when you live with a disease where the little things are often impossible? Sadly depression in the context of chronic illness is never addressed, particularly in the context of where it's a symptom of damage caused by the disease or a side effect of disease-modifying treatment. My MS and pain flared up this winter: knocking my confidence after an amazing summer. I isolated myself from the world around me. Yes, with MS there often comes a crippling loneliness when you spend an increased amount of time at home due to pain and fatigue, but this was different - I wasn't just lonely, I was losing all sense of myself and it had crept up on me. I didn't want to go outside and when I did it would fill me with dread. I knew it was time to ask for help again. With MS, no two days are ever the same. Nor is the way we grieve, so it's totally understandable that someone would need help in order to make sense of it all. Asking for help this time was as much about a preventative treatment as anything else because it stopped me getting to where I had been in the past and it taught me how to manage the grieving in a healthier way. Whether acceptance truly exists I don't know, but I do know that despite how hard life with MS can be, it can also be beautiful and enjoyable in totally unexpected ways. There will always be tough days but know that you're not alone, you've got through them before and you will do so again. And it's true; you'll never be the person you were before MS. That's because the person you are now is far stronger and more resilient than ever before. Even if it doesn't always feel that way, know that you are amazing and trust in yourself because you've got this. Further information and resources Rosie Farrell is chief sub-editor and designer with Irish Country Living. She blogs at www.sherunswithms.wordpress.com For more information download MS Ireland's booklet on MS and depression If you feel you need to talk to someone, here are some organisations that may help: The MS Information Line: 1850 233 233 The Samaritans: Freephone 116-123 or email email@example.com Pieta House: Freephone 1800 247 247 or visit www.pieta.ie Aware: Freephone 1800 80 48 48 or visit www.aware.ie For a list of therapists in your area, visit www.iacp.ie or talk to your GP
On Fathers Day Niall McGahon shares his thoughts on life with MS and being a Dad to Seán (2 years old) and newborn Robyn I am a father, not to just one little being in the shape of the handsome 2-year-old Seán anymore, but to another child in our beautiful little girl Robyn! How did that happen…. well you know what I mean. Today is Father's Day and the latest addition to our family has given me another jolt of perspective - I am not the centre of the universe anymore. The laughter and smiles of a 2-year-old and 2-month-old should be able to pull anyone out of the darkest moods they may be in. However, becoming a father these last 2 years, has made me more acutely aware of my MS. In my current state, I may not be the father that I thought I would be, and I may need to think about my approach to fatherhood slightly differently. Growing up I was very much used to having a kick about with my dad or during the summer heading 'out the back' for a few holes. I can't kick a ball the way I used to, let alone play golf the way I want to. I'm going to have to take a totally different road than the one I had drawn out for myself. You know what, that's ok because it's not for me, it for my kids. I don't need to play football or golf to be the best Dad …. They might not like sport anyways!! My focus is going to be building fantastic relationships with my children. As they grow up, hopefully they will understand why I can't run with them around the park or put them on my shoulders. For the immediate future I just want to enjoy seeing them blossom and watching their little characters develop. In doing this, I hope that they will still have a normal childhood. This is where I may become even more dependent on my wife than I already am. She may need to do some of the heavy lifting that I may not be able to do. It doesn't make me any less of a father or emasculates me, I just can't do it and we're ok with that. The target is to give myself the best possible chance of doing the running and playing with my kids. Between exercise, diet and meditation I can do it. If my wife is anything to do with it, I will do it. I also must be aware that our house is gradually turning into an amazing obstacle course - Crypton Factor level, with Lego, books, toys, hurls, the odd nappy strewn everywhere. Not ideal for a person with mobility and balance issues! But I love a good challenge. It's great to be in the middle of and oddly enough for me it takes my mind off the real challenges I face. When I'm with my children, MS doesn't matter, my mind is clear, and my pains subside. Don't get me wrong the MS is very much there and visible when I'm trying to get up from a good tickling session, but it fades away with the sound of chuckling and shouts of 'stop dadi'. I need to concentrate on the things that I can do with my kids and enjoy them to the ninth degree. I always wanted to be the best or win the race. I now realise that if all I can give my kids is my time then that's a lot more important than winning any race. Hopefully it makes me No.1 Dad, that's more than good enough for me. I have MS but it does not have me. I have children, they will always have me.
Research shows online supports vital as majority of carers feel isolated in their role Ireland's 360,000 family carers are being celebrated this week as National Carers Week takes place across the country with scores of events being organised specifically for those who care for their loved ones. However, research being published today (Monday) as part of this 13th National Carers Week, indicates that many family carers continue to be unable to leave their own home and depend heavily on online supports for information, support and social connection. Care Alliance Ireland, in partnership with the eleven other National Carers Week partner groups recently undertook a survey of 300 family carers across Ireland. The full report is available here Over half (59%) of respondents said they felt lonely or isolated either 'often' or 'always', with a further 37% saying they 'sometimes' felt that way. Only 3% of respondents said they could 'always' make it to social and support events that they would like to get to – with almost a quarter (23%) saying they can 'never' get to those kinds of events. Over half the respondents are members of online support groups and 76% have looked up information regarding the health of their loved one online. Speaking about the research, Zoe Hughes, Policy & Research Officer with Care Alliance Ireland said; "It's clear that the lack of on-the-ground supports like respite and home care is having a huge impact on family carers being able to take a break and seek supports – meaning that online supports are increasingly become vital for many of those who are isolated and lonely in their role". Following from the results of the research, Care Alliance Ireland are hosting an online coffee morning for those family carers who are unable to make it to the many events happening across the country from 10-16th June. Carers who would like to take part should check the National Carers Week Facebook Page for details.
This week Robert Joyce shares his thoughts on World MS Day and invisible symptoms Every year we take one day, May 30, to tell the world about Multiple Sclerosis. This post is on 'our' blog where we share our experiences of MS and its impact on our lives. I am the audience we write for and I know when I write 'pins & needles', your heads will nod. You have experienced this and many other symptoms, many of which are invisible. This World MS Day we are going to share with the wider world what it is like to have invisible symptoms, and the impact they have on our lives. In the last year there have been two projects showing how these (invisible symptoms) feel. In Ireland we had the MSunderstood Cafe starting as a pop up experience in Dublin and then it toured the country in a bus. When someone without this disease walked in and tried to move an impossible heavy chair or couldn't focus on the blurry menu, they felt for a moment, this illness. The second project was the film 'Hidden' produced by Shift.MS. It followed a young woman on her journey through the day and you could see how difficult it is experiencing something you cannot share. On this day our aim is to move these stories outside of our group to the wider community to share them with people who have no experience of MS. Experiences like the crushing fatigue that makes every movement leaden and difficult, to lost sensation in our fingers making the world feel like some coarse sandpaper, limbs refusing to move like they once did, pain manifesting in so many ways in so many places or L'Hermittes that causes an electric shock to run from your neck to your bottom just because you nodded your head! The world will not know what it is like to live with MS unless we, the people in the MS community, tell them. On this day the spotlight will shine on us all over the world. If you are from Connemara, the USA or India, the message will be the same. We have invisible symptoms we cannot escape from and we cannot fix. MS is incurable. By sharing this message we will be pushing to get more understanding of our daily lives and to get more research to find solutions to our medical needs. On the World MS Day website you will find events taking place all around Ireland and the world. We encourage you to take part in any way possible. It can be online through Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or maybe at a coffee morning hosted by your local branch. Take part so the wider community, your local community, will understand a little bit of what it is like to live with Multiple Sclerosis.
My name is Maggie Green… I live in Donegal with my two beautiful children, Abigail (8) and Conor (7), my partner Danny and my Great Dane Blue. I was diagnosed in October 2016 with Relasping Remitting MS ( RRMS) and to say that it came as a shock is an understatement! What I thought was a trapped nerve, turned out to be a life changing diagnosis! Initially, we were terrified and all I could focus on were worst case scenarios, but when I was referred to Professor Niall Tubridy in St. Vincent's Hospital this was a big turning point for me. He helped me to realise that I just needed to keep living my life and to manage my MS as effectively as possible. He also helped me to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. Overall, I have been pretty lucky and I count my blessings every day! I work full time as a primary school teacher, teaching children with autism in Letterkenny Educate Together National School and I love my job. The children I teach are incredible and they teach me something new every single day. My Support Network I come from a very big family and they have been wonderful. They are always there for us when things get tough, and sometimes when you live with MS things can get particularly tough. They are always just a phone call away ready to help in any way they can. My mother and father have been unbelievably supportive and I don't think that we would have gotten through the last few years without them. My children Abigail and Conor know that I have MS and know that sometimes I get very tired easily. They know that my body doesn't always do what I want it to do! We've explained to them that it's a bit like a computer that has a few faults! Why am I taking part in the Mini Marathon this year? I want to raise more awareness about MS. I want to help raise funds for MS Ireland and the amazing supports they provide to people like me living with MS. I can't change the fact that I have MS but I feel that I need to do something so my something is trying to contribute to the MS community in some small way. I feel really lucky that I am physically able to do this. Although I might not be saying that by the end of the Mini Marathon!!! My partner Danny and I are getting married four weeks after the Mini Marathon and I cannot wait to walk up the aisle and share our special day with family and friends. We have come through a lot but MS is just one part of our story. You can still join Maggie & Team MS Ireland on the 2nd June. Sign up today! Or get in touch with Melanie at firstname.lastname@example.com #GetActiveForMS
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Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
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|Duruflé: The Complete Organ Music
Erstwhile organist of St Paul's Cathedral, John Scott, puts the cathedral's wonderful instrument to the best possible use in this album of Maurice Duruflé's complete works for organ.» More


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Smoke Free Campus Initiative
The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine is committed to promoting the health, well being and safety of the staff, students, faculty, patients, and visitors to our campus. Tobacco smoke is a proven health and safety hazard both to smokers and to non-smokers who are involuntarily exposed to the serious health risks of second hand smoke. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and tobacco use is inconsistent with our healthcare mission.


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Growing up in Sunday school, I was very familiar with the Prodigal Son—at least as he was rendered in flannelgraph. I disapproved of his behavior with righteous indignation; as the first-born child of a Baptist household, I empathized with the older brother. How was it fair that the bad boy got a party and the good one didn't? It wasn't until I was much older that I realized the story was infinitely more about the father's love than the prodigal's misconduct.
Only recently, however, have I begun to discover that the older son in Jesus' story is every bit as lost as the younger one. In his book The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller points out that the two brothers represent the two basic ways people try to make life work. The younger son pursues "self-discovery"—he's on a quest to find and fulfill himself, even if a few people have to get hurt along the way. The older brother is committed to a more socially respectable way of being in the world—the way of "moral conformity." He's on a program of self-salvation, earning the approval of his community and the favor of his father; when he feels the terms of this deal are violated, his good attitude evaporates into resentment.
Kenneth Bailey is a theologian who spent 40 years living in the Middle East, striving to resituate Jesus' stories in their original Palestinian context. He points out that for Jesus' audience, respect for one's father is paramount; the younger son's request for his inheritance from a still-healthy patriarch constitutes an unthinkable offense. It amounts to saying, "I wish you were dead."
But the older son's conduct—refusing to join the party for his ...1


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Planning is performed in the normal way within the TMS and manifests generated for each driver and vehicle. The manifest, in run order, is sent to the TomTom PRO device in the vehicle and the driver goes to the first job in the manifest. The Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) is transmitted back to the TMS system and all records updated. Where there is a change to the ETA calculated by the device, the revised ETA is transmitted back to the TMS. On arrival at the destination point, the driver confirms the arrival and departure to the next destination. This is automatically transmitted and the TMS updated. At this point the driver is navigated to the next destination and the next ETA is transmitted.
Vigo Software, a privately owned Company based in the UK with trading experience of 31 years, providing tailored end to end software solutions for Hauliers, Warehouse operations and Distribution Centres. Originally known for Hub and Depot software, Vigo continues to develop leading-edge solutions for Pallets, Parcels, Clothing, Groupage, Food and Waste Tankers, Hazardous Goods, Healthcare and Aggregates. Vigo's solutions are developed and supported by highly skilled UK based technicians.