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The Only System that Can Be Virtually Any Rig
The integrated Line 6® Dream Rig—the combination of a James Tyler® Variax® guitar, POD® HD500 multi-effect and DT-series amp—can be the answer to any musical question. With instant access to a collection of priceless guitars, celebrated effects and legendary amplifiers, this streamlined rig helps you meet the demands of every recording session and gig, no matter how diverse.
The Dream Rig is the only system that lets you save your guitar, tuning, effects chain, signal routing and preamp/analog power amp configuration to a single preset—then recall up to 500 different rigs with the press of a footswitch.
Powered by HD technology, the Line 6 Dream Rig is the best sounding and most advanced guitar system ever made.
"As a system, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." —Craig Anderton, Harmony Central (Read review)
The Line 6 Dream Rig
"A scrapbook of all the quintessential classic guitar sounds… [James Tyler Variax] simultaneously delivers virtually limitless possibilities for the guitar tones of tomorrow." —Guitar Player (Read review)
"I love the versatility of the DT50 and its ability to be different amps. You can have a more aggressive amp or you can lighten it up a bit, or you can go straight dirty and it will really knock your socks off." —Michael Williams (Watch video)
"With POD HD, your tone is with you wherever you go. Nine times out of ten, I'm using a POD direct to a PA system." —Dino Cazares, Fear Factory (Read interview)
Connection Diagram
*All product names are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Line 6. These trademarks of other manufacturers are used solely to identify the products of those manufacturers whose tones and sounds were studied during Line 6's sound model development.


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Alan Wanzenberg's sleek Ingersoll Sconce has a beautiful in-curving ring supported by a simple curved arm and circular backplate that holds its almost full-round milk glass shade. The mounting is discretely recessed in a subtle shadowline.
Overall: 26 cm h. x 16 cm w. x 23 cm d.
Backplate: 12 cm diameter
SES/E14 socket, maximum 60 watts
IP44 rating available.
Burnished Brass, Burnished Nickel, Dark Antique Brass, Dark Pewter, Dark Waxed Bronze, German Silver, Light Antique Brass, Light Pewter, Medium Antique Brass, Oil Rubbed Bronze, Polished Brass, Polished Nickel, Satin Nickel
View Finishes
Manufactured using 90% recycled brass

subset: commoncrawl


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Cowboys Stadium One Legends Way • Arlington, TX 76011• (817) 892-4000This dazzling $1.1 billion stadium is the world's largest domed stadium. Daily tours allow fans to get behind-the-scenes access and even test their throwing arm on the field. Fort Worth Stockyards 131 E. Exchange • Fort Worth, TX 76164Visit Visit the history book of the livestock industry in Texas. From museums and shopping to entertainment and dining, the Stockyards has something for everyone!
Fort Worth Water Gardens1502 Commerce St. • Fort Worth, TX 76102 • (817) 392-7111A beautiful and refreshing oasis adjacent to the Fort Worth Convention Center, the Water Gardens is an architectural and engineering marvel to be enjoyed any time of the year.
Fort Worth Zoo1989 Colonial Pkwy. • Fort Worth, TX 76110 • (817) 759-7501Home to more than 500 species of animals, the zoo boasts the country's premier herpetarium, the Museum of Living Art (MOLA). Japanese Garden 3300 Japanese Garden Ln. • Fort Worth, TX 76107• (817) 871-7685Feed thousands of exotic Koi fish, explore the gift shop, or surrender your senses and activate your Zen in seven-acres of wandering paths.


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It may grow on me, but I like the current one better at least from that view.
Looks better but is nothing that great. I'll probably like it better when its unveiled. Hopefully this pig lost some blubber.
_______________________________Have you driven a Coyote... lately? The beer can that tows your Chevy or Fiat/Chrysler.
You'll notice in that report that one of Ford's top goals is to reduce vehicle weight from now through 2020.
"There's a lie that all drivers tell themselves -- death is something that happens to other people. That's how you find the courage to get in the car in the first place. But more powerful than even the fear of death itself is the will to win."
Wafflez:FINhmmm okay...that is a Hyundai Santa Fe right?
It looks like a big Escape kinda.
=\/=DD: 1995 Mazda Miata M EditionToy: 04 Honda VFR800 Interceptor named Phoenix (nicknamed VTAK)
well that's unforutnate. i still prefer the original Edge in design...
--------------------I'm working on a scifi-adventure webcomic!
I'll be the first to say it. Grill/headlight combo immediately reminded me of the new Tundra.
--------------05 Toyota Tacoma - 282k km FOR SALE!02 Toyota Camry for the wife - 285k km2012 Ford F-150 5.0 - 61k km
skpensfan:I'll be the first to say it. Grill/headlight combo immediately reminded me of the new Tundra.I can certainly see the similarity to the Hyundai, but to the tundra?
Or a mini explorer.
____________________________Keep it on the track/strip and off the street. Brands Owned: BMW, Hummer, Ram, Dodge, Jeep, Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet. Beware the trolls: usually followed by Ford logic of some sort.
Thats a nice Hyundai, and I'm loving those wheels (hope they aren't chrome)
.**************************************Go Placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. Be on good term with all persons.Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
I really wish Hyundai didn't copy all of Ford's designs, now Ford can't build a Ford-looking vehicle without being compared to Hyundai.
------------------------------You can have an opinion, just be prepared to be relentlessly mocked for it.Warning: This post may cause cancer in the state of California.
RearSlip:Considering that the artist concepts and clay models of the Edge were done well before anyone at Ford saw the Santa Fe you're not making any real point. The next Edge looks like a cross between the current one and the new Escape. Who would want to model anything after a Hyundai?


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Chloe Rectangular Coffee Table
- Everyday Value
- Overview
With rounded corners and gently flared legs, this beautifully crafted coffee table has a graceful silhouette that's matched with incredible durability.
- Top and legs are crafted of mindi solid.
- Apron is built with mindi solid, plywood and mindi veneer.
- Finished entirely by hand and sealed with lacquer for moisture resistance.
- Simple assembly.
- Plastic foot protectors.
- Dimensions & Care
- Overall: 52.5'' wide x 22.5'' deep x 18'' high
- Top: 52'' wide x 22'' deep x 1'' thick
- Shelf Interior: 47.5" wide x 15.5" deep x 8" high.
- Clearance from floor: 6" high
- Distance between legs: 47'', 15"
- Weight: 41 pounds
- Wipe clean with a soft, damp cloth.
- Do not use harsh or abrasive chemicals to clean as this may damage the finish.
- Shipping & Return Info
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 4-5 business days.
Next Day Delivery and Processing
We can arrange for next day delivery to most destinations within the contiguous 48 states, for an extra charge of $17.50 per address. If we receive your order by 6pm PT Monday through Friday, you'll receive your order the next business day; orders placed on Friday after 6pm PT through Sunday will arrive on Tuesday. Note: Next Day Delivery service is not available for some oversized items, White Glove Delivery, out of stock items, personalized items or for items shipped directly from the manufacturer.
Select oversized items have an additional delivery and processing surcharge; this charge is listed below the item price.
View the complete Shipping and Delivery Information page.
We take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of each and every Pottery Barn product and we hope you love your purchase. If for any reason you do not, you have 30 days – or 7 days for all Quick Ship upholstery items – to return your purchase for a full refund or exchange. You can return most non-furniture items to your local Pottery Barn store – FREE.
Delivery fees are non-refundable and prior purchases are not eligible for a price adjustment. The following items are non-eligible for returns or exchanges:
- Monogrammed items
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- Special-order items (including made-to-order upholstery and custom order rugs)
- Final Sale items (identified by a price ending in $.X7 or $.X9)
- Items damaged through normal wear and tear.
Questions? See our full Returns Policy.


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Not seven years after Prohibition took effect, on January 17, 1920 (the amendment had stipulated it would go into effect one year after ratification), Wayne B. Wheeler died. He had taken a rare vacation on Lake Michigan when his wife was killed in a freak fire and his father-in-law thereupon was felled by a heart attack. Wheeler had been in ill health for months; the vacation that he had hoped would restore him instead led to his own death by heart failure just three weeks after the fire.
Until virtually the end, Wheeler remained as effective as he had been in the years leading up to the passage of the 18th Amendment. He was intimately involved in the drafting of the Volstead Act, which specified the means of enforcing the Prohibition amendment. All subsequent legislation refining the liquor-control laws required his imprimatur. He still determined whether candidates for Congress would receive the ASL's endorsement. And he underscored his authority by supervising a gigantic patronage operation, controlling appointments to the Prohibition Bureau, which was set up to police the illegal liquor trade.
But for all his political might, Wheeler could not do what he and all the other Prohibitionists had set out to do: they could not purge alcoholic beverages from American life. Drinking did decline at first, but a combination of legal loopholes, personal tastes and political expediency conspired against a dry regime.
As declarative as the 18th Amendment was—forbidding "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors"—the Volstead Act allowed exceptions. You were allowed to keep (and drink) liquor you had in your possession as of January 16, 1920; this enabled the Yale Club in New York, for instance, to stockpile a supply large enough to last the full 14 years that Prohibition was in force. Farmers and others were allowed to "preserve" their fruit through fermentation, which placed hard cider in cupboards across the countryside and homemade wine in urban basements. "Medicinal liquor" was still allowed, enriching physicians (who generally charged by the prescription) and pharmacists (who sold such "medicinal" brands as Old Grand-Dad and Johnnie Walker). A religious exception created a boom in sacramental wines, leading one California vintner to sell communion wine—legally—in 14 different varieties, including port, sherry, tokay and cabernet sauvignon.
By the mid-'20s, those with a taste for alcohol had no trouble finding it, especially in the cities of the East and West coasts and along the Canadian border. At one point the New York police commissioner estimated there were 32,000 illegal establishments selling liquor in his city. In Detroit, a newsman said, "It was absolutely impossible to get a drink...unless you walked at least ten feet and told the busy bartender what you wanted in a voice loud enough for him to hear you above the uproar." Washington's best-known bootlegger, George L. Cassiday (known to most people as "the man in the green hat"), insisted that "a majority of both houses" of Congress bought from him, and few thought he was bragging.
Worst of all, the nation's vast thirst gave rise to a new phenomenon—organized crime, in the form of transnational syndicates that controlled everything from manufacture to pricing to distribution. A corrupt and underfunded Prohibition Bureau couldn't begin to stop the spread of the syndicates, which considered the politicians who kept Prohibition in place their greatest allies. Not only did Prohibition create their market, it enhanced their profit margins: from all the billions of gallons of liquor that changed hands illegally during Prohibition, the bootleggers did not pay, nor did the government collect, a single penny of tax.
In fact, just as tax policy, in the form of the income tax amendment, had paved the way for Prohibition, so did it shape Prohibition's eventual death. Rampant criminality, epidemic disrespect for law and simple exhaustion had turned much of the country against the 18th Amendment by the late '20s, but the arrival of the Great Depression sealed the deal. As income tax revenues plummeted along with incomes, the government was running on empty. With the return of beer alone, Franklin Roosevelt said during his 1932 campaign, the federal treasury would be enriched by hundreds of millions of dollars.
On December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment and Prohibition came to an inglorious end. That was a little more than six years after the death of the man who had brought it to life. In a posthumous biography written by a former colleague, Wayne B. Wheeler was described as a man who "controlled six Congresses, dictated to two Presidents...directed legislation...for the more important elective state and federal offices, held the balance of power in both Republican and Democratic parties, distributed more patronage than any dozen other men, supervised a federal bureau from outside without official authority, and was recognized by friend and foe alike as the most masterful and powerful single individual in the United States."
And then, almost immediately, he was forgotten.
Copyright © 2010 by Last Laugh, Inc. From the forthcoming book Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent, to be published by Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed by permission.


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UTSACard = free admission to San Antonio Museum of Art
By Tim Brownlee
Assistant Director of Public Affairs
(Dec. 2, 2005)--UTSA students, faculty and staff receive free admission to the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) simply by presenting their UTSACards. The special benefit is a result of the university's corporate benefactor membership to SAMA.
Since opening in 1981, the San Antonio Museum of Art has become home to the region's finest display of Greek and Roman antiquities, Asian art, Latin American and folk art, and American paintings -- a world of art that spans 5,000 years of human inspiration and creativity.
Today's headlines
- La Prensa Foundation is newest member of UTSA Lone Star Society
- UTSA alumna Jordan Kaufmann wins $50K for new stent-graft start-up
- UTSA begins new way-finding sign installation this summer at Main Campus
- USA Today: UTSA long jumper Tyler Williamson rescues three-year-old boy
Article tools
Housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery, built in 1884, the 104,000-square-foot facility is San Antonio's finest museum exhibition space. The blend of glass elevators, skylights and skywalk in the castle-like building is a sight no one should miss. The museum, located at 200 West Jones Avenue, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The largest collection of Asian art in the southwestern United States is on view in SAMA's new Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing. SAMA's Asian art collections include more than 1,400 objects from China, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and Tibet, spanning nearly 6,000 years of history. The two-story, 15,000 square-foot addition to the facility features 12 galleries and a changing exhibition space, offering visitors new insights into the arts of East and South Asian cultures.
Through March 19, view the SAMA Golden Gallery portraiture exhibition, "Unexpected Portraits: Satirical Woodcut Prints" by Jose Guadalupe Posada, Mexico's great graphic artist. Posada (1852-1913) is best known for his broadsides (sizable sheets of paper often sold on the streets) featuring skeletal images dancing through scenes of Mexican daily life or pamphlets and magazines punctuated by bold and biting sociopolitical satire. "Unexpected Portraits" features approximately 40 examples of Posada's lesser-known art of portraiture and caricature
Through Jan. 8, SAMA visitors can enjoy "La Linea Encantada: 20th Century Latin American Graphic Art from the SAMA Collection" in the Cowden Gallery. The exhibit is comprised mainly of Latin American graphics produced between 1927 and 1993, containing 80 works of art featuring lithographs, hand-colored prints and etchings from seven important portfolios.
Additionally, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, a 30,000-square-foot wing dedicated to the study and appreciation of Latin American art, opened its doors in 1998. The collection features pre-Columbian, folk, Spanish Colonial/Republican, and modern and contemporary art.
SAMA offers one-of-a-kind exhibits, poetry readings, concerts, storytelling, dance performances, lectures, family days and art workshops.
For more information, contact the San Antonio Museum of Art at (210) 978-8100.


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Report Finds U.S. Higher Education in Need of Change
Meeting a Critical Need
Spellings Introduces Higher Education Plan
Around the Country
Q & A Glossary
News Show Discusses Foreign Language Study
Funding Education Beyond High School
Report Finds U.S. Higher Education in Need of Change
Secretary Responds With Action Plan for More Accessible, Affordable, Accountable System
To help keep America competitive and provide students with more affordable access to college, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced on Sept. 26 her plans to strengthen the U.S. higher education system, based on the recommendations in the final report of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
"We know higher education is the key to our children's future and the American dream, yet it is becoming more unaffordable and less attainable," said Secretary Spellings. "To remain competitive in the 21st-century global economy, we must act now ... and work together to find the right solutions."
Secretary Spellings created the 19-member commission in September 2005 to examine America's postsecondary education system and develop recommendations that would make it more accessible, affordable and accountable. Following a yearlong examination, which involved a series of public meetings held across the country, the commission's report revealed:
While about 34 percent of white adults have obtained bachelor's degrees by ages 25-29, the same is true for just 17 percent of black adults and 11 percent of Hispanic adults in the same age cohort.
From 1995 to 2005, average tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose 51 percent after adjusting for inflation; for private institutions, the increase was 36 percent.
The percentage of college graduates deemed proficient in prose literacy (the ability to understand narrative texts such as newspaper articles) declined from 40 to 31 percent between 1992 and 2003.
The U.S. position among major industrialized countries has fallen to 12th place with regard to higher education attainment.
In response, Secretary Spellings' plan calls for increasing rigor in high schools to better prepare students for college; increasing need-based financial aid; and providing matching funds to colleges, universities and states that collect and publicly report student learning outcomes. (For strategies on accomplishing these plans, see actions listed in excerpted speech below.)
Additionally, this spring, the secretary will convene a summit with representatives from the higher education and business communities as well as groups of students, parents and policymakers to address these issues and build partnerships that would help more Americans achieve a college education.
For a full copy of the report, A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education, visit http://www.ed.gov.
Meeting a Critical Need
Foreign Languages, Academic Rigor Help Prepare Virginia Students for Global Marketplace
In Dan Fitzgerald's ideal world, every American student would begin learning a foreign language as early as kindergarten and by high school would be fluent and primed to learn another one.
"Look at our students from Ghana. Almost all of them speak English and two ... maybe five other languages. We have Bosnian students who already speak German and English and are interested in learning French," said Fitzgerald, chair of the foreign language department at West Potomac High School in Alexandria, Va.
An idea not far-fetched, Fitzgerald's utopia is starting to become a reality for many schools across the nation with the support of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. In September, through its Foreign Language Assistance Program, the Department began awarding to states and school districts nationwide the first of 131 grants for fiscal year 2006 totaling more than $22 million. The funds are for teaching Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian and other languages Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings considers "essential not only for trade in the global economy, but also to our national security."
The program is part of President George W. Bush's National Security Language Initiative, for which the departments of Education, State and Defense along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have joined forces to increase the number of Americans learning critical foreign languages through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through college and into the workforce. The shortage of capacity in these critical languages is so severe, for instance, that less than half of the 1 percent of U.S. students taking a foreign language in grades K-12 study Chinese, although it is the most widely spoken language in the world.
To boost that rate, a $188,511 grant was awarded to Fairfax County Public Schoolsof which West Potomac will be one of seven to benefit initially from the federal fundsto help more than 1,500 students learn Chinese and Arabic. Bolstered by partnerships with academia and the state, the grant will help to improve instruction in the primary grades and help secondary schools lacking these languages offer virtual courses.
Charged with a vital role in this effort is West Potomac's Chinese language teacher, Yunian Zhang. A native of Shanghai, China, who moved to the United States in 1990 following a career as a theater professor, Zhang has been teaching Chinese at the beginning to intermediate levels for the past eight years. This fall, in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education, he began leading a virtual Chinese class for schools not only in the district but across the state, particularly for those that have been unable to find a qualified teacher or have too few students to justify hiring one. The class is one of a variety of college-level and foreign language courses available through the Virtual Advanced Placement School, the state's distance learning Web site. Launched as a level-one coursemore advanced classes will be added laterit covers a total of 165 lessons enhanced through PowerPoint slides and five-minute training videos that Zhang prepares.
For the first year, enrollment in the pilot program has been limited to 28 students statewide. Zhang believes interest will grow as students increasingly realize both the prestigious and practical benefits of learning Chinese: "Eventually you want to have that language on your [application] if you want to go to a good university. ... Taking Chinese in high school shows you have challenged yourself and have the potential to learn any kind of language in the world. And if you are building some proficiency, you really can make a difference in your career because there'll be more choices for youand probably more pay."
The Chinese class at West Potomac, which in 1996 was one of the first in the county, is part of an academically rigorous curriculum designed to graduate students ready to compete in the global marketplace. The school's robust foreign language program, which also offers Spanish, French, German and Latin, enrolls more than half of the student population and has created opportunities for trips abroad, including a visit to China that Zhang sponsors during spring break.
Located in a suburb of Washington, D.C., between George Washington's Mount Vernon mansion and downtown Alexandria, West Potomac is one of the most diverse schools in northern Virginia. It's a bird's-eye view of American society: culturally, students come from 67 countries and speak 41 different languages; economically, local residences range from multi-million dollar homes to housing projects; and academically, English language learners and students with disabilities account for one in three students.
And, in the midst of this broad diversity, all 2,000 students are held to high standards. "We're pushing really hard to get our kids to take the biggest challenges they can," said Principal Rima Vesilind.
That means encouraging more students to take rigorous course work that would prepare them to succeed in college. This year, an additional 69 juniors and seniors enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, bringing the total enrollment to 566 students. The school's AP network offers an extensive selection of college-level classes in biology, calculus, computer science, foreign languages, physics, psychology, statistics and world history, among others.
In addition, as part of the college preparation plan, last spring West Potomac kicked off an SAT-prep program that faculty members have credited partly with a 56-point gain on last year's test score average of 1540 (on a 2400-point scale), the largest jump in the district's recorded history. Provided at no cost to students, the 15-week program required participants to attend Saturday morning sessions and complete daily online drills that involve grammar checks, math probes and other activities that "really strengthen a kid's academic prowess," said Barbara Conner, who helped to initiate the program.
Conner is a specialist in the school's College and Career Center, which helps students identify potential careers, write resumes, find internships and navigate the college application process. To help introduce upperclassmen to the college experience, she arranges one-on-one sessions at the school with college representatives from all over the country to discuss, for example, life as a freshman, unique trends in majors, scholarship opportunities and new developments on campuses. This year, at least 80 deans of admissions or their staff members are expected to visit. Such efforts help explain the college matriculation rate at West Potomac: 90 percent of the Class of 2006 went on to pursue higher education.
The school is also home to one of the district's five professional technical centers, which offers advanced career-oriented electives in 12 subject areas, including Chinese, criminal justice, early childhood education, medical health technologies and television production. As the newest facility, the West Potomac Academy has instructional labs with technologies used by professionals in the field; for instance, aspiring dentists can perform X-rays and construct mouth guards.
The increasing demand to graduate students who are technologically savvy, foreign language proficient, and academically advanced is an indicator of the changing times, perceives Conner: "Gone is the sleepy little world of the red schoolhouse with the bell. We are now preparing students to be successful in a global world."
By Nicole Ashby
Spellings Introduces Higher Education Plan
On Sept. 26, Secretary Spellings introduced her action plan for higher education at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. An excerpt from her speech follows.
... A lot of people will tell you things are going just fine. But when 90-percent of the fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education, are we satisfied with 'just fine'? ...
Is it 'fine' that college tuition has outpaced inflation, family income, even doubling the cost of health care? Is it 'fine' that only half of our students graduate on time? Is it 'fine' that students often graduate so saddled with debt that they can't buy a home or start a family? ...
I'm not the first to grapple with these issues. States, local leaders, the business community and many in higher education are already hard-at-work tackling challenges from affordability to measuring student learning. ...
First: How do we make college more accessible? ...
A million kids drop out [of high school] every single year. And those who do graduate often aren't prepared for college. As a result, colleges, students and taxpayers spend over a billion dollars a year on remedial classes after graduation. Ultimately, we pay the bill twice, because students don't get what they need in high school. ...
... Action One under my plan is to build on [President Bush's plan for increasing academic rigor in high schools] by expanding the effective principles of No Child Left Behind and holding high schools accountable for results. And we will continue efforts to align high school standards with college work by increasing access to college-prep classes such as Advanced Placement.
Next, how do we make college more affordable? ...
... At the federal level, [the financial aid system is] a maze of 60 Web sites, dozens of toll-free numbers, and 17 different programs ... the main federal student aid form is longer and more complicated than the federal tax form! ...
... Action Two under my plan is for my Department to streamline the process, cut the application time in half, and notify students of their aid eligibility earlier than spring of their senior year to help families plan. ...
... Money's important. But we're going to keep chasing our tail on price until we realize that a good deal of the solution comes down to information. Like any other investment or enterprise, meaningful data is critical to better manage the system. ...
Which brings me to my final point: How are we going to make college more accountable for results? ...
We live in the 'Information Age.' If you want to buy a new car, you go online and compare a full range of models, makes and pricing options. ... The same transparency and ease should be the case when students and families shop for colleges, especially when one year of college can cost a lot more than a car!
... Action Three under my plan will work to pull together privacy-protected student-level data similar to data already collected for K-12 students to create a higher education information system. ...
Information will not only help with decision-making, it will also hold schools accountable for quality. ... Action Four under my plan will provide matching funds to colleges, universities and states that collect and publicly report student learning outcomes.
Right now, accreditation is the system we use to put a stamp of approval on higher education quality. It's largely focused on inputs, more on how many books are in a college library, than whether students can actually understand them. ...
... Action Five under my plan will convene members of the accrediting community this November to move toward measures that place more emphasis on learning. ...
This is the beginning of a process of long overdue reform. And let me be clear: at the end of it we neither envision, nor want, a national system of higher education. On the contrary, one of the greatest assets of our system is its diversitysomething we must protect and preserve.
Our aim is simply to make sure the countless opportunities a college education provides is a reality for every American who chooses to pursue it. ...
For the full speech, visit http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2006/09/09262006.html.
Around the Country
PennsylvaniaThe first Microsoft School of the Future, born out of a partnership between the School District of Philadelphia and Microsoft Corporation, opened its doors this fall. A high-tech building erected in the working class neighborhood of West Philadelphia, the public high school features digital lockers, an interactive learning center where some library holdings are electronic, and specially designed software for students' laptops that monitors how quickly they are learning. About 170 students, mostly African-American and from low-income families, were chosen by lottery to make up the freshman class; enrollment is expected to grow to 750 by 2010.
TexasThe Brownsville Independent School District has experienced a sudden surge of interest in dual enrollment, which gives students both high school and college credit for completing college-level work. The increase in participation, which jumped from 2,000 students in 2005 to 3,587 this year, is partly credited to a fee reduction for nonresidents of the state. Due to a policy change at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, the fee for students regardless of their resident status is just $5, which the district pays. Previously, the charge for students living outside of Texas was more than $1,400 per course.
- November 12-18
Geography Awareness Week, initiated in 1987 by the National Geographic Society. This year, the observance has been launched as a multi-year campaign to highlight the diversity of peoples, places and natural wonders around the globe, starting with Africa. For events and K-12 resources, visit http://www.mywonderfulworld.org.
- November 16
White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Conference, Charlotte, N.C., sponsored by a consortium of federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education. Part of a series of regional conferences being held around the country, this meeting for grassroots leaders will provide information about federal grant opportunities. To register, visit http://www.fbci.gov or call (202) 456-6718.
- December 5
International Volunteer Day, established in 1985 by the United Nations General Assembly. The day provides an opportunity for individuals and organizations to spotlight their contributions toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals: to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. For promotional materials and event ideas, visit http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org.
Q & A Glossary
What academically rigorous courses are available for high school students?
Research has shown that students who take academically rigorous courses in high school are more likely to graduate from college in five years or fewer.
Most widely known among them is the Advanced Placement program, a set of 37 college-level courses that allows high school students to earn credit or advanced standing at most of the nation's colleges and universities on the basis of their AP exam grades. Many of these institutions grant up to a full year of college credit (sophomore standing) to students who earn a sufficient number of qualifying AP grades. For more information, visit http://www.collegeboard.com, or call 1-888-225-5427.
Becoming more widespread, the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme is a two-year, college-prep curriculum that leads to an advanced high school diploma and the potential for college credit based on final exam scores. Taught in English, French, and/or Spanish in 124 countries worldwide, the program covers six interdisciplinary subject groups in the areas of literature, foreign language, social science, experimental science, mathematics and the arts, and has three core requirements. For more information, visit http://www.ibo.org.
Another option for academic rigor, the dual enrollment program allows students to enroll in courses that count for both high school and college credit. Different from AP and IB programs, dual enrollment programs are shaped by state policies and thus differ considerably from state to state. Also, unlike other credit-based programs, they do not require students to pass end-of-course exams to earn credit, but they may require students to gain admission to the postsecondary institution in order to participate. For more information, contact your state department of education by visiting http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/state/.
News Show Discusses Foreign Language Study
The importance of critical languages to U.S. diplomacy, security and the economy, and the ways in which the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies are working to dramatically increase student learning of these languages through the National Security Language Initiative, will be the focus of the November edition of Education News Parents Can Use, the Department's monthly television program.
The National Security Language Initiative is designed to increase the number of Americans learning critical-need foreign languagessuch as Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi, Korean and Russianthrough new and expanded programs from kindergarten through college and into the workforce. November's show will explore the efforts under way in America's schools and communities to ensure that students graduate with the ability to communicate in these critical languages. Panelists and guests will discuss how the initiative will provide students with the language skills necessary to engage foreign governments and peoples, especially in critical regions; to encourage reform and promote understanding; to convey respect for other cultures; and to help others learn more about America and its citizens.
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Funding Education Beyond High School
The U.S. Department of Education recently released a comprehensive guide to federal student aid for students and their families looking to fund a college education.
Published by the Department's Office of Federal Student Aid, Funding Education Beyond High School provides an overview of the process for applying for federal student aid as well as detailed steps for taking action during each phase. With illustrative charts, the 41-page guide addresses such topics as:
Basic eligibility requirements
Three types of federal student aidgrants, work-study and loansand other student aid resources
Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for new and renewal applicants
Grace period and payment schedule for repaying loans
Options for postponement: deferment and forbearance
Loan consolidation and cancellation
The guide concludes with a glossary clarifying financial aid terminology and a complete list of state higher education agencies.
Last year, federal student aid helped approximately 10 million students meet the cost of higher education. For a copy of the 2006-07 guide, which is recommended for current college students, visit http://www.edpubs.org or call 1-877-4ED-PUBS, with identification number EN0648P, while supplies last. (The 2007-08 version, suggested for high school students, will be available in December.) For the online version or to reach the Federal Student Aid Information Center, visit http://www.studentaid.ed.gov or call 1-800-4-FED-AID.
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As you know, we are in the midst of a study of the epistle of James. As we have been moving through 1 Timothy on Sunday morning, we've been moving through James on Sunday night. And I would invite you to open your Bible to James chapter 2 as we come for our study this evening to verses 21 through 26, James chapter 2 verses 21 through 26. This is the second half of a portion of Scripture on the subject of dead faith.
Now one of the most important and at the same time one of the most frightening truths in all of the Scripture, I believe, is that there is a faith in God, there is a faith in Christ, there is a belief of Scripture, there is a belief of the gospel that does not save from hell. Let me say that again. There is a faith in God, there is a faith in Christ, there is a belief of Scripture and a belief of the gospel that does not save one from hell.
It is possible to believe in God, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to even believe that what Christ did He actually did, to affirm the cross and the resurrection and never be delivered from sin and never be given eternal life. That is what James would call "dead faith." He mentions it in verse 17, "Faith if it has not works is dead." He mentions it again in verse 20, "Faith without works is dead." And he mentions it a third time in verse 26, "Faith without works is dead." And in verse 26 he identifies it like it were a corpse without life, a corpse lying in a casket all dressed up, all made up, looking very life like but with no internal life principle, no breath, no movement, nothing but a mannequin with a painted smile.
Now James is very exercised in his spirit that no one under his care would escape the understanding of this great truth. As any faithful pastor would want to warn his people about the reality of non-saving faith, so James has that desire as well. He has already brought it up back in chapter 1, do you remember verse 22? "Be ye doers of the Word," that means whatever has happened in your life produces obedience to Scripture, "and not just hearers deceiving your own selves." In other words, don't be under the illusion that because you hear truth and your mind affirms truth that that is enough. What is enough is when you begin to produce truth in your living, those are the works that he has in mind here in chapter 2. Faith, says James, without a corresponding change of life, without a transformation, without a product has no evidence and therefore is not real. The point then that he's making is very clear. Non-saving dead lifeless faith is known by the absence of righteous deeds.
Now let me take it a step further. Faith is invisible. You can tell me you have faith but I can't see that faith unless you show me that faith. And you can't show me that faith unless you show it to me in a transformed life. It is not enough to say you have faith, that proves nothing. That's merely an affirmation which may or may not be true. Faith in a sense is like the wind, you can't see it, you only see its effects. It's like electricity, you can't see it but you can feel and enjoy and appreciate its effects. It's like radio waves, you can't see them, they're invisible but you can appreciate their effect.
Faith is not known to be real until it is evident in action, deeds, in doing. As chapter 1 verse 22 put it, or in works as we see here in chapter 2. Faith in James' mind, you must understand this, is a statement equal or a word equal to spiritual life. When he says "faith without works is dead," what he really means to say, if we can clarify it that way, is spiritual life without works is dead. There's no real life there at all. Unless you show me a transformed life, there is no way that your faith can be verified to me or in fact to you.
Now James is setting forth, as you well know, a crucial teaching regarding true salvation. Because as we've been learning all along, Christ and all the New Testament writers are very concerned about people who may be self-deceived as to their faith. And that ought to be a major preoccupation of every pastor today because churches are literally filled with people who are under the delusion that they have saving faith and are looking forward to heaven when the fact is there has never been a transformed life and therefore there's never been a justifying change in their inner most being.
In Ephesians chapter 2 it says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." And there the indication of Scripture is you're saved by grace through faith not of works. But then he says in verse 10, "God has created you unto good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them." Saved by grace through faith unto good works.
The absence of good works is an indicator of the absence of real saving faith.
At the end of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, you are familiar I know with this text, it says in verse 38, "The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is there is a belief that is not to the saving of the soul. There is a belief that goes so far and falls back. There is a belief that goes all the way to the saving of the soul.
In Matthew, we remember very well chapter 7 where Jesus in verses 21 to 27 deals with those people who have a false faith.
"Many shall say unto Me, Lord, Lord, have we not done this, done this, done the other? He says, Depart from Me, I have never known you, you workers of iniquity." In other words, it isn't what you say, it's what you produce and what you produce is iniquity therefore what you say is meaningless. It is the life pattern that validates or invalidates the claim to salvation.
I can look back to my college days. And I had a very close friend in college. We were really buddies in every way. He was a son of a pastor, I was a son of a pastor. His father and my father were very close friends. In fact, they were very often ministering in the same environment. They were committed to the same theological perspective. He and I were very active in youth ministry. I was involved as a youth pastor, he was involved as a youth pastor. I had designs to go to seminary, he had designs to go to seminary. He played one running back, I played the other running back. He played one cornerback, I played the other cornerback. We played basketball together. We did things together. We talked together. We ministered together. We served the Lord together. I had ever indication in my heart that this guy really knew Christ and was headed for a life of service to Him.
We parted after college and I hadn't seen him in a long time. I picked up the L.A. Times one morning and read that he had been defrocked as a professor of philosophy at a local university for parading a group of naked people across the stage of his classroom and pointing out their private parts in public and putting on a sexually deviated display. I then found out later that he got into setting up rock concerts, after which he had divorced his wife, got involved in some crime and was involved in serving a sentence to pay for his crime.
As far as I know to this day, he flatly and overtly denies the faith. Everything that I saw or everything, I should say, that he told me he believed when he was young turned out to be empty words because the character of his life demonstrates that there's no reality in his heart. That's a very frightening thing because you have to ask yourself the question. How many more people do I know like that? And how many more people are there who will ultimately demonstrate in this life the deadness of their faith? And beyond that, how many people are there who will never know their faith is dead until they face their maker only to find out in horror that that which they assumed to be saving faith is nothing more than damning faith?
I'll tell you, as a pastor of a church for 18 years, I'm not into the "hit and count heads" kind of evangelism. When you're in the church for a long period of time, you don't just have people parade through, make an indication of salvation, write them down on your list and leave town. You stick around long enough to find out whether the faith is real and the way you know the faith is real is by what you see in the life.
Now that's exactly what James is after in this text. The first thing he does in verse 14 to 20 is describe dead faith. He says it has three characteristics. Number one, an empty confession. Verse 14, "What does it profit, my brothers, though a man say he has faith and has not works? Can that kind of faith save him?" What's the answer? No. And that's implied in the question. That kind of faith can't save him, can it? is the Greek design of the original text.
First of all, dead faith is an empty confession. It is a faith without a product. It is a man who simply says and never does. It is a claim without verification. There are no works.
There is no patient endurance in trials. There is no true holiness, purity, humility and open reception of God's truth.
There is no obedience and submission to the Word. There's no control of the tongue. There's no godly compassion. There's no brotherly love. There's no abstinence from worldly things.
There's no impartiality. And all of those things are the issues he discussed in the first two chapters.
As Hebrews 6:9 says, he must show, quote: "The things that accompany salvation." The saving work of God provides in a soul repentance and love for God and love for Christ and hunger for righteousness and desire for the Word and hatred of sin and obedience to God and submissiveness to His will. In fact, if you look at Hebrews chapter 11, you'll meet all the heroes of faith and you will find that all the heroes of faith were known by their what? their works. Every one of them is characterized by what he or she did because that's the only way faith can be demonstrated. A poet puts it this way. "Let all who hold this faith and hope in holy deeds abound, thus faith approves itself sincere by active virtue crowned."
The second thing James says is that false faith is indicated by a false compassion. In verses 15 and 16, he talks about a brother or sister being destitute, naked, cold and hungry without food. Somebody coming along and saying to them, "Be warmed and filled," if it's in a middle voice as we saw last time, he's saying warm yourself and fill yourself, don't bother me with your problems. If it's a passive voice, he's saying I hope you can be warmed and I hope you can be filled by somebody else, certainly not me. And he goes on his way.
What does that profit, he asks at the end of verse 16? What good is that kind of faith that knows no compassion? What good is that kind of faith that knows no brotherly love? What good is that kind of faith that does not act toward another as Christ would act toward another? Don't tell me that's saving faith because there's no changed nature because a redeemed soul will respond as the Redeemer would respond for the redemption brings about the life of God in the soul of man. And the life of God is expressed in the attitudes of God. So false compassion can be added to empty confession.
Then in verse 17 and 18, "Even so, faith if it has not works is dead being alone. If a man says you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works." He says if a man just walks up and says, "I'll show you my faith without my works," James as if debating with some imaginary antagonist who would say that, there must have been some in the assembly to which he writes, says you say you have faith, do you, show me your faith without your works.
And the man stands there unable to do it. You can't do it. It's impossible. Faith is invisible. So you say you have faith, do you? And you don't need works, then you show me your faith, impossible.
So, the third element of non-saving false dead faith is a shallow conviction. It's brought out in verse 19. A man says, "Well, I believe in orthodox truth." James says, "You believe in God, do you? You do well. The demons also believe and shudder."
In other words, at best your faith is demon faith. Don't pat yourself on the back because you believe orthodox truth. Demons are orthodox.
Do you know the demons are orthodox? Let me give you a little insight into that. In Matthew 8, one of the demons said to Jesus, "Why are You here to torment us before the time?" You remember that statement? A demon said, "Why are You here to torment us before the time?" Do you know what that tells me?
The demons have a very established orthodox eschatology. They have an orthodox eschatology. They also have an orthodox Christology. Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?
They understand the church. They understand the work of the Spirit. They understand the trinity. They understand everything; they're all orthodox as we've been seeing. And they know the truth and they believe the truth but they shudder. They don't love the truth, they don't love righteousness, they don't love God, they don't love purity and love holiness, they love everything rotten, everything evil. So demon faith is orthodox, it just doesn't save.
And what he's saying is, at best just being orthodox is no better than demon faith. And demon faith is damning faith. So verse 20, he repeats, "Will you know then, Oh empty-headed man, that faith without works is dead." Don't give me some shallow conviction about your orthodoxy, don't try to indicate some false compassion by wishing well on people, wishing well to people who are in need, and don't make some empty confession to have a faith that produces nothing. This is a dead faith. No spiritual life.
No true love of God. No love of holiness. No pursuit of holiness, godliness, righteousness, no hunger for the Word.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ he's what? new creation, old things have passed away and behold all things have become new."
In dead faith there's no spiritual triumph in trouble. There's no living faith that evidences itself with endurance, with joy and difficulty. There's no eager readiness to respond to the Word. There's no hunger and longing for purity. There's no close self-examination to see sin. There's no continual driving internal desire to be exposed to the cleansing of the Word, there's no control of the tongue to be used for the glory of God and the edification of others. There's no true compassion, love and generosity to those in serious distress.
And there's no broken, humble, meek spirit. It's a lack of real transformation. That's dead faith.
Now in verses 21 to 26, and that was just a quick review, in verses 21 to 26, we have the contrast of living faith and I want you to see this, this is so marvelous and so powerful a text because the illustrations are so very graphic. Let's look at verses 21 to 26, the contrast of living faith. James has shown us what dead faith is, now he wants to show us by contrast what living faith is. And he is still structuring his argument as if it were a debate with a Jew in the assembly who is arguing that a faith with no works is still a saving faith. That's really behind this, as we pointed out last time, and I'm trying not to go over everything. But somebody in the assembly is going to say, "Well, all we need is faith and all there needs to be is grace and it doesn't have to show up in your life. It's not by works and, boy, we're out of legalism into antinomianism, doing our thing, faith is enough. And so James structures his argument against that kind of thinking, that kind of thinking that says faith alone is enough and if there's nothing every produced in your life it really doesn't matter. It's simply a matter of believing and salvation is nothing more than forensic and justification is nothing more than God saying you're justified, it doesn't necessarily include a transformed life. That is so foreign to Scripture. But that's the kind of thing James is debating as he talks with this antagonist that he has hypothetically created.
Now to make his point of what really constitutes living faith, he uses three illustrations. As he had three elements or characteristics of dead faith, he has three illustrations of living faith. Number one is Abraham. And this goes from verse 21 to 24, let's begin at verse 21. "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" Now that verse has really caused paroxisms for many people. Abraham justified by works. This is what Martin Luther got all mixed up about and then called this an epistle of straw because he couldn't figure out what that was really saying.
Let's take it carefully and I want you to understand what James is saying. "Was not Abraham our father?" Now there is a sense in which Abraham is the father of all Jews, and since James, a Jew, the half-brother of our Lord, is writing to scattered Jews, as chapter 1 verse 1 says, he could be saying "Abraham our father" in a Jewish sense. "Our father" in a racial sense. In fact, in Romans 4:1, Paul says, "Abraham, our father," pertaining to the flesh. In John 8:37, Jesus said to the Jews, "You are of Abraham's seed." And then in verse 37, He says, "I know that you are Abraham's seed." So there's a sense in which James can be saying Abraham, our father, in a physical natural racial sense. The great patriarch was certainly the symbol of all that was Jewish and all that was to be honored among Jews since he was their honored progenitor. He was also the standard of righteousness for all of the Jews.
But James has in mind more than that. And when he says "Our father, Abraham," he has in mind that Abraham is the father not only of the Jews racially, but of all people who believe in God unto salvation, whether they are Jew or Gentile. He is in a sense the father of all the faithful, of all those who believe.
This is a very important emphasis that the Apostle Paul wants us to understand in writing the epistle to the Galatians. And so in chapter 3 and verse 7 Paul says, "Know ye therefore that they who are of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham." So then verse 9 says, "They who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."
There is a spiritual sense in which all who believe are somehow connected to Abraham. He is the model of faith and we sort of follow that model. He is the classic illustration of saving faith. In that sense, he is the father of the faithful.
You often hear people say, for example, that George Washington is the father of our country. Now we don't mean by that that George Washington fathered every person in America. We don't mean that. We mean there's a sense in which he is all that embodies the greatness of America. He is the one who gave structure and life and destiny and future to this nation. So Abraham in that sense is the father of the faithful. He set the model and the example of believing in God. The first great classic ancient illustration of saving faith with specifics was Abraham.
So, James identifies then Abraham as the father not only of the Jews but of the, the father of those who believe. So remember now, he is writing to an assembly of believers so it would not be out of character for him to say to them, "Our father," not only in the Jewish sense, but also in the sense of faith." "Was not Abraham then our father," now here's the key word, "justified by works?" Stop at that point.
Now immediately everything in us that's evangelical goes "Hold it right there. Justified by works?" What does it mean to be justified? It means to be considered right with God. "You mean to say Abraham was considered to be right with God by works?" Someone blows the whistle and says "Foul, this cannot be possible." And invariably where they take us is to Romans 4, so let's go there. Romans chapter 4, now I want you to follow very carefully as I just hit some key highlights here. In Romans chapter 4 the discussion is about Abraham. Paul starts out like this, "What shall we say then, that Abraham our father," he uses the same phrase, "as pertaining to the flesh as found, if Abraham were justified by works, he had something of which to glory, but not before God."
Now wait a minute. James says Abraham was justified by works. Paul says if Abraham were justified by works, he would have something to glory of but not before God. What does the scripture say? Verse 3, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt." In other words, if he earned it it wouldn't be grace it would be something God owed him. "To him that works not but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." So what Paul says is Abraham wasn't justified by works before God, he was justified by faith. He was justified by grace, justified by faith not works.
And he goes on to talk about that in verse 6. He says that David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, saying "blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin or put sin to his account." So in verses 1 to 8, Paul says Abraham was justified by faith not works.
Then starting in verse 9 he says he was justified by grace not law. And all the way down through verse 17 he makes the point that Abraham was justified by grace, by grace. Comes to verse 16, "It is of faith that it might be by grace," by faith and grace, that's his whole emphasis. First, justified by faith.
Then the emphasis turns to grace. And in the third section, verse, well, it's about verse 18 and following, he says that he was justified by divine power not human efforts, really saying the same thing over and over again. It was God's power, it was God's work in his behalf. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, verse 24. The whole argument of Romans 4, and I wish we had more time to spend in it, the whole argument is Abraham was saved by faith, Abraham was saved by grace, Abraham was saved by divine power not human effort. That is a very strong statement on salvation without works. It is parallel to what we just read in Galatians chapter 3 where it very clearly says that Abraham believed God. He is the father of the faithful...that is those who believe. It says in verse 6 of Galatians 3, "Abraham believed God; it was counted to him for righteousness." And verse 11, "No man is justified by the law, the just shall live by what? by faith."
So, you have very clear teaching in Galatians 3 and Romans 4 that Abraham was justified by faith, grace. Grace is God's unmerited favor in graciously giving a man salvation because he believes. And even the faith of that man is a gift of God, according to Ephesians chapter 2.
So, on the one hand Paul seems to be saying, and rightly is saying, salvation, justification by grace. Here comes James.
James says the same man, same illustration, Abraham was justified by works. How do we understand that? All right, notice Romans 4:2 and let me give you a distinction. It says in Romans 4:2 that Abraham, if Abraham were justified by works, he would have something to glory about. In other words, he could pat himself on the back if he made it in by his own works. But, mark this little part of the verse, not before God. Now get this, you cannot be justified by works before God. Mark that. You cannot be justified by works before God. Only by faith and righteousness is then imputed to you, verse 6, verse 11, verse 22, verse 23. You can only be justified by faith and when you put your faith in God in Christ, God grants you an imputed righteousness. He puts righteousness to your account. The idea is that man is bankrupt, spiritually bankrupt, morally bankrupt. He puts his faith in Christ and God deposits in his bankrupt account all necessary righteousness to make him suitable to dwell in the presence of God.
Now this happened to Abraham. In Genesis 15 and verse 3 and following to verse 6. Paul quotes that in the third verse of Romans 4. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." In Genesis chapter 15, listen now carefully, Genesis 15:3 to 6, it says that.
Abraham believed God and righteousness was put to his account.
God deposited righteousness. In the words of Isaiah 61:10, God clothed him with the robe of righteousness. God gave him his righteousness as a gift. Now mark that.
When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, righteousness is imputed to you, that is it is deposited to you. You don't have it. You don't earn it. You receive it as a gift from God. That's the marvel of salvation by grace through faith. Like all of us who are bankrupt, we stand before God with nothing in our spiritual account, God through our faith acting in response to His sovereign grace deposits in our account the very righteousness which He possesses and we stand right with Him. Abraham experienced that. This is the sole condition of salvation. It is said in Genesis 15:6 he believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
So, Abraham then is the father of all who believe because it was his believing that brought about righteousness. When he believed, God gave him righteousness. That's just the way it's always been. Old Testament salvation, New Testament salvation, very same thing. Whether it's Abraham or you, it doesn't matter, it's all the same. Whether it's on that side of the cross or this side of the cross, you believe God. What do you have to believe about God? As much as God has revealed about Himself.
At whatever point in the unfolding revelation of God a person lived, they were to believe God to the point of that revelation.
Abraham obviously didn't have the New Testament, he didn't even have the Old Testament. The fullness of God's revelation was not yet closed. He didn't enjoy all that we enjoy but he believed what God had revealed. And that's the essence of saving faith.
There's no salvation by works. Back in Romans chapter 3 it says in verse 20, "By the deeds of the law will no flesh be justified in His sight." On the other hand, it says in verse 24, "Justified freely by His grace." So, now mark this, we are made right with God by His grace. He dispenses that grace to us. We respond in believing faith to that sovereign grace and we're saved. No works involved.
You say, "Well, does James believe that?" Sure he believes that. In fact, in James 2, look at verse 23, in James 2:23, he quotes the very same scripture. Now follow me on this. The scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God." So James understands that passage in Genesis 15:6 and he understands exactly what it means. He is quoting the very same text Paul quotes in Romans 4. Now listen to what I say to you. Abraham was justified before God, that's the key idea, before God through faith.
You say, "Well, how could God justify Abraham? How could He just cover his sins and forgive him?" Because Christ would in the future die for the sins of Abraham just as Christ in the past has died for the sins of every believing person. He believed in the Lord.
But when was that in his life? That takes us all the way back to the beginning when God called him in Ur of the Chaldees and said, "Get out of this land, leave your people and go to a land that I'll show you," back in Genesis chapter 12. He was probably about 75 years old at the time of his calling. And he believed God. He picked up everything, left a pagan land, followed his faith in the true God. I don't know how much revelation he had, probably a very little bit. But God had sovereignly worked on his heart. There was a response of faith. He started the walk of faith, the life of faith. And at that particular point, he was granted righteousness.
You say, "Well, then what does James mean when it says here in James, `Was not Abraham our father justified by works?'" Listen to this. Abraham was justified by faith before God but he was justified by works before men. Do you see the difference? That's the whole point James is making. Works are the only way his faith can be seen and verified as real saving faith by himself or any other man. The only way I can know I'm genuinely redeemed is to see the pattern of my godliness, the evidence.
The only way you can know it is to see my life. And it is this justification before men that James has in mind. Paul was emphasizing justification before God. James is emphasizing the vindication of a man's claim to salvation before others.
So, it was at Ur of the Chaldees and in the walk of faith that Abraham exhibited that God saw his faith and imputed to him righteousness. But notice what James says, he identifies very specifically when Abraham was justified by works. He says it was when he offered Isaac his son on the altar. That's when the whole world could see the reality of his faith and he having been justified before God already was now justified before men. The watching world could perceive the reality of his faith.
Go back to Genesis chapter 22 and let's look briefly at that record. Genesis chapter 22. "It came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham," very important, this is a test. A test of what? It's a test of Abraham's faith in order to demonstrate its reality, its genuineness. He said to him, "Abraham. He said, Here I am. He said, Take now your son." He rubs it in, "Your only son." Rubs it in again, "Whom you love, take your son, your only son, the son you love, go to the land of Moriah and, get this, offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll tell you about." Absolutely unbelievable.
Abraham knows this. He knows that God has made him a promise. And God made him a promise years ago. By this time Isaac is maybe ten to fifteen years old. This is nearly fifty years after he first believed God. And he's been walking in this promise all these years, somewhere between forty and fifty years.
And God's been saying your seed will be as the sands of the sea and as the stars of heaven and I'll make out of your loins a great nation, whoever blesses them will be blessed and whoever curses them will be cursed. And Abraham for years is believing this, even though he has no daughter, he has no son, he has no child, he's married to an old lady who's barren. Finally God gives him a child when he's a hundred years old. Now ten years later, or fifteen, when he's between 110 and 115 and all he has to look at regarding this promise of a seed as wide as the sand of the sea is one measly kid. And now God comes to him and says take that kid to Mount Moriah and kill him. And everything he knows about the covenant keeping character of God is violated in his mind. And everything he knows about God's standard of sacrifice is violated because God has never required human sacrifice never permitted it. It's murder.
How can God reverse Himself? How can God be ungod? How can God contradict everything about His nature that I know to be true? God says take your son and offer him as a sacrifice.
"But, but, but there's never been a human sacrifice, but He's the promise you made. What about Your nature? What about Your truthfulness? What about Your faithfulness? This will violate everything I know to be true about you. This will destroy your reputation."
What does he do? Does he argue with God? No. Here is the evidence of his faith; no questions asked. "Got up early in the morning," verse 3. Saddled his ass, took two of his young men with him. Isaac his son cut the wood for the burnt offering.
Rose up, went to the place which God had told him. Off they go.
A couple of young men, Isaac and the beast of burden carrying the wood. "On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, saw the place afar off. Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the ass, I and the lad will go yonder and worship, mark this in your Bible, and come again to you." There's his faith.
How's he going to do that? God says go kill the son. He says I'll be back and so will he, we'll come back. Did he believe that? "Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac his son, took the fire in his hand and knife and they went both of them together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, this will tear your heart out. "My father," he said. "Here I am, my son." He said, "Behold the fire and the wood but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." So they both went together. He believed in his heart that whatever the sacrifice would ultimately be, God would provide it.
"They came to the place where God had told him. Abraham built an altar, laid the wood in order." I can't imagine the scene behind these two words, "Bound Isaac." I don't know whether Isaac just said, "Here I am, tie me up," or whether there was a little bit of discussion or whether there was a fight. But anyway, laid him on the altar. "Stretched forth his hand, took the knife ready to plunge it into the heart of his son. Angel of the Lord stopped him, cried out of heaven, "Abraham, Abraham." He said, "Here I am." And he stopped. And you remember the rest of the story. There was a ram caught in the thicket. They sacrificed the ram. And away they went. Jehovah Jaira, the Lord provides.
In Hebrews chapter 11, you know what it says? It says Abraham went all the way, put Isaac on the altar, tied him up, got ready to start the fire, got the knife up to plunge it in his heart because he believed in the God who could raise the dead.
You know what I think? It's my personal opinion that Abraham was a bit disappointed that the angel didn't let him take the life of his son. Why? Because I think he was ready to see the first resurrection in history. How much faith does it take to believe in something that's never happened? The closest thing that Abraham ever got to a resurrection was the birth of Isaac out of a dead womb. But that's a long way. And yet his faith was so strong he believed that he would take Isaac, take his life, Isaac would come to life, they would come back again and go home. He believed in the God of resurrection to the degree that he was willing to sacrifice the life of his son because he was so strong in faith that God would raise him from the dead. You say, "Why did he believe that God would raise him from the dead?" Because he believed so unalterably in the character of God that God was a covenant keeping God who under no circumstance could ever violate His promise. And that God was a God who when He said He would do something would indeed do it. And everything was based on the life of Isaac. And James says that is where Abraham was justified by works before all the watching world. Yes, justified by faith in believing God and justified by works in this greatest act of human sacrifice on his part, and I don't mean the sacrifice of Isaac, I mean the sacrifice of Abraham. He was a man of great faith all through his life but it reached a pinnacle here.
Now mark this. He wasn't a perfect man. His faith was so weak he lied about Sarah when he was in Egypt to protect her, right? His faith was so weak that he stupidly went in and had a baby with a handmaid Hagar, committed adultery and produced Ishmael who fathered the Arabs and that's always been a thorn in the side of the people of God. No he wasn't a perfect man but there was in his life a pattern of believing God that culminated in this incredible act of trust where he would have taken the life of his son, believing God would raise him from the dead though there had never been a resurrection to that point. So Paul is saying yes he was justified by grace through faith as recorded in Genesis 15. And James is saying and yes he was justified before men in Genesis 22 some 40 plus years later.
By the way, just to support that perspective, the aorist indicative verb "was justified" has two general meanings. And I did a study of this because I was curious about it. When it says in verse 21 "he was justified by works," the word "justified" has two general meanings. Number one, it means to acquit or to treat as righteous. Number two, it means to vindicate, to show or to demonstrate as righteous. How interesting. Definition number one is what Paul uses in Romans 4, "He was acquitted, treated and described as righteous." Definition number two is what James uses, "He was vindicated, shown and demonstrated to be righteous," in the act of a willingness to sacrifice his son.
So, he concludes in verse 22, look at it. "Do you see then how faith was cooperating with his works?" Do you see that? There's no antagonism, beloved, that's the point. There's no argument, there's no debate. Works support the reality of saving faith. Where you have a man who has imputed righteousness, you have a man who has manifest righteousness. Where you have a man who is made just before God, you have a man who will be made just before men. Where you have a man who has received righteousness, you have a man who will show that righteousness. That's Paul and James put together.
And the end of verse 22, "By works was faith brought to its goal." Brought to its end, brought to its fullness, that's the idea of the "made perfect." It isn't that salvation was imperfect. It isn't that it's faith plus works to be saved. It isn't that the faith is part of it and then later on the works are part of the salvation. It's like a tree, a tree is a tree and a tree is a tree that is alive and it has all the principles of life but it isn't perfected until it bears fruit. And so a man is redeemed and he has pulsing in him the life of God and the pulse of divine principle beating within him, pumping divine and righteous life through him, but that's not brought to its goal until he produces the fruit. It's there, it has to be seen.
Faith then reaches its goal in works. Justification before God is manifest in justification before men.
Not only was Abraham's faith fulfilled in his works, but look at verse 23. "And the Scripture was also fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness," and there as I said he quoted Genesis 15:6. The reality of that truth was demonstrated now, made manifest. The Scripture said Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. The Scripture said that and now what the Scripture said has been made visible in his works, demonstrated.
Righteousness was put to his account and righteousness was declared.
The word "fulfilled" does not make this a prophecy. It's a very broad word. It has broad possibilities. It simply means that that which was true about Abraham was brought to fruition, brought to fulfillment. And anyone, I say it again, genuinely saved will demonstrate it in life behavior.
And a wonderful result came about, look at the end of verse 23, "He was called the friend of God." He was called the co- partner with the Holy One, what a thought. Apparently, by the way, that title of intimacy, that title of sweet communion with God was the result of his obedience. It was the result of Genesis 22. It was the result of his outworking genuine spiritual character because he is never called the friend of God in Genesis, he is never called the friend of God prior to Genesis 22, not until 2 Chronicles 20 verse 7 and Isaiah 41:8 is Abraham called the friend of God. And he's called the friend of God in both of those Scriptures.
In 2 Chronicles 20:7 it says, "Abraham, Thy friend," speaking of God, and in Isaiah 41:8, God speaks and says, "Abraham, My friend." The Septuagint says "Abraham, whom I love." What a dignity, what an honor, and what a joy. Because his faith was manifest and proven to be real, he entered into that wonderful arena of people who are called the friend of God.
You say, "Who are the friends of God?" Jesus put it this way in John 15, "You are My friends if you do whatsoever I command you." You're a friend of God. That's a title reserved for people who obey God, who obey His Word. So the principle is very same, very simple really. Justified, manifest of that justification, he became known as one who was intimate with God.
How do you know a true Christian? You look at their life and you say, "He is a friend of God." How do you know? "I can tell the way he lives, I can tell the way he acts, I can tell the way he thinks, I can tell the way he speaks. I can tell the way he behaves. He is intimate with God."
As John Calvin put it, "Faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone" never. So James then simply says in verse 24, summing it up. "You see then that by works a man is justified also and not by faith only." That's only part of it.
It's not enough to just have faith, there must be faith and the resultant works. So we could say it this way, that by works a man is vindicated, not by faith only. So Abraham is a classic illustration of salvation by faith before God and salvation made evident before men.
The second illustration in verse 25. Note this very very carefully, it is a powerful contrast. Now think with me on this.
James chooses another person because she is so remarkably unlike Abraham. Get this, Abraham was a Jew, Rahab was a Gentile.
Abraham's a man, Rahab is a woman. Abraham is a good man. Rahab is an evil woman. Abraham, a noble Chaldean, Rahab a degraded Canaanite. Abraham a great leader, Rahab a common follower.
Abraham at the top of the social order, Rahab at the bottom. I mean, every possible contrast. Abraham, the beneficiary of much divine leadership and divine guidance...Rahab a total pagan.
Abraham having received direct revelation from God, Rahab having only received very indirect revelation about God. And yet when you come to Hebrews 11 and the list of the heroes of faith, Abraham is there and so is Rahab. And when you go to Matthew chapter 1 and you read the genealogy of Jesus, Abraham is there and so is Rahab. Believe it or not, the Messiah came through the loins of Rahab the harlot.
Verse 25, "In like manner," I love those words, that's a knockout punch, one word in the Greek, "homoios." "In the same way as Abraham, also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and sent them out another way?"
In like manner, didn't this woman of the worst kind demonstrate her true salvation by what she did? Was not the harlot justified by works?
Now listen very carefully. Again you must make the same two-fold feature in understanding this very important account. Just briefly I want to touch base with it. I don't want you to spend a lot of time on it because we don't have the time. But let me just mention to you from Joshua chapter 2 a couple of things about the story of Rahab. Rahab was a harlot living in Jericho. She ran an inn and inns were brothels and she had women in her inn to sleep with men and that was how she made her living. So into the land has come the wonderful people of God in mass and they are there because God's going to give them Canaan. They arrive at Jericho. They're obviously going to take Jericho.
They send some spies in to spy out the city and see what's there.
The spies go in. They stay in an inn. The inn is owned by Rahab. Rahab is a harlot. They're not there for those purposes, they're simply there to lodge. This woman then takes in these spies. When she gets the spies there, and obviously finds out who they are, verse 9, She said to the men, "I know that the Lord has given you the land and that your terror is fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed, and as soon as we heard these things, our heart did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you, for," listen "the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath."
Now when that woman believed that, she was justified before God. She believed that God was the true God. She believed that God was the God of miracles who had led His people out of Egypt.
She believed that God was the God of power who had defeated the Amorite kings. She believed all she knew about God, the true God, and it was imputed to her for righteousness. In that point she was justified by her faith. That faith justification was then made manifest, James says, verse 25, when she received the messengers and sent them out another way to protect them from the soldiers who would have taken their life.
So, again, it's the same idea. This woman believed the truth, then it was imputed to her for righteousness by her faith and then that righteousness was vindicated by the action she took to save the life of those spies. By the way, you remember what she did? She told a lie, didn't she? People say, "Was that right?" Well of course it wasn't right. But she's a pagan coming out of a pagan culture with pagan ethics who doesn't understand the premium God puts on truth. She's working with whatever knowledge she's got. It's very limited. She's got a little paganism still mixed up with her true faith, not unlike all the rest of us. And her ethics are the ethics of a corrupt vile degraded debauched Canaanite society about to be wiped out by God. So we don't justify the lie she told. She did that as a part of her own environmental understanding and because she was a victim of the fallenness of her own nature. The time would come when she would understand the value that God puts on truth and she would trust in God instead of in her own ability to get out of things. But here was a woman basically who was in the pit of moral muck. She sold her body for sexual favors. As a Canaanite, she had succumbed to the prevailing immorality of her environment. She believes in the true God. It's accounted to her for righteousness.
Now watch this. When given the opportunity, the only opportunity she ever had in her life to do something to demonstrate her faith in God, she put her life on the line. If she had been found out, it would have cost her her life. She hid the spies in the flax on the roof. She let them escape. She told the guys that came to find them that they weren't there. She told them how to escape. The whole thing, she protected herself, put a cord in the window, said "when you come back save me and my family, we want to be a part of the community of people that worship the true God." She demonstrated her faith by works. Her lie was unnecessary. Who knows what God might have done to spare her if she hadn't done that.
Now I want to conclude these two illustrations, listen carefully. As I sat back in my desk this week and thought about these two illustrations, it really began to overwhelm me. What kind of works vindicate true salvation? Going to church? No, it doesn't say, and she went over and worshiped God. It doesn't say of Abraham that he built an altar and worshiped God. In both cases the visible vindication of their justification was putting their life and their dreams and their hopes on the line. That is the kind of work that I believe God wants us to understand is demonstrated in true faith. It isn't that you went to church, read a Bible, sang a song. It is that you are so supremely committed to God that you would sacrifice your hopes and dreams and ambitions and yes, you would risk your own life to be true to your faith, that's the issue. Jesus put it this way, if you're not willing to take up your cross. And what was that? An emblem of death, an emblem of painful death, an emblem of excruciating death, and follow Me, you're not worthy to be My disciple.
The issue is not do you go to church, do you read your Bible, do you have a little spiritual activity? The issue is when it comes down to the crux of why you live and what is valuable, your faith in God is more valuable to you than everything you hold most dear and you'll put your own life on the line, you'll put all your dreams and hopes on the line because you have such implicit and total trust in Him. That's the issue. That's the kind of evidence that is monumental.
Don't tell me a person's faith is real because they come to Bible study. You don't know that. See them in the vortex of a life choice. How many times have you seen people come to the Bible study and some guy comes along that looks good and blinks the eyes properly and has a new Porsche and they go off with an unbeliever? And they sacrifice everything that they once held dear because what they really hold dear has nothing to do with divine things. Or the person who does very well living for Christ until it cost them their family or their job or whatever.
Or until the Lord sort of puts a responsibility on them that's going to cost them some of their material values. Or maybe it's something that might even be a direction in life that will move them away from what their ambition has always been. They say no to that and they reach out for the things they really love. Yes it's in the vortex of the dire decisions of life where hopes and dreams and destiny and ambition and life itself is on the line that true faith always reveals itself. And the fact of the matter is if you never get into that vortex, sad to say, some people might go through the world self-deceived until the very time they meet the Lord, what a tragedy.
And James then concludes with a final analogy. Abraham, Rahab, and finally the analogy of a corpse, very vivid. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Just as even so, "hosper houtos," just as even so. It's an analogy. And in both cases if the second member is missing, the result is death. If the spirit is missing from the body, death. If works are missing from faith, death. A body without the divinely imparted life is nothing but a stinking putrefied rotting corpse, believe me, get it out of here. A body without life is putrid. It has absolutely no value. It ought to be put in the ground and covered up with dirt or it will rot everything it touches. And so is belief without behavior, just as putrid, just as decaying, just as loathsome, just as dead.
So, James is really saying look at yourself. What about you? Do you have a belief without behavior? Do you believe but not obey? Do you say you believe? Are you orthodox but you don't long to serve God? You don't love Him to the point where whatever it may cost you you're willing to pay that price because He is supremely dear to you? Do you say you love Him? Do you say you care about Him? Do you say you believe in Him? But do you love sin? Do you court unrighteousness? Or do you loathe evil? Loathe pride? Seek humility? Is your faith useless or is it saving faith?
That's the question James wants to ask. The test of living faith is in the direst moment of life's exigencies when everything is at the crossroads, do you choose to honor God no matter what the cost? Abraham did. Rahab did. Their faith was alive. Let's bow in prayer.
Father, these are very poignant and vivid truths and, my, we've covered so much so fast. And forgive me for treating the Word in a hurried way. Lord, we would dwell long on these truths and yet sometimes if we don't see the whole picture we lose the very intent of what the text is saying and what the Spirit would bring to us. Father, You know my heart and You know the anxious, the anxious moments, the constant concern for those who may have a dead faith, for those who when they face the severest tests of life that will dictate who they really love will be found empty like a stinking corpse, no life. Lord, work your work of true saving grace in every heart. Help us, Lord. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith, help us to take a look and see if our faith is faith that is to the saving of the soul. If the desire of our heart is a hunger for Your Word, if the desire of our heart is to love You, to serve You whatever the cost, even though, Lord, we can't imagine ourselves being faithful in such dire times as these heroes of the faith faced, Lord, if that's the deepest cry of our heart, we know You'll enable us should that hour ever come. Just help us to be faithful to do the spiritual inventory so that we are not self-deceived.
And are the deepest desires of our heart to serve You, to give our life in that service, to love You to see Your will done?
Can we pray with honesty "Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done," is that really our deepest longing? If so, then those are the longings of a regenerated soul, of a soul made new, of a heart transformed.
We thank You for the vividness of Your Word to us in the Savior's name, amen.
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text: 93 1500 with custom work from Show Trucks USA. I do not know if the conversion company did the lowering or if someone else lowered it. Does any one have any ideas how to raise the truck up a couple of inches to get the ride off of the bump stops? I've had the truck only a few days and have not had the chance to get it on a lift to get a good inspection of the suspension. More info soon.


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Photos of some of our frames and the Orange Groves we will be in shortly. Looking forward to a great 2013.
Photos of some of our frames and the Orange Groves we will be in shortly. Looking forward to a great 2013.
Are those square hives?
Not sure I follow you. They are standard Langstroth hive boxes. Some double deep and some with honey supers on them.
Now I see, palletized facing different directions. Must have been my new bi-focals.
I sure wished I could set up my hives like that. It would give me a much cheaper option than the metal pipes i use. In my country we have frogs that consume so much bees. It has to be raised. I am now wondering how i could modify this set up with the pallets. I only use screened bottom boards and this distance would assist with a loss of temperature and too much exposure to light. Any suggestions?
Keeping bees in Jamaica
Looks like they are sitting in someone's back yard? Hope the neighbors are cool. Good luck this season.
cool pix, thanks.
journaling the growth of a treatment free apiary started in 2010. 20+/- hives
Bees like the florida weather!


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text: Hey there. Im new to this site and have seen lots of helpful info so far. Anyways, I bought a flooded 2010 Silverado with 24000 miles on it. It runs and drives, and did when I bought it. Water wasnt too high, but had to replace the wiring harness in the cab and also re-pin some corroded off wires that came off the dash wiring harness. Replaced the main block that the harnesses go into under the dash, replaced the seats and wire harnesses to the doors. Drained and services all the fluids. Now I cannot get the lights on the dash to come off. Check engine light, service 4 wheel drive, abs light, airbag light, Speedo doesnt work, temperature control blows hot on drivers side even when ac is on, but blows normal on passenger side. My buddy owns a shop and hooked up to his scan tool , he checked the lights and codes and couldnt get them to turn off. And for some reason his tool couldnt even read the vin of the truck. I have a good amount invested in this and am at a standstill now, I dont know what to do or where to start.