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Hubble Views of Dust Disks and Rings Surrounding Young Stars Yield Clues
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their first views of a dust ring around the star HR 4796A and a dark gap dividing an immense dust disk around the star HD 141569. These images may provide important clues to possible planet formation.
HD 141569 and HR 4796A
Cornagraph Demonstration
Gap In Stellar Dust Disk May Be Swept Out By Planet
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are excited to find a dark gap dividing an immense dust disk around a young, but fully formed star – like a wide groove in a phonograph record. An unseen planet may have gravitationally carved out the 3.7 billion mile-wide rut.
The star, known as HD 141569, lies about 320 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Hubble shows that the disk around HD 141569 appears to come in two parts: a bright inner region that is separated from a fainter outer region by a dark band. It superficially resembles the largest gap in Saturn's rings (known as the Cassini division).
Alycia Weinberger, Eric Becklin, Murray Silverstone (UCLA) and their colleagues are reporting their result today at the 193rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
"The most obvious way to form a gap in a disk is with a planet," says Weinberger. "The planet does not have to be in the gap, however. It could either be sweeping up the dust and rocks from the disk as it travels in its orbit around the star, or the gravity of the planet could knock the dust out of one part of the disk."
The vast disk is 75 billion miles across, or about 13 times the diameter of Neptune's orbit. The inner edge of the gap is 21 billion miles from the star. The relatively narrow gap (i.e. 5 percent of the disk's diameter) lies approximately halfway between the inner and outer edges of the disk.
Though already a fully formed, "adult" star, HD 141569 is relatively young, probably only 1% through its lifetime as a stable star. The star is nearly three times more massive and 22 times brighter than our Sun.
HD 141569 was first identified as a source that might have a disk in 1986 as a result of observations done with the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) which showed that it had an excess of warm dust around it.
Thermal radiation emitted by the warmed dust was observed in images taken last June at the W. M. Keck Observatory by Murray Silverstone and a team of astronomers from UCLA and University of Pennsylvania. "The part of the disk which is warm enough to be seen in the Keck images corresponds to the inner part of the disk in the HST image," says Eric Becklin of UCLA, "The dust outside the gap is too cool to be seen in the Keck images."
Light from the central star which was reflected from dust particles in the disk was captured by Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) at a wavelength of 1.1 microns. At the distance of HD 141569, the crisp resolution of the telescope and camera combination reveals structures as small as 1 billion miles across.
Dust disks surrounding newly forming stars are common, but only a small number of adult stars are known to have disks; of these, only a handful have been imaged. Astronomers believe these disks must form and/or be replenished when older rocks and debris collide and break up into small particles.
These early results are part of a survey of environments around young main sequence stars, being conducted by the NICMOS Instrument Definition Team and their collaborators. In addition to HD 141569, the team has also found that the disk around the star HR 4796A appears to be confined by one or more unseen low mass companions.
Dust Ring Around Star Offers New Clues Into Planet Formation
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has given astronomers their first view of a novel type of structure seen in space - a dust ring around a star.
Superficially resembling Saturn's rings - but on a vastly larger scale - the "hula-hoop" around the star HR 4796A offers new clues into the possible presence of young planets.
"The rings surrounding the giant planets in our own solar system are held in place by the gravitational force of moons orbiting nearby," explains Brad Smith of the University of Hawaii. "The narrow width of the HR 4796A ring implies that it also is held in place by unseen bodies, most probably planets or protoplanets."
Smith, Glenn Schneider (University of Arizona) and their colleagues reported the discovery today at the 193rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
HR 4796A is about 70% larger than the Sun and probably less than 10 million years old. "Considering our own solar system to be middle aged, HR 4796A would be a mere infant," says Smith. "It is especially interesting this stellar ring is so young, indicating planetary bodies have already formed in less than 10 million years."
Unlike the extensive disks of dust seen around other young stars, the HR 4796A dust ring, 6.5 billion miles from the star, is tightly confined within a relatively narrow zone less than 17 Astronomical Units wide. (An Astronomical Unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun.) For comparison, the ring width is approximately equal to the distance separating the orbits of Mars and Uranus in our own solar system.
All dust rings, whether around stars or planets, can only stay intact by some mechanism confining the dust. Otherwise, disruptive forces, such as those produced by particle collisions, light pressure, etc., would cause the ring to spread both inward and outward until it finally lost its identity.
The star HR 4796A first drew attention in 1991 when Michael Jura (UCLA) reported an unusual amount of dust surrounding the star, based on observations made by IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite) in 1984. Last year, David Koerner (Univ. Pennsylvania) and others announced ground-based thermal infrared data indicating that the dust around HR 4796A is in the form of a disk, with relatively clear inner region that lies within 6 billion miles from the star. "However, the thermal infrared data lacked the resolution to precisely define the geometry of the disk," says Smith.
Just visible to the naked eye, HR 4796A is located 220 light-years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus. The ring is about a thousand times fainter than the star. "The angular extent of the HR 4796A disk is equal to that of a dime seen at a distance of more than 4 miles," says Schneider. To image it HST scientists had to use a coronagraphic camera on Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). A coronagraph blocks out the glare of a star's light (just as the Moon blocks the Sun's light during a solar eclipse) so that much fainter surrounding material can be seen.
"The ring's color is reddish-grey," says Schneider, "which shows that it is not made up of interstellar dust particles." Although the origin of the dust remains unknown, a good possibility is that it is composed of debris from collisions between planetesimals (comet-like bodies) that are also confined within the ring.
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
(Phone: 410-338-4514)
(E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com)
Alycia Weinberger
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
(Phone: 310-825-6209)
(E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com)
Brad Smith
Inst. for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI
(Phone: 808-935-3374)
(E-mail: email@example.com)


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Story highlights
- Tune in to AC360° this week for a special on babies' brains
- Think you know what's on your baby's mind?
- Send a photo and caption to iReport!
Dawn Soto often looks at her toddler's expressive face and tries to decipher his inner monologue. She wonders, "What goes through their little minds with all these new experiences?"
Any parent of a young child imagines what their baby is thinking about. Recently, Anderson Cooper traveled to the Infant Cognition Center at Yale University where he watched babies take part in a series of tests aimed at answering the question: "Are we born knowing right from wrong?" He explores that question and other aspects of babies' inner thoughts in a three-part special this week on baby brains.
In that spirit, iReport invited parents to share photos of their babies and guess what they were thinking at that moment.
Scroll through the gallery and share your own.

subset: commoncrawl


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WFP supporters beat the expectations of a recent fundraising campaign by raising enough money to feed some 15,000 mothers and children in the drought-stricken Sahel for more than three months. Fundraisers said that was well above their goal and thanked the Dutch National Postcode Lottery for matching all of the donations during the campaign.
ROME—More than 15,000 mothers and children in the Sahel region of Africa will receive fortified foods tailored to their nutritional needs for the next 100 days thanks to supporters of a WFP fundraising campaign which ended last month.
Donations topped the expectations of WFP campaigners whose original goal was to provide meals for 12,500 mothers and children.
Sign Up Now
Sign up now to join our online community, receive email alerts, and make a difference! Get involved
"I'm so humbled by the overwhelming response of our online community," said Online Fundraising Manager Sarah Borchers, adding that a campaign to support an operation like the one in the Sahel was a tough sell for many donors.
Huge opportunity
"Raising funds to prevent a disaster can be much more difficult than if the disaster has already happened. But it's just as critical," she said. "In the Sahel, we had an opportunity to reach mothers and children before hunger began taking an irreversible toll on their lives."
Individual donors contributed around US $250,000 to the campaign. Around half of the contributions came from the United States followed by Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.
For every dollar donated, WFP partner the Dutch National Postcode Lottery donated two dollars more bringing the total raised to more than $750,000.
Borchers said that most of the donations came in response to appeals sent by email. Over a million people worldwide subscribe to WFP's monthly newsletter, a number which has more than doubled since this time last year.
Crucial support
Support from WFP's online community comes at a critical time for the Sahel, which is suffering its third hunger crisis in recent years.
Drought, volatile food prices and conflict have combined to threaten millions of people across the region with hunger. Making sure that mothers and small children get the nutritious foods they need to be healthy is central part of WFP's response.
WFP and its partners are scaling up to reach some 10 million people in the region with food assistance over the coming months.


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Pope's economic ideas rattle GOP
He draws crowds like a rock star, was named "Person of the Year" by Time as well as a gay rights magazine, and drew the ire of Rush Limbaugh for his criticism of "trickle-down" economics. Pope Francis has dramatically shifted the message and tone of the Vatican in the last nine months, and he's forcing Republicans in Washington to reassess their relationship with the Catholic church.
For years, Catholic leaders' staunch and very public opposition to abortion, gay marriage and the contraception-related provisions of Obamacare made them natural allies for the GOP. But Francis has scrambled the equation by de-emphasizing hot-button social issues, warning against unchecked capitalism and pushing a populist message at odds with the core of the anti-spending, anti-big government Republican Party.
Story Continued Below
It's unclear whether Francis's proclamations will fray the ties between the right and the Vatican, but already some conservatives have sharply criticized his economic ideas. At the same time, some on the right have expressed admiration for the 77-year-old pope's more inclusive approach, including on subjects such as homosexuality. Their praise comes as the GOP itself grapples with growing disenchantment among young people and other demographics for its strident tone on social issues.
"His economic perspective I'm not particularly enamored with, but his advocacy for the poor, his lifestyle example, his more modern outlook on social issues — I've been very impressed," said Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican.
( Also on POLITICO: Pope Francis is Time's "Person of the Year")
Last month, Francis blasted "trickle-down" economics as an "opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, [that] expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power." He also criticized the "idolatry of money" and unbridled capitalism as "a new tyranny."
Conservative radio host Limbaugh slammed the comments as "pure Marxism" and other commentators on the right also vehemently disagreed with the pope's message. One derided Francis as the "Catholic Church's Obama." Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party darling, said Francis had made "some statements that to me sound kind of liberal," though she later walked back that assessment.
( Also on POLITICO: Pope's Christmas wish: hope for a better world)
In an interview with an Italian outlet, Francis replied to his critics: "The Marxist ideology is wrong," he said. "But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don't feel offended."
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who grew up attending Catholic school and graduated from the University of Notre Dame's law school, told POLITICO that he disagreed with the pope's economic message. He considers the phrase "trickle-down" to be a "pejorative" term, "like some liberal speechwriter stuck it in." But he also argued that the pope's message should be considered in a broader context.
( PHOTOS: Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis)
"I genuinely believe…supply-side economics does more to help people come out of poverty, move up in the world … but on the other hand, we shouldn't be dwelling on wealth," King said. "The guidance I'd take from this is, when I support conservative economics, I should do it in a way that helps the most people."
King also praised Francis for signaling a more accepting outlook on gay people.
( From POLITICO Magazine: The biggest overlooked trends of 2013)
When asked about gay priests last summer, the pope responded, "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" That quote was highlighted in the influential gay rights magazine The Advocate. It named Francis its "Person of the Year," noting that as the leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics around the world, "what he says makes a difference."
Observers said Francis's understated approach to polarizing social issues represents a sharp break with his predecessors, including Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, though the newest pontiff hasn't altered church doctrine on those issues.
( Also on POLITICO: Joel Osteen: Pope Francis more 'inclusive')
His inclusive outlook may have played a role in his decision to remove Cardinal Raymond Burke from the Congregation for Bishops, an influential Vatican organization. Burke, an outspoken conservative, in 2004 signaled he would deny communion to John Kerry, a Catholic running for president at the time, because of his support for abortion rights.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is Catholic, downplayed the furor in some conservative circles over Francis, who was elected pope in March.


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The Philadelphia Eagles have shifted into full-blown evaluation mode. So why not evaluate another member of the staff as the interim head coach?
With each passing loss, more and more members of the media and fans are pointing out that the time has come to fire Andy Reid. For two very good reasons, however, owner Jeffrey Lurie should ride it out.
First, is there anyone on the current staff who deserves a crack at coaching the team if Reid is relieved of his duties? The Eagles haven't won a game since Todd Bowles became defensive coordinator. Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg is tied too closely to Reid. That leaves special-teams coordinator Bobby April.
Second, and more importantly, the firing of Reid and the hiring of an on-staff interim replacement could provide the kick in the pants the players need. As we explained a few weeks back, current players tend to play hard for an interim head coach, not because they want to help the interim head coach get the job but because they know that, if the interim head coach gets the job, the players are more likely to keep their jobs.
Then, once the interim head coach becomes the permanent head coach, the players can go back to stinking.
So if Reid goes and someone else becomes the interim head coach and a fan base starved for wins finally gets a few of them, the interim head coach could start to look like a good candidate for the job. It would be better, then, to wait until the season ends, move on from Reid, and find a new coach from outside the organization.
That said, who is really going to want this job? The Eagles have no clear-cut quarterback, looming salary-cap problems, and an uncharacteristic number (for the Eagles) of aging players. Recent drafts have featured more misses than hits, and whoever takes the job will have to deal with RG3, Eli Manning, and the Cowboys twice per year.
If Chip Kelly or Jon Gruden have options, they could be inclined to opt for another opportunity.


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Via Unicorn Booty, a three-year-old realizes there's something very wrong with gender marketing and goes on a rant. I don't know how much she's been taught to look out for this stuff, but either way, she's the next generation and it warms my heart.
When three year olds can come to such feminist realizations unbidden, I have some hope for the eventual destruction of gender roles and the gender-specific marketing that goes with it. Compare and contrast with the recent attempt to pinkwash LEGO.
I hope this girl grows up to like superheroes if she wants, and only buys pink things if she decides she likes pink.


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Amalfi Coast Wedding Packages - Wedding Planner Amalfi Coast
About Us
Welcome to Help Plan My Wedding. We are based in Ireland and specialise in working with couples to help them plan their dream wedding in the Amalfi Coast. We offer tailor made planning packages and we are more than happy to work with all budgets.
Planning a wedding in the Amalfi Coast can be daunting and very time consuming but with our assistance this will not be the case. Whether it's a wedding for two, two hundred or more we will use our contacts and experience to source everything you require and create a fabulous bespoke wedding package which perfectly suits your budget & preferences. We will also advise and help you every step of the way to ensure the planning process is stress and hassle free. This way you can enjoy the build-up whilst we do all the research, planning and organising.
What We Offer
- A highly experienced personal wedding planner who will work with you and provide advice & assistance throughout the whole planning process.
- Unlimited consultations to determine exactly what you desire.
- Phone and e-mail support from the day you hire us right up to the big day itself.
- Sourcing of your dream venue and all the suppliers you require.
- Advice on ceremony options available (Church, Civil & Symbolic).
- Advice on budget management, reception planning and legal documentation required.
- Liaising with your venue and suppliers to ensure your individual requirements are satisfied.
- Assistance with booking of accommodation & flights for you and your guests.
Reviews & Contact


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I was sent this hair treatment to test out a while ago. I am all for hair treatments for my dry, dry hair, so was mucho happy to test it out.
I like the fact that the Organix range is paraben free and the shampoos are SLS free. Its also quite an affordable range at around £5 or less.
This particular product had me because it supposed to be self heating – you have to rub it between your hands before you apply. I did this but to be honest, there was only a mild heat sensation – no head sauna for me.
It smells quite nice, like coconuts, although there is added parfum. Its a light oil, you work it in the hair and wash it out…yes it works pretty damn well. My hair look shinier, it felt softer and its a quick treatment to do in comparison to ones that expect you to leave them on for 20 minutes…
They Say:
Weightless coconut oil and organic coconut milk heals and replenishes your hair with ultra whipped egg white proteins for hydration and balance.
This totally unique self heating formula is an advanced technology which helps heal your hair. It's a healing blend of organic active ingredients which is all you need for moist, smooth and seductive hair in one irresistible formula.
This is the ingredients list:
The problem I have here is that I absolutely adore virgin coconut oil as a treatment. Nothing beats it – you buy it in the solid form, it smells like heaven, it works something gorgeous in your hair (get the VIRGIN stuff, its better than the processed stuff which is a lot cheaper).
Between the two, natural virgin coconut oil wins. However – the Organix treatment is a lot easier to deal with than a solid block of oil, and is a quick fix so I would still recommend it for ladies who like intensive hair treatments like me, on the go.


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Demo Tennis Racquets
Use the Tennis Express Demo program to find the perfect racquet for your game! Select up to four different demo racquets for a one week rental. Demos are complimentary -- just pay roundtrip shipping costs starting at $17.99 for 2 day dellivery. A pre-paid UPS return label will be provided for return shipping. Sorry, we do NOT accept Gift Cards, PayPal and Amazon Pay as payment on demo orders. If you need to extend your demo rental, please contact customer service at (713) 435-4816 or email the demo department at email@example.com.
How do I get started?
Select between 1 and 4 demo racquetsfrom the racquet brands above. Click "Add to Cart" and you will be directed to the checkout page where you may enter your payment information. For any additional questions regarding demos, please call Demo Program Department at 713-435-4816.
When will I receive my demos and how long can I keep them?
We will ship the demo racquets via UPS 2 Day. You should receive your demos within 2 business days of placing your order. You have one week from the day you receive the demos until you need to return them. For example, if you receive the demos on a Monday, you will need to ship them back the following Monday with the pre-paid label provided in the box.
How do I ship them back?
Return the demos to the original box, affix the enclosed return address label, and drop the box off at one of the thousands of conveniently located manned UPS locations (Go to UPS.com to find the location nearest to you.) DO NOT leave the demo racquet box outside an unmanned drop box or with any carrier other than UPS. If you have any questions, please call our Customer Service department at 713-435-4818 and they will be happy to assist.
**There are no additional fees when you return the racquets, assuming you've returned them on time.
What if I don't return them on time?
In order for all of our customers to have a chance to demo our racquets, it is important that they are returned to us on time. You will receive a reminder e-mail prior to the return date. If the racquets are shipped back late, you will be charged $2.00 per racquet, per day that it is late. If we are unable to reach you after 7 days late, your credit card will be charged the full retail price for each racquet.


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Checking Your Car Before Hitting The Road
If you're planning to take the family on a road trip, or you just want to hit the open highway for some time away from home, make sure your car can handle the job. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the side of the road, calling a tow truck. The good news is that checking things over takes less than 30 minutes and won't require the skills of a mechanic. Below, I'll provide you with a quick checklist that you should review before heading out for a long drive.


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Lingfield Park's challenging track provides the truest test of any of the Derby Trial with a tight sweeping corner mirroring that of Epsom's. Featuring fantastic racing by attracting some of the best racehorses in the UK, it is sure to be influential when deciding the credentials of contenders for the Derby itself.
Book in Advance!
Whilst you don't have to book in advance, doing so will save money on the gate price on the raceday, which will be £26 per adult (over 18). Plus, there are added value admission & restaurant packages to choose from that are not available on the turnstiles on raceday.
All tickets purchased in advance are subject to a small booking fee. If you have purchased a ticket well in advance, your ticket will be posted one week before the raceday. However, if you purchase a ticket 5 days or less before the date of the meeting, your ticket(s) will be left at the main entrance under the name in which it was booked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which enclosure should I choose? We have one enclosure here at Lingfield Park, so your Premier ticket will allow access to all public areas of the racecourse, excluding Hospitality or Private Suites.
Do I need a ticket for my children? Children aged 17 & under are admitted Free of Charge and do not require a ticket. If your children look to be older than their age, we request you bring relevant identification to avoid difficulties at the main entrance.
Are there concessions for seniors or students? Yes – Over 60s and those with valid student identification will receive a £7 discount off the gate price. Please note this is only valid on the day and can only be purchased at the gate. To obtain this discount it is compulsory that valid ID is provided to ensure entry.
You may also be interested in reading about Car Parks, the Dress Code or even How To Place a Bet so make sure you click our links or visit our Your Day At The Races page, to search for more information.


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We have had the great joy of spending hours and hours over the last months and even several years in the gospel of Matthew. It has been so enriching in my own life, so formative in my own understanding of Christ and His Word. And in our ongoing study of Matthew this morning, we have come to chapter 11 verses 25 to 30. This is the next unit of thought that we want to consider and that we want the Lord to teach us.
And what especially is wonderful about the gospel of Matthew is that we are indeed walking in the footsteps of Christ and He is directly our teacher as He speaks. And I guess there's a special, special quality about that.
But, as we come to verses 25 to 30 which we'll consider today and in the following week, we come to what I like to call "Jesus' Personal Invitation." "Jesus' Personal Invitation"
Our Lord came into the world, the Bible says, to save sinners. That is the purpose of His incarnation. God came to earth to save sinners, to save them from judgment, to save them from wrath, to save them from hell, to save them from sin. And Jesus Christ expressed this purpose of the incarnation when He said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." That is the purpose ... salvation. That is the message of Christianity ... salvation.
Now this certainly expresses the heart of God. If we go back just for an illustration sake to the prophet Isaiah we find that even through the prophet Isaiah God is giving an invitation to people to be saved. In Isaiah 45:22 it says: "Look unto Me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to Him shall men come and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seedof Israel be justified, and shall glory."
"Look to Me and be saved: even to Him shall men come." That's an invitation. And that is the heart of God, a heart of salvation.
In Isaiah 55, one other text from the prophet Isaiah, verse 1 says: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come to the waters and he that hath no money: come buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto Me. Hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David."
And again in those three verses in Isaiah 55, God gives an invitation. Come ... no price, but come and take freely.
At the end of the Bible, the 22 chapter of Revelation and the 17th verse, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
The Old Testament, the Apocalypse, God is always inviting people to come for salvation. And we find that this was the character of our Lord. Our Lord is God incarnate; we should expect Him to carry on the same effort.
In John 6:35, after just feeding the multitude, providing for them fres ... fish and bread, He said unto them: "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." And so, He calls men to come and to believe. And by the way, you will note from that verse that coming to Christ and believing on Christ are synonymous... and that is a note you want to keep in your mind. When Jesus says, come He is saying, believe on Me. I am bread and I am water.
In the seventh chapter of John, in the 37th verse, "'In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying , If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me," and there you have the same equation, coming is believing, coming is believing.
As the Scripture has said, "Out of His heart shall flow rivers of living water." So, He says, "Come, and eat, I am bread. Come, and drink, I am water."
In chapter 8 verse 12, He says: "I am the light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." He says, "Come to Me for I am not only bread and water, I am light."
And then in chapter 11 as He gathered with those who were brokenhearted over the death of their brother, Lazarus, He said: "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosover liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Come unto Me, He says, for I am life, I am bread, I am water, I am light, I am life. And coming is believing. Believing is coming.
Now, those are beautiful invitations but nowhere in the Scripture is there one more lovely than what we see in our own passage. Look at it with me, Matthew 11:25 to 30.
"At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered unto Me by My Father and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burdenis light."
What a great passage and you have heard it and read it, perhaps memorized it. But I wonder if you understand the fullness in this wonderful text? To begin with, the key to understanding it is to know what Jesus is offering. If He says - Come unto Me - what is the reason? Simply stated, I will give you rest. And He says it in verse 28 and He says it in verse 29. Verse 28 says: "I will give it," verse 29 says, "Youwill receive it." But the promise of our Lord is for rest. That is what Jesus offers people, rest.
Now, just what is this rest? Now that is an essential question. What is it? We don't understand the invitation unless we understand what the rest is. We do not know to what Jesus calls men unless we can define that term rest. What is rest? The literal Greek says I will rest you, or I will refresh you, or I will revive you, but of what does our Lord speak when He uses the word anapauo? I think for a clear understanding of this we need to go to the third chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, and I'd like you to turn to it. And we're going to spend a little time, this morning, in this chapter because we cannot understand the rest unless we understand this section of Scripture.
Now, rest is a common Old Testament word. It is used many, many times, for example, in the prophet Isaiah. God repeatedly in the Old Testament promised His people a rest, or a refreshment, or a reviving. And in the Septuagint version uses the very same term, anapauo that is here translated rest. It is translated rest in Matthew 11; it is translated rest here in Hebrews chapter 3. But the conceptof rest was a Jewish kind of concept. They thought of God's promise as a promise of rest.
Now, precisely, what is that rest? Look with me at chapter 3 and let's begin at verse 7. "Wherefore (as the Holy Spirit saith," and he quotes from Psalm 95 which is the Holy Spirit speaking in the Old Testament, "today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation," or actually in the temptation, "in the day of trial in the wilderness. When your fathers put Me to the test, proved Me and saw My works forty years." Now we'll stop there.
This is a warning. Don't harden your heart like your fathers did in the time of testing in the wilderness, when they put Me to the test, I passed the test for forty years they saw My works and didn't believe. Now this opens to us a very important understanding. In the book of Hebrews there are three different audiences in mind periodically. First of all, Hebrews is written to a community of Jewish Christians, but periodically through the book there are warnings because there are some people who are outwardly convinced, Jewish people, outwardly convinced that this is all true and they believe it but they will not commit themselves to Christ, they will not go all the way because they fear being ostracized from their Jewish friends and family, and being unsynagogued as the Old Word would say it. And so because of that they linger at the crossroad, as it were. They are in limbo, they have come out of the past in the sense that they brought themselves to understand the reality of the gospel and they believe it, but they have not entered into it because they have not activated their faith to receive Christ. And so, they sit on the fence and that is the place of a potential apostate who knows it all but never makes the right decision and finally hardens himself into the most severe kind of condemnation because he who knows the most will be condemned the most.
And so, the writer of Hebrews is here giving the second warning section of the book to these intellectually convinced Jews who will not come to Christ. They know it's true, they just won't make the move. So he says, today, hear His voice and do not harden your hearts like your fathers did in the wilderness.
Verse 10, he says: "Wherefore," still quoting the Holy Spirit, "I was grieved with that generation and said, They do always err in heart and they have not known My ways so I swore in My wrath they shall not enter into My ... what? ... rest." And there's the word--rest. Now what does rest mean to the Jews in the wilderness? Well, what it meant to them was the land of Canaan. They had come out of Egypt, as it were, they had moved...they had made the move away from Egypt, but they never had the faith to take the step into the Promised Land, they all died in the wilderness, an entire generation, if you will, of apostates. Now we believe that there were some among them whobelieved and were probably truly redeemed in actual history, but in the analogy that He's drawing here, He is saying - These people came out of Egypt. In other words, they started to move in the right direction and they believed that there was a better land, and a better way, and that's like the Jew who sees the truth of the gospel, but they wandered in limbo until they died without ever entering into that. And He says don't be like that. Don't be convinced that the gospel is really true but stay in the limbo of indecision until finally you feel nothing but God's wrath, but rather enter into His rest.
Now, in His analogy I believe rest must speak of salvation. These people are not Christians and I know that because of the way He puts it. For one thing, it says it assumes in verse 7 that they do not hear God's voice ... they do not hear God's voice. And if I read my Bible right in John 10 Jesus said: "My sheep ... what?... hear My voice, and they know Me." So, these are people who don't hear.
Secondly, verse 8, they harden their hearts. And if I read Ezekiel right, when God redeems a soul He takes away the stony heart and puts in a heart of flesh. And not only that, in verse 10 it says, "They always erred in heart." They were sinful. And then it says, "They have not known My ways." Now you show me a person who does not know God's ways, who always errs in his heart, a person who hardens and resists God and who doesn't hear His voice and I'll show you an unbeliever. These are unbelieving people who do not enter into rest.
Rest was Canaan. And rest in the analogy is the equivalent of salvation. That is rest ... salvation. That is the essence of what I believe the writer of Hebrews is saying, and our Lord as well.
So, verse 12, then, draws it into the very practical application to the Hebrews ... take heed, brethren. And I believe that is a Jewish brethren as opposed to chapter 3 verse 1 which is a Christian brethren and there he says, "holy brethren." But here it's just Jewish brethren, you better take heed lest there be in any of you asthere were in those an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. That cannot describe a believer ... cannot. An evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God? And yet, many people have tried to make this chapter apply to Christians entering into a sort of a second level rest. These are unbelievers. Don't be like that...departing from the living God with a heart of unbelief.
Verse 13 says that these people were hardened "Through the deceitfulness of sin." So, I think in the analogy here, rest has to equate with salvation.
Verse 14, he says: "We have become partakers of Christ," literally, only, "if we hold on to our confidence to the end." In other words, people who depart from the living God, who harden their hearts, who don't believe, who do always evil, who don't hear His voice and don't know Him, obviously have not become partakers of Christ. And so he goes on to emphasize again as in verse 15, "Today, hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation." And goes back through some of the same thought.
Verse 19 sums it up. "So we see they could not enter in because of ... what? ... unbelief." You see, what keeps you from rest is unbelief because if you enter into salvation, you enter into salvation this way, "For by grace are you saved through ... what? ... faith." You believe unto salvation. When they did not believe they did not enter rest.
Then in chapter 4 verse 1 he follows along, "Let us therefore fear," let's take that illustration and learn from it, "lest the promise being left for us entering into His rest, we should still miss it," is what he means. In other words, we have the promise of rest, too ... salvation rest ... and yet we can come short of that same thing "For we have had the good news preached to us just as they did, but with them there was no benefit because it wasn't mixed with faith."
Verse 3: "For we who have believed do enter into rest." And then he goes on talking more about it. I would just draw you down to verse 9: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. And he that has entered into His rest has ceased from his own works." Now there was the key right there. The Jew believed he could enter into rest by ... what? ... by works. The writer says if you're going to enter into true rest, you cease from your works. And yet in verse 11, most interestingly, he says, "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest." You cease from works in one sense and yet you labor to enter in, you strive to enter into that rest and not to fall by the wayside ... after the example and illustration of the people in the wilderness who died because of unbelief.
Now, that's just a little look at Hebrews that I hope will help you. Go back to Matthew 11. What is rest, then? And I believe you have the same concept here, Jesus says: "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest." You shall find rest for your souls; I think He is offering them salvation, saving rest. Now just to take this a step further, I looked up in the dictionary, and you really don't want to do Bible study out of a dictionary, but just to kind of deal with the ... the English concept of rest I looked it up and found there are five definitions given for rest and they marvelously parallel what salvation rest is.
Number one, the dictionary says that rest is to cease from action or motion, to cease from action or motion, to stop labor and exertion. And that is a marvelous parallel to, I believe, the rest that our Lord offers. To enter into God's rest means no more self-effort to earn God's favor, no more fleshly works to seek His mercy. All works-righteousness systems end as a way to God. We rest from legalism, from self-righteousness. We rest in His consuming grace.
Secondly, the dictionary says that rest is to be free from whatever wearies or disturbs. Sometimes you'll hear somebody say, "You kids don't give me any rest." It's just relief from whatever wearies or constantly disturbs. In the spiritual sense, to enter God's rest means to be at peace with God, to possess, not only peace with God, but the peace of God which passes understanding, to have your heart totally calm in the midst of a storm, to have no more frustration and no more anxiety over life and destiny, no need to worry, sin is forgiven, no guilt is there. To be free from whatever wearies or disturbs.
Thirdly, the dictionary says to rest is to be settled or fixed. Something rests somewhere. It's fixed there, it's settled there. And I believe in a spiritual sense that's a wonderful analogy as well. To enter God's rest means to be positionally secured in God, to end the running from philosophy to philosophy, religion to religion, guru to guru. The vacillating that comes from terrible insecurity in not knowing the truth, but now in Christ we are settled, unmovable, firm, rooted and grounded in Him.
Fourthly, to rest means to remain confident or trustful. And to enter into God's rest means to enjoy faith without fear, to enjoy security, to have perfect trust that our time and eternity is in His care and He loves us.
And fifthly, the word rest means to lean on, or to repose, or to depend on. And to enter God's rest means from now on we depend on Him for everything and He supplies our needs.
Now what is rest? To cease from action, to be free from whatever disturbs, to be fixed and settled, to be confident and trustful, to lean on, to repose, to depend. All of that is embodied in our salvation.
And now you can go backand look at verse 28 again. When our Lord says, "I will give you rest," He is encompassing all of that and infinitely more than that.
Now, let me take it a step further. Rest was also a Jewish term for the Kingdom. The Kingdom is called the time of rest, or the time of refreshing. Rest is also a term for heaven. For in the Revelation it says: "She shall rest from her labors, and her works do follow." So when the Lord says you will enter into rest He means personal, immediate, eternal salvation with its Kingdom relationship, and its heavenly relationship as well. The fullness of all that God can give to calm the troubled soul ... rest. And this is what the Lord offers. Jesus came into the world to give rest to those who would come to Him. And what did we say the word come means? To believe. For those who believe in Him there is salvation; that is the simple gospel invitation that our Lord gives. But in its simplicity there is profundity. For as you look at those verses, six choice verses, you find the five essential elements in a genuine invitation to salvation, five essential elements in a genuine invitation to salvation. And I really believe it's important for us to look into these because I think there are so many times nowadays when we think we're giving a true invitation to salvation but it is missing some of these ingredients.
If we are to understand what a true invitation is, we must understand how our Lord gave an invitation, and that's what He does right here. This is Jesus Christ's own call to people to come to Him. And how did He do it? It's so essential for us because we so often leave out the essential elements, as we shall see when we go through.
Now, before we look specifically at the first of these five, and we're only going to look at one of them today, and I hope all four of the other ones next time, they're not as long as this one ... kind of getting started. But before we do that, let me set the context for you, look at the first part of verse 25; "At that time Jesus answered and said." Now, that just kind of frames a little bit for us to help us know where we are ... "At that time." The question immediately that hits you as you study is what is the antecedent of that? What time? Well, it could be the very moment of time preceding in which He upbraided the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, and pronounceddoom and judgment upon them for their rejection of Him and His message. It could have been at that very time that Jesus turned immediately and gave an invitation.
It is also very possible that He gave these similar teachings on many other occasions and that it was at that time in which, in a more general sense, the Galilean ministry was coming to a climax. At the time when all of the reactions to Jesus were starting to crystalize. At the time when He had pretty well filled out the Galilean ministry. When the Messianic evidence had been presented, when there was no other possible conclusion then that He was God incarnate, the Christ, the Messiah ... the time that He had sent out the twelve, according to chapter 10, and then according to Luke 10 He had sent out the seventy. And so, He has these eighty-two people out and they're proclaiming the message and now they have come back, Luke 10 tells us, and they've reported to Him the same thing that He found out, that the vast majority of the people in Galilee had rejected His message, and His person. And it may have been at that time when knowing their full rejection He reproaches those evil cities for rejecting Him, but then turns to a personal invitation. He knows that the nation has turned their back on Him. He knows that they are willfully denying their Messiah, but He still offers a personal invitation to those who are working and bearing heavy burdens and seeking rest. And He calls to them to come to Him.
So, whether it be immediately on the heels of the former speech in judgment, or whether it simply be in the general time-context of the Galilean ministry and the crystalizing of its opposition as the folks that He sent out have come back and reported to Him, or not, it fits in either way. We don't know which one, but either one, it all fits into the same basic chronology.
Now in the sections that we've been looking at, 11 and 12, the Lord gives us all the different reactions that people had to Him. We've already seen the reaction of doubt. We've seen the reaction of criticism. We've seen the reaction of indifference. We are yet to see the reactions of amazement, fascination, rejection and blasphemy. And all of these are the crystalizing reactions against Christ, but in the middle of it comes this lovely invitation. And it's as if He says even if the whole nation turns their back on Me, My arms are still extended to those who are wearyand heavy laden. You can still come.
Our Lord knew the attitude was going to come to a full rejection on a national scale, and yet He reaches out to those who wish to come. The early days of popularity had passed, opposition has formed itself, but in the midst of it all, the Lord is still tenderly giving His invitation. And it always kind of interests me that right next to a cursing of just a ... amazing strength comes an invitation of equally amazing tenderness. The last passage and this one, side by side, speak of the heart of God. He's a God of justice and a God of judgment and a God of wrath and yet a God of love and grace and mercy.
The phrase also says, "Jesus answered and said." Now that does not mean there was a question, that is a Hebrew idiom, somewhat familiar in Scripture, that simply means that He openly spoke. He spoke out openly. His invitation was not a private one. It was not a secretive one. It was an open one. An invitation to salvation. He calls people to come personally to Him.
Now, as the invitation starts I want you to notice how it starts. He begins this way: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." Why does He do that? Because, I think, this is very basic to any presentation of the gospel, or any call to people to come to Christ, and that is this, a recognitionthat all responses, negative and positive, are in the ultimate sovereign control of God. To begin with, the Lord says - I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And He uses a title that fills up all of our thinking, sovereign of the universe, Lord over everything. A recognition of God's utter, absolute sovereign control. Lord of heaven and earth. Nothing outside of that sphere. I thank You because You are in charge.
Verse 26: "You are doing that which seemed good in Your sight." In other words, in all of an approach to an invitation there must be a recognition that God is the one who must be praised, who must be determinive ... determinative in what happens. And so our Lord recognizes the sovereignty of God.
I've had people say to me, "Do you get upset when people don't get saved? Do you...does it bother you?" And on the one hand I say, "Yes," just as it would bother Christ when He wept over the city of Jerusalem. Yet on the other hand, I see Christ here saying Father, I thank Thee that the thing is going according to Your plan, even though the mass of people are rejecting, it's still Your plan working out and not frustrated at all. Sovereign of the universe, You do all things right, it seemed good in Thy sight to do it this way and I thank You for that.
That is a great confidence, people. Whenever you go into any kind of a situation where you present Christ, to believe in your heart without a shadow of a doubt that God is the sovereign behind everything. He is behind everything. It is His plan right on course. And our Lord can rejoice in it even though it involves a persecution of Himself and His own, even though He looks at the unrepentant, vindictive, bitter, hateful, cynical rejection of people, He knows they can't thwart the purpose of God, so the Lord praises God that the plan is His and it is working out as it seemed good in the Father's sight. What a great confidence to be able to preach. You know, if I didn't think ... if I thought I was responsible for who got saved, it would just drive you out of your mind. I mean, I couldn't survive. But I'm not responsible for that.
I remember someone who was baptized at Grace Church and they were just a new Christian and Iknew what they meant, but they came into the baptistry and they said, "I'd like to thank John MacArthur for saving me." If you got saved by John MacArthur, you didn't get saved, you're lost. I remember a pastor, I was holding a week of meetings, and we were sitting in the front row and some music was going on and he said, "See that fellow over there?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "That's one of my converts." "Oh," I said, "isn't that wonderful?" He said, "Yeah, mine, not the Lord's." I knew what he meant.
It's not our job to save people. That's God's job. And the plan is going according to His good pleasure. It seemed good in His sight. And He was the one who determined it. And, of course, when the Lord came into the world, He said, "My meet is to do the will of Him who sent Me." He had an unyielding trust in God's perfect will. And so He rests in the sovereign, good purpose of the Father and thanks Him that He is the one who makes salvation a reality. And with the affirmation that the Father's in control, He then turns to the invitation, and there are five elements in His invitation. Five features, five truths that are key.
The first one, let's call humility, or dependence, you can use either term. Humility or dependence, and those are just key words to key the thought we're going to look at.
Verse 25: "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because ..." and here it comes, "Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good, or right, in Your sight." Father, I thank You that the plan is ... that you don't get saved because you're intelligent. I thank You for that. I thank You, Father, that no one is shut out because they're stupid; no one is shut out because they're dumb.
Now, some people have thought maybe you were shut out if you were smart. You've heard - He's too smart for his own good. Some people might take this verse to mean, You've hidden these things from the wise and prudent. In other words, the smarter you are, the more trouble you're in because God just doesn't want smart people in heaven. That's not what it's saying.
Let's look at what it's saying. First of all, look at the phrase "these things." We have to know what it is that He's hidden. What are these things? Well, it certainly wouldn't be mathematics and it certainly wouldn't be science and history and it certainly wouldn't be worldly wisdom and all of that because those things aren't hidden from the wise and the prudent. And certainly aren't revealed unto babies, that's nepion and it means babies, suckling little baby. I mean, it isn't...it isn't educational things, it isn't vast scientific information, it isn't great philosophical insight, these things...what things...tauta? Well, what does it refer to? Well, I think maybe the best answer is Acts 1:3. It says: "To whom He showed Himself alive," our Lord after His passion, "and He was seen by them," that is His disciples, "for forty days and He was speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom Of God." That's what He is talking about. The things pertaining to the Kingdom. The same things that He always talked about. He always talked about the things pertaining to the Kingdom. Before the cross and after the cross and the resurrection, He continued to talk about the things pertaining to the Kingdom ... the teachings of Jesus about God...the teachings of Jesus about righteousness...the teachings of Jesus about salvation ... the teachings of Jesus about Messiahship, Lordship, Saviorhood ... the teachings of Jesus about obedience and submission ... the teachings of Jesus about everything in God's Kingdom, deep, eternal, spiritual truth.
You say, "Now, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that deep, eternal, spiritual truth is not available to the educated and the wise? It's only available to the babies?" That's right. Thank You, God. The Sonsays, thank You, God, that You put down human wisdom, human reasoning.
What is this saying? Well, it's saying, in effect and stay with me and we'll see how it clears up, I Corinthians 2, saying just what that says. Verse 9: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard." Now that's empirical, external objective study. Eye-see, ear-hear no, you can't do it. The eye can't see it and the ear can't hear it. It is not empirically or objectively available. "Neither has it entered into the heart of man." That's subjective. It is not externally perceivable, it is not internally perceivable, "The things which God has prepared for them that love Him." There we are back to those things again. Those things pertaining to the Kingdom are not available through external perception or internal rationalization.
"God has revealedthem unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, the deep things of God." And then in verse 14: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; they're foolishness, he can't understand them." Back in chapter 1 he says: "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish ... what? ... foolishness." It's a stumbling block. It's folly to them.
Now, what is He then saying? These things, regarding the Kingdom, are hidden from the intelligent people. It just doesn't quite mean that. No, it means it's ... they're hidden from the people who think they can discover the truth with their intelligence alone. Do you get that? They are hidden from those who are dependent on their wisdom and their intelligence. By the way, those two terms are basically interchangeable; it means intelligence and understanding, wisdom and prudence, they really refer to one general class of people who imagine that truth can be known through the human mind. It is especially applicable to the Rabbis and the Pharisees and the scribes who were closed to the revelation of God in Christ because they thought they already had attained to human wisdom. And if you don't think they were really involved in human wisdom, you've missed it because they depended upon human resources to interpret everything, human reason to interpret everything.
A couple of weeks ago when I was in Milwaukee, a Rabbi spoke who is the leading orthodox Rabbi in America and perhaps one of the most leading orthodox Rabbis in the world, was just offered the chair of Rabbinic studies at the Univ...Hebrew University in Jerusalem. And he spoke on some Old Testament things and he said, "We believe that the truth is not contained only in the Scripture, but it is contained in the traditions and teaching of the elders." And when he spoke, all the time he spoke, he kept going back to this Rabbi said this and this teacher said this and this rabbi said this, and all of this pile of human wisdom. He kept talking about it under the term legislation, and Rabbi--Rabbi so-and-so said ... this is the legislation and this is the legislation, and his entire life was a maze of trying to figure his way through a bunch of human reason. And he was not open or interested in the revelation of the New Testament because he already knew the truth, he thought. A victim of his own intelligence as he limited it to that.
The statement does not mean that God has withheld the truth from smart people, it just means that every person who thinks he's so smart he doesn't need it is doomed. In fact, there's a sense in which if you think you're so smart that you don't need the truth and You willfully reject it, God will then close your mind to it once and for all.
In John 12:37 Jesus had done so many miracles yet they believed not. They had enough evidence, they're just like the folks in the book of Hebrews that we saw, they had enough evidence, same as the ones in Galilee in Matthew 11. They didn't believe. Verse 39 says: "Therefore they could not believe." You see, it went from a personal choice to reject, to a judicial, divine, affirmation of that. They couldn't believe, as Isaiah says, "He blinded their eyes, hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them." They wouldn't believe and they couldn't believe. That is the terrible, terrible, terrible definition of apostasy. Men who know and they will not believe and God confirms them in that and they cannot believe.
So, the reference here is to a wisdom and an intelligence that is corrupted and perverted by ... and here comes the key word ... pride. Pride. Our Lord thanks the Father that intellectual power is not necessary for salvation. But He recognizes that intellectual pride keeps men from salvation. If you could get saved by your intellect, it wouldn't be to the glory of God, would it? It would be to your glory.
One writer said: "The heart not the head is the home of the gospel."
Our Lord is not contemm... condemning intelligence, if you're intelligent, He made you that way. He's not condemning intelligence. He is condemning intellectual pride and He is also saying that you don't have to be intelligent to get saved. In fact, our Lord said: "Except you become as a little child, you cannot ... what?...enter the Kingdom."
Let me sum it up this way. It is not intelligence which shuts people out of the Kingdom. It is intellectual pride. And it is not intelligence which gets one into the Kingdom. It is humility. Intelligence, then, is not the issue. Intellectual pride is the issue. And they were too proud, too self-seeking, to egoistic, to busy justifying themselves by their own attainments.
Psalm 138:6 says: "Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly, but the proudHe knows afar off," in other words, they have no intimacy with Him at all. So, He says - Father, I thank You that intelligence isn't the issue. You don't need to be intelligent to get saved. And I thank You that intellectual pride shuts men out because that wouldn't glorify You. But I'm also thankful that You have revealed these things unto babes for that does glorify You. And that lets the least of men have access to Your Kingdom.
Now, what are babes? Nepios, that just means ababy. I think it is a synonym for a suckling--that is a baby that's nursing. You're talking about a very small child, that's Matthew 21:16, babes and sucklings. I think that it's a very small child you're talking about. I mean, one who doesn't have any intelligence, any education, any whatever, I mean, it hasn't been manifest yet, we don't really know, it's just very, very limited. It is the term used, for example, of those in I Corinthians 3:1 and Hebrews 5 who drink milk and can't even eat solid food. It is used in I Corinthians 13:11 of those who have not yet learned to speak. It is used in Ephesians 4:14 of those who are helpless. So, we have a helpless child, baby, can't speak, can't eat solid food, nursing at its mother's breast and there's one word that best can sum up that kind of person and that is dependent. Wouldn't you agree? Dependent.
I think that's probably the best definition of a baby there is in terms of what it needs. It's dependent. If you just leave a baby it will die ... it will die...totally dependent.
Who are the ones who can enter into salvation? They are the dependent, not the independent, the dependent. They are the humble, not the proud, the humble. Those who are humbly confessing their dependency. They are helpless and they recognize it. They are empty and they know it. They are nothing and they're aware of it. They are deeply aware that they have no resources in life, none. And they turn in utter dependency, and that is what our Lord means when He says: "Except a man become as a little child he can't enter the Kingdom." You have to come to the point where you abandon all of your own resources, you see.
So, the comparison between the wise and the babes is not a comparison between smart and dumb people. Not a comparison between educated and uneducated people. It is a comparison between those who think by their own intellect they can save themselves and those who know they can't, and are totally dependent on God's grace. It is a grace and works comparison. It is a God and man comparison. So, the prosperous, self-sufficient, egotistical, works-righteousness inhabitants of the Galilean towns never did understand, but here and there less sophisticated people, deeply distressed over their own emptiness, humble and broken were open to the revelation of God in Christ. And so it seemed good in God's sight.
Good. Why? Because that glorifies God. And that is the supreme reason for everything in the universe. It wouldn't glorify God if the conceited entered the Kingdom.
In Psalm 34:2 it says: "The humble shall hear and be glad." In Proverbs 22:4 it says: "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor in life." And so, beloved, to begin with I think in any legitimate invitation there must be an affirmation that humility is where it begins.
Go with me for a moment backwards to the fifth chapter of Matthew. And here again the words of our Lord which say the same thing. "When He opened His mouth there and taught them Ile said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." What does that mean? A begging spirit, a person in this situation would be cringing in a dark corner with his face covered and his hand out begging. The poverty spoken of here is a word that means poverty so abjected it can do nothing but beg. The one who has no resources and knows it. The one who is ashamed to lift up his head. The one who cringes in a corner with his hand out. He is the one who gets the Kingdom, see. This was absolutely the opposite of everything that the Jews had been taught by the Pharisees and the scribes.
Further, in verse 4 it says: "Blessed are they that mourn." Who not only are aware of the brokenness of their spirit, who not only are aware of the poverty of their soul but who mourn over their condition.
And then the next: "Blessed are the meek," who are humble. And then who are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They know they don't have it, they know they don't have righteousness. They know that and they hunger and they thirst for it. And so, the Lord said you show me the man in the corner who has no resources and who holds his hand out and who weeps over his lack of resources and who is humble before a holy God and hungers for a righteousness that he knows he doesn't have and I'll show you somebody who will get the Kingdom. God has revealed these things concerning His Kingdom to those kinds of people. And so our invitation, beloved, begins then with being an invitation to the humble and the dependent people.
That's why it's so very difficult, you see, to reach the superstars, the people who already think they have everything, and so easy to reach the broken people by comparison.
In Isaiah 57:15 there's a marvelous, marvelous verse, and this is a good place to kind of draw our thoughts to a conclusion. This and one other New Testament passage. Listen to Isaiah 57:15: "For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place." Now just stop there for a second. What a statement! I mean, Isaiah has just got God up as far as he can get Him in his vocabulary. The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, who dwells in the high and holy place. I mean, he just pushes God as far out into the atmosphere as he can get Him.
And we say, "Oh, transcendent God ... high and holy in eternity." He says, "I dwell there." And then he says this, I love this, "With Him who is of a contrite and humble spirit." Isn't that great? Man thinks that he must attain to that, so he worships his intellect and his reason. And God is up there with the contrite, humble spirit. And then he says and using the Greek word used in the Septuagint, "To give rest to the spirit of the humble and to give rest to the heart of the contrite." Same word rest. God says I give rest, but I give rest to humble people, people who are filled with contrition, brokenness, a sense of dependency. That's the kind of invitation the Lord offers. No place for pride.
In Luke 18, two men went into the temple to pray and the Pharisee stood up and said - I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are, like this crummy tax collector over here. I fast twice a week, give tithes of all that I possess.
You see, he thought he was good enough ... intellectual pride, religious intellectual pride, religious philosophical intellectual pride, but nonetheless intellectual pride. He could attain it on his own. I'm not like other people, I'm superior.
And over in the corner was the sinner beating on his breast and saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And he wouldn't even lift his head up. And Jesus said that man went home justified rather than the other. There's no place in God's Kingdom for pride, it's only for the humble, it's only for the babes, for the sucklings, for thedependent.
The poet said it this way: "Still to the lowly soul He doth Himself depart and for His dwelling and His throne He chooses the humble heart." I look to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and trembleth at My Word, says God. Let's pray.
Father, we hear the echo of the invitation of our Lord. First He offers it against the opposition of the world knowing full well that most will turn it down. But nonetheless in grace He offers it. Secondly, He offers it with a great sense of Your sovereignty knowing full well that all that happens comes from You and glorifying You for the plan that begins with humility ... that You have so designed, God, that men who enter Your Kingdom can have no glory for themselves for they must come dependent and broken and humble. May it be, Lord, that there are such humble hearts today in this place who are willing to become as a little child, as it says in Luke 18:4, to enter into Your Kingdom, who are willing to climb off the tower of their pride to descend to that corner where they cower as beggars and lift up an empty hand to Thee. Father, before You can save You must humble, so humble hearts and make them dependent that in their dependency they may turn to You to be fed and to be led into Your Kingdom. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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text:
Free python IDE for Windows,Mac & Linux with UML,PyChecker,Debugger,GUI design,Blender & more
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
SPE: Call for testers!
Here is an overview what has been done:
The focus in this release is bugfixing, plugin upgrades and compatibility with wxPython 2.8, but it also still works on wxPython 2.6
- WinPdb to 1.0.8 (not fail in timely manner anymore)
- wxGlade to latest cvs (support for wxWindows2.8)
New features:
- Save as copy
- Clear output pane
- output: escape html characters in tab & respect spaces
- preserve file permissions and avoid erasing file
- wxversion handling at startup
- font dialog
- recent files sorted by lowercase
- default buttons on all dialog
- mac: run terminal commands (jurjen)
- mac: pychecker
- ubuntu: switch to file
- some critical bug fixes which could have crashed SPE in the past
- much more ...
PS. Winpdb does not work well on Mac & wxpython2.8 Nir is working on an update. So when it comes out it will be included with SPE.
21 comments:
- ScotsmanMarch 08, 2007 1:45 AM
Thank you Stani. I am testing already.ReplyDelete
One thing I have found is when closing one of multiple file tabs SPE crashes. This is on Ubuntu. I am trying to find what leads up to this because it does not always happen.
Will post when I have more details.
I'm using rev 192 on Ubuntu, wxPython 2.8. The default UI doesn't show any close button on the tabs. I can close tabs with Ctrl-W (i'm using windows shortcut).
Please open first a terminal and run SPE in debugging mode (python SPE.py --debug), than I can know better what happens.
I had to remove the UI with close buttons as it was not stable on Ubuntu. I tried to solve it, but it didn't seem possible. As an alternative, SPE provide to close tabs with a middle mouse click.
- AnonymousMarch 08, 2007 1:31 PM
Great work,ReplyDelete
Any chance of a way to donate without having to create a paypal account? Others have managed to set that up even with paypal as a middleman.
As I don't have an account and really believe I shouldn't need one. I for one, hold off donating until then.
No problem, if you want to donate without paypal, contact me by email spe.stani.be # gmail * com.
- ScotsmanMarch 08, 2007 4:09 PM
Problem when using treeview in Explorer (left side) in UML_Example.py. opening and closing the treeviews gets messed up. In the end the Window(Frame) tree won't close anymore. Ubuntu EdgyReplyDelete
Spe is running in debugging mode with this configuration:
- platform : linux2
- python : 2.4.4c1
- wxPython : 220.127.116.11
- interface : default
- encoding : UTF-8
Launching application...
Create: Framework: menu.
Create: Framework: toolbar.
Create: Framework: statusbar.
Creating tabs...
Opening /home/john/_spe/examples/uml_example.py
{... }
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/john/_spe/tabs/Browser.py", line 146, in onFolderSelect
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/wx-2.8-gtk2-unicode/wx/_core.py", line 13772, in __getattr__
raise PyDeadObjectError(self.attrStr % self._name)
wx._core.PyDeadObjectError: The C++ part of the SpinCtrl object has been deleted, attribute access no longer allowed.
I've uploaded a fix to svn. I just discovered that overriding the normal behaviour of a tree in gtk is not an option. From now on you can only use the arrows to expand a tree item in the explorer. Can you try again now to crash SPE?
- ScotsmanMarch 09, 2007 2:06 AM
Folding tree fault fixed! Thanks.ReplyDelete
New problem now...
Seg Fault
Opened file and checked the above bug was fixed. Then began to check pychecker. I made a deliberate error in the code (def to de f) and started pychecker. Nothing picked up, but that's alright. Wrote some notes in notes tab. Checked to see if they appeared on bottom notes tab. They didn't (don't know if they are supposed to?). But then I went to close the file using menu File->Close and SPE crashed with seg fault as follows. Looks like pychecker maybe?
Opening /home/john/_spe/examples/uml_example.py
Create: MdiSplit: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitChildFrame'> uml_example.py /home/john/_spe/examples/uml_example.py
Create: Sdi: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitChildFrame'.tabs
Event<: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitParentFrame'>.Size
Event: Parent: class 'Parent.Panel'>.onSize
Event>: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitParentFrame'>.Size
Event<: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitChildFrame'>.Size
{... }
Event: Child: /home/john/_spe/examples/uml_example.py: class 'Child.Panel'>.onKillFocus(dead=False)
Event: Child: /home/john/_spe/examples/uml_example.py: class 'Child.Panel'>.onKillFocus(dead=False)
Dialog: Parent: class 'Parent.Panel'>.messageCancel
Event>: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitParentFrame'>.Activate(False)
Opening /home/john/_spe/examples/uml_example.py
Event<: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitParentFrame'>.Activate(True)
Event: Parent: class 'Parent.Panel'>.onActivate
Event>: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitParentFrame'>.Activate(True)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/john/_spe/plugins/Pycheck.py", line 108, in OnProcessEnded
del self.list[0]
IndexError: list assignment index out of range
Event: Child: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitChildFrame'>.Close
Event<: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitChildFrame'>.Close
Event>: Framework: class 'sm.wxp.smdi.MdiSplitChildFrame'>.Close returns True
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
The notes shouldn't appear down as you can keep notes for every file or for general activity down. It doesn't look like a pychecker bug, more with notes. Contact me by email.
Revision just downloaded an hour ago, I think 208.ReplyDelete
Looks good, one thing I immediately noticed is that when no files are open, clicking on a menu and browsing it (mouseOvering the different options) will cause lots of errors to appear in the shell tab at the bottom half of the screen.
Suggestion: the donate button in the help menu could make the 'donate' tab be selected instead of opening the same thing in a web page.
I will look into these errors. Normally menus which are related to open documents should be enabled when no file is open.
About the donate tool button... on a website I can put a paypal donate button which the donate tab can only display on windows. So for windows this could be an option.
The menu error should be fixed now!
SPE latest SVN, Ubunt EdgyReplyDelete
I can run SPE fine with Python 2.4.
When I 'sudo update-alternatives --config python' to switch to 2.5 and try running SPE, I get "Error: SPE requires wxPython, which doesn't seem to be installed. Get it from http://www.wxpython.org!"
I checked the first bit of code in SPE.py and tried 'import wxversion' from the Python 2.5 shell: "ImportError: No module named wxversion". It is clearly installed (according to both apt and Python 2.4)... I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. It seems as though Python 2.5 doesn't have access to installed packages.
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
To ben: Since you have already installed wxPython 2.5, simply comment the "try...except..." in /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/SPE.py. It works for me.ReplyDelete
I use Ubuntu Feisty. I checked /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ and found out there was no wxversion.py at all. I guess that might be a tiny bug of Ubuntu packages.
- graupelschauerMay 08, 2007 9:03 AM
I tried running SPE through Blender on Windows, but any script I try to send to Blender from the IDE gives me the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\_spe\Menu.py", line 499, in menu_reference_in_blender
File "C:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\_spe\Child.py", line 612, in reference_in_blender
import blenpy.plugins.mouse
ImportError: No module named blenpy.plugins.mouse
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\_spe\Menu.py", line 495, in menu_load_in_blender
File "C:\Python24\Lib\site-packages\_spe\Child.py", line 606, in load_in_blender
import blenpy.pyGui
ImportError: No module named blenpy.pyGui
I don't know where the "blenpy" module is supposed to come from.
I am using:
Windows XP Pro
SPE 0.8.3c
Python 2.4.3
wxPython 2.6.1
Blender 2.43
- jasonMay 20, 2007 2:08 PM
first of all I have to say that SPE is the greatest IDE I've ever seen, thanks for all the work!
I have one problem with version 0.8.4.b, running on Windows XP.
If I try to run a file that is located on a path with spaces, it fails:
"C:\Python25\python.exe: can't open file 'C:\Documents': [Errno 2] No such file or directory"
Probably the file argument is passed to python without quotes.
Thanks again for all the good work!
- AnonymousJuly 25, 2007 11:27 PM
One problem :ReplyDelete
- platform : linux2
- python : 2.5.1
- wxPython : 18.104.22.168.
- interface : default
- encoding : ISO-8859-2
Launching application...
Create: Framework: menu.
Create: Framework: toolbar.
Create: Framework: statusbar.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "_spe/spe", line 3, in module
import _spe.SPE
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/SPE.py", line 209, in module
style = style)
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/sm/wxp/smdi.py", line 1278, in __init__
wx.App.__init__(self,redirect=not debug)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/wx/_core.py", line 7748, in __init__
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/wx/_core.py", line 7345, in _BootstrapApp
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/sm/wxp/smdi.py", line 1298, in OnInit
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/sm/wxp/smdi.py", line 801, in __init__
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/sm/wxp/smdi.py", line 596, in __init__
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/sm/wxp/smdi.py", line 325, in __init__
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/sm/wxp/smdi.py", line 417, in __statusBar__
self.statusBar = self.app.StatusBar(parent=self,id=wx.ID_ANY)
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/Menu.py", line 727, in __init__
self.throbber = Throbber(self,'throbber_still.gif')
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/Menu.py", line 733, in __init__
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/wx/animate.py", line 242, in __init__
File "/usr/share/python2.5/site-packages/_spe/Menu.py", line 746, in LoadFile
if fileName != self._fileName and not self._running:
AttributeError: 'Throbber' object has no attribute '_fileName'
any advice ?
- AnonymousSeptember 05, 2007 12:31 PM
ill begin testing on gentoo linux, tel you how it goes XDReplyDelete
Hi, great work!ReplyDelete
I've discovered an error (SEG FAULT) when:
- Cut any text.
- Paste it in an upper position.
- Enter a new line.
I'm working on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn and I've tried it in one more pc (also with Ubuntu FF) and the same error ocurres.
ad spe8.3 under hardy ... (pychecker problem)ReplyDelete
try to use sources.list from http://de.pastebin.ca/915001 it helped me.
it seems that no all repostiories are well updated .


text:
Lots of guys have called Angelina Jolie sexy, but her own Dad?
Jon Voight made the comment at the Los Angeles premiere of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," while remarking on similarities between his daughter and the movie's star, Megan Fox.
"They are both very beautiful women, and they are both sexy gals, you know," he told Us Magazine.
He didn't stop there. "We are all so different from one another that we can't be compared -- but they are very attractive girls."
The aging actor has been estranged from his daughter for years, something that was pushed into the spotlight following a 2002 Access Hollywood interview he gave detailing their difficulties, according to People.com.
It's not the first time Jolie's kin has crossed the line of standard family conduct.
In 2000 she told the world she was in love with her brother in an acceptance speech at the Oscars before giving him a full-on smooch that creeped out most of the free world.


text: Finally, Next Media Animation weighs in on the World Series. If you didn't catch this year's Fall Classic-and, if you're reading these words, there's a good chance you didn't-or if you immediately forgot everything that happened during the Series-and, all things considered, there's a good chance you did-Next Media Animation has you covered. Our only quibbles: the walking bottle of shaving cream seemed drunker in real life, and Miguel Cabrera is fatter than that.


text:
Premier Membership
Premier Membership is the first level of the new paid membership tiers. Premier members will have access to all the Basic level benefits plus expanded site archives and early access to some publication features. This level is really designed for users who may still use older products and want access to historic AUGI hosted content.
Premier Membership includes the following:
- All Basic Benefits...
- Full Access to all AUGI Forums (Posting of questions and answers)
- HotNews Newsletter delivered via email
- HotNews Archives (prior 12 months)
- Local User Group Listings (view only)
- AUGI Online Communities
- AUGI Library
- AUGI Surveys
- Wish List System (Submit/Rank/Vote)
- AUGI Online Communities
- Communication Emails – Announcements via email
- Event Notifications – Overall AUGI related event emails
- AUGI Career Center Access
- Publication Authoring Option – you can contribute as author
- Access Autodesk University Course Content
- AUGIWorld Digital (prior 24 months - online digital and PDF download)
- Forum Membership Plaque
- AUGI Educational Offerings
- AUGI User Group Registration (Leaders can register their group with AUGI so others can find it)
- AUGI User Group Listings (Leaders can post and edit event/meeting information)


text:
Seventeen people lost their lives on Georgia roadways during the long holiday weekend. That was more than five times the three deaths during the same holiday weekend a year ago.
One of the fatal wrecks was in Barrow County. A 29-year-old Buford man was killed at about 7:40 p.m. Dec. 21 in a head-on crash on Rockwell Church Road west of Moons Bridge Road. Corey Scott Appling died after the 1996 Toyota Tacoma truck he was driving crossed the center line and hit a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Connie Sue Wallace, 46, of Winder. She was transported to Athens Regional Medical Center for treatment of her injuries.
After midnight Saturday in Banks County, 53-year-old Barry Lane Forrester of Maysville was killed. His truck had broken down on Georgia 323 and was partially in the travel lane. He got underneath his vehicle to attempt a repair when a Chevrolet Silverado driven by 64-year-old Jerry Truman Blackwell of Ellijay hit Forrester's pickup, pinning him.
The 102-hour holiday weekend reporting period was from 6 p.m. Friday through midnight Christmas. As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, the Georgia State Patrol had responded to 685 crashes with 300 injuries and 11 fatalities. Other agencies around the state had responded to crashes with six additional fatalities.
Holiday traffic fatalities up; one death in Barrow
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text:
2011 Cluster-Randomized Trials
The National Center for Education Research (NCER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education announces its fourth Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster-Randomized Trials to increase the national capacity of researchers to develop and conduct rigorous evaluations of the impact of education interventions.
June 19 - 30, 2011
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
The Training Institute will be held at the Norris Center on the campus of Northwestern University. Northwestern University is located on the shore of Lake Michigan in the town of Evanston, just north of Chicago. Classroom instruction will take place in the Norris Center. Institute participants will be housed at the Hotel Orrington. The hotel is located within walking distance of Northwestern University.
Course Content:
The course sessions will provide intensive training on planning, implementing and analyzing data from a cluster randomized trial.
The course will enable participants to:
- Describe the principles underlying randomized experiments and their advantages for making causal inferences.
- Understand the hierarchical structure of populations in education (students nested in classes nested in schools) and its implications for study design and analysis of data.
- Select appropriate measures for assessing outcomes, describing implementation fidelity, and capturing process variables.
- Acquire knowledge and strategies for designing and conducting a cluster-randomized trial.
For more information about the course content, please view the presentations from the 2008 Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster-Randomized Trials.
Training Institute Sponsor:
Northwestern University, with a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, is providing support for this Summer Training Institute.
Eligibility Requirements and Selection Criteria for Training Institute Fellows:
Applicants must have a doctoral degree (Ph.D., Ed.D.) and experience conducting research relevant to education.
Applicants must be citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States, or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (i.e., possess a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551, or other legal verification of such status).
Preference will be given to individuals who (a) have demonstrated their ability to conduct independent research, (b) are currently employed in a setting in which conducting research relevant to education is part of their regular responsibilities, and (c) can demonstrate that they have a need for the knowledge and skills addressed in the Training Institute. Each application will be evaluated on its own merits. If more than 30 meritorious applications are received, other criteria such as disciplinary, geographical, and institutional diversity will be taken into account.
Applicants must have a solid understanding of statistical methods and be experienced in using personal computers and statistical computer packages. The Training Institute will include hands-on data analysis sessions. Participants are expected to know how to perform basic SPSS or SAS procedures, including running statistical analyses (e.g., frequency distributions, cross-tabulations, means, regression analyses).
Women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
Postdoctoral fellows, junior researchers, and senior researchers who would benefit from the knowledge and skills addressed in the Summer Training Institute are encouraged to apply.
If selected for participation in the Summer Training Institute, individuals who require reasonable accommodations for disabilities should contact Valerie Lyne at Northwestern University (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).
Costs and Stipends:
Northwestern University will pay for travel to and from the Summer Training Institute site, lodging, and meals on days of instruction, and for course materials. Summer Training Institute Fellows will be asked to pay a fee of $250.00 dollars to help defray the costs of the Summer Training Institute. Fellows are responsible for the cost of meals in transit (to and from the Summer Training Institute site) and on the weekend (July 25-26, 2011).
Application Procedures:
The Summer Training Institute will be offered June 19-30, 2010. If you are interested in attending the Summer Training Institute, please use the link below to submit the following materials:
1. A copy of your curriculum vitae.
Your curriculum vitae should include information on:
- Your title/position at your institution or organization
- Your academic/professional degree
- Your citizenship status (citizen or permanent resident)
- A list of currently funded research grants and the sources of funding
2. A 2- to 3-page personal statement describing:
- Your current and planned intervention research projects
- Your previous statistical training and familiarity with statistical packages such as SPSS, SAS, or HLM;
- How this workshop is likely to influence your future research
Requirement: The personal statement is limited to 3 single spaced pages in 12-point font and must be attached as a MS Word document or as a PDF file.
Application materials should be submitted online at: [link no longer available].
All applications must be received no later than Friday,
March 18, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
Applications will be reviewed and applicants will be notified no later than April 8, 2011 via electronic mail. Selected applicants will receive the Summer Training Institute course schedule and information about travel and lodging.
Contact Information:
CRT Training Institute inquiries
Dr. Christina Chhin
National Center for Education Research
Institute of Education Sciences
555 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20208
Telephone: 202-219-2280
E-mail: email@example.com
Inquiries about submission of the CRT Training
Institute application materials:
Valerie Lyne
Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
2040 N. Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Telephone: 847- 467-4001
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Rodney Steven II, owner of Genesis Health Clubs, Wichita, KS, is optimistic after a bill passed in the Kansas Senate that would exempt for-profit health clubs from paying property taxes.
Senate Bill 72 was passed last month by a 25-14 vote and is now in a House-Senate conference committee. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the Kansas Legislature are on break and will resume the 2013-2014 legislative session on May 8.
"We still have hopes that it can make it through this year through conference committee for the House side," Steven said in an email to Club Industry. "If not, we have next year to get it through the House as it is a passed bill on the Senate side."
For several years, Steven, who testified for Senate Bill 72, has been fighting local YMCAs in Wichita and the state of Kansas that receive tax-exempt status, citing the Ys have an unfair advantage over for-profit health clubs such as Genesis Health Clubs that pay property taxes.
The bill has ignited a debate on multiple levels. Steven, according to multiple media reports in Kansas, and his company has donated at least $45,000 to Kansas Senate Republicans during their campaigns over the past two years. Of the 24 senators who received contributions from Steven, 20 voted for Senate Bill 72 while four voted against it, according to reports.
"This is a special-interest carve out. Senate Bill 72 is the best bill money can buy," Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Democrat, said in The Topeka Capital-Journal.
Hensley, who did not receive a contribution from Steven, went on to say in a prepared statement that Republican Sen. Michael O'Donnell, who received $4,000 from Steven and his company, "has been bought and paid for."
Steven Defends Contributions
While neither confirming nor denying the amount of contributions reported, Steven says he has been politically active for years.
"Last year, I contributed to several Kansas senators and representatives who support lower taxes for individuals and businesses, who support reduced government spending and who have a reputation for less regulations on businesses," Steven says. "Some voting for the bill did not receive any contributions. When the donations were made, there was no bill written, and no one was expected to vote one way or another based on donations. I have in the past and will continue in the future to support candidates who share some of my philosophies."
Some say Senate Bill 72 would have an impact on local school and municipal budgets that collect property tax money. The exemption, according to reports, applies to health clubs that focus on cardio and strength equipment but not specialty clubs such as golf courses, spas and tennis facilities. Private golf clubs, and also child-care centers and waste collection companies, may seek similar tax exemptions, according to Sen. Laura Kelly, a Democrat.
"This will just open the doors for any private entity that competes with municipal services," Kelly told The Capital-Journal. "This will have a devastating impact on the local tax base."
Steven says that argument does not have merit.
"No other group of business competes directly against competitors that do not pay any taxes," Steven tells Club Industry. "Even municipal golf courses in Kansas are required to collect and pay some taxes. Not every non-profit in Kansas is tax-exempt. Only non-profit and municipal health clubs are 100 percent exempt from collecting and/or paying any taxes. This unique exemption was granted to non-profit health clubs in 1998 by the Kansas Legislature. The Legislature needs to fix their creation of this inequity."
Rep. Richard Carlson, a Republican, told The Capital-Journal that he has received several hundred emails on the bill, both for and against it, and prefers to leave the bill alone because tax negotiations have yet to be completed this session. Carlson also said he would rather add a sales tax to YMCAs rather than provide a tax break to for-profit health clubs. The House-Senate conference committee could refuse to take the bill to the House floor.
"I'd say that could put a big roadblock in its way," Carlson told the newspaper. "But as we all know, in the Legislature, nothing ever really dies."
Steven acknowledges the criticism he has faced in recent weeks but is undeterred in his mission.
"Obviously, no business wants criticism," Steven says. "However, when there is an extreme injustice created by the state in its treatment of similar businesses, I must work to correct this injustice. I will continue to try to educate the public, the media, and lawmakers on the impact this unequal treatment is affecting the health club industry in Kansas."