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The Bible is brutally honest in its recording of redemptive history. It records without hesitation the blemishes and the faults of God's people, as well as their strength and virtue. We look back and remember Moses, for example, who's righteous defiance of Pharaoh caused him to be the instrument by which Israel could be led out of Egypt. But the Bible also records his unrighteous defiance of God that barred him from ever entering the promised land himself. And then there is that story of David that is so profound, so moving. David, courageous, victorious. His triumphs in battle cover the pages of the Old Testament. But along with them, the Bible tells of his utter cowardice before the Philistine king of Gath, where he was absolutely humiliated.
The Psalms reveal David the saint, but in 2 Samuel 12, Nathan confronts him as David the adulterer and David the murderer. Proverbs records the heights of Solomon's wisdom, and then he believed the Ecclesiastes records the depths of Solomon's despair. And there is Elijah, who conquered hundreds of false priests and slew them, and then ran in fear from one woman. Elijah, who stood for God in the test of Mount Carmel. And then in fear and doubt and anxiety, asked God to relieve him from the pressure by killing him, when he sat alone in the wilderness. And so the record goes.
And then there is the beloved Apostle Paul, who writes that our speech is always to be gracious and seasoned with salt and always designed to minister goodness to others, who shouts at the high priest, God smite you, you whited wall, and shows that he was angry and violated his own principles of speech. And so I say the Bible is brutally honest when it deals with the blemishes of God's people. And so it is in the text that I draw to you this morning, the fifth chapter of Acts. Open your Bible there, if you will.
Up to this point in the Book of Acts, everything has been good. Luke's report has been all positive. But here in chapter five, for the first time, we confront the sins of the saints. For the first time, we see sin in the church. Now, remember, the early days of the church's history were bright, happy days, exhilarating days of Christian love and fellowship. Miracle days, days of healings, days of resurrections. The joy was overwhelming. The love was all-embracing and all-inclusive. Humility was everywhere. Sacrifice was taking place all the time. There was a deep commitment to the Apostle's Doctrine, to the power of the Holy Spirit. Evangelism was the all day enterprise of every believer. The results were explosive, so that, perhaps, 20,000 people have named the name of Jesus Christ in the city of Jerusalem by the time we reach this fifth chapter.
To be sure persecution has already begun, the enemy, Satan, endeavoring to head off this explosive movement in the name of Jesus Christ, that was winning so many to faith, moved in with persecution. But persecution turned out to be like pouring gasoline on a fire. Like fanning the flames. God was real, Christ was alive. The Spirit had come. Power was surging through the people. Praying was moving mountains. Boldness was everywhere, and more and more were being added to the church daily.
And you know something? The world had never seen such days. Never. For now the Messiah had come, and He had died to take away the sins of the world. And He had risen from the dead on the third day. Sins were forgiven. Full fellowship with God was now available to symbolize when the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom and the holy of holies was thrown wide open. New natures were being implanted in believers, and the Holy Spirit, who had been with them, was now in them, and there was a level of power and strength, for triumph over sin and temptation, and for boldness in ministry that had never been known. This was a new age. This was the age of the New Testament. This was the new covenant. This was the age of the Holy Spirit.
Satan was active. He had tried his persecution and it failed miserably. In fact, the fire was too hot and it only got hotter. Believers were too strong and it only made them stronger. They were too bold and it only made them bolder. And so, Satan knew that you can't put pressure on the external. It only fans the flames. You've got to go to the fire and get it at the base. And so he invaded the church.
And here we are in the fifth chapter of Acts, face to face with the first recorded Satanic invasion of the church. The first recorded incident of sin made public in the church, and it is the heartbreaking text that initiates for us the long history of the church and its battle with internal inequity. Here we are, long after this incident, nearly 2,000 years later, battling sin incessantly in the church. It is the plague which is still there. It is the disease which is still there. It is the crippler which is still there. And sometimes, it even destroys and kills the church. The sins of the saints.
And though the message this morning is but brief, so that we have time to share at the Lord's table, I am praying that God will cause this message to burn into your hearts, the seriousness, the folly, and the far-reaching damage of the sins of the saints. This passage, as I noted a moment ago, also demonstrates for us the stubborn honesty of the Spirit of God. It was the author of Scripture. God could have painted the picture perfectly, more in favor of the church, and left out the flaws. But God never presents an untrue picture of anything, and never wants to give us an unrealistic expectation of what should happen. The church is not perfect. It's not intended to be perfect. It is a hospital for the spiritually sick, who know they're sick. We're not here because we think we're well, we're here because we know we're sick. The church is not what Henry Knox Sherrill once said, when he said, "The church is a nice, clean refrigerator, designed to keep a few select souls from spoiling." That is not the church. The church is imperfect, always has been.
Those of you who have read English history, no doubt have been fascinated by Cromwell. Once a painter was commissioned to paint the portrait of the great Cromwell. And Cromwell, as you may remember, was disfigured by many warts on his face, and was, to put it mildly, quite ugly to look at. The painter, hoping to please Cromwell, left all the warts out of the portrait. When it was delivered to Cromwell, he saw the painting. Biographer records, quote, he said, "Take it away and paint it the warts."
The Bible always paints the warts. Reality. And frankly, as disheartening and discouraging as that reality is, at the same time, it is somewhat encouraging. I mean, isn't it nice to know that right there in the very beginning, in the first few years and the pristine joys and glories of the brand new church, infused with miracle apostolic power and the might of the Holy Spirit healing the sick and raising the dead and causing multitudes to bow the knee and face the Christ? In the great early years, isn't it somewhat comforting to know that they were dealing with sin?
At least it dispels the illusion that if we could ever get back to being a real New Testament church, we wouldn't be having to deal with sin. No, not so. And wasn't it Paul who said the biggest pain in his life was not the scourgings he had, not the beatings with rods, not the shipwrecks, not the stonings, but the biggest pain he had was the concern for all the what? Churches. And there wouldn't have been such a pain if it wasn't for sin. And Paul talks about this in so many of his epistles, and occasionally, even names the people who are the biggest pain, the sinners.
Sometimes he's general, like in Romans 16:17. He says, "I urge your brother and keep your eye on those who cause dissentions and hindrances, contrary to the teaching which you've learned, and turn away from them, for such men are slaves. Not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting." He was always worried about that in the church. He could never seem to get away from it. There were always such people corrupting the church.
He wrote to the Corinthians, "Beware those people who are carnal, who are so fleshly they can't be told the deep things." He told the Galatians, "Watch out for those people who having begun in the Spirit think they can be perfected through legalism." He told the Ephesians, "Watch out for those people who don't walk worth of the calling to which they are called." He told the Philippians, "Make sure you get your act together, submitting yourselves humbly in love to one another, looking not on your own things, but on the things of others." He told the Colossians, "Don't you be led astray by those who come with empty philosophy and human deceit." Make sure you lay aside, Chapter 3, all the sins, all those parts of your former life and live that resurrection life.
He was always dealing with sin. Sometimes, specific people such as Euodia and Sintakey. Sometimes, he warned in general. But the burden was always on his back, the struggle with sin in the church, and it starts right here in Acts 5, the sad plague of the sins of the saints, and it is in sweet contrast, I might say, to the beauty of the church. It is the bitter, as compared to the sweet. Let me show you the beauty of the church by having you go back with me for a moment to verse 32 of Chapter 4. And the congregation of those who believed, as I said, could number into the 20,000's. The congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul. There is the first thing that we know about the church. There was a real unity. There was a genuine oneness. We could call it a sole partnership. This church was real. They were all genuinely linked by a common eternal life, and they were experiencing the blessing and the joy and the power of unity.
The Greek text literally says the heart and soul of those who have become believers was one. They were literally living out Paul's prayer in Philippians 1:27, that you would conduct yourselves that he would hear of you, that you were standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. They were doing just that. They had the power of unity.
Secondly, they were marked by strong preaching. Verse 33 says, "And with great power, the Apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." There was a powerful emphasis on the Word of God, the truth of God, and particularly the Gospel of Christ involving the resurrection, and they were preaching the resurrection. In other words, they were not only enjoying internal unity, love and fellowship, but they were evangelizing with a passion. They were too busy, frankly, caring for one another in love and too busy evangelizing the loss to waste their energy, to consume their time with selfish pursuits, with bickering, with idle gossip, with criticism, with divisiveness, self-will, self-glory. They were consumed with love and evangelism. Because of this, there was a powerful grace upon them. The end of verse 33, "Abundant grace was upon them all."
What does it mean? God was just pouring out His favor. Just pouring out His blessings. Just dumping it on them. This is, of course, an ideal environment for the church. Passionate internal love and passionate external evangelism. Loving one another and loving the lost. Meeting the needs of one another and meeting the desperate need of the lost, which is to hear and believe the Gospel. There they were, swept up in the fire of those passions, and God was just pouring blessing on them.
And then from that general sense, we can look at one particular that Luke wants us to focus on. Look at the second half of verse 32. To show you how devoted they were to one another, not one of them claimed that anything belonged to him, but all things were commonly held. That's literally what the text says. Nobody claimed that anything belonged to him, but all things were commonly held. You say, "Is that Communism?" No. Communism says you take everything, throw it in one pot, and divide it up equally. That's not what this says. It simply says that what people possessed, they didn't hold as if it belonged to them, but as if it was common to everybody, so that whoever needed it, got it. That was the attitude. You can tell when the love runs deep and when the humility runs deep and when selflessness runs deep. It's when nothing that you hold is yours. You simply manage a divine asset and have to use it where it is most needed.
That gets fleshed out in verse 34 and 35, "For there was not a needy person among them." Amazing. Why? "For all who were owners of land or houses." That tells you, by the way, they didn't pool everything. People still owned things. They were still the owners of land and houses. There were still the haves and the have-nots. There were still the rich and the poor. But those who were the owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the Apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. When somebody had a need, somebody sold something. It wasn't that they just gave out of their salary or their wages or what they could earn. It wasn't they gave out of their surplus. It was that they actually liquidated their assets, took the money, and put it at the Apostles' feet. That's how they used to take the offering in those days. The Apostles would stand in the front and everybody would parade by and lay it at their feet. And they would bring it and put it there so that the needs of others could be met. I mean, the love was so hot, there was such a warmth of fellowship, there was so much sacrifice and so much real humility and so much moving of the power of the Spirit of God, who had shed the love of God abroad in their hearts, that nobody held anything as if it was their own. You simply managed it as an asset for the kingdom's sake and it belonged to whoever needed it most. And that tells us how deep the love ran.
And Chapter 4 closes with a specific illustration of this kind of devotion. Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, that is born on the island of Cyprus, who was also called Barnabus, which is how we know him. The Apostles gave him that name, which, translated, means "Son of Encouragement." Tells you a little bit about the kind of person he was. It says in verse 37, he owned attractive land, which is just an interesting note, because Levites, you remember, were not allowed to own land. This is another indication of the end of the old covenant, the externals of the old covenant having passed away. Barnabus owned attractive land.
It must have been quite a wonderful thing for a Levite to have such. It demonstrated the liberation that he enjoyed in the new covenant, that he didn't hold to it tightly. Verse 37 says he sold it and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet. This is great generosity. Most people have their future tied up in their fixed assets, isn't that true? You don't want to sell your house and give all the money away, cause then you sort of have to live by real faith, you know?
And you've got something else stocked over here. You've got your stockpile, your land or your stock or whatever it is, and we all fall into that pattern of building up assets to solidify our future and hedge against what inevitabilities could come. And that's not all bad, by the way. But when there are people around us who have need, and we have what we don't currently need, we see the pattern here of considering that it really belongs to all of us, and we're willing to give it up to those who need it most, and that's what marked this church, and that's what is demonstrated by this man called Joseph, later known as Barnabus.
And he didn't have to put strings on it. He just put it at the feet of the Apostles and said, "You use it as you wish." The spiritual stewardship is discharged when I give it, but now it's your stewardship, to use it in a way that honors God. That was the kind of church the early church was. And we'd all like to belong to that, wouldn't we? Powerful, miraculous, devoted to the sound doctrine and teaching of the Apostles, loving, unselfish, humble, generous. What a magnificent picture.
You reach the heights of the sweetness at the end of Chapter 4, and you step right into the bitterness in the first verse of Chapter 5. And the backdrop of Chapter 4 is most important if you're going to understand the heinousness of the sins of the saints that come immediately in Chapter 5.
You remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira, don't you? The certain man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the Apostles' feet. Now, beloved, just to give you a parallel, the story of Ananias and Sapphira is to the Book of Acts what the story of Akin is to the Book Of Joshua. In both cases, an act of deceit interrupted the victorious progress of the people of God.
Verses 1 and 2, which I just read to you, indicate to us the sinful pretense. You say, "What's the sin?" The sin is not that they didn't give everything. God never commanded them to give everything. That's not the sin. The sin is not that having given this, they should have given more. God never game them any prescription that they should give a certain amount. The sin here is the sin of deceit. In a word, hypocrisy. You get the scenario, don't you? There is this explosive love in the early church, and people are just coming down at the offering time and not just putting down, you know, a five or a ten or a twenty or whatever, in our parleys, they're dropping down the proceeds from the sale of a house or the sale of land, and just putting it there and going back to their seat. And the joy and the exhilaration and the spiritual devotion is apparent to everybody.
And here comes Barnabus, this man who became beloved and was known as the Son of Encouragement, and he puts it down, and you can just hear the murmur go through the crowd and they say, "What a godly man. What a generous hearted man. What a devout man he is." Well, Ananias and Sapphira would like a little of that prestige. They want to cash in on the opportunity to be admired. And they want to put on a public show. And so they parade down there, and the pretense is that they're giving everything that they got for the sale of the property. That's the pretense. And it is apparent, as you shall see from the text, that they had made some public claim to that effect, that they had actually told people they were going to sell their property and give all. That was the issue. They sought to gain prestige, to be thought of as godly and sacrificial and generous and they wanted to be applauded for their great sacrifice and hang on to a little cash at the same time.
Hypocrisy, then, listen to it carefully. Hypocrisy is the dirty sin that Satan wanted to use to corrupt the church, to put out the fire at the base, and it's the first sin the Bible chronicles in the life of the church, and to this day, my friend, it is a killer sin. It is still the best way to douse the flame at its heart. Hypocrisy. God hates this sin, and no sin is so ugly as that one that attempts to paint spiritual beauty where there is none. And when such people get into the church, they corrupt it, and when they get into the leadership of the church, they can even kill it, because Satan can be in control.
Fortunately, however, for the church, and true to what we would expect from God, who hates sin, this terrible, sinful pretense gave way to spiritual perception. And God revealed what was going on to Peter, verse 3. But Peter said, and he would have only known this by way of direct revelation from God, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" Peter recognized that Satan was in this deal. "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?" The lie was you said you were going to give it all and you didn't. You lied to the Holy Spirit. I don't want to digress on this, but that is serious enough. That is serious enough in itself to warrant what's going to happen. You better be careful what promises you make to the Holy Spirit. Pretty serious. People who made vows to God in the Old Testament that didn't keep them often what? Died? I hear a lot today about promise keeping. It makes me nervous. I did a little inventory back over my life to see if I could remember any conscious promises to God that I vowed publicly, and I could only come up with one, and that was to stay with my wife. That's the only time I ever stood in public and made a vow to God and swore that I wouldn't violate it.
Now, I'm not staying with her because I'm afraid of God. Frankly, I like her. But I'm afraid of God too. And so, between God and her, I'm there. But you can't be running around fast and loose, making vows to God that you don't intend to keep. That's a pretty high level of hypocrisy. Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the price of the land?" Well, it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? You didn't have to sell it. God didn't tell you to sell it. And after it was sold, was it not under your control? You didn't even have to give it all. Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart. Here's the deed, you have not only lied to men, but to God. You stood up and made a pretense that you were going to give it all in order that you might gain the favor from men, and perhaps in order that you might impress God. And you not only lied to men, you lied to God.
And on the surface, you might say, "Well, that's definitely wrong to do that. Doesn't seem as serious as some sins." But spiritual perception gives away immediately the swift punishment. Look at verse 5. "And as he heard these words," by the way, he never said anything. He never had a chance. "Ananias fell down and breathed his last." He just fell over dead, right in front of the church. That's a pretty shocking thing to happen, and I've always wondered what the offering was like the following Sunday. I think it was probably up. Ananias fell down and breathed his last. Died. He was dead. God killed him. And verse 5 says, "Great fear came on all who heard of it." Sure. And you know what they thought? They thought this. That's a bunch of serious people in there, who have a serious God. And what they're serious about is sin. Not exactly what you would call a seeker-friendly environment. Certainly not a sin-friendly environment. Fell dead, and great fear came on everybody.
That's the kind of testimony the world should have. I don't want to digress on that point, simply to make it. The message we should be sending to the world is not that we tolerate sin, but that we don't. And that we preach that there is, by the grace of God, a means for complete forgiveness. That's the message. We would like the world to know that sin is a killer, and we have a message of forgiveness.
Well, the Jews couldn't let bodies hang around because they didn't embalm them. They always buried them the same day. Basically, tradition said within three hours, and so, verse 6 says, "The young men arose and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him." Out he went, and into the ground. And then I love this verse 7. "There elapsed an interval of about three hours." That's about the time that normally was required that the body be buried. And there, out there, it took them three hours to dig a hole to put him in.
Now, get this. He's gone to church, he's done his little deal, he's dropped dead and he's already buried before his wife arrives. It says after an interval of three hours, his wife came in. Now, the first thing that I must impress upon you is that gives us some idea of how long church lasted. You understand that? When times were not so carnal. Church lasted a long time. Wonderful. I can only imagine how long sermons were. She's three hours late for church. How can you be three hours late for church? I mean, no roast and no hairdo could require three hours. The only thing I can assume is she wanted to make a grand entry. And she made one. She doesn't even know what happened. She walks in, her husband's already in the ground.
Peter responded to her when she came in, imagine, just calling her, tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price. Whoa. And she thought maybe this was her moment, and she's going to be commended. And she says, "Yes, that was the price." Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Why have you tempted God with your hypocrisy?" Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they'll carry you out as well. Welcome to church, Mrs. Ananias. Brother. The guys are just walking in after burying her husband, and they're about to carry you out, Peter said. And she fell immediately at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and carried her out and buried her beside her husband. It's not exactly what those guys expected that Sunday, to spend six hours burying two people.
Verse 11, you go from sinful, this pretense, the spiritual perception to swift punishment, to solemn purging. Verse 11, "A great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things," and that takes you back to the end of verse 5, "Great fear came on all who heard of it." Listen, God is not playing church. Two immediate things I would like to note for you. This was really a blessing to Ananias and Sapphira, was it not? Where do believers go when they die? Heaven. So they - all they knew, they went to church and ended up in Heaven. You day, "Well, wasn't this punishment on them?" No, not so much on them. There was certainly a punishment to it, obviously. The first thing you have to realize is that God and His mercy and His grace may take the life of a believer to get him out of the way, because he's a problem to the church. After all, remember in 1 Corinthians 11, "Some who came to the Lord's table came in an unworthy manner." And that's why some were weak and some were sick and some were dead.
In 1 John 5:16, John writes that there are some sins you don't need to pray for, because they are the sin that we could call the sin, the straw that breaks the camel's back. There's no point in praying for them, because they're a sin unto death and God's going to get them out of there before they corrupt His church. They're not going to lose their salvation, like the men in 1 Corinthians 5, the flesh may be destroyed, but the soul will be saved. So, for them, it's glory, but the message being sent here is that God is dead serious about sin. And while we might conclude by this, well, look, if you want a quick trip to Heaven, lie to the Holy Spirit, most of us have a normal enough approach to life and a desire to keep living, and a sense of preservation and a desire to be with those we love and to fulfill our role in this world, that death is an unwelcome invader. And in that sense, it did send a fear signal to the church, that if you want to keep living, you better make sure you deal with the sin in your life.
And it isn't like this was some monumental inequity, at least in the categories that we usually think of. This was somewhat of a small hypocrisy. But small hypocrisies are huge in Heaven. Huge. We would love people to think that we give sacrificially, when the fact of the matter is it's probably a hypocrisy. We don't give - we would love people to think that we are devout students of Scripture, when the truth of the matter is that most of our learning from Scripture comes because somebody else studies, not us.
We would love for people to think that we are lovers of communion with God and are committed to a devout prayer life, when the fact is most of our praying is done in public and often by someone else, and the private prayer place is small and brief. We would like people to think that we have this great love for the truth of Scripture, but our lives are filled with little hypocrisies of all kinds. All over the place, too numerous to even count, lest you think at some point in your life that you have classified yourself as somewhat near spiritual perfection because you are not committing sins that are overtly sins of commission. You've tried to omit the sins of omission, those things that you ought to do but don't do.
When you've covered those bases, then you still have to look and find all the little hypocrisies of your life, the little pretensions about prayer, Bible study, spiritual devotion, love to God, devotion to the Spirit of God, humility, sacrifice on the behalf of someone else, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Those sins that are known only to you and God. Those secret sins, down deep in the heart that could never be revealed unless an Apostle was there, like Peter, and God chose to reveal them. Those things, too, kill the purity and the power of the church and are of great consequence to God and to you.
What the story tells us is that God hates the sins of the saints, no matter how trivial they might be, and the sins that are most heinous in the church because they are most subtle and they put Satan in control and you don't know it, are the hypocrisies of the church. If somebody comes in and teaches false doctrine, that's easy to deal with. If somebody comes in and discounts the reality of the Trinity or attacks the person of Jesus Christ or assaults the deity of the Holy Spirit, or attacks things like humility and virtues we are well aware of, or comes against matters of prayer. Any of those things are recognizable. It's those subtle, little, devious deceptions that reign in all of our hearts. Those little favorite sins that we cherish that nobody knows about. The times that we play with God and pretend to be what we are not, those are the sins of the saints that destroy the church and those are the kinds of things that God wants to move against. God hates those sins. No sin is small, no sin is trivial in His eyes, particularly not a sin of deception, because a sin of deception is Satan controlled and you don't know it. No lies, then, are little white lies, and God has every right to punish every sin, because He wants His church purity, deserves it.
See, we can go to Matthew 18, when you know your brother is in sin, you go to him and you confront him about that sin. We can do that part, but who's going to discover those little deceptions that give Satan place in the fellowship? That's between you and your conscience. The message here sent to the church was the little deceptions are deadly. They have to be dealt with, and if you can't deal with them, maybe I'll deal with them. Great fear should come on the church about sin.
And then, additionally, great fear came upon everybody else in verse 5, in verse 11, everybody outside the church looked at the church and said, "Boy, that is a serious place. You better go in there serious. People die in there." And what are they serious about? Sin. That should be the reputation of the church across the world. Not that we are an entertainment center, not that we are a psychological boosting organization. Not that we're a place for family fun and fellowship, but that we are a place where God's dealing with sin. And He's bringing it into the light and He's forgiving it.
The sins of the saints still embattle the church, and the most subtle of all are those hypocrisies. That's one of the reasons, beloved, why we have this table. That's why we're here, to deal with these issues, so that the church can confront its own impurity, one on one, you on you and me on me, before God. And not eat and drink in an unworthy manner and compound our problem, because he that eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, Paul wrote. So, now is the time to look deep within our hearts and sort out those hypocrisies that steal the power of the church and the blessing of your own life and can bring upon you the chastening of God as He so wills.
Let's pray. Our Father, we come to you now with the recognition that even our hypocrisies are so deceptive that, apart from your Holy Spirit, they may be hidden in our own pride, our own spiritual pride so deeply that we can't even see them. And we ask that you would show them to us even now as we gather together to come to your table. We don't want to take the bread and the cup unworthily. We don't want to mock the death of Christ, who died for our sins. How can we celebrate that while holding on to the very sin that put Him on the cross? Such hypocrisy. It's unworthy of any true believer.
And so, we want you to penetrate us with your spirit and find those hypocrisies in our lives. Help us willingly and eagerly and openly to realize the sin that is there and ask you to even take out the sin that we don't even recognize, and wash us and make us clean. Give us the fire, may it burn bright. May we have the love that that early church had. May we have the devotion to the proclamation of the truth. May we have the spiritual integrity, and oh, God, may you purge out the sins of the saints in more merciful ways than you did with Ananias and Sapphira.
But Lord, may you put the fear in us, as you did in that early church and in the surrounding community. We now prepare, Lord, by coming to You and asking for forgiveness and cleansing.
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Acoustic/Atmospheric/Post-black metal from Hungary. https://releasethelongships.bandcamp.com/album/devour-the-sun Devour The Sun (2017) limbo of timelessness with shimmering sparks swelling as the blind clock-maker works under a new firmament the glow of a final dawn as the earth emerges from surfs of seas a blooming creation grass scrubs and trees stretch to the sky to seize the light diversity expands in a cambrian explosion bushes of foliage maintain and hide networks of roots surround the hive of pollinators workers of life ecosystems of grandeur and reckless existence committed to endure with a great consistence earth measures to sky low touches the high mysteries turn science in the steps of giants
[Revelation 21:1-7] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. [Revelation 22:1-5] And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. [Revelation 22:20-21] He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 21The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. BECOME A BELIEVER IN CHRIST TODAY First, you can be sure that God loves you unconditionally and desires to have a personal relationship with you. [John 3:16] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Second, you need to admit your sinful nature to God, because this is what separates all of us from Him. [Romans 3:23] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Third, you should stop trying to please God through your own efforts, and realize that salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ is a gift that none of us deserves. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). Finally, you just need to step in and truly accept Gods gift -- His Son, Jesus Christ. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12). So, now you know the basic steps to become a Christian. As a result, if you desire Gods gift of eternal life and fellowship with Him, you are as close as a sincere act of faith. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6). Jesus also says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20). Receiving Jesus is a matter of truly asking Him to come into your life, to forgive your sins, and to become your Lord and Savior. Its not merely an intellectual undertaking, but rather, an act of sincere faith and heart-felt will. If you want to receive Jesus now, and accept His gift of salvation, it's a matter of believing in Jesus Christ, repenting of your sins, and turning the rest of your life over to Him. This is not a ritual based on specific words, but rather, a prayerful guideline for your sincere step of faith. Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38) http://www.allaboutgod.com/become-a-christian.htm
So erinnert sich Ihr Kunde gerne an Ihr Sanitätshaus
Das Ziel der Verabschiedung? Dem Kunden ein positives Gefühl vermitteln, damit er das Geschäft in Zukunft gerne wieder aufsucht. Sie bieten einen guten Service an, wenn sich Ihre Kunden gerne an Details und Einzelheiten erinnert. Das umfasst zum Beispiel hilfreiche Tipps in Bezug auf Kompressionsstrümpfe oder Empfehlungen für geeignete Zusatzprodukte. Kleine Zeichen der Wertschätzung wie Informationsbroschüren oder Produktmuster sorgen ebenfalls für das Wohlbefinden des Kunden im Sanitätshaus. So können Sie optimal dafür sorgen, dass der Kunde wiederkommt und sich dauerhaft an Ihr Geschäft bindet. Im Video erfahren Sie, wie Sie Ihren Kunden richtig verabschieden:
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subset: commoncrawl


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Gardening Central
Welcome to the Gardening Central website! We have information on gardens, trees, flowers, plants, fruits, vegetables, and more. The following are some interesting gardening facts:
Did you know that...
The bat plant grows in the spring and summer and at that time needs to have a lot of regular watering.
Dwarf trees can be grown in pots and this is an extremely popular technique.
A gardenia is actually considered to be a shrub, an evergreen, and it has very dark green, glossy leaves.
Growing eggplant is not an easy task but one which is very rewarding when your harvest is ready to be picked.
Growing horseradish is very simple. All you have to do is get your root cutting, dig a hole that is big enough for the cutting to stand up, and replace the dirt around the plant.
Hazelnut trees come in two distinct varieties, and the African filbert bush is one of them.
The most popular deciduous hedge shrubs are lilac bushes, forsythia bushes and rose of sharon.
One of the peculiarities of the hornbeam tree is the shape of its trunk, often described as muscular.
In addition to the pretty and hardy nature of the plant, the marigold flower is also considered to be a beneficial herb.
Perennial hibiscus can grow in USDA zones three through nine, which covers a lot of temperature ranges.
Texas sage propagates well if you grow it in a sphagnum peat and perlite mix of about half and half.


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Venerated NY Tennis Stadium to Stage a Comeback as Concert Venue
From Billie Jean King to The Beatles, Jimmy Connors to Jimi Hendrix, Chris Evert to The Rolling Stones.
For decades, the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club was not only one of the cathedrals of tennis - host of the U.S. Open - it was also a stirring music venue, tucked into a leafy neighborhood of stately homes in Queens' Forest Hills neighborhood.
That heyday came to an end in 1978 when the Open moved three miles away to the much more expansive grounds at Flushing Meadows. The horseshoe-shaped stadium at Forest Hills quickly became a relic, and its days as a music venue faded as well amid complaints from neighbors about noise, crowds and cars parking on residential streets.
But a new plan is now in the works to revive the sound of music at the 16,000-seat Forest Hills stadium and perhaps, one day, bring back big-time professional tennis.
"We were once the center of the tennis universe," says club president Roland Meier. "And this is our revival."
It begins Aug. 28 with a concert featuring the British band Mumford & Sons, which will serve as a test to convince neighbors that such performances will not create too much of a disturbance.
If all goes well, club officials and a promoter are aiming to stage 18 more concerts in the next three or four years.
"The concerts will go on if they're palatable to the neighborhood," says Meier. "We're sensitive to the neighborhood."
He says the hope is that the music will draw more attention to the century-old Queens club itself - where the membership has dropped from over 1,000 to 750 in recent years - and help bring back professional tennis events.
After years of neglect, the 90-year-old stadium is definitely showing its age, with areas of crumbling concrete and weeds sprouting in the stands. Meier says testing has proved that the stadium is structurally sound but needs repairs to its concrete that are under way, a better sewer system, sealing to avoid water penetration and new seating.
Still, the old edifice retains the distinctive columns and archways that made it a distinguished home of the national tennis championships from 1915 to 1977.
Spectators look out on the lush, green grass courts and the grand, Tudor-style clubhouse, rich with the history of the great champions who played there: Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Margaret Court, Pancho Gonzales, Billie Jean King and Rod Laver.
It was the place where Arthur Ashe became the first African-American man to win the open, where a skinny teenager from Florida named Chris Evert burst onto the scene, and where Guillermo Vilas beat Jimmy Connors on clay to win the last men's final there in 1977.
The 1960s and `70s were the high point of the stadium as a music venue. The Beatles played two consecutive sold-out shows there in 1964. Barbra Streisand took a break from her role in Broadway's "Funny Girl" to play a concert at the stadium that same year. Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and The Who were also among the big names.
The venue secured its place in music lore in 1967 when Jimi Hendrix was the opening act for The Monkees. He got so tired of the boos and screams from impatient fans of the group that he flipped a finger at the crowd and stormed off stage.
Complaints from neighbors were a big part of the reason the music went away. Frank Gulluscio, district manager of Queens' Community Board 6, says he's been working with the club and police to make sure traffic and noise are kept to a minimum during the Mumford & Sons show in August.
Henry Berolzheimer, 84, who lives a walk away, says he wouldn't mind hearing music again.
After all, decades ago, "when they would play, you could listen from our living room - for free," he says. "I heard Janis Joplin, I heard The Beatles, I heard most of them."
He and his late wife once rented out their garage to accommodate the cars that crowded the residential neighborhood. But traffic hasn't been a problem for a while.
"Nothing has happened here in about 20 years," club president Meier acknowledges. "We've had wallflower status."
At one point in 2010, club members voted down a proposal to sell the stadium to a developer who wanted to turn the property into luxury apartments.
Meier says the club's nearly 12 acres are "the biggest undeveloped property in Queens, and we want to retain this oasis - an intimate setting with so much history."
"It's a time of transition, and there's an excitement here about this."


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Workers catch crooks stopping by their businesses and taking off with diesel fuel.
Fuel Thieves Are Stealing Diesel By The Truckload
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CBS13 News PM News Update - 6/14/19The latest headlines.


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Some movie theaters specialize in showing classic movies, while other theaters run classic movies as special shows at midnight or some other time of day.
While the "All Movies" page showed movies by release date, we decided that it would be more convenient to display movies that are more than 10 years old on a separate page in Now Showing titled "Classic Movies Back on the Big Screen."
From this one page, you have the ability to find such classics as Hitchcock's Rear Window from 1954 and newer classics like 1995's Braveheart. Some movies in the list right now aren't available on DVD, so going to a movie theater is the only way to see them.
As with the other pages in Now Showing, you can sort the list of Classic movies by name, release year, MPAA rating, genre, and whether we have photos and/or videos for each movie.
Click the Read link below to visit the new "Classics" page and find a golden oldie you haven't seen in a while!
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Log In needed $19,940 · 2015 Nissan NV200 SReport Ad
Price: $19,940
Stock Number: 151319
Interior Colour: Grey
Cylinders: 4 - Cyl
Fuel: Gasoline
This mini-cargo van is ready to work for it. It comes with specially rigged shelving and pull-out drawers, 2.0-litre gas engine, front wheel drive, 5.407 axle ratio, block heater, HD 110-amp alternator, gas-pressurized shock absorbers, 54.9-litre fuel tank, and 15-inch wheels. Message us and one of our van specialists will follow-up with your inquiry shortly.
DRIVING FORCE is committed to making your car, van, SUV, or truck-buying experience exceptional. We have a large selection of quality, fully reconditioned pre-owned inventory available for purchase. Many of these vehicles are lease returns or buy backs with factory warranty.
All prices include a CarProof report, lien check, 120-point vehicle inspection, complete mechanical fitness assessment, reports and summary of any repairs completed, commercial inspection (when required), two sets of keys, owner's manual and a full tank of fuel.
In addition to the balance of factory warranty, all our vehicles are DRIVING FORCE CERTIFIED. This insures that you receive the best quality and value for your dollar.
We offer a range of financing options, and we work directly with major banks to arrange both prime and non-prime solutions. Whether retail or commercial, we offer options that best fit your needs. All transactions are subject to approval. All trades are welcome.
DRIVING FORCE Vehicle Rentals, Sales Leasing is an AMVIC Licensed Company.
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Fund: Castile Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2011-02-20
During Castile Ventures' evaluation of my company, I was made to meet one of their portfolio companies that works in the same market. I was made to meet their board member as well. Castile had about 7 meetings with me, my staff and my head of technology. At the end of the process, Castile declined to invest with a very weak explanation to why.
A few months later, I saw that their portfolio company has pivoted to a very similar business as my own. That is outrageous and apparently they are shameless. I employ entrepreneur not to work with Castile!PRIVATE: Members Only


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Hubble Views a Starry Ring World Born in a Head-On Collision
A rare and spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies appears in this Hubble telescope picture of the Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor.
The striking ring-like feature is a direct result of a smaller intruder galaxy - possibly one of two objects to the right of the ring - that careened through the core [close-up image at lower left] of the host galaxy. Like a rock tossed into a lake, the collision sent a ripple of energy into space, plowing gas and dust in front of it. Expanding at 200,000 mph, this cosmic tsunami leaves in its wake a firestorm of new star creation. Hubble resolves bright blue knots that are gigantic clusters of newborn stars [close-up image at upper left] and immense loops and bubbles blown into space by exploding stars (called supernovae) going off like a string of firecrackers.
The Cartwheel Galaxy: A Starry Ring World Born in a Head-On Collision


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Jimmy Choo
Founded in London in 1996, Jimmy Choo encompasses a complete luxury accessories brand. Now overseen by Creative Director Sandra Choi, the label continues to achieve a daring vision of luxury. Men's collections were introduced in Fall 2011, with slip-on skate shoes, high-top sneakers, espadrilles, and sandals alike elevating sporty silhouettes in luxurious python, croc-embossed leather, patent, suede, and metallic fabrications.


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amazon review data
For a list of Amazon product urls (around 150 urls) I want the following details for all reviews for each product in an excel file-
1. Product name
2. Amazon url
3. review rating ( 1 to 5)
4. review content
5. review helpfulness ( 1 of 23 found the review helpful)
4. review date
5. reviewer ranking (from the reviewer profile page)
I need a scraper that extracts this data as well. Please note that this needs to be a general scraper that can be used for other Amazon product urls as well.
Hello, I am ready to create a tool to extract data from Amazon. I WANT TO DISUCSS IN DETAIL before starting the task. All things should be clear before starting. I Would love to work on this project. I can eas もっと
Dear Sir/Ma'am, I am a Web research, Data Entry & Webs Scrapping expert. I checked and understood your requirements. I can handle this job very well to your appreciation. I can find and extract the information もっと
Hi there, I have scraped amazon reviews data before.. I can write a program/script to get this data..Hope to hear from you..
Hello. I have scraped amazon at the past. At this time I have code which scraps entire shops but it can be changed so to scrap individual shops. This will be a universal amazon product scraper, so you can add and scrap もっと
Hello Sir, Give me full details. If you need, will show sample. Hope we can meet here via PM. Thanks
Hello sir,we have 8 member team and we can start the work right now just check my review u can see and u never disappointed with my work quality,delivery and price. Awaiting your [login to view URL]
Hello there, how are you? I am very interested in doing this project and can start working on it after being awarded. Hoping to hear from you and may you have a great day ahead. Thank you :)
Hi, I can provide you the needed scrapper and will ensure that it can be reused for future endeavors also. Regards
Hi, I'm a Web Scraper. I have been scraping website since last year. I scrape the website of tripadvisor, mobofree and [login to view URL], facebook, amazon, youtube and many more. Give me a PM so that I can give you もっと
Hello, I have more than a year of experience in web scraping using python and I can deliver You finished script within 3 [login to view URL] forward to hearing from You.
i can scrape data for you from amazon, kindly contact me in chat. ,.
Hi. I will do this job very well. And scrape all details as you mentioned in Project Description. Please Send Amazon Product Urls so I can Start working. I am online if you like we can talk. Thanks Regards Muhammad Wah もっと
hello hope you are doing well I am interested to work on this project. Gladly waiting to serve you with my extensive skills. Already done scrapper for [login to view URL] and [login to view URL] whatever you want
Hi, I have read your project carefully and highly interested to take up the project. According to the project description you want a scraper to extract the data from 150 URL list of Amazon product and put the detail もっと


text:
Wabash College Graduation Celebrates 163 Seniorsby Howard W. Hewitt • May 15, 2005 Share:
Under cloudy skies and cool temperatures, Wabash College President Andy Ford continued a decades' old tradition and rang out the Class of 2005.
Using the school bell which once belonged to founder Caleb Mills, Ford sent Wabash's 163 graduates on to graduate school, medical and law school, impressive positions in business and into the world as Wabash men.
The ceremony on the campus mall featured the usual traditions, pomp and circumstance of the annual rite of passage. Two graduating seniors spoke about their Wabash experience.
Justin Grimmer, a Griffith native, urged graduates to always live in the moment.
"The moments in our life that are the most salient and important remain indescribable with words," the summa cum laude graduate said.
"Rather, we can only hope to conjure the context in which the moment occurs in order to reconnect with the part of our soul that was uncovered. Therefore, life cannot be an attempt to accumulate moments for reflection. Rather we must embrace the significant moments as they occur, for reflection will never yield a true understanding of their importance."
Grimmer, who is headed to Harvard, said the Monon Bell game the graduate's freshman year was a prime example. The Little Giants won the contest on a last-second, desperation pass play.
"Sheer joy consumed our souls, a rush of pride to finally bring home the Monon Bell, and an adulation that caused us all to rush northward in Blackstock Stadium. Yet, the moment, in its purest form exists outside of words and reflection. No verbal description can capture the explosion of communal joy, the sum of thousands of our closest friends contemporaneously experiencing one of the most exciting moments in our lives. The paradox of reflection shrouds even our great athletic endeavors."
He then urged each graduate to take the moments while their classmate's names were being read for their diplomas to reflect upon the greatest moments of their Wabash careers.
Ryan Feeback, from Bluffton, took a more light-hearted approach using a parallel "dude" universe from the movie "Big Lebowski."
He challenged Wabash men to be the kind of 'dudes' who fight racism, homophobia and set examples for others to follow. "What if we define a successful Wabash man as someone who never misses his son's ballgames."
The College presented two honorary degrees. President Ford presented Alecia DeCoudreaux a Doctor of Laws degree and Lee Shulman a Doctor of Humane Letters honor.
DeCoudreaux is secretary and deputy general counsel of Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. She graduated from Wellesley in 1976 and earned her law degree from the Indiana University School of Law. She joined Lilly first as an attorney, later as director of community relations, and earned eight promotions in just 12 years, representing Lilly and its Research Labs to the state and federal government. She is devoted to the Women's Fund of Central Indiana, the Women's Initiative of the United Way of Central Indiana, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters. She serves as a trustee of Wellesley; is a director of the Indiana University Foundation; serves as a member of the Indiana School of Law Board of Visitors; and is on the Indiana University President's Council.
Shulman is an author, scholar, and president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy and his doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Chicago. He founded the Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University, and in 1982 began a distinguished career at Stanford University as teacher, scholar, and administrator. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash.
Hewitt is Wabash College's Director of New Media/Web Editor. Photos by Hewitt, Jim Amidon, and Steve Charles.
In Photos:
At top right: President Ford makes remarks to the graduating class.
Lower right: Ryan Feeback gives his graduation speech.
More News
- New Interdisciplinary Major Made Possible Through Walsh Endowment
- Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield Named Wabash Center Director
- Wabash Gateway Project Begins Construction
- GHI Experience Aids Jawed '17 En Route to Kenya


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Memphis Union Mission has bought property behind its men's emergency shelter at 383 Poplar Ave. for $975,000, part of an expansion plan approved by the city-county Land Use Control Board and Memphis City Council earlier this year.
The purchase of 332 Washington Ave., 352 Washington Ave. and 364 Washington Ave. from WMC Investment Co., Equity Group 92 LLC, Bryan A. Crisman and Marie C. Crisman closed Thursday, March 15.
The property includes an 11,528-square-foot Class B warehouse built in 1972 on 0.9 acres at 352 Washington; a 15,840-square-foot Class E warehouse built in 1923 on 0.8 acres at 364 Washington; and a vacant 0.2-acre parcel at 332 Washington, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property.
The assessor's 2011 appraisal totaled $658,700.
In January, the Land Use Control Board recommended the council approve a special-use permit for the mission to expand onto 3.1 acres behind the current mission. The council approved that permit in February.
The property will be used to expand the mission to address overcrowding at its current facility and provide new services, according to Memphis Union Mission's website.
Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports
– Daily News staff
United Housing Inc. has revolutionized its Homebuyer Education classroom at its office, 51 N. Cooper St., to a smart one with funds from a City of Memphis Strategic Community Investment Fund grant.
The smart classroom replaces a VHS system and large notepad with a projector, screen, speaker, DVD player, laptop and document camera. An online program is also available as an alternative to classroom learning.
Homebuyer education will be provided at the United Housing office on Wednesday, March 21, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., covering details on purchasing a home and receiving money through the Hardest Hit Fund. Access to credit counseling will also be available.
Meanwhile, United Housing has exceeded a fundraising goal of $11,000 from local sponsorships to benefit Wolf River Bluffs, an energy-efficient subdivision in Frayser scheduled to begin development in June.
To continue fundraising efforts, United Housing will host "An Evening at the Theatre" April 19. Noel Coward's "Present Laughter" will be showing at Circuit Playhouse, 66 S. Cooper St. Proceeds from online ticket sales and raffle items will go toward upcoming projects.
– Sarah Baker
Memphis Prom Closet – an organization that provides free prom dresses to economically disadvantaged girls – is collecting prom dresses through Friday, March 23, at BRIDGES, 477 N. Fifth St., and all at Verizon Wireless stores.
Memphis Prom Closet is in its second season of collecting prom dresses. The group donated dresses to Northside High School last year and has chosen to donate proceeds this year to junior and senior girls at Northside, Manassas and Douglass high schools.
On March 31, the group will host a "Prom Party" event at which girls will choose their dresses. Dressing rooms will be available and volunteers will be on hand to help with decisions. The girls will also be able to participate in discussions about prom safety and receive hair and makeup tips from professional stylists.
This year's event is sponsored by Verizon Wireless and Macy's.
– Aisling Maki
Mid-South Food Bank has appointed Rafael Durand from International Paper Co. and James Gibbs from Riviana Foods Inc. to its board of directors.
Durand is International Paper's director of human resources for environmental, health, safety and sustainability and global manufacturing technology. He also serves on the board of Latino Memphis.
Gibbs is director of engineering and facility manager at Riviana Foods. During his 20 years there, he has worked in numerous capacities in the operations division. Before moving to Memphis, he was involved with the Houston Food Bank through Riviana.
– Taylor Shoptaw
U.S. builders started work on slightly fewer homes in February. But they began laying the ground work for a turnaround later this year by requesting the most building permits in any month since October 2008.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 698,000 homes last month. That's down 1.1 percent from January's revised level of 706,000, also the highest since October 2008.
Building permits, a gauge of future construction, jumped 5.1 percent last month to 717,000. Two-thirds are for single-family homes, which are critical to a housing recovery.
It can take up to 12 months for a builder to obtain a permit and construct a single-family home.
Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said he expects further gains over the next few months, based on a measure of builder confidence that has increased in five of the past six months.
"Housing will add to growth all year, and beyond," Shepherdson said.
The housing market still has a long way to go before a full recovery is under way. The current pace of construction is barely half the rate considered healthy, as are the number of permits being requested. Most analysts say it could be years before the industry returns to full health.
Construction of single-family homes, which makes up roughly 70 percent of housing starts, dipped in February to 457,000 after rising for four straight months to an 18-month high. A jump in apartment construction offset the decline.
– The Associated Press
The Obama administration announced long-awaited regulations to improve labels on hazardous chemicals and make them conform with international guidelines developed by the United Nations.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimated that such labels could prevent more than 40 deaths and about 500 workplace injuries and illnesses from exposure to hazardous chemicals each year.
Assistant Labor Secretary David Michaels said labels will be easier to understand and less confusing, especially for low-literacy workers. About 43 million U.S. workers come in contact with hazardous materials on the job.
The process of developing the rules began during the Bush administration, and the rules were initially proposed more than two years ago. The Obama administration is holding them out as a product of a presidential directive last year to streamline burdensome agency regulations and eliminate red tape.
Chemical manufacturers currently have to produce two sets of labels and records: one to satisfy U.S. standards and another to meet the U.N. guidelines. OSHA officials said that by ending the duplication, the industry could save more than $475 million annually in training costs and paperwork.
The rules will be phased in over a transition period and companies will not have to comply with them fully until June 2016.
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by The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc. - All Rights Reserved


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There are new developments in the shocking murder of Don Belton, the gifted black gay writer and beloved Indiana University professor who was brutally stabbed to death over the holidays. Michael J. Griffin, the 25-year-old former Marine who admits to killing the English professor, has plead not guilty and is being held without bond. And the mainstream news media is beginning to explore Griffin's claim that the slender, 53-year-old academic "sexually assaulted" the decorated Marine who was less than half his age.
CBS News.com explores the likely defense and asks: "Did "Gay Panic" Lead Ex-Marine Michael Griffin to Kill Professor Don Belton?"
The former military man told police that Belton, who was openly gay, sexually assaulted him in front of his girlfriend, while they were both intoxicated on Christmas Day. And because the assistant professor of English refused to "show remorse," Griffin stabbed him to death, according to court documents. Despite his alleged confession, Griffin has pleaded not guilty to the killing. And though his defense strategy is not yet clear, others with similar cases have pursued a "gay panic" defense, hoping to persuade juries that they were rendered temporarily insane by the perceived romantic or sexual advances of the victim.
In the case of Matthew Shepard, the gay 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered in 1998, his attackers originally used the gay panic defense, arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by his alleged sexual advances. Both attackers were given life sentences. One of the highest-profile cases to make use of the defense was that of Jonathan Schmitz, who killed his friend Scott Amedure after a taping of the The Jenny Jones Show where he learned that Amedure was sexually attracted to him. Schmitz was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to 25 to 50 years.
ABC News also reports the gay panic angle: "Bloomington Police Lt. David Drake told ABCNews.com today that police 'really don't know' if the incident on Christmas Day was consensual or not. Once in police custody, Griffin waived his rights and told investigators, according to the probable cause affidavit, that he went to Belton's home on Sunday to confront him about the two sexual encounters, which Griffin described as assaults. Drake said the sexual incidents allegedly occurred at Griffin's home on Christmas Day during a gathering with friends. He declined to elaborate on the nature of the sexual acts."
The gay panic defense has been deployed to various degrees of success in many cases reported on Rod 2.0. Most recently, 19-year-old Robert Hannah was sentenced to only 180 days behind bars for the brutal September 2008 beating death of Tony Randolph Hunter. Hannah claimed the black gay Maryland man grabbed his crotch and butt when the two men crossed paths on a Washington D.C. street. And in New York City, Steven Pomie was eventually sentenced to nine years for the brutal gay-bashing of Dwan Prince that left him partially paralyzed. Pomie claims that Prince flirted with him and blew a kiss at him.
You May Have Missed:
WATCH: Hundreds Attend Vigil for Slain Professor Don Belton
Indiana Univ Professor Don Belton Stabbed to Death


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Art speaks in limitless ways
Art speaks in limitless ways
Life, Love, Family and Travel as we experience it
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Mental Health Matters
"She believed she could, so she did." 🌙
Insights From The Therapist
Surgery, Recovery, Wellness, Positive Thinking, Self Care, new mum, lifestyle, Brighton
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My Incredible Journey with God
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Tigers not daughters


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I have been slowly journeying through the first volume of Iain Murray's two-volume biography of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939 [Banner of Truth, 1982]) and have been at various points taken in by the Welsh preacher's aversion to self-absorption and to 'bells and whistles' in ministry even in the midst of his apparent pastoral fervor and spiritual vitality. Indeed, in this aversion to anything like the personality-driven ministries that are so prevalent in our time, 'the Doctor' might have even resented this blog post, were he still alive. Nevertheless, certain dimensions of his story are, I think, remarkably suggestive for Christian ministry today and are worthy of our consideration.
A couple of the episodes recorded by Murray distill Lloyd-Jones's commitment to getting himself out of the way in the proclamation of the gospel and to ensuring that the church was borne along by the power of God's word and Spirit rather than by clever human devices. For Lloyd-Jones's initial visit to preach at Aberavon, the site of his soon-to-be first pastorate, the church secretary (E. T. Rees) had put up a large poster to advertise the advent of the exciting prospective minister. Murray relates the Doctor's response:
'I don't like that, don't do it again,' he told E. T. Rees in authoritative tones (p. 119).
Murray also tells of Lloyd-Jones's proclivity to avoid talking about himself in his sermons:
References to himself in his sermons were brief and rare. Anything in the way of a testimony to his conversion experience was almost wholly absent. The omission was not an oversight on his part but the result of deep convictions. For one thing, he noticed that the giving of testimonies tended to reduce all conversions to a similar pattern, to standardise experience in a way which went beyond Scripture. And yet, at the same time, testimony-givers were prone to emphasise what made their story noteworthy. No doubt the motives were often well-intentioned, but the effect could easily be carnal and man-centered (p. 150).
As to Lloyd-Jones's insistence on simplicity in ministry and church life, Murray narrates that, when the Welshman began his pastoral work in Aberavon he had no intention of following others in their zeal for various activities that were attached to the church (musical evenings, a dramatic society, etc.).
In the event, Lloyd-Jones had nothing to say about any new programme. To the surprise of the church secretary he seemed to be exclusively interested in the purely 'traditional' part of church life, which consisted of the regular Sunday services (at 11am and 6pm), a prayer meeting on Mondays and a mid-week meeting on Wednesdays. Everything else could go, and thus those activities particularly designed to attract outsiders soon came to an end. The demise of the dramatic society posed a practical problem, namely, what to do with the wooden stage which occupied a part of the church hall? 'You can heat the church with it,' the new minister told the committee….The Sunday sermons were, indirectly, to indicate the meaning of these and other changes. The church was to advance, not by approximating to the world, but rather by representing in the world the true life and privilege of the children of God. The fundamental need was for the church to recover an understanding of what she truly is (p. 135).
What do you make of these emphases found in Lloyd-Jones's life and words? If you find them salutary, what might we do to cultivate them in our churches? If you find them to miss the mark, in what ways?


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Wednesday, January 05, 2011
(CHICAGO, IL – January 5, 2011) By deciding to present a Special Eclipse Award to Team Zenyatta and an Eclipse Award of Merit to Claiborne Farm, a few representatives of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, National Turf Writers and Broadcasters and Daily Racing Form made getting an Eclipse Award seem like make-up sex.
Now, some people would say that make-up sex can be the best sex of all. And nobody is questioning the propriety of giving these designates a kiss. But Eclipse Awards become precious because horses and people earn them in competition, by a vote of experts - not because someone's afraid to ruffle a few feathers when the results don't come out the way wanted.
Members of Claiborne and Team Zenyatta have stated openly that they believe their horse is deserving of Horse of The Year. Only one horse can win the award, unless there's a tie in the voting. To be certain that each party goes home at least somewhat fulfilled, it apparently was decided that an ancillary Eclipse Award would serve to placate the party whose horse came up short in the vote What's been wrought is an insult – an insult to those receiving the made-up award and to those who are winning the real ones.
Faulconer was the Keeneland publicist who invented the Eclipse Award program. A J.B. Faulconer Award would serve the thoroughbred sport in the same manner as the Jean Hershholt Humanitarian Award or the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award serves the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – not as an Oscar but as a prestigious award which is committee-determined and presented to a worthy recipient on Oscar night.
Claiborne is celebrating its 100th year and the Hancock family has been prominent in the game for almost that long. In partnership with Adele Dilschneider, the Paris, Kentucky breeding and racing operation campaigned the Breeders' Cup Classic winner Blame. Team Zenyatta, represented by owners Jerry and Ann Moss, trainer John Shirreffs and jockey Mike Smith, enabled the country's most charismatic horse to continue making memories when, in fact, she could have entered a life of baby-making last fall. These are reasons indeed to salute them.
In addition to Claiborne, Marylou Whitney will be receiving a Eclipse Award of Merit, and she, too, is deserving of being honored. Whitney will receive her Eclipse for considerably less transparent reasons. Being one of two winners instead of one, however, will make her award a bit diluted. The Eclipse Award of Merit, first awarded in 1976, has been shared in only two years; the Special Eclipse Award, awarded for the first time in 1971, only three times. But the last time it was shared between Roy and Gretchen Jackson and the New Bolton Center, which, in that particular instance, was one and the same anyway.
No Eclipse Award of Merit was presented in one of the last three years; there have been several years when no Special Eclipse Award was presented. Both awards are awards of convenience, found inconvenient in 21 different years. It may be that, when given, they provide satisfaction to the people awarding them more than the people receiving them.
Horse racing has a problem comprehending that "exceptional" is a concept that derives its definition by being rare and singularly estimable. Last year, the same people who couldn't control their urge to designate three recipients for what should be, at the very most, one special Eclipse Award, toyed around with the ultimate fence-sitting idea of allowing voters to cast a vote that could have resulted in Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta as Co-Horses of The Year.
Perhaps that maneuver wasn't what you'd call make-up sex, but ménage a trios. Nevertheless, to deeply-avowed monogamists, it seemed as boner-less as two of this year's three extra Eclipse Awards.
Written by Vic Zast


text: Granulomatous Disorder Linked Clinical Trials Data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/. Refer to http://linkedct.org for more details. The original data is obtained from Clinicaltrials.gov (http://clinicaltrials.gov). Using this data is subject to Clinicaltrials.gov's Terms and Conditions available at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/info/terms. RDF Description of Granulomatous Disorder


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Story highlights
- Running mate Paul Ryan weighs 163 pounds with 6 to 8% body fat
- Ryan leads daily morning P90X classes with Hill staffers
- Standard home fitness package by Beach Body costs $119.85
Whether you're pleased or peeved by Mitt Romney's pick for running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, there's no denying that the politician is a model of good health.
A former personal trainer, Ryan, who stands 6 feet, 2 inches, and weighs 163 pounds with 6%-8% body fat, works out like a warrior and leads fellow Hill staffers in daily morning sessions of the popular 90-day, body-sculpting program called P90X.
"I'm kind of a workout guy. I've always been into it. [Former Mich. Rep.] Bart Stupak and I lead [P90X classes] — there's about a dozen of us that do it," Ryan told Politico. "It works because it hits your body in many different ways: pull-ups, sit-ups, lots of cardio, karate, jump training, yoga. It pushes your body...and gets you out of your plateau."
Even Ryan's critics, including Washington Post political reporter Dana Milbank, acknowledge that the Congressman's personal health priorities are in the right place:
"It can only do us good as a nation to have as a role model such a fine physical specimen in high office. Hopefully, Ryan will inspire more Americans to get healthy. That's important, because if Ryan succeeds in ending Medicare, they won't be able to afford getting sick."
Ryan isn't the only fan of P90X, by far. The standard home fitness package by Beach Body costs $119.85 and has sold more than 3.5 million copies since 2005.
What do you get in the box? Twelve workout DVDs, a 100-page fitness guide, a nutrition plan and a 90-day calendar to track your progress. Workouts include a range of exercises — including chest and back strengthening, plyometrics and yoga — designed to create "muscle confusion," a cross-training regimen that's supposed to keep the body from adapting to the same exercise over time and prevent plateaus.
We talked with P90X creator Tony Horton, who leads occasional sessions with Ryan on the Hill. Think you can hack it?
P90X's core training technique relies on "muscle confusion," which Paul Ryan credits for its success. Can you explain what that is?
Muscle confusion is a variety of exercises. Typically a lot of programs focus purely on stationary yoga, Pilates, weight training or cardiovascular — P90X has all those things. The main purpose is to avoid the three things that cause most people to stop exercising: boredom, injuries and plateaus. In P90X, there's variety in fitness with muscle confusion, and the goal is for people to get through the whole 90 days so they have real success and real results.
Who gets the most out of P90X?
When we created it, we made it for two categories of people. We had a big contingency of Power 90 [another Horton workout system] customers that it helped quite a bit, and we were trying to get people out of the gym who weren't getting results.
But it's turned out to be a workout for the military. I'm touring five military bases in two weeks because they're using it as well. It's [also] turned out to be a workout for the clinically obese — I've met dozens and dozens of people who are obese and used this program.
One of the reasons this works is that there are dozens of modifications other programs don't have. It's become much bigger than we ever anticipated.
What can users expect during the 90-day regimen?
It's broken up into cycles. Each month there is a different sequence of exercises [each laid out in the DVDs]. The first three weeks you do the basic exercises we tell you, and then you have one recovery week. The second month you get a whole new bunch of routines done in different sequences and the recovery week again.
Remember recovery doesn't mean you don't do anything; recovery means you are still working hard. [That is, you're still working out, but not quite as rigorously as during the first three weeks of the month.] In the final month, you do a combination of what you did in the first and second month, which is an extension of muscle confusion.
What equipment is needed besides the DVDs?
In a majority of the exercises the only thing required is the human body, Mother Earth and Sir Isaac Newton's law of gravity.
But having a pull-up bar helps. You don't need it, but it certainly enhances the program, as well as dumbbells and bands. Some people just use resistance bands, but some men who want more size will go out and get dumbbells.
What if I don't want bulging muscles like the buff people in your infomercials?
There are three ways you can go through the program. There's the classic version, which is the basic way we designed it. But we also created a lean version, which focuses more on flexibility, range of motion and cardiovascular fitness.
There's another version for athletes called doubles, which they're doing twice a day. ... You can customize the 90 days based on what you need.
How important is diet when you're on the P90X system?
It's about the food as well. I've just launched Tony Horton Kitchen, which delivers weekly meals to customers.
Often the reason so many people in this country struggle is because they are putting the wrong things in their mouths. There's too much fat, sugar, salt and chemicals coming out of plastic bags and cans and I'm trying to get people to eat whole foods. Eat [foods] that when you look down at your plate, you can pronounce them.
The eating program has great recipes and a diet program that says, 'hey look, you can eat beef, you can eat vegetarian, you can eat Paleolithic.' Just eat the way you're great grandparents ate, and you'll be better off.
Why do you think P90X has become so popular?
I think there are three reasons really. I think No. 1 is obviously muscle confusion. No. 2 is the modifications built into the program for anybody, whether you have a prosthetic leg or you have 200 pounds to lose.
People tell me that I deliver fitness in a way that's a bit different than others. I use a lot of humor and silliness. Everyone in the program has nicknames and I do a terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. I make something that is vital for people to change their health and wellness and I've delivered it in a way that is powerful for people. It's fun and we don't treat it like rocket science and I'm not the drill sergeant personality.
I'm the kid with two left feet who was picked last for every sport but dodge ball, so I understand the trials and tribulations of getting fit from my own personal experience — it was not an easy process for me. I'm trying to make it easy and fun, and I think that's why it's done well.
How often do you make it to D.C. to workout with Hill staffers like Paul Ryan?
I've been in the Congressional gym about five or six times with Paul Ryan, Heath Shuler [D-N.C.], Kevin McCarthy [R-California], Jesse Jackson, Jr. [D-Illinois]. ... It's usually anywhere between eight and 20 Congressmen [in a session]. It's turned out to be about once every eight months or twice a year.
Politicians are as busy as the rest of us. Is P90X doable with an already packed schedule?
It's an hour a day. A lot of people would say no. ... [But] people find time to fit it in because they see that it works.
A lot of people have friends and family and coworkers and neighbors that look different, that act different, that feel different, that have more energy, that sleep better, that are off their meds [because of P90X].
We can put the before-and-after pictures in the infomercial — and these are real people who submit their photos to us — but when it's people you know in your life and you see how different they are, how much happier they are, how much more fit they are — that's the selling point. It's pretty much word of mouth now at this point.
I'm trying to change the way people look at [fitness]. It can be a fun process and it can be permanent.
This story was originally published on TIME.com