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Recent months in my personal study of the Word of God I have studied greatly concerning the Church in preparation for a book which I have written, which cost a lot of time and investment of my own study. I went over the Church and over it and over it and over it and what the Church should be. One thing kept coming to my mind as I studied. And that was the tremendous importance of warning the Church. How the Apostle Paul said, "That I have not ceased for the space of three years, both night and day, to warn you." And I thought to myself that if there is such a tremendous concern over warning and that if Paul, as he said, knew that there would be grievous wolves enter in, not sparing the flock then the church stands in need of not only exhortation. And not only challenge, and not only information but the Church stands in a serious need of warning. And so God laid that on my heart and it rested there for a long time. And then I began to study and to think and to pursue some things. And the Spirit of God has finally brought me to this moment this morning when I want to give a warning to Grace Church. And I give this, not only out of the involvement of study in the Word of God, but right out of the deepest recesses of my heart. Which is so inextricably wound up together with what Grace Church is really all about, and my own personal and deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and the desire for His glory. So what I am saying this morning, I trust and pray God will speak to your hearts, not only today, but I'm almost tempted to say that maybe we ought to make everybody in this church listen to it again, every six months till Jesus comes. Not because it's such a great sermon, because it isn't, but just because the principles that we'll be sharing are the only principles that will ever guarantee that this church will succeed in being the church that Jesus wants it to be until He comes.
And there are many churches far greater than this that have long since passed along the wayside and over which God has written one word, "Ichabod, the glory has departed." It can happen. Recently in a large city a man took me to a church, it happened to be a Baptist church. That's immaterial, it just did. And it was the big church, the largest one in the city, the first church. And the man said it seats 2,500 and they have all these facilities. And I said, "That's great. How many people go there?" And the man said, "50." And I saw again, how Satan moves in and destroys what God has begun to build and then our Lord Christ Himself, sweeps into a church with judgment, with the feet of burnished brass and stomps out the judgment on that church and obliterates it.
And I, again, was reminded of the importance of reminding you that just such a thing could happen to Grace Community Church. And you need to be warned. To begin with, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 10 with me for a moment. And we know that Satan is active. Believe me, people, in the last 48 hours of my life I have been in hand-to-hand combat with Satan, with demons, in the last month and within the last six months of my ministry to an extent that I have never even realized before. And even just in this very hour this morning, I've been dealing with a conflict of God and Satan in the lives of individuals. Now I am aware of something as I take you to Daniel chapter 10 and I am reminded of it in Daniel 10 and that is this. Wherever God begins to move, count on it, Satan will move in counter attack. That is inevitable. That will always happen. There is not a sometime thing to that statement. It is always true. Whenever God begins to move, Satan moves in counter attack. Now I don't care if you're talking about the human level, the natural level or the supernatural level. God is in a conflict with Satan even in the air. In Jude chapter 9, you know that the Devil and Michael had a fight over the body of Moses. Here was a conflict between angels. Now when you come to Daniel chapter 10, Daniel sees an angel. And this is an angel of extremely high rank and that is indicated because of the description of him in verse 6 of chapter 10, and verse 5 gives a little bit of it. But verse 6 gives us a picture of a fantastic being. And there are some who would say that this, as compared with 8:16 would be a reference to Gabriel. So you're talking about a high ranking angel in God's angelic host. So Daniel was seeing this angel Gabriel. Now we pick it up in verse 10, "Now behold a hand touched me." And here Daniel is lying flat on the ground according to verse 9, "And the angel reaches down and touches me. It set me upon my knees and upon my the palms of my hands." The literal Hebrew is that he began to reel back and forth on his knees.
And he said to me, "Oh Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright for unto thee am I now sent." This angel is from God. God has dispersed this angel, to carry out the request of Daniel. And it has reference to the release of Israel, of course. And so he is sending this angel. And Daniel says, "And when I heard this word unto me, I stood trembling. And then he said unto me, Fear not Daniel, for from the first day thou didst set thy heart to understand and chasten thyself before thy God. Thy words were heard and I have come for thy words." In other words, the angel said, "God heard you praying Daniel. And because of the words of your prayer, God sent me to carry out the answer." God uses angels for the disposition of his answers in prayer. And so God sends this angel, perhaps Gabriel, to come down and carry out this ministry in relation to Israel. Verse 13, "But," and here's the interesting point, "the Prince of Kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days." Now this angel, even great an angel, as high a ranking angel as Gabriel, God hung up in space by this individual called the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia. Now this is a demon. All of the god's of the nations are demons and you can read a lot in the Old Testament about the power behind certain nations being demonic power. A demon actually controlled the leadership of Persia. And he dominated the Persian government. Later on if you go to verse 20, you'll find that a demon also dominates Greece. The Prince of Greece is another demon. And so God sends this angel and he is withstood. The angel of course would be sent to release Israel and the demon of Persia would desire to hold them captive. And so there's a conflict going on. And 21 days this demon detains Gabriel, if it be indeed Gabriel. But here comes the champion angel, the warrior angel. But, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me. God dispatched Michael and said, "Get down there and help that other angel." Now isn't that interesting. There we see conflict between demons and holy angels on a special level, a spiritual world level. You can go over the Revelation Chapter 12, and you don't need to at this point, but in your mind. And you'll find, beginning in verse 7, the Bible says, "And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels, I guess Satan. And so when we're talking about conflict, even at the highest level, the supernatural world, when God moves to do something, Satan moves to stop what he's dong. And there's a conflict going on in space among holy angels and demons. Now if this be true on a supernatural level, let us not be foolish enough to think it's not true on a natural level. Satan is the prince of this world. Satan is the one who controls the system. If the demon is behind Persia and another demon is behind Greece, he is behind the whole thing. And so Satan is active in the world and this is obvious to any Christian who begins to move out for God. To illustrate this, merely from a biblical context, so that we fit it in the right context take the book of 1 Peter. For just a moment in memory; let's think of it because we're not going to look at anything specific, really. But in the book of 1 Peter you have the outline in graphic form for really what amounts to Christian growth and fruitful ministry. Peter lays it on when he says, "First it begins, you know in the first chapter with a solid salvation. You are not redeemed with comfortable things, silver and gold, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, the precious blood of Christ. He says, "Really, reckon your salvation. Start with a solid salvation. Then a commitment to the word as babes desire the ______ milk of the word." Then he goes from there and he talks about a total dedication to serve Christ if you're a chosen generation of holy priesthood. He moves through the books, giving all the ingredients for commitment. Then he says, "Be a pure testimony to the world." You know, speak so that you put the silence the ignorance of foolish men. Be a testimony, obey the government. Submit all these things can make you an aggressive, positive, fruitful minister in the world. And then he moves from there and says you need to be willing to suffer. And then he goes and says you need proper relationships with others. Even your husband wife thing, all these things are wrapped up. He goes on from there to talk about the priority of love and the priority of prayer. He wraps it up by talking about humility and trust. And goes all through this in the beginning of chapter 5 and it's so good and you feel so strong. And all of a sudden you come to chapter 5 and bang, you run smack into 5, 8 and 9 and this is what it says, "Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, who resist steadfast in the faith." You say, "What's your point?" My point is this, if a Christian ever follows the pattern of Peter, it is inevitable that it he will have to be sober and vigilant because Satan will move right in. James said this, "Submit yourselves to God." And then James knew what would happen immediately and in the same breath said, "Resist," what? "The devil." Because as soon as a believer submits to God in the fullest sense, whammo, Satan moves in to destroy. And he has all different approaches. Now if it's true on a supernatural level that the conflict exists and if it's also true on a personal level the conflict exists then I believe that it's true at the level of the church. I believe that if a church begins to grow, Satan begins to work against it. And I hope these aren't words, people, I hope you understand what I'm talking about is critically serious. And I think the most shocking thing that ever happened to me in my life, among some things that have been very shocking, but the most shocking thing that has ever happened to me when I encountered a person that was full of demons. I walked into the room knowing this was the situation because I had been forewarned and I was asked to come and pray and see what God would do. And I came in the door and this person attacked me and these demons started to speak and they knew me. Now that was a shock. I mean I knew there was a demon world but I didn't know they knew me. And they did not like me. That part I enjoyed immensely. There were two things that I really enjoyed about that opportunity. One was that they hated me and that meant that I had at least made enough of a dent in the demonic world to be despised. The second thing was that when it was all over, they fled and I was still there. And I praised God for that. They are no threat to me or to any believer who stands on the truths of Scripture.
But I'll tell you the shock of it was that Satan knew me. And they knew exactly who I was and endeavored to attack me through this person. And you know I began to think, "You know, Satan must know Grace Church very, very well." And then I began to think, "And he's fighting against us very hard, very hard." When we are in a conflict it seems incessible with Satan. And so far we have seen victory. But then I began to think and apply this to my mind in terms of what I knew about warning the church and I was brought to this place this morning to say to you, "People, I warn you. We cannot, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2, 'We cannot be ignorant of Satan's devices least he should get an advantage of us." Better churches by far than this, with better pastors by far than this have gone down the drain; been destroyed by the power of Satan. And we need to be warned. Now so vulnerable is the church to the blistering attacks of Satan and to his subtleties that our Lord Jesus Christ wrote seven special letters to the churches. They are contained in Revelation 2 and 3 and I want you to look at them in your Bibles. And what I'm going to say to you this morning is going to be as strong as I can say it and as uncompromising as I can say it. Because, beloved, I love you with all my heart, but I love Jesus Christ more and I at this point in my own life, die for the purity of His church. So what I say I say out of a heart of love both to you and to our Lord. Now the church stands in need of some special warning and the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are just that. Two of the seven need no warning because they are positively beautiful churches. Everything is in order and you know what churches they were? The little Smyrna church. And you know why it was such a good church? It was under persecution and persecution purifies the church. And the other really good church was Philadelphia. And Philadelphia was a pure church because it was totally lost in winning others to Christ, among other great qualities. But the church that is under the attack of the world an the church that is confronting the world with the Gospel, that indicates there will be an attack as well, are the churches that needed no warning. All five of the other churches have specific warning from Christ. Now let me say this by way of introduction. These seven letters were to seven actually churches. They did exist in which times John had the visions and wrote the words of our Lord. But more than that, they are representative of every type of church. You can take every type of church there is and you can fit them into one of these slots. In fact you could probably find in each church some of each kind of these members. You could probably find in our church some Laodiceans and some Philadelphians and some Ephesians and some of the others. But basically here what we have is how the church will go. We have a pattern of church history here. In fact there may be a sense in which this is the flow of church history going from one to the next. But I really think what you have here in the most dominant scene is the seven kinds of churches that there are and five of them are in need of warning. And so we need to stand warned today. Look at chapter 1 verse 11. John sees Jesus and he hears him say, "I am Alpha and Omega. The first and the last and what thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea." He says I want to send seven letters to my churches. And the vision that he has then is a beautiful one. It is the vision of Christ moving among the churches, ministering. Verse 12, "And I turned to see the voice that spoke to me and being turned I saw seven golden lamp stands." Representing the churches, of course. "And in the midst of seven lamp stands, one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and girted about the breast with a golden girdle." Of course garments like that were worn by three types of people, prophets, priests and kings. And there's Christ in his three-fold ministry. And he's moving among the church. "His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow." And there's his purity. "And his eyes like a flame of fire," searching penetrating exposure, "and his feet like fine bronze as if they burned in a furnace." The crushing blows of judgment. "And his voice like the sound of many waters," as He spoke judgment. "In his right hand seven stars," these are the ministers of angels of the churches, "and out of his mouth a sharp, two edged sword." He's moving among a church, beloved, in judgment. He's moving among his church, judging and cleaning with the Word. You see as He's trimming the lamps of his church. Verse 20 says, "The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in his right hand and the seven golden lamp stands. And the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lamp stands which you saw are the seven churches." So, here's Christ and Christ is moving within the church. And as he moves about in the church he is judging the church. He is searching; he is penetrating with his eyes to see the fatal flaw that may be at any point visible to Him in the church. And it's always visible. Five of these churches were exposed. And beloved this morning I want to expose us to these five, sad, tragic things that Satan does to destroy the church. And I think in my heart that you can put every destructive angel of Satan into these five areas. If we know these five we shall not be ignorant of his devices.
Now let me say this, we are blessed here at Grace Community Church. We are blessed in so many ways. WE have been blessed by spiritual growth. Many of you have matured in the Lord and what a joy and a blessing you are in our hearts. And what a productive life you have in the lives of other people. You are productive and you are maturing and you are growing and we praise God. And you're loving His Word and all of these things. And then we see numerical growth. Numerical growth stagers our ability to even imagine what God might have done. We're seeing souls won to Christ. We're seeing individuals reproducing. We're seeing discipling and follow up that is done fruitfully. We're seeing, I think, a love among Christians in certain areas that is beautiful and there's caring going on and all that is needful in that dimension. And we're seeing a growing and aggressive interest in world missions as we extend ourselves. And from an angle of theology, we stand, you know for the real rudiments of the faith, don't we here? I mean we stand uncompromising for the authenticity of the Scripture, it's verbal _____ inspiration. We are not interested in getting involved with people who do not believe and are not committed to that. We believe in the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the Deity of God the Father, the Deity of the Spirit of God, their equal personality and yet their oneness. We stand for the virgin birth of Christ, His sinless life, His bodily resurrection, His bodily visible second coming. We stand for all these things. We preach salvation plus nothing. We preach salvation by faith and nothing. We believe in the principles of discipleship. We believe in the saints doing the work of the ministry. We try with all of our hearts to come to the New Testament patterns of the church. But, beloved, let me say this, this church has never been in more danger than it is right now. And I mean that. And I say that because this church has never grown like it is now. And just as we are growing, so in proportion is Satan actively and aggressively counteracting what we're trying to do. Believe me, Satan is against us, he hates us and he wants to destroy us. And the most stupid thing we could do, the most fatal thing we could do is to be content. To be smug, to be indifferent, to be non-vigilant, to sort of wallow in some kind of cold, self-satisfied orthodoxy, you know? And be non-vigilant while the enemy seeps in and devours. You know most of the 330,000 churches in America were started with a fresh and a warm commitment to Jesus Christ. And most of them now don't even belong to Jesus Christ, they belong to Satan. We have here a tremendous trust. Our men met together and are talking about building another auditorium, that's apparent why. We've been in this only a year and look at us, in both services. And they were talking about building an auditorium to seat 2,500 with an expansion possibility to 4,000 because we don't know where God's going in the future with this thing. And I went home after thinking about that and I spent a little bit of time in prayer with the Lord and I faced a very sobering question. And it's this, if we're talking about building more buildings and if we're talking about making commitments to more missionaries, and we're talking about getting more involved in all these various things it's going to take commitment from us. Aren't we also willing to guarantee that this building we build and this involvement we move into will always be a place where Jesus Christ is glorified until he comes again? Because, people, there have been a lot of times when Christians have made that commitment and just haven't kept it. There are churches all over America where that commitment came and all they've got is a stone monument to a man or a stone monument to a board. Or a stone monument who was wealthy enough and wanted to put up a memorial and they've got nothing that even smacks of the spirit of God's power. And I say to you if we are not interested in committing our lives to the future of this church until Jesus comes that it purely proclaim the unsearchable riches of the Scriptures without compromise then I'm not interested in putting another nickel into this church. I don't know if I'm interesting to putting another day in it. And I mean that. I'm not interested in temporary activities. I'm interested in what Paul said to the Ephesians. He said, "Having done all," to what, "stand." There are a lot of churches that have done it all but when the smoke clears they went down the drain. They were active at one time. That's sad. Is Grace Church just to become another monument, just another stone quarry on the corner? Or are we to be a Christ exalting, Bible believing, uncompromising center for growth and evangelism to the very day that Jesus comes. I pray God we are. The day comes the Lord may take me or move me somewhere in his providence. Are you prepared to make the commitment of your heart to maintain the purity of this church at all costs? You are the key and may it go on record, from this day, March 18, 1973 that you have been warned by our Lord Christ Himself. That Satan wants to damn this church. Believe me these are timeless warnings, let us hear them. The first thing that Satan uses to destroy the church is the loss of first love. The loss of first love, chapter 2. "Under the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things set thee that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands; here is what he says to Ephesus. 'I know your works and your labor." And the word is kappas, sweat, they really sweat, they worked, they labored. And that's a commendable thing. Most Christians, their lifetime of labor added together wouldn't exhaust a butterfly. They were really working. That most of us don't know the meaning of kappas, toil and labor for the cause of Christ. And I know your patience. You know they had hupomonas, steadfast endurance against hardships. And you can't bear them that are evil. Boy they were solid. They didn't like sin and they didn't tolerate sin. Not only that they were strong in doctrine. You tried them who say they are apostles and are not; you found them liars. They exposed false prophets. Boy, that's a strong church. There's a church that works hard, they sweat and they labor and they endure hardship and they can't stand sin and they try false teachers and they deal with false doctrine. There's a doctrinally strong church. You know who founded that church? Who founded it? Paul. Who could chose anybody in the whole universe of history, who would you chose? Paul. Man they had a beginning like no beginning. Paul came into town and He started preaching and flipped Ephesus on it's ear. Ephesus was a very pagan city. The temple of Diana and Artemas, the Seven Wonders of the World was there. And there was all these eunuchs and thousands of priests, prostitutes that plied their trade under the guise of religion. And old Paul came in there and he started teaching, read about it in Acts 19, and he absolutely blitzed that city. The trade of the sale of idols fell off so much that a riot started. They tried to kill him. Here huddled in the middle of that place were these little believers. And Paul stayed there really he was just; he would never even got the church together for the first two years. He was either in the synagogue or in the House of Toranas for a couple of years. Teaching and disputing and going over the gospel and people were getting saved and miracles were happening and Ephesus was going completely in two directions. And that little church was pure and that little church was solid. You know when Paul left they got another pastor that wasn't half-bad, Timothy. And if that wasn't enough they got Ecola and Pricilla, when that didn't do it they got that golden voiced orator of the early church. Apollos himself came there and taught them. I mean you talk about a line of good teachers. That church didn't suffer from the lack of having good leadership. The best that God had He gave to Ephesus. People always sit back and say, "Well, we've got a Bible teacher at our church, we're alright." Don't kid yourself. They had Paul, Timothy, Ecola, Pricilla and Apollos. That's the ranking staff of the New Testament, friends, in terms of communicating the truth. In the middle of that city where people were worshiping in a kind of hysterical frenzy where they mutilated their bodies sexually in a worship of Diana. And _______ said they were worse than animals because animals didn't even mutilate themselves. It was a sick place. And huddled in the middle of it was this little ball of vitality for Jesus Christ that Paul was whipping up that was just really spinning people around and around as they touched their lives for Christ.
And it was a great place when Paul was there. Things were really moving and God was blessing. And you see, they had four things that every great church has: service, steadfastness, suppression of evil, and strong doctrine. And you come to verse 3, it says, "And hast borne", you've endured, it's been rough. "And hast patience," he endured patiently, "and for My name's sake you worked." They didn't even have a selfish motive. They worked for the glory of God; they had the right motive: glory of God. "And you didn't faint," you didn't get tired. You say, "Man, that's a good church. I wish Grace Church was like that." I think we are a little bit like that; I think we're a little bit like that. I think a lot of you work and you've been patient. You've endured. You're faithful. I think we know sound doctrine. I think we stand on it. I think there are many of us who are concerned with dealing with sin. I think a lot of those things to be true of us. Bang! Look at verse 4. And I imagine when they read this thing in Ephesus, it hit like a thunderbolt. "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast," what? "Left thy first love." Oh! That's just hits ... that just breaks your heart. You say, "All that good." And then He says, "I have something against you. You've left your first love." You know what was happening there? They were falling more in love with their orthodoxy than they were with their Christ, you see. They were so happy with what they were that they got their eyes off of Him, onto their church. Well, if you ever start loving Grace Church more than you love Jesus Christ, you're in bad shape.
You know, love is the basis of all kinds of ministry that is fruitful. We don't want to become mechanical and have our orthodoxy some kind of strawband that we lift up in front of everybody. You know, when Jesus confronted Peter at the close of the gospel of John in chapter 21, He said to him three times, "Do you love Me," didn't He? "You love Me?" Peter says, "I like you a lot." He couldn't say he loved Him in the fullest sense ogupay because he'd blown it so many times; he didn't want to be a hypocrite. Jesus says again, "Do you love Me?" And he says, "Well, I like you a lot." Jesus says to him, and this really hurt him, He says, "Peter, I'm not even sure you like Me a lot." Peter says, "Lord, You know everything. You know I like You a lot." Jesus says, "All right. Feed my sheep." On what basis did Jesus commission Peter to do his job? On the basis that he what? That he loved Him. You're not good to the service of God if all it is is cold mechanical function. Have you lost your love for Jesus Christ? Have you gotten sidetracked onto something else? What you're doing is cranking out some kind of activity but it doesn't any of the energy that love of Christ brings to it, see. An old Ephesus missed the one thing that was so important. It was one of the best churches I've ever seen; it had everything. Everything! And the Lord looked, and He saw, and His eyes penetrated to a thought that He hit right on the head: you left your first love. Consciously you turned away and you walked away from it. Those days of the hot-hearts, you know, the passion had turned into cold orthodoxy and the service of a performance. They just went through the motions, all orthodox and loveless. You know, people have told me many times. They said, "John. Well, your church is exciting and God's blessing. But it's the honeymoon and it'll end and everything will cool down." The days it does, that's the day that I'm going to get down on my knees before God and say, "What happened to me?"
It cooled down in Ephesus. You know there wasn't any great scandal. I mean the pastor didn't run off with some woman. Three people didn't rip the church into three sections. There wasn't any organizational collapse. You know what happened? The innerspring of love dried up and it became mechanical orthodoxy. The thrill was gone. The enthusiasm was gone. Let me ask you something beloved, you're Grace Church, aren't you? You're it. It's not some ethereal building on a corner in Panorama City; you're it. And so if Grace Church loses first love it's only because you did and I did. I'm not talking about some kind of a foggy concept called a church; I'm talking about you. Let me ask you this: Is it a fair description of your Christian life to say that you've fallen out of first love with Jesus? Can you honestly say that more than anything else in all the world you love Him? More than anything else, do you long to spend time with Him on your knees? More than anything else, do you long to read the Word of God and penetrate its depths that you know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering? More than anything else in the world, do you long to please Him whom you love completely? More than anything else in existence, including Grace Church, do you love Jesus Christ and do you desire His fellowship and His companionship and do you want to know Him in fullest way? If you don't, you've left your first love.
Remember when you first got saved? You didn't know anything but Jesus and you couldn't get sidetracked. And now you've found out there's such a thing as the church. And then you found there's such a thing as theology. And then you found there's such a thing as trivius. And maybe you've started getting attached to all of these things and you've stopped really just spending your hours falling in love with Him. There's only one way to do that. That's to get into Word because that's where He is. And that's to spend time in prayer and that's where you talk to Him. The honeymoon did end in Ephesus. The thing that Paul feared most happened. When he left Ephesus, they fell all over his neck and they kissed and they cried like a bunch of little babies. They cried because he taught them so well, they loved so much. But something happened. I don't know what happened. The Bible doesn't tell us, but it happened. Christians got sidetracked onto their orthodoxy, forgot about loving Jesus. What does He tell them to do, verse 5? Remember. "Remember therefore where from where you're fallen." What to know something simple? You know that spiritual defection often just begins with a lousy memory. Did you know that? More people fail to really trust God and love God just because they forget what He did. And they forget what it was like at the beginning. See? He simple says, "Remember from where you're fallen." Remember you need to be loving Him. Remember. Go backwards. What was it like when you first met Jesus? Remember those days? When all you did was love Him? And all you wanted to do was praise Him? That first time when Christ came into your life, and as you begun to realize that He was all and all. And the Word was fresh and vital. And prayer was everything. And praise just flowed. He says, "And now it's all turned into a mechanical kind of function of orthodoxy." Remember.
Second: repent. "Remember from where thou art fallen and repent." You know that it's sin not to love the Lord, Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Do you know that? It's sin. I don't want a church full of people who love Grace Church. Particularly, I want a church full of people who love Jesus Christ and then they'll love each other, won't they? Christ knows that the cooling of first love is the forerunner to spiritual apathy. If your love is cold, Christian, I say to you this morning, if you love anything more than Jesus Christ, you have left your first love. Jesus should be that first love, shouldn't He? Repent; it's a sin. And then repeat. I like this.
He says in verse 5, "And do the first works." He says, "Forget all the stuff that's come about in the interim. Go back and do what you used to do." What did you first do when you fell in love with Jesus? You prayed, didn't you? You read your Bible. And it was all so fresh and it was all so vital. And it was all so exciting. And it was all so simple, you know? And somehow it became mechanical. And it became cold. And it became structured. And it became dominated by systematization. And there just wasn't that vitality anymore. And that's deadly, you see. You got to start somewhere. So we start by remembering, repenting, repeating.
You know what happened to Ephesus? Jesus Christ came and wrote "Ichabod" on it. Verse 5 says, "Or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy lamp. Stand out of its place except thou repent." You want to hear something sad? Ephesus didn't repent and it doesn't exist. I don't know how such a thing could happen. But I'll tell you one thing. It penetrates my heart. If it happened Ephesus, friends, Satan can do it here. Do you believe that? It's our battle to be sure he doesn't. Second thing that Satan uses to destroy the church is compromise with the world. Pergamos. Skipping Smyrna because there's nothing condemned about them; they were under persecution and that always purifies the church. Now quickly, just let me give you this. This is a compromising church. This is the church that wants to kowtow to the world. This is the church that says, "Well, we want to reach people with the gospel." And they're evangelical. So what do they do? They include all the unbelievers. A guy said to me this week, this week, he said, "You know," he said, "we don't really have too many problems in our church. The only one is that about half of our elders aren't saved." Now that is not small problem, beloved. How can Christ have any concord with Satan? But you see, Pergamos thought that's the way to go. See, that's love without qualification. That's a mushy kind of love that God doesn't know anything about. "Well, let's get the world in and we'll love them. And we'll bring them in and make them a part. And then we'll win them over." That's like inviting cancer into your system just to show how strong your resistance is. That's no good. This church thought that's the way to go.
I talked to a fellow who said to me, "You know," he said, "We don't question people when they join the church, at all. We just accept them in the love of Christ." And problems, that you wouldn't believe, exist, unbelievers in all kinds of positions of leadership. And then he asked me what we do. And I said, "Well, what we do is this: if a person wants to become a member of Grace Church, first of all, they write out their full testimony and I read it or Lenny reads it. Secondly, they're contacted by a deacon who interviews them to determine they really know Christ. And thirdly, they stand up before the board of elders and give their personal testimony." Three times they need to make public, clear, and concise that they know the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because we don't love the unsaved. We love the unsaved as Jesus loved them, as His heart was broken so was ours. We just don't want them functioning in the framework of the church. That's being unequally yoke with unbelievers. That's deadly. That's what Pergamos did. Look at it, verse 13, "I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is." You know, this little church was slapped in a city that was really strange place. Pergamos was the center of the worship of Caesar, emperor worship. Pergamos also had the distinguishing mark of being the place where the altar of Zeus was located, which was the largest, most famous altar in the world when the people worshipped Zeus. It was shaped like a giant throne. It maybe that Satan's throne was synonymous to a reference to that altar. But perhaps better is to recall that there was, in Pergamos, the Pergamese god. The god always associated with Pergamos was Esculapius. And Esculapius was the god of healing. And there was a medical school--and that is using the word in its most unrefined possible context. But there was a medical school there and a temple. And people came from all over the world to get healed by Esculapius. And the way Esculapius did it, was this: the people would come into this temple and they would lie on the floor and sleep there for days. And on that floor, there were snakes slithering and crawling all over everywhere. And when a person was touched by one of those snakes that was the healing touch of Esculapius. Well this, of course, comes from that old serpent, himself, a demonic religion and this was right was going on in Pergamos. This dominated that society. And here in the middle of this place is this little flock of believers. And he says, "I know you're in a tough spot, you're fighting the lions in their own den. You're right where Satan's seat is. And it's not easy." He says, "And you hold fast My name." Here you're holding up the banner and you haven't denied My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwells. I mean old Antipas down there he stood true. He didn't fall or he died. You've been true and you've held the faith. And you've kept it and you haven't denied. So He commends them. You know, here was a church that held onto true, good, solid principles. They were fundamental in the purist sense. But then in verse 14, He says, "I have a few things against you. Because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam." Now let me summarize that. The doctrine of Balaam comes from Numbers 22:25. Balak, the king of Moab, tried to hire Balaam to curse Israel because he wanted to get rid of Israel. So he hired this prophet Balaam, who was a prophet for hire if you can imagine. But there are such today, believe me, preachers for hire. False ones. And so anyway, Balaam was hired to curse Israel three times but like most prophets for hire, he was worthless. He tried three times and nothing happened. So Balak figured out some more strategy and he decided he'd get the Moabite women to seduce sexually, the Israelite men. And then he force fornication and intermarriage. And he knew that if he could intermarry with Israel, he'd destroy them and corrupt them. And it worked. It worked.
And you know what the Lord Jesus says to the church here at Pergamos? He says, "You know what's happened? You got somebody in your church who's teaching that you ought to wed the world; that you ought to be infiltrated with the system. That unbelievers ought to be mingled with believers." It's a sad thing but that's exactly what happened, compromise with the world. You know that Jesus Christ condemns such compromise. Verse 16 shocks me; "Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth." Can you imagine Jesus fighting His own church? He hates that kind of infiltration.
2 Corinthians 6:14, He says, "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." He goes on to say, "What concord has Christ with Satan? What fellowship has light with darkness? Come out from among them and be separate and touch not." We're not saying we don't love unbelievers, we're not saying we don't want unbelievers who don't know Jesus to come here and hear the gospel. We do. We just don't want Satan infiltrating the working in the ministry in the ranks of His church, the church of Christ. That's deadly.
You know, when the church starts kowtowing to the world and doing all the things the world does, the church ceases to be what's it's supposed to be. I don't forget a kid I heard one time at a Christian rock concert who stumbled in the back. And I was at this thing through a series of circumstances. And this kid stumbled in the back of this Christian rock concert, sat down for about five minutes and he got up to leave. And somebody says, "Where are going?" He said, "Well I could hear this anywhere. I thought you people had something different." And I never forgot that statement. When the church becomes the world then it ceases to be what it needs to be: an alternative to the world, to the system. Anyway, James 4, that's just one illustration idea. But James 4:4 really lays it down, "You adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Listen, whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." You know that a Christian, and even a church, can get so sopped up into the mixing Christians and non-Christians into what becomes really, a kind of a club-type thing, that God is actually fighting against that church. Now we're not going to throw our arms around that church. I'm not going to say, "Well, there's some Christians there so we'll include that church." Listen, if God's fighting against it, I'm against it too. Let me say a word to young people. He says here that this doctrine that came in was urging believers to mingle with the world. Let me tell you one way that Satan is so subtle. And that is young people, and I especially I say this to you who are high school, junior high, college age, marry a believer. Marry a believer. If we could write that in blazing letters. Take a church that's dominated by young people, have them marry unbelievers and this church would be destroyed. That's the purest kind of wedding the world there is. You find somebody who loves Jesus Christ with his whole heart. You find somebody who has sold out to the Spirit. And you find somebody who loves the purity of the church and you marry them in Christ. You be jealous for the purity of the church of Jesus Christ. Don't settle for infiltration into your life by outside forces. And so what happens here is a church that wed the world. It's disastrous. And Jesus says, "I'll come and fight against it Myself." And if God's fighting against them, I don't want to have any part with them; I'm on His side. So He wants His church separated, first of all. Then we see the way that Satan works to destroy a church, the loss of first love. Secondly, compromise with the world. The church must be pure and separated from the system. We must be an alternative. We must invite people to come and hear our message. But those who don't know Jesus Christ have no part in the ministry itself. That's infiltration; that's Satan dressed up as an angel of ... what? Of light. Third thing that Satan uses to destroy the church is a tolerance of sin ... a tolerance of sin. And believe me, this follows closely on Pergamos. If a church starts fooling around with the world, pretty soon it's going to just take a light view of sin because it's going to have to tolerate all those sinful people. And that's inevitable. When a church tolerates sin, beloved, that is the end. Verse 18, "And under the angel of the church in Thyatira write these things saith the Son of God who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, He speak like fine bronze. 'I know your works, your love, your service, and your faith, and your patience, and your works, even the last to be more than the first.'" You say, "Hey! It's a terrific thing. Look at this! They had what Ephesus didn't have. They had love." Yeah, but they didn't have what Ephesus did have: sound doctrine.
I've told you this for four years now, I remind you, two things make a church what God wants it to be: love and sound doctrine. You get too much love and no sound doctrine; you've got Thyatira. You get too much sound doctrine and no love; you've got Ephesus. And both of them are destroyed. You must be the balance. This church had love and the love issued in service. It had faith and the faith issued in patience. And it was even getting better. Verse 20, "But I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel." Now I don't know if that's her real name; I can't imagine any mother naming her daughter Jezebel. But, as far as the Lord is concerned, that's her name. She may have had a nice name like Mary. But it's Jezebel to Christ, who calls herself a prophet and says, "She teaches and seduces My servants to commit pornea, pornography, fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." He says, "You know what the problem with your church is? You allow sin." There's the word "allow". You allow that woman. "Why don't you kick her out of there?" That's what He's saying.
Beloved, the church must deal with sin. And believe me, this church, as long as I'm here and as long as our leadership is here, will deal sin because it is demanded of us by our blessed Christ who desires above all things, the purity of His church. The church is to discipline a sinning member. The church is to put him out. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 5, "It is commonly reported among you that there is fornication, pornography." It says, "You find that one who has committed that sin with his own mother and you turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the soul might be saved." Get him out of there. Paul said to Timothy, "Even an elder, if an elder sins rebuke him before everybody that they may learn to fear." You're going to deal with sin. Remember AnanysisAfira? They sinned and dropped dead on the spot and the word got around and it purified the ranks, friends. Believe me, it kept the Tyres out. It said, "Nobody dared join himself to that outfit." You know the word went around town, "Don't join that deal. One goof and you're dead." If the church doesn't expose sin, the church doesn't do its job, you see. We're in here for doing that. And God was gracious to this Jezebel. He said, in verse 21, "I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not. Behold, I'll cast her into a bed." Boy, do you get the sarcasm there? "She likes bed so much, I'll give her a bed. And then they commit adultery, I'm going to throw all into bed." You know what bed it is? Verse 23, "I'll kill her children with," what? Death. "She wants a bed of vice, I'll give her a bed of death; that's what I'll give her." I mean, when you get irony and sarcasm from Jesus, you know He's upset. The church that tolerates sin, Christ hates and fights against.
Beloved, don't ever tolerate sin; deal with it. Deal with it every time it ever appears. If you see a believer in a fault, rebuke him. Deal with sin in love; then restore him. And when you start doing that, you going to make sure you're all right because you don't want to expose yourself either. What are we saying? Satan will use to destroy the church: the loss of first love, compromise with the world, and when a church begins to tolerate sin. God help us if those ever come.
Fourth, and we'll just wrap it up with just a couple of more statements. The fourth way Satan destroys a church is when a church is content with its forms rather than its purity and its power. When a church is content with the trappings. When a church is cranking out all the lily oath, the wheels are moving, the oil is in and everything goes. The crowd came this morning, we had our deal and our deal was good and the offering came in. And I had one guy who told me that the two things that really mark the success of a church was how many people came and how big the budget was. That's a Sardis church. I'll read it to you. Verse 1, "Under the angel of the church in Sardis write these things, saith he that the seven spirits of God and the seven stars," referring to seven-fold Holy Spirit, "I know thy works, thou hast to name that thou livest." Boy, this church had a great reputation. "Hey, you know the Sardis church? Man, it's a going thing. Oh, they're really a going church. Well they've got everything. They've got whirly birds, eager beavers. They've got everything, brownies, blue birds, polka dots, everything going on over there, a terrific thing. Why, they've got a group for this and a group for that. And the wheels are going. They give $8,000 a month to the denomination. They've got all this kind of stuff. They've got all the liturgy and all the little stuff that they do. It's all cranked out. It's a going thing. Boy, the grass is cut. The sign is fresh every week. That's a moving deal."
You have a name that you're alive. And then He ends the sentence by saying, "And you are," what? "Dead." You're dead, Sardis, the degenerate, dead church. And it was an interesting thing, the city of Sardis, 700 years before this was written, was one of the great cities of the world. Had a very famous king who was so rich that his name is synonymous with riches; his name was Cresius. But the whole city went and the church went with it. And today it's pile of ruins, the church along with it. It's like the rhyme of the ancient mariner, where Coleridge says, "Corpses man the ship. Dead men pull the oars. And dead men steer the vessel." Oh, all the programs are going. All the machinery's well oiled and its cranking out and it's moving along. And there's all kinds of function. And God says, "It's dead." There's no life. The Spirit of God isn't there. It's a big social activity. And maybe even with evangelical people who down in their hearts love Christ but they've lost the whole vision and purpose. Such was Sardis, lots of activity but nothing else.
Verse 2, "Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works perfect before God." He says go back to the basics and get strong on those things. "Remember therefore how you received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on ye as a thief and thou shalt not what hour I will come unto thee." Listen, when a church gets to the place where it's happy with its programs, and all it cares about is how many people came, and how much money it gets in, and how much it gives to the denomination, and that the liturgy goes good and that everybody's functioning well, and that the whole is organized, that church is in sad, sad situation because that's a dead church. That's a church where the Spirit of God can't intrude because He's not fit into the organization anywhere.
And I like verse 4. He says, "Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, that have not defiled their garments. And they shall walk with Me in white for they are worthy." There's a little group of solid people there, He said. Then lastly He warns about the Laodicean church, the church that is no church. Verse 15, He says, "I know your works, that you're neither cold nor hot. I would you were cold or hot." You know what cold means? Just totally uninterested in the gospel, just totally turned off, no response at all. Hot means saved. But what I can't take is lukewarm. You know what that is? That's hypocrisy. That's spiritual hypocrisy. You fake religion, which you don't have. And because you're that way, "I'll spew you out of My mouth." And what did the Laodicean church say? "Well, I'm rich. Increased with goods. Have need of nothing." And Jesus says, "No. That's wrong. You're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." Here's the church that all it cared about was material wealth. This church just cared about the trappings. And, of course, it was no church. These were all unsaved people. And that's the final step that a church takes. It starts usually, beloved, with Ephesians. First, you just lose first love. And then when you've lost your first love, then you, under kind of a sentimentalism, you kind of open up and include the world. Then when you've included the world, you find that you've got to tolerate sin. And then when you've tolerated sin, the church is unwound and unwound down until it's just kind of a big, dead organization. And the next thing is Laodicea. Laodicea is the apostate church. You're the church of the tribulation, the one that doesn't even go in the rapture. You say, "John, you don't honestly believe that could happen to Grace Community Church, do you?" I say, "Absolutely. It happened to all those others." Let me say this in closing, notice please, beloved, that all of these things that I have mentioned to you this morning, all five of them, came about from the inside. Do you know what Satan's attacks from the outside do to the church? They build it up. They make it strong. Smyrna got it from the outside and it was the only church in here, other than Philadelphia, that didn't get any retribution. But when Satan moves inside, you know what he does? He gets individual Christians to be satisfied with materials things like Laodicea. Or he gets individual Christians to be more content with forms and organization than spiritual life and power. Or he gets individual Christians to tolerate sin, individual Christians to mingle with the world and allow the world to infiltrate the church. Or else he gets individual Christians to begin by just losing their love for Jesus Christ. We stand warned. I close with the words of Peter. 1 Peter 4:17, here's what it says, "Judgment must begin at the house of God." Let me say this, you are the house of God. Your body is the temple of God. If this church is to be here when Jesus comes, still holding up the testimony that it is endeavoring to hold now, it will be because you have judged yourself and maintained your own faithfulness in the power of the Spirit of God. Oh, people, I pray God that this church will be here in all of the beauty of holiness and the freshness and vitality of its commitment till Jesus comes. If it is, I'm interested in it all the way. If it ever ceases to be, I'm not. It's up to us. Let's pray.
Father, we do thank You for the words of the church. We stand warned. Help us, Father, to heed the warning; to be diligent; to pursue these things with all our hearts, to stand firm for these truths. Oh, God, that Satan would not infiltrate. May he may not by subtlety begin with just those individuals and seep into this church to destroy. God, we just claim victory over him. Let this church be not a monument to a man or a ministry or a monument to a group of people but a monument to Jesus till He comes. We pray in His name, Amen.
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Love and partnership
Today is the ideal day for romantic hours with your partner. You should finally catch up on the undertakings that you have had on your shared to-do list for a long time. Maybe you even surprise your partner after work with a candle light dinner and romantic music. However, it will be beneficial for your relationship and you will reap the benefit of this for some time.
Flirt - love for singles
Making an effort to get out and socialize is enough to make others aware of your qualities and there is every chance you'll discover a new love interest. You're sure to meet new people and create connections that give others an opportunity to get to know and appreciate your delightfully seductive ways.
Family and friendship
Maintain contacts and strengthen your social ties, especially with close friends and family. Don't keep putting them off, because they really need to be near you now. It should be easy for you since you are completely at ease with yourself and won't be stressed by their company. Obviously, when others are in a positive mood you will be too.
Working life
You approach problems in a capable and professional way, you possess all the right answers and provide solutions. Colleagues seek your advice and regard what you say as important, credible and worthwhile. Remain accessible and don't be too remote or distant. The help you're able to give others is rewarded.
Money and finances
Now is the best time to go out and spend. Buy yourself something nice, but don't splash out on just one item. Instead, invest your money the smart way. Other people are being honest with you, so don't hesitate to take their advice. Whether you intend to buy something small or are investing in a big way, you can't lose, even if you spend more than usual.
Don't let time pass without the athletic ability you know you possess being fully utilized. What you learn to appreciate most is that exercise doesn't need any great effort on your part, it's your all round well-being that increases your fitness. Include a wellness day in your weekly routine, take care for your body.
Daily horoscope
Daily aspects
Current timezone: Pacific/Auckland, UTC+12:00 change timezone
Moon (Scorpio) Sextile Saturn (Capricorn)
This sextile gives responsibility and reliability – accompanied by organizational talent. You face your objectives and your mind is inspired by enthusiasm and deliberation.
Moon (Scorpio) Trine Neptune (Pisces)
The trine between the Moon and Neptune let you pleasantly be surprised. You feel imagination and have a good intuition – your mind is open toward arts and various artistic fields.
Mars (Leo) Square Uranus (Taurus)
This square could show tendency to irritability, contentiousness, restlessness, lack of balance and passionate contradictions – take care.
Sun (Cancer) Trine Moon (Scorpio)
This lucky constellation spells fortune in general – harmonious togetherness regarding parental care and relationship.
Moon (Scorpio) Sextile Pluto (Capricorn)
The sextile between the moon and Pluto let arise rich sentiments. We are adventurous and venturesome. Awakening of increased interest in travelling…
Birthday on July 12th, 2019:
Malala Yousafzai (1997), Bill Cosby (*1937), Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1882)
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On our last two trips to Vegas we've gone "fancy" one night with L'Atelier at Joel Robuchon, and more casual on the other with Lotus of Siam - an unassuming Thai restaurant off the strip that has become a can't miss destination for foodies. LOS, as it's known for short, owes its fame not only to word of mouth, but to a series of rave reviews from food critics that began appearing shortly after it opened. The restaurant has thoughtfully lined an entire wall of the tiny waiting area with them, giving you something to read while you wait.
I can't claim to be a connoisseur of Thai food - but I do know what I like, and the food at LOS is better than any Thai food I've encountered to date. Some people feel it's a bit overrated, but if you aren't a connoisseur yourself or an implacable Chowhound, I think you will also be pleased.
We loved the Soft Shell Crab Salad, a pile of light and crispy fried soft shell crab, tossed with slivered green apple, peanuts, cilantro and onion in a slightly sweet fish-sauce spiked vinaigrette. It's a seasonal off-menu specialty, so you'll have to ask about it. We also enjoyed the popular Northern dish Nam Khao Tod, pictured below - crisp rice and Thai sausage with chiles, mint, onion, peanut and herbs in a tart and spicy lime dressing - and one of my favorite can't-miss-it-dishes at any Thai restaurant, Som Tam, or Green Papaya Salad. The Nam Khao Tod was crunchy, savory and tart - while the Som Tam was spicy, sweet and mouth-puckering - with the perfect amount of fish sauce funk.
After a successful run at the starters - on our first trip back in May with friends Lisa and Luis, we had a couple of minor missteps. The beef dish below was a little bland, and the calamari was a little rubberier than we'd hoped...
But we also had a lovely Choo Chee Shrimp - a sweet and spicy red curry that is one of my favorite dishes in Thai cuisine.
On our second visit a few months later, the four of us returned with our friend Tracy and placed our fate in the hands of our waiter, Tony, who Lisa and Luis had met before. After repeating our three favorite starters from the previous visit (and after contemplating the lobster special - a huge pile of the beasts for $125.00) we let him choose our entrees. He brought us Sweet and Sour Sea Bass, Grilled Shrimp with Lime Sauce, Green Curry Duck, Drunken Noodles with Pork, and Beef with Eggplant.
While he didn't bring us the most adventurous dishes on the menu, we ate very well. The Sweet and Sour Seabass was irresistible, with its crisp shell and flaky flesh, and the Green Curry Duck (pictured below) was a universal favorite - the best-loved dish of both our visits. The sauce on the shrimp was tart and interesting, but the shrimp themselves were a little tough, and the Pork Drunken Noodles were as good as any I've had elsewhere but not remarkably better. I have to confess I hardly remember the beef with eggplant dish, which must mean it wasn't remarkable either.
Don't get me wrong though. Even the dishes that weren't "exceptional" were delicious here, and we thoroughly enjoyed it all. I'm looking forward to a return trip to try some more of the Northern Menu and some of their specialties - maybe even that lobster. (If you go, be sure to ask about their specials and off-menu items - they seem to have a lot of them.)
We trusted Tony to choose our wine, and he brought us a 2005 Emrich Schonleber Riesling, which was absolutely perfect. They specialize in matching appropriate wines to their dishes, so don't be shy about asking for a recommendation. The service is very friendly and the servers have very obviously worked there for years.
One of the best things about dining at Lotus of Siam is, of course, the price - especially compared to the luxury dining destinations of Vegas. Our meal for 5 - three starters, five entrees and two bottles of wine was only $160.00, and $76.00 of that was the wine.
LOS is crowded and even with a reservation we've waited twenty to thirty minutes for a table. I don't recommend going without one - or you could find yourself hanging out in that little lobby reading Jonathan Gold's fawning review from 2000 for a loooong time.
Lotus of Siam
953 E Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89104
(702) 735-3033


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Spotting Counterfeit Chips Is Hard; Spotting Digital Piracy Is Even Harder
from the harder-than-it-looks dept
One of the favorite techniques of those pushing for ever-more severe penalties for copyright infringement is to blur the distinction between analog counterfeits and digital copies. The argument then becomes: "counterfeit drugs can kill people, therefore we must come down hard on online filesharing." This trick can be seen most clearly in ACTA, which stands for "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement", but where the most problematic sections concern digital piracy, not counterfeits.
That false equivalence between counterfeits and digital copies is also employed to give the impression that since cheap knock-offs are pretty obvious, it's easy to tell the difference between a legal digital file, and one that is unauthorised. However, unauthorised digital files are generally exact copies of authorised ones, making it impossible to tell them apart. What counts is whether the distribution is authorized, and there are all kinds of legal considerations like fair use or Creative Commons licensing that can make it very hard to tell without detailed legal scrutiny in a court.
Even the assumption that physical copies are relatively easy to spot is dubious, as this fascinating essay from Andrew 'bunnie' Huang about counterfeit chips in military hardware explains. Here's the background:
Amendment 1092 to the Defense Authorization Act of 2012 is a well-intentioned but misguided provision outlining measures designed to reduce the prevalance of counterfeit chips in the US military supply chain.
Huang then runs through the myriad ways in which counterfeits can be produced – and why spotting them is hard.
< ...>
Under the proposed anti-counterfeit amendment, first-time offenders can receive a $5 million fine and 20 years prison for individuals, or $15 million for corporations; a penalty comparable to that of trafficking cocaine.
Alongside "trivial external mimicry" – authentic-looking but empty packages – he mentions the following: refurbished parts (authentic parts recovered from e-waste); rebinned parts (authentic but with markings changed to a higher specification); ghost-shift parts (produced in the official factory by employees, but unofficially); factory scrap (rejects and pilot runs recovered from the scrap heap); and second-sourcing gone bad (pin-compatible replacements produced by competitors remarked as superior brands.)
As Huang points out:
It's one thing to inspect fruits and vegetables as they enter the country for pests and other problems; but it is misguided to require Customs officers to become experts in detecting fakes, and/or to burden vendors with the onus of determining whether parts are authentic, particularly with such high penalties involved and the relative ease that forgers can create high-quality counterfeit parts.
Indeed; and much the same could be said about asking local enforcement authorities or ISPs to detect whether digital copies are legal or not. It's yet another reason why ACTA is likely to have a chilling effect on the legitimate use of copyright materials online, and to throttle the next generation of digital innovation as a result.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Filed Under: acta, conflation, counterfeits, digital, piracy


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At the end of 2009, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company plans to get back into the business of acquisitions, acquiring one small company a month because it's a great way to hire talented people.
Google has done that and more. But IT Business Edge blogger Ann All wonders if Google is too insular with its acquisitions, making a habit of purchasing companies founded by Google alumnae. Still, Ann says the strategy makes sense:
"Google notoriously has so much going on that it's bound to miss opportunities to internally nurture ideas that go on to prove themselves in an outside environment. Even if it has no plans to develop them further, buying companies with products that may have germinated inside Google will at least prevent competitors from benefiting from them."
Google has completed 40 acquisitions this year, according to PCWorld.com. With the acquisition spree it seems to be on, more are sure to come. Here are a handful of Google's 2010 acquisitions.
10 More Gadgets to Help Improve Productivity More must-have gadgets you should add to your repertoire.
Guide to Green Electronics 18 top manufacturers are ranked according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.
Why the Hoopla over Hadoop? Loraine Lawson has broken down the reasons in nine easy to understand facts.
Related Topics : LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Electronic Surveillance
When phone calls, video conference information, pictures, chat logs, etc. are all stored in a central location via social media, a potential hacker has access to just about everything, quickly and easily. ... More >>
Social media listening combines technology, data and analytics to become the latest addition to the marketing toolbox. ... More >>
Mobile devices are fueling the biggest revolution in how we live and work since the development of the PC and Internet. ... More >>


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Q2: I created an endpoint but I cannot connect to it. How do I check if the configuration is set properly?
A: When creating an HTTP endpoint, its state is configured as STOPPED by default unless it is specifically changed with the clause STATE=STARTED in the DDL statement.
To check this setting just execute the following query:
select stop_requested from sys.http_endpoints where name = '<your endpoint name>'
If value is 1, then the endpoint is stopped. To change this state, one can drop and re-create the endpoint or just simply alter it to set the STATE=STARTED. Some other useful endpoint views for checking endpoint configurations are:
select * from sys.http_soap_methods
This view will list all webmethods mapped to the endpoints:
select * from sys.http_data_endpoints
This view provides more details than sys.http_endpoints such as whether XSD schema and WSDL is enabled.
The next place to verify is in the connection permissions for the endpoint. After creating a new endpoint, only members of the sysadmin role and the endpoint owner can connect to it, unless a specific GRANT permission is set. The syntax for this permission is as follows:
GRANT CONNECT ON HTTP ENDPOINT::<endpoint name> TO [user]
More information on HTTP endpoint permissions is located in books online under the following title: "Granting HTTP Endpoint Permissions".


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welcome to my website!
I was born Katy Arbuckle in the very small town of Lewisburg, Tennessee. I vividly remember sitting in front of the bookshelves in our den and looking at the covers of children's books that belonged to my older brother and sister. I couldn't read yet, but I would stare longingly at the covers and look at the pictures. My heart ached to be able to read the words on those pages.Those books contained amazing stories, if only I could read them.
I was so happy to start first grade because I would finally, finally learn to read! By second grade, library day at school was my favorite day of the week. Every week I would check out a new book to read.
When I was eight, I read Louisa May Alcott's biography and decided that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. From that moment on, I never gave up my dream of being a writer.
In many ways, I had a deliriously happy childhood. My neighborhood was full of kids my age. We spent the whole summer riding bikes, playing kick ball, hide-n-seek, and freeze tag, with anywhere from ten to fifteen kids joining in. It was a kid world where grown-ups left us alone and let us play by ourselves.
But I also had a tragic childhood. My mother suffered from depression and was often in and out of hospitals. My older sister Nan had rheumatoid
arthritis and had been in a wheelchair since she was twelve. Two weeks after my tenth birthday, my mother died suddenly. For my birthday that year, I had received the four Borrowers books by Mary Norton. They immediately became my favorite books during that very sad time of my life.
I now live a happy and tranquil life in Mesa, Arizona with my husband Eric and my two teenage sons, Jackson and Ethan. Over the years, I have taught English classes at Arizona State University, Mesa Community College, and Rio Salado Community College. I started writing my first novel in 1992, and much, much later – in 2006! – I got a contract to publish that novel and two other novels that would be in the same series.
Since I was eight, I have dreamed of being a writer. And now I can finally say that I am living my childhood dream.


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NAHB: 17.2 million homes not eligible for federal funding if loan limit drops
A total of 17.2 million home loans will not be eligible for government funding if the conforming loan limit drops in October, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The maximum limit on mortgages that can be guaranteed or bought by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will drop to $625,500 from $729,950. This ceiling varies from county to county. Proponents say allowing the drop will enable private capital to move in and fund more of the jumbo-mortgage market. But it won't come without a cost. NAHB expects non-conforming mortgages written above the new limit to carry interest rates between 50 and 75 basis points higher. Roughly 3.6 million owner-occupied homes are currently valued above the conforming loan limits. After the pending changes, another almost 1.4 million homes would be added to that total. But FHA-insured financing could become even more constricted. According the regulator, 620 counties will lower their FHA loan limit, affecting roughly 44.3 million owner-occupied homes, or 59% of the housing stock in the country. Currently, 8.3 million homes are priced above the FHA loan limits. After the changes take place in October, another 3.87 million will surpass the limit across the country. California could feel the brunt of the conforming loan limit cuts as high as $246,750 in some state counties, according to California Association of Realtors. More than 30,000 Californian homeowners will face higher down payments, higher mortgage rates and stricter loan qualification requirements when the limits drop, CAR said. "The lower limits will place a constraint on home buying in high-cost housing markets, such as those along the coasts and in California. It is the last thing we need in a housing market that is still struggling to get back on its feet," said NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nev. Write to Jon Prior. Follow him on Twitter @JonAPrior.


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Cumberland County Library System Foundation
Support the Library System Foundation
Foundation Purpose
All gifts to the Cumberland County Library System Foundation support the Cumberland County Library System and its member libraries' mission: To meet the cultural, educational and informational needs of Cumberland County library users and community residents.
Non-Profit, Tax-Exempt
The Cumberland County Library System Foundation is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization (Type I supporting organization). (IRS Tax Exemption Designation, PDF, 1818KB, 2 pages)
Foundation Accepts EITC Donations
The library system is an approved Educational Improvement Organization and may receive Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) donations from approved businesses. These donations help fund our annual Summer Reading Program for more than 7000 children each year.
The Summer Reading Program extends the school year for students into the summer months by providing a wide range of activities – at no charge – that are designed to foster a love of reading and strengthen their reading, writing, speaking, listening and learning skills. Research studies have long recognized that children who do not participate in an organized summer reading program actually lose their hard won reading skills over the summer — sliding back about 3 months in their skills by the time school resumes. By the end of 6th grade, children who have lost their reading skills over the summer could be as much as 2 years behind their classmates.
To be part of this program, visit the state EITC web page.
Foundation Independently Compiled Annual Statements
- 2017 Financial Statement Compilation (PDF, 149KB, 6 pages)
- 2016 Financial Statement Compilation (PDF, 173KB, 6 pages)
- 2015 Financial Statement Compilation (PDF, 155KB, 5 pages)
- 2014 Financial Statement Compilation (PDF, 187KB, 5 pages)
- 2013 Financial Statement Compilation (PDF, 140KB, 5 pages)
- 2012 Financial Statement Compilation (PDF, 30KB, 5 pages)
Foundation Board
A Board of Directors governs the Cumberland County Library System Foundation. To learn more about the Foundation, contact Carolyn Blatchley, Executive Director.
Foundation Gift Acceptance Policy
The CCLS Foundation has adopted the following policy:
- Gift Acceptance Policy (PDF, 95KB, 12 pages)
is a GuideStar Exchange Gold Participant
Learn more about the GuideStar Exchange.


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Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco at the height of the Great Depression, Natalie Wood ("Natasha" to close friends) was one of those rare stars who managed to combine old-school glamor, powerhouse talent and smoldering sex appeal in a single package. Her drowning death off the California coast when she was just 43 years old remains one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries, and the source of more than two decades' worth of rumors, investigations and speculation.
Here, LIFE.com presents a selection of photographs made by Bill Ray in 1963 — a time in the 25-year-old Wood's career when she had made the leap from actress to genuine movie star and, more importantly, to formidable Hollywood player.
[Many of the photos in this gallery were not originally published in LIFE, but appear in Bill Ray's book, My Life in Photography. Buy the book here.]
For Bill Ray, the most striking memory of the several weeks that he spent with Wood and her showbiz cohorts is, unsurprisingly, Wood herself — or, more specifically, her singular beauty.
"She was divine," Ray told LIFE.com. "Really. She was divine to look at, and to photograph. She had that wonderful face, a great body, those amazing eyes — just a beautiful young woman, and a lot of fun to be around."
Ray, who was not yet on staff at LIFE, also recalls that this was a big — and for his career, perhaps pivotal — gig. At the time, LIFE published 51 issues a year, with a special double issue in late December. For the Dec. 20, 1963, issue that focused wholly on the movies, Ray scored the choice, high-profile feature on Wood — the only piece in the entire issue devoted to a single actor or actress. "This was big stuff," he says today of the plum assignment. "You know, back then photographers were never part of the meetings where these sort of assignment decisions were made, so to get the call for something of this magnitude — I was thrilled."
Thrilled, but hardly cowed or overawed. After all, by the time the Natalie Wood shoot came his way, Ray was a seasoned professional, having covered the likes of JFK, Elvis Presley, John Wayne and other huge names and famous faces. What comes through in so many of his photographs, meanwhile, is the sense that here was a photographer who genuinely enjoyed his work (and why wouldn't he?), while his subject was a strong young woman who had been in the public eye for so long that having her every move documented was hardly anything new.
In fact, as LIFE reminded its readers in that special year-end double issue back in 1963, Natalie Wood was about as self-aware — and self-confident — an actress as one was ever likely to meet:
Natalie Wood was in a crowd watching a movie being filmed 21 years ago when the director asked her do a bit: drop an ice ream cone and cry. Then and there, 4-year-old Natalie showed she was born to be a star: she wept so convincingly that the movies hired her — and ever since they have been thankful for the foresight. . . . [Movies] still cannot get along without the glamor that stars bring. And Natalie, the biggest young star around, now holds Hollywood in her hand. Her latest performance in her 35th film, 'Love With a Proper Stranger,' may win her an Oscar. [Note: She did, in fact, earn an Academy Award nomination for the role, but Patricia Neal took home the Oscar that year for her work in 'Hud.'] A 96-pound beauty in a size 5 dress, Natalie has talent which she uses brilliantly, temperament which she can control, and a dark fresh loveliness that glows from the screen. All this earns her a million dollars a year, along with something that means even more to her — the power and the glory that stardom brings.
"Natalie Wood," observed a prominent Hollywood director, "is a powerful little broad who has a stranglehold on every young leading-lady part in town. If a role calls for a woman between 15 and 30, you automatically think of her."
This is exactly what Natalie has worked 21 years to get. She has battled producers and top studio heads with unyielding ferocity to win the roles she wants. Today, before she will do a picture, she demands and gets total approval of script, director, leading man, all actors, everybody clear down to make-up and wardrobe people.
One last detail that Bill Ray recalls about his time with Natalie Wood, however, casts something of a pall across his otherwise sunny memories. At some point during those several weeks, he joined Wood and a number of other people on a boat ride to Catalina Island (see slide 16 in the gallery) — the same island off the California coast near which Wood would drown in the fall of 1981. When Ray heard about her death, he was stunned: not only because he had always liked her and remembered the time he spent with her with such fondness, but because he had been struck during that boat ride in 1963 by how uncharacteristically out of sorts she seemed.
"It was obvious to me," Ray told LIFE.com, "that Natalie did not like being out on the water at all. When I heard that she'd drowned, in basically the same place where we'd been all those years before, I wasn't just sad — although that was part of it. I was also very, very surprised."
Five decades later, the mystery of Natalie Wood's death endures. Bill Ray's pictures, meanwhile, shed a clear, poignant light on a time when the star's already impressive career felt boundless, and her life charmed. The future, it seemed then, was hers for the taking.
[To see more of Bill Ray's photography, and to purchase prints, visit BillRay.com.]
Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com


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I work at Disney World and heard a cast member say youngling yesterday.
"Tragedy strikes at Disney World today after countless children were slain by a psychotic assailant fixated on sand. More at 11."
I work there and we use this word. The article was wrong.
An article went around saying the cast of Galaxy's Edge dont use the word Youngling for children because of what Anakin did. But they actually do.
Any youngling whore with a lightsaber can kill two Darth fucking Trants
Collecting Fine Additions
Memes of the Star Wars Prequels
Posts requesting vote manipulation on the subreddit will be removed and a ban will be issued. This includes posts that ask for upvotes in some shape or form, even if it's in the title or in the post.
No threatening or harassing other users, celebrities, YouTube channels, pet hamsters, etc.
Posts must be, at least loosely, related to star wars prequels. "Prequel" refers to anything that takes place before A New Hope. This includes new movies made post-Lucas and EU content. Note that single pictures of a character (e.g. "Just a picture of Obi-Wan") do not necessarily count as memes, and could be seen as a violation of Rule 1.
Pornographic material is strictly forbidden on this subreddit as it is not an 18+ sub. NSFW posts are simply posts you might not show your grandmother. NSFW posts that are not porn should be marked as NSFW.
Obi-Wan is not brave enough for politics, nor are we. Politics is a sweeping term that includes international politics, non-political posts about politicians, or anything else that is at all related to real life politics, regardless of if it is US or International. This also includes anything related to social-issues.
No edgy/inflammatory posts. We have the moral high ground. This subreddit is not the place to joke about distasteful content that would offend a large percentage of the user base. This includes those edgy memes that involve autism or school shootings.
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New 2019 NissanMaxima Platinum SEDAN
- Stock: KC379580
- Fuel Economy
- 20.0/30.0 mpg City/Hwy
- Exterior Color
- Gun Metallic
- Interior Color
- Charcoal
- Body/Seating
- SEDAN/5 seats
- Transmission
- continuously variable automatic
- Drivetrain
- front-wheel
- Engine
Nissan Maxima
Highlighted Features
- Navigation system
- Blind spot sensor
- Lane departure
- Speed limit sign recognition
- Distance pacing cruise control
- Leather upholstery
- Automatic temperature control
- Emergency communication system
Detailed Specifications
Dealer Notes
Gun Metallic 2019 Nissan Maxima Platinum FWD CVT with Xtronic 3.5L 6-Cylinder **NEW TIRES**, **NEW BRAKES**, **NAVIGATION**, **MOONROOF**, **KEYLESS ENTRY**, **REMOTE START**, **LEATHER**, **REARVIEW CAMERA**, **BLUETOOTH HANDS FREE CALLING**, **HEATED / COOLED SEATS**, **BLIND SPOT WARNING SYSTEM**, **SIRIUS XM RADIO**, **ALLOY WHEELS**.
20/30 City/Highway MPG Price includes: $2,000 - Nissan Customer Cash - National. Exp. 07/01/2019
20/30 City/Highway MPG Price includes: $2,000 - Nissan Customer Cash - National. Exp. 07/01/2019
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
- 5.0
love my new Maxima
By MaximaDriver on Sunday, May 14, 2017I purchased a new Maxima SL last month after wavering a lot between getting this car or another Honda Accord. The car has been a lot of fun to drive. The engine is very powerful and the CVT transmission is extremely smooth. The engine sounds different from a regular automatic transmission when accelerating hard, but in day-to-day driving it has not been much different -- it is predictable and smooth. I read some reviews that complained about the steering, but in my experience, steering is fine---precise and predictable. Inside, the car really feels like a luxury car with high-quality materials throughout, nicely detailed stitching, extremely comfortable leather seats, a large moon roof, heated seats, a heated steering wheel, and many many other features. The large display in the center of the dashboard works well (its angled slightly towards the driver) and is intuitive and easy to use (much more so than the system in the Accord, in my opinion). The navigation system works well (voice-operated control optional) with detailed instructions on the screen in the center of the dashboard and I like it that it also gives directions in the small display behind the steering wheel, so there is no need to take your eyes off the road. I got the car for a superb price after learning about current incentives from Nissans site and soliciting some quotes from an automotive internet site. The one downside that I can think of so far is that premium fuel is recommended for this car, which is around 0.40/gallon more than regular in my area. That said, I have been getting excellent mileage on the interstate---up to 33MPG if I drive carefully. Im surprised that I dont see more Maximas on the road given how much value it has to offer. If youre in the market for a sporty/luxury sedan, take the Maxima for a test drive..
- 5.0
Affordable high-tech sports sedan
By Poppy on Monday, January 08, 2018The 2018 Maxima Platinum is the perfect luxury sports sedan. It is comfortable, luxurious, and powerful. It is comfortable to ride and fun to drive.
- 5.0
Its a beast of a sports sedan
By CJ on Saturday, July 11, 2015I purchased this car just a few weeks ago. Commute three times a week tell you one thing this car is a zippy. I've found that Maxima to be comfortable looks aggressive with styling. Got lots of things are plush all inside of this car. Love performance ride even with new 300hp its a joy driving n city driving and freeways as of now I am getting 33.4 mpg on my model. Very roomy sedan very quick lots of new bells and whistles believe might hold a good value than ever in its class. Interior is so quiet driving at 85/mph Sport mode and normal mode are best usually use my Sport mode with CVT as a lot of people are complaining but this car is fast driving in automatic feel. Like everything setup on this car easily keep my eyes on the road as can look at navigation, phone texts, audio and more on info display center. Its a cool sporty car its got cooled/heated seats very amazing ride the Maxima probably handles better than BMW paddle shifters are unique on SR version bought too much be listed at least its a less expensive car but absolutely a joy driving very more reliable vehicle to own love every bit of it. This car is a great luxury car drive to work as commuting everyday doing mornings its a beast on freeway while recently fill up last week but averaged fuel economy is 33.4 mpg getting on this vehicle its the best ever drove definitely more a sports sedan in its class so happy with my new Maxima/