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This morning we're going to be discussing our theme of the last five weeks on "The Anatomy of a Church." The Lord has led us, I believe, into a discussion of what it is that He desires to be characteristic of His church. God has so blessed us here. God has built here, I believe, a church that desires, in the heart of its people, to be all that He would have it be. Certainly that is true in the leaders' hearts, and I know in your hearts as well. God has blessed us in unique and wonderful, wonderful ways. We are as rich in spiritual things as any church could be. And it's important for us, while we enjoy these things, to understand the foundations, to understand the, the causes, if you will, that bring about God's blessing, that allow us to receive from Him the best that He has to give. And so we're doing, as I've termed it, a little spiritual archaeology and digging back up our foundations to see what it is that we're committed to. God has given us so many new folks; and we praise Him and bless His name for them, for all of them; and many of you who have come in the past few years maybe have not had an opportunity to understand what is Grace Church, what's it really all about, what makes it different, what are we committed to. And so we've been going back and just sort of touching base with some things we know very well.
We're not trying to say new things. We're just trying to emphasize things that are foundational for us, to give us a perspective of what our church is really all about. And I think that, when we're finished—and hopefully, we'll finish next Sunday—we'll have a nice little package of tapes that we can give to folks when they come to our church, and they say, "What's this church all about? What makes this church what it is? What are the emphases of this church?" And we'll be able to say, "Here, here are the things to which we are committed."
Now, let me say, as we begin today, that I rejoice in the Lord, because I see the work of God in you; and when I speak like this to you, it isn't that I'm rebuking you because I don't see these things. It's because I see these things and want to see them continue and see them more. As Paul, when he wrote and said, "I know that nobody needs to teach you to love, because God has taught you Himself how to love; but let your love abound more and more," he says. And it's in that kind of perspective that I come to you, not to say these do not exist, but that they do, and they need more and more to exist. I guess my fear is that, as the church grows and we get further and further away from the foundational things that God used to bless us and upon which His Spirit has built, we lose touch with those things. And then we begin to decline, rather than ascend, in terms of His usefulness and His blessing. But I do see in the ministries of this church and the hearts and lives of you, His people, these virtues and graces and things that the Spirit of God has accomplished. I only want to call you to a greater commitment to them than ever before.
And just in, in terms of letting you know how you're seen by others, I have three letters in my hand from pastors who came for our Shepherds' Conference; and they're reacting to what they saw here; and you might be interested in their reaction. This letter was written to Dick Mayhue:
"I want to take the time to thank you for your many hours of work put into arranging all of the details to bring about such a successful Shepherds' Conference. This was my third conference, and each time I have gained more insight and help in the ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness and your servant's heart that made this possible. Also, I would commend Grace Community Church and its people for their continued demonstration of a serving people to those of us who attended. One of the most singularly amazing things about Grace Church is the very spirit which permeates from the highest level of staff involvement to the people working in the kitchen. Please let those good folks know how much we appreciate the work done. Our church board has made a commitment to see to it that each one of our members attend the Shepherds' Conference and so we will be seeing you in the future. Thanks again for letting the Spirit of God lead, for extending an open door to men throughout the nation and around the world to learn more about how to apply scriptural principles in the atmosphere of the local church. May God continue to minister to you and through you."
One of the goals we have when we have a Shepherds' Conference or a radio conference is just to expose people to you, and so we encourage you to have them for dinner, to take them to your home, to keep them, to get to know them. We want them to know that there are things happening in your lives that honor the Lord Jesus Christ. We have nothing to hide. I head the other day that, since we're going to have the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, there was a movement afoot in the city of Los Angeles to pick up all the bums in Los Angeles and relocate them in Newhall during the Olympics. The idea being that nobody on the outside would know we had these kind of people in our city, unless they happened to visit Newhall, which is highly unlikely. Well, when we have 250 pastors here, our idea is not to pick up all of the people in our church that we're concerned about and put them over somewhere else. We really believe that God is at work in the lives of our people; and that these who come to look at our church and find out if it really is what it is said to be and find out if the things that we advocate really do see life-changing results, we want them exposed to the people, so that those things can be verified. And this pastor who wrote that letter from Washington state was encouraged to see in the hearts of the people the realization of the things we were teaching.
I have another letter that comes from a young pastor in Mississippi. He writes:
"Just a line to say thank you for all that you've allowed God to do to me through this week. I'm learning more about God's grace, His work, and so forth through the ministries here at Grace. This week at the Shepherds' Conference has totally and forever reinforced in my spirit the commitment, joy, and desire to know my Lord through His Word, and to make Him known by His Word. Thank you a million times [Preachers sometimes exaggerate.] for your hospitality and graciousness this week. You have all truly lived out your life's message. [What a wonderful thought: You have all truly lived out your life's message.] In precept and example you have showed the heart of a servant, and we have come to love you all deeply."
Boy, that's so encouraging. To hear someone on the outside come to Grace Church, meet our people, be here for a week, and say, "You're living out your message," the greatest commendation. And then this from a pastor in Michigan:
"While I realize you must receive many letters such as this one after each Shepherds' Conference, I still feel impressed to write and express my deep appreciation for you and the ministry at Grace. I have heard of your church since my days at Bible college, and have been eager to see your ministry. When my senior pastor agreed to send me to the conference, I immediately began to sense that the Lord was going to bless me in a very special way. He had already been working in my heart about leaving our ministry here and assuming the pastorate of my own church, yet He had not opened any doors of opportunity. Now I know why. Our teen ministry here had been viewed as very successful. Many kids have been saved, and my teaching on Sunday mornings has always been practical and need-oriented.
"However, after three-and-a-half years, my wife and I shared a discouragement based on a feeling that somehow we were missing the boat as far as true biblical ministry was concerned. Being with you and your staff showed me the basic problem. We had built tremendous relationships with our kids; and they had a real sense of excitement and commitment to our department and the church; but they didn't have a commitment to the Word of God personally or in a practical way. We had missed the basis of the ministry. The sad fact is that I don't really think we had ever been exposed to a church that, in fact, had this goal. Of course, the real root of the problem was that we ourselves were not in the Word as we should've been. Let me share with you how the Lord revealed this to us.
"During the conference, my wife and I were staying with friends. We had been asked to teach the college ministry at their church on Sunday morning; so I planned on missing your Sunday morning service. But all week I kept hearing how important it was to share in the worship. So, finally, on Saturday afternoon, I relented and told my friend that I'd be going back up to Grace Church on Sunday morning. The next morning, my wife and I entered the worship center not really knowing what to expect. You need to understand that we both tend to be somewhat skeptical toward new ideas. By the time we left the service, we both realized that we just experienced something totally foreign to our idea of the ministry. My wife summed it up best when she commented that in our churches people come to church gasping, just barely making it through the week, and anticipating another fix to take them to the next service. But it seems that with your people, they came already full, because they have been led to be in the Word for themselves. [When they came, they do so to get] When they come they do so to get more; but more particularly, to worship. I'm dismayed to say that we had never seen that before.
"I'm thankful to say that, since that morning, our lives have been different. Daily, we have been in the Word, and when I teach or preach, I've done so verse by verse. I never knew there could be so much joy and satisfaction in the ministry. I've learned so much in such a short time. Folks have come up and asked what happened in our lives in California. It all sounds so easy, and I've heard it all my life. Unfortunately, I'd never seen it before. We're now trusting the Lord He'll soon provide a place in which we can institute some of the principles the Lord has revealed to us in a full way. Thank you so much for the revolutionary impact your ministry has had on our ministry."
And I received a letter from that young man just a month or so ago saying that he now is the pastor of his own church, and he was writing to see if we'd load him up with some things that he could use to get started. What is so wonderful about that is that what they are responding to, those men, is the total life of the church. They're not writing saying, "Oh, it was a great seminar," "It was a great class," or, "You had a profound thing to say about this or that." But there is a whole ministry to them by virtue of this church. Wednesday night, Moishe Rosen was with us, and I was in the hall talking to him before he came to speak, and he said, "I just got back from London." He's the head of Jews for Jesus, and he said, "I was in London, and I went to several places, and, at each place, there was a person who came to me and said, 'You're from California. Do you know of Grace Community Church?' And in each case I said, 'I know of it,' and they said, 'Well, could you tell us about it?'" He said, "I'm amazed how the reputation of your people has extended to everywhere I go. In fact," he says, "I'm envious that you have such a people." Well, that's a wonderful thing, and I, I said to him, "I, I pinch myself all the time and say, 'Are you sure you got the right guy here, Lord?' in this wonderful God-blessed ministry."
We have a great, great responsibility to these who look to us, to see in us that which they maybe have not seen somewhere else. And I believe there are reasons why God has blessed: I, I believe there are, there are principles that place us in the, in the position of maximum blessing. And it isn't just that we're large. It's the attitude that people catch. It's the commitments that they catch. It's, it's those things that exist in us as committed believers that they see, that they don't always see in others who name the name of Christ.
So we've been going back in our series and saying, "Well, what is it, then, that makes a church all that a church can be?" I mean, what is it that we should have? Many of you are new in our church, and you may wonder the same thing. You may want to be able to sort of line up and say, "Well, here are the things; here are the things that we need to be committed to. Here's what we need to work on. Here are the things that we want to teach and, and proclaim, and disciple in others." And so we're going back over these things. They're very basic things.
In fact, I feel like this is sort of a large "Fundamentals of the Faith" class, that, that I'm talking about very familiar territory. And I keep saying to my wife after each Sunday, "You know, it all seems so basic. It seems so basic. I, I, I hope it's, it's the right thing to do." And she assures me by saying, "Well, there are a lot of folks to whom it's not as basic as it is to you." And I need that from my wife now and then, just a little encouragement that I'm on the right track, because it seems so very, very basic. And, yet, we have to keep going back and putting that foundation down again, don't we?
I'm reminded of Peter's words, that I want to put you in remembrance of these things. Not that you don't know them. You already know them, but I want you to be sure you remember them. You have to keep on track. You know, you start down the track and, all of a sudden, you go one way, or you start to go another way. You just keep laying that same track down again, so we know where we're going. And so we've been looking, then, at the church, and we've used the analogy of a body. We said that, first of all, a church, to be what God wants it to be, has to have a skeleton. In other words, foundation, which gives it form. And, basically, we've said that there are some non-negotiable, bottom-line, foundational truths. And we suggested five of them: a high view of God, the absolute priority of Scripture, doctrinal clarity, personal holiness, and spiritual authority; and we tied those all together and that was sort of our skeleton.
Now, moving on from that into the second dimension of our analogy, we said that a body has to have internal systems flowing through it. Those are the life systems. That's what gives it its life and capability to act and react. And in the church, we have to have internal systems; and those, I believe, are right spiritual attitudes. What is flowing through the lives of the people behind the scenes is the issue. We tell pastors all the time who come and look at our church, "Don't just take what you see on the surface and try to incorporate it. Behind that, behind that flesh, if you will, there's a, there's a flowing through of certain internal attitudes that have to be built into peoples' hearts before ministry can be what God wants it to be." And I gave you a whole list of those. Let me just remind you briefly of them: obedience, humility, love, unity, service, joy, peace, thankfulness, self-discipline, forgiveness, dependence, flexibility, accountability, growth, faithfulness, and hope. I don't expect you to write all that down. You've already gotten that. But just to kind of refresh your mind. Those are the attitudes that I believe we must cultivate among ourselves by our preaching, and teaching, and discipling, and all that we do to build into ourselves those strong kinds of attitudes, spiritual attitude.
Now, when the skeleton is right, and the right kinds of attitudes are flowing through, we're ready to move to dimension number three. And we're going to do that today, and that is function, or the muscles in the body. The body now has form and it has life, and now what is it to do? What is its function? What, what is the church's responsibility in the world? What are we to be about? Or, in simple terms, what's our ministry? If somebody said to you, "What is the church supposed to do?" You've got a church that's committed to the worship of God, the authority of Scripture, doctrine, sound doctrine. Peoples' lives are right. They're concerned with personal holiness. They're under spiritual authority of those that God has placed over them in the Lord. They've got cultivated in their hearts the right attitudes. They got all this power going, all this flow-through of life. What are they to do?
If you were to mandate the church as to its responsibility, what would it be? That's what we want to look at now; and I call these the muscles. This is function. This makes us move. And I want to spend today and next time on this, and then we'll just wrap up with the flesh very briefly next time also. I think we can do it in two weeks. But for this morning I want to give you four things that I believe are priority functions; and they're so basic that you know them well. But let me just refresh you, so you'll understand, maybe in a fresh way, the things we're committed to.
The first one is preaching and teaching. And I combine those two because they both have to do with the proclamation of biblical truth: preaching and teaching. That, as I see it, is the primary function of the church. The church is the receiver of the revelation of God and, therefore, the church must be the dispenser of the revelation of God. If God has revealed Himself to us, it is in order that we might understand Him. We are then to be the hearers of the Word and the proclaimers of the Word. And so, when you come here, you will hear the Word of God. When you go to a class, you will hear the Word of God. When you go to a Bible study, you will discuss and study the Word of God; because, primarily, the church is to be a place where the Word of God is preached and taught. Now, I am committed to that as an absolute priority in the church. That is a function of the church. We must be about proclaiming the Word of God. I, I kind of grieve in my heart over the, a lot of sermonizing that goes on. And some of it is helpful. Some of it is good, a lot of, sort of, I call it counseling from the pulpit that goes on. There are a lot of sort of ethical issues that are dealt with in the church. There are a lot of little classes that meet together where everybody pools their ignorance, because nobody knows anything. They just sort of guess what the Bible means. But the church has, as a priority function, the clear, understandable, direct, authoritative proclamation of the Word of God. And so Grace Church will always be committed to a strong emphasis on preaching and teaching, a strong emphasis on preaching and teaching.
Now look, look with me for a moment at two epistles written by Paul to Timothy. Now these epistles were written, I think, to help us understand the ministry, both from the viewpoint of the minister and his congregation. In fact, it even tells us in 1 Timothy 3:15 that this epistle was written to teach us how to behave in the house of God, which is the church. So here is an epistle that is to tell us how we are to behave in the church, how we are to function in the church, how we are to operate in the church. And I believe the emphasis of both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy is that we are to operate primarily in the area of proclaiming sound doctrine, preaching the Word of God. That same chapter, 1 Timothy 3 verse 16 is an interesting verse; and it sums up the wonder of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It says that, without controversy, that is, without any debate or argument, it's an incontrovertible fact that the mystery of godliness is a great thing. And what is the mystery of godliness? That God was manifest in the flesh. That's just an incredible thing. No one's going to argue that that is a great truth, right? That God was manifest in the flesh. That's the heart, the core, that's the substance of our Christian faith, isn't it? We don't have anything if God didn't manifest Himself in the flesh of Jesus Christ, right? Die and rise again. So that is at the very heart of our faith. Without any argument, that is a great, great revealed truth. But notice what it says. "He was manifest in the flesh. He was justified in the Spirit. He was seen of angels. He was believed on in the world. He was received up into glory," and then tucked in the middle, "preached unto the nations." And if I look at that 16th verse of 1 Timothy 3, I see some essential things in the incarnation, and one of them is preaching. Preaching is an essential element in God manifesting Himself in the flesh. What happened must be preached. That's what he's saying. There must be proclamation of the message. Preaching is unique to Christianity; and it's the one marvelous thing that the church does, that holy men of God do, that nothing in the world can match. I mean, the world can have its movies, and they can have their, their books, and the world can have lots of different means to communicate. But preaching, it seems to me, is something so very unique, as men of God who are given gifts of the Spirit and the knowledge of the Word proclaim its truth. And I believe, therefore, at the heart of the church is the incarnation; and at the heart of the incarnation is the proclamation of that incarnation. And so preaching finds a central place in the life of the church.
Now, it follows, then, that Paul is going to emphasize to young Timothy, as he moves out in his ministry, that he, indeed, should be faithful to the preaching. And you'll notice in verse 6 of chapter 4 that, right away Paul says, "If you put the brethren in remembrance of these things..." And he's just talked to them, to him about some things, and he says, "Your job is to put your people in remembrance of these things. You're, first of all, a teacher, Timothy. You're a teacher. Whatever you've received from God's Spirit, you give it out; and let the church be the place where things are taught." The truth of God is taught. You know how marvelous that is in a world where people are groping for truth? You understand that? You know how wonderful it is in a place where people have just about given up on anything that can be guaranteed as being true? Where it's morality by majority? Where it's everybody for himself and whatever opinion you want? Where truth is elusive? Where men are left with their own inane philosophy to try to figure out meaning in life? We can stand up and say, "This is truth." I mean, even Pilate, the ultimate cynic of the New Testament said, "What is truth? What is truth?" We know the truth. We know the truth. Jesus said in John 17 to the Father, "Thy Word is truth." Oh, what a legacy! And that's what we must impart. That's what we must impart.
And God has blessed this church, I believe, because its primary function has always been, in part, to proclaim the truth, the Word of God. Not to talk about the Bible, but to talk from the Bible. And I can't tell you how many hundreds, even thousands of people through the years have spoken to us or written to us and said they come to Grace Church because they're fed the Word of God. It's always what we hear. And that's our commitment. That's our function, and it isn't just my job. It's everybody's job. We're all to be those who proclaim and preach and teach the Word. Some gifted, of course, uniquely. Verse 11, following up the same thought of chapter 4 verse 6, he says, you are a minister who is a good minister, if you, yourself, are nourished up in the, the words of the faith and, and the sound doctrine. In other words, if you've got the truth in, and you're giving it to your people, he says in verse 11, "Command them and teach them." In other words, teach with authority. Teach with authority.
I remember I was doing the commencement at the Police Academy one time; and the fellow that I was sitting next to was talking to me about the various graduates who were graduating from the Los Angeles Police Academy; and he said, "We had to flunk one fellow out because of his voice." I said, "That's interesting." He said, "Yeah, you just can't go up behind a robber and say, 'Stick 'em up. You're under arrest. Halt in the name of the law.'" I mean it just leaves something out, doesn't it? And I said, "Well, that's interesting." "Yeah," he said, "there had to be a certain authority in his voice." And I began to think about the fact that his authority, basically, was the law, right? The law was his authority; and if I sound like I speak with authority, I do, because the authority's the Word of God. I will not speak authoritatively on my opinion, but I'll speak authoritatively on the Word of God; and that's what he's saying here in 1 Timothy 4:11: You, you don't just teach it. You command it. In other words, you call people to a, to a mandate of responsibility.
And so verse 16, he says, or verse 13, rather, he says, "Until I come, give your attention to reading, exhortation, and doctrine." Then he tells him how to do it: Read the text, explain the text, and apply the text. Reading: That's just read it to them. Exhortation: That's, apply it. Doctrine: That's give them the doctrine or the teaching. So he says, you get the text open. You read it to them. You explain to them. That's doctrine, and you exhort them to behave. And don't neglect, in verse 14 says, don't neglect it. Meditate on it, verse 15 says. Take heed to it, verse 16 says, and you continue in it. In other words, we are all called to obey the Word and proclaim the Word: Preaching, teaching, proclaiming, instructing. What a thrilling responsibility.
Now, in chapter 5, verse 17, he comes to another dimension. "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double," time, double pay, double respect, probably embraces all those things. But ones who, who do well should be doubly honored, "especially those who work hard in preaching and teaching." Again, the focus of leadership in the church is on the preaching and the teaching role. That's our function. That's our function. That's our function.
We're here to proclaim God's Word. I've heard people criticize Grace Church and say, "Well, Grace Church is, is over-balanced in the area of teaching. There's too much preaching, too much teaching, and not enough of this or that or the other thing." You, you, I don't see that you could ever have too much of that. I mean, unless you have mastered all of God's revelation, and that's a, an utter impossibility, there can't be too much. It could be out of balance if we didn't obey the teaching. But the reason we dominate our lives with teaching is because teaching is what sets everything else in motion. We have to know what the Bible says about a certain thing before we can carry it out. And so teaching is, is the sine qua non of everything. We have to know what to do. We, we can't know how to worship unless we know what the Bible says. We can't know how to pray unless we know what the Bible says. We can't know how to evangelize. We can't know how to disciple or shepherd. We can't know how to train people. We, we can't know how to help people and their families. We can't do anything unless we understand what God says. So we preach, we teach, we preach, we teach.
The end of chapter 6, Paul says to Timothy, "Keep that which is committed." In other words, I think he's referring to the, the deposit of truth, the revelation of God, the faith, if you will, the content of true doctrine. Keep it and stay away from the garbage of the world, the philosophies and the errant theologies and the supposed knowledge of men who really don't know anything at all. Hang in there with the right stuff. We don't want to get deviated away from it. We don't want to get pushed away into the thoughts of men that are afar from God. Second Timothy deserves a brief look, verse 15 of chapter 2. He says, "Be diligent to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." In other words, you've got the Word. You're committed to it. Now handle it correctly.
Back in verse 13 of chapter 1, he says, "Hold fast the form of sound words." So the first thing you do is you hold onto it, and then you rightly dispense it. You hang onto the truth and you dish it out as it ought to be, so that you may be approved of God. And again he says in 16 and following, "Stay away from the garbage of the world. Stay away from their errors and heresies and philosophies, and stick to the truth of God." Down in verse 24 of chapter 2, he says anyone who leads in the church, who's a servant of the Lord, should be skilled in his teaching, skilled in his teaching. And, of course, that great passage in chapter 3 where it says that all Scripture is inspired, that we may be perfected. So you can see, then, as Paul instructs Timothy regarding the church, this tremendous emphasis is made on preaching and teaching.
Now go to chapter 4, and we'll draw it all together. Chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, verse 1, and here is a, here is a mandate, given to Timothy, one of the really great ones in the New Testament. "I charge thee," or I hold thee accountable, or I command thee this therefore. Since the Word of God can perfect; since the Word of God can save, as it says in 3:15 to 17; since the Word of God can do all these things; since it can give you the salvation that you've received; since it can give you all that you need to be perfected in Christ, then, "I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and dead at His appearing in His kingdom." That's a very solid charge. He says, I hold you accountable before God and Jesus Christ. I hold you accountable before the, the Father and Son. Verse 2, do what? What? "Preach the Word." "Preach the Word." It is the Word that makes people wise unto salvation. It is the Word that perfects, that brings doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness; that makes the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It is the Word that does that, so he says, "Timothy, sum it up simple: I hold you accountable to God the Father. I hold you accountable to God the Son. Man, preach the Word. Proclaim the Word, and be diligent at it. Work hard at it. Hang in there. Do it in season and out of season, when it seems appropriate and inappropriate. When it seems like somebody might be offended or not, you keep doing it, all the time." "In season, out of season," means all the time. You can't be any more than either in season or out of season.
And then he says this, and it's interesting, isn't it? He doesn't say comfort and encourage. He says, "Reprove, rebuke, and exhort." In other words, "Lay it on them, Timothy." Why does he say that? Because he knows that even Christians basically have to fight with their sin, right? And so he says preaching has to be confrontive. It has to be reproving. It has to be rebuking. It has to be exhorting. And the mildest of those words is exhortation, and it means to encourage to a change of behavior in view of judgment if they don't. In other words, you keep going the way you're going, God's going to have to deal with you. So preaching has to have that element in it. It's confrontive. It pulls you up short. It's convicting. It's heart searching. It's heartbreaking. And that's what he tells him. "Preach it that way, and let the content of your ministry be that which demonstrates long suffering." So you preach with great zeal. You preach with great conviction. You confront people. You sort of slam them to the wall, and they've got to decide yes or no to what you said. You make them look at their own heart, see the failure of their own life, and realize this: that they're not going to change overnight. So in the process be what? Patient. Be patient.
And then he says, not only be patient, but in this process, he says, and this is such an important word, do it "with all patience and doctrine." Teaching, the heart of the ministry, beloved, is patiently teaching the Word of God in a confrontive way that pulls people up short in self-examination, so that their life can be brought to accountability before God. That's the function of the church. That's the function of the church. When you come here, you're called to that accountability. When you go to a fellowship group, one of the things you're called to in the teaching of the Word of God is: Am I responding rightly to this Word? You go to a flock or a Bible study, and somebody opens up the Bible, and you're, you're called by the authority of the Word of God to the place where you say, "I'm doing that, or I'm not doing that." And you're repute, reproved, or rebuked, or exhorted, and patiently so, until your life can be what God would have it to be.
So, as Paul bows out and Timothy steps in to take his mantle, he says, "Timothy, it's all summed in this, son. Preach the Word. Preach the Word." Say, "Why so?" Because it's the Word in the mind that generates the behavior. It's the Word that comes into the mind that generates the behavior. And that's why the Bible says in Ephesians 4:23, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Transformation, Romans 12: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." And that's your thinking part. You have to have the Word into your thinking, so that it can start that flywheel of behavior moving. And so we teach and preach the Word; no substitute for that.
A second function is evangelism and mission, evangelism and missions. We, and I use those two terms just to give you a comprehensive perspective. Evangelism seems to speak of personal things and missions seems to speak of something very large. And so, since those terms are thought of in that way, we'll use them. We are to be committed to the fact that our church is not only for its own sake, but for the sake of the world, right? That the reason we want to be what God wants us to be is so that we can be a shining light in the midst of a dark and perverse generation. We want to be all that God wants us to be so that He can, through us, reach others. You see, the ultimate goal of all ministry is that we would reach someone for Christ; and so we've got be about evangelism, evangelism, evangelism. We've got to be about it basically two ways: by life example and by word. And as we've said so many times, people, it's our lives out there that make our testimony either believable or unbelievable. I mean if we have a church where Christ is exalted, where people are living righteous lives, where they're dealing with their sin in honesty before God, where they're endeavoring to walk in obedience in His holy purposes, if we have that kind of church, then we're going to lay out a platform on which individual testimony can be believed.
It's what you are out there in the world. That's what's so wonderful when people come here and they say, "Hey, your people live your message. Your people really do obey the Word of God." That's so thrilling, because that makes Christianity so credible, see. I mean why do you think that, instead of Satan just coming into the world and just blasting churches out existence, he comes into the world and proliferates churches all over the place who have no credibility? Because that undermines the whole message. I mean how people say, "Oh, I went to a church over there. That was really some place. They have a lot of hypocrites there, so forth and so forth and so on. They don't care about anybody over there. Why, the pastor ran off and did this. He was crooked. He embezzled money out of the church and blah-blah-blah." You see, all that Satan can do to keep the church going in name and to corrupt it is done in a way that undermines the integrity of the message of the church. Satan doesn't want to eliminate churches. He just wants to corrupt them so that there's no foundation on which individual testimony can be believed. And I really believe that we have been called to live a life in the community that is a life of, of evangelism.
It's summed up—you know, we've gone through this in years past—in Matthew 5, where our Lord says you are two things. "You are the salt of the earth," Matthew 5:13, and if the salt, "if the salt's lost its savor, with what shall it be salted?" You're the salt of the earth. I mean you're just out there as a preservative. You're, you're just out there as a deterrent. You're out there distinct. You have a flavor different than they do. I mean you're out there unique. And that's why, see, beloved, that's why we call people to a separated life. That's why we call people to a pure life. That, that's why I'm so exercised in my spirit that you live a godly, virtuous, holy, righteous life. Not just for the glory of God from the viewpoint of you, but for the glory of God from the viewpoint of others who see and are drawn to that kind of purity. Where you can be used as an example, you're the salt.
And then in verse 14, "You're the light of the world." And if the light is hidden under a bushel, isn't going to be seen. And the bushel, I'm sure, is an indication of sin or clouding of the testimony of your life. But if you're out there, and you're shining bright, and you're salt that's really salty, now you're going to have an impact on the world. And it's by what you are before it is what you say. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who's in Heaven."
I mean, I'm amazed sometimes. You know, I, I meet a lot of people in a lot of interesting circumstances; and some of them are very embarrassed in the circumstances that they meet me; because I say, "Oh, don't I know you?" So I can't tell you how many people have tried to swallow a cigarette when they saw me. It's really funny, really funny. I mean, "Well, hello." Gulp. Unk-dink, you know? Oh, I can, I can be in a restaurant and, and somebody will have a drink; and they'll get it up just a little ways, and I'll just smile and wave, and instant panic sets in. I didn't say a thing. I've, on some occasions, even gone over to a table and greeted them just as a reminder that there is, for Christians, a certain standard of, of life for the sake of those who watch us. I remember in a restaurant one time. Sometimes when you go and you're waiting, there's a cocktail waitress who comes; and this cocktail waitress came; and she walked up and said, "Would you like a—No, you wouldn't, would you?" And I said, "No, I wouldn't. You look familiar." And then, "Oh, I, I have to apologize. You see, I, I," and on she went with this story. But it was very interesting because, in her heart, she knew that she was completely out of sync with the reality of where she should've been as a Christian just living in the world, and it was embarrassing to her to see me. And I thought to myself, "It should more offend her that unbelievers see her doing something that's not like Christ than that I should see it. I can handle it."
We have a foundation of credibility to lay with our lives, and it's so very important; and so he sums it up, doesn't he, in Matthew 5:16 when he says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who's in Heaven." You know, they ought to look at your life and say, "Look, only God could make a life like that. I mean only God could do that to somebody." What a wonderful life; and so we lay a foundation of evangelism.
And then, beyond that, we need to talk. We need to speak. We need to proclaim the message. I mean, we need to be ready to speak, to give an answer for the hope that is in us, to proclaim Jesus Christ. We need to have our lips unsealed. Someone once said that most Christians are like the Artic River, frozen over at the mouth. And it's unfortunate that, in many cases, that is true; for some reason, resistant to speak. Oh, how we ought to be as eager to speak about the Lord as we are to speak about some other mundane, inane thing; and so that we understand the responsibility to evangelize, to witness, to reach out. Part of that is having people that we know who aren't Christians, and that's hard for some of us, very hard; because our world is narrowed. Someone said it's like a pyramid. The higher you go, the, the fewer people you know that aren't Christians.
And then, too, as we proclaim, we want to make sure we have the right message; and that's why we spend so much time articulating the Gospel here, making sure you understand the terms that Christ has given. That's why, when we get to the rich, young ruler, we spend time seeing how Christ evangelized, or the Sermon on the Mount, what did He call men from and what did He call them to, and what are the real Biblical terms of evangelism? Because I know full well the churches of our country and our world are filled with people who aren't saved, but think they are.
And so we are committed to evangelism: now beyond that, to missions. I mean, that's a worldwide view to, to reaching way beyond here to whatever God will allow us to do across the globe. I received a letter this week from a pastor in the Philippines. He said, "I, I've been hearing about your church. I want to build my church as God would have it built; and could you send me some help so that I can begin to move in the right direction?" And we have people now strategizing and setting a vision for us to reach as far beyond our own walls as we possibly can. Worldwide as much as the Lord allows, because He said to go into all the world, didn't He? And we want to go as far as we can go, as far as our resources allow us to go. And what we're doing here is training up people here so that we can go more effectively. And we're committed to that, to going, to preaching, baptizing, teaching, as far as we can go.
There's a third of these functions, and you know this one well, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time: Worship, corporate worship. We've done a series recently. I hope you've read the book The Ultimate Priority on worship. We are called to corporate worship. "We are those who worship the Lord in Spirit, who have no confidence in the flesh," Paul says to the Philippians. We're "true worshipers" John 4, "who worship the Father in Spirit and truth." We have been called as those who are like priests, who offer our bodies a living sacrifice to God in a holy act of worship, spiritual sacrifice. We are worshipers. We are a priesthood who offer up sacrifices unto God, says Peter.
We were talking the other day in one of our staff meetings about the concern we have. There are many people who come to the worship service, but how many of them really worship? How many hearts are really lifted up to God? How many hearts are filled with praise and adoration? And how many are thinking about when it's going to be over or what they're going to do today, or where they're going tomorrow or, or whatever. And we get so blasted and bombarded by the cleverness of Satan's media in the world. We see images of pictures in our minds, and we hear jingles of commercials, and we're blasted by the things that we continually see passing before our eyes. And to try to sit down and get the clutter out of there and to meditate on the things of God, you'd almost have to go into a monastery to filter your brain clean again.
So how hard is it, is it for us to come and to really think of the songs we're singing, and to hear the Psalm when it's read and calls us to worship, and to meditate on the things of God that come through the teaching and the preaching? But we need to cultivate that. We need to be a worshiping people, not just here. This is just a catalyst to get us to worship at all times. As we tried to say some months ago in that series, we worship best when we obey most. We worship best when we respond to God in willing obedience, so that obedience is the, is the basic definition of worship. We obediently offer in praise. We obediently do what He says. Obedience and worship, synonymous in a sense, become, then, a way of life rather than just an exercise on Sunday.
But I believe we're called to draw near unto God. You know what that means? To draw near unto God; Hebrews says, "Draw near unto God." James talks about drawing near unto God, "and He'll draw near unto you." What great thoughts those are. I mean when do you really draw near unto God in an unhurried way? And when do you just let your heart and mind ascend, as it were, in the words of the hymns and in the words of Scripture or in times of deep devotion and prayer? When do you meditate? The word almost has no meaning to us except to see some strange guru squatting somewhere. We don't understand what it is to meditate; but I believe we are, we function in worship. We function in worship.
Timothy, Paul said to Timothy, you know, let holy men lift up their hands in prayer and let the church come together for that expressed purpose of praise. We are to be a worshiping people; and it thrills my heart that so many, many, like this young man who wrote from Michigan. They come to our church, and they've never experienced a worship like this. Their hearts have always been ready, but they've never been provided that kind of environment that can lift that heart to God; and maybe we could do better than we do. Maybe we could do better.
Here's a last function that the church must be given to that I want to talk about this morning. We'll finish it next time. And that's prayer, and I don't need to say much about this. I just need to remind you. I just want to place it in your memory. I don't want to gild the lily, except to say that I believe, beloved, I believe this with all my heart. Prayer's the hardest spiritual exercise we engage in for two reasons. Reason number one: It's hard work. It's hard work because it's selfless. True prayer extends to embrace the kingdom of God. "Thy name be hallowed. Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come." It extends to embrace the kingdom of God, and it extends to embrace the people of God. "Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses. Lead us not into temptation." There's no "I" in the disciple's prayer of Matthew 6:9 to 12. It embraces the kingdom of God in His glory. It embraces the needs of His people, and so prayer is unselfish exercise. Only unselfish, only humble people can abandon themselves to embrace the, the will of God, the kingdom of God, the needs of people.
And when Paul says in Ephesians 6:18, praying always for all saints, with all prayer and supplication, he is calling us to the kind of prayer that turns outward from us to embrace God's glorious purposes and the needs of God's people. And it's selfless, and so it's limited to selfless people. It's hard work, because you are there, and you're pouring out your heart on behalf of God, on behalf of God's redeemed people, on behalf of His purposes and their needs; and you're beyond yourself.
We find, on the other hand, prayer very easy when it hits us. When we have a disabling injury, or when we have a debilitating sickness in the family, or we lose a loved one, or when one of our children strays from the Lord, or when our kids are making decisions about who they're going to marry, or about when some tragedy comes in, or we're caught in some dishonest deed, or some immoral act; and, immediately, because we are at stake, we find ourselves rather easily drawn to prayer on our own behalf. But that doesn't demonstrate the strength of prayer. That demonstrates the weakness of prayer. The strength of prayer is to abandon my life in unceasing prayer on behalf of the extension and glory of God in His eternal kingdom, and the needs of His redeemed people beyond myself, you see. And that's why it's so hard. I mean I don't have any question that in Luke 11, I could be the guy banging on the door, getting the bread, if I was hungry; and I'd bang all night till the guy gave me the bread to get rid of me. The question is, "Can I bang on the door all night for the bread for somebody else?" That's the question.
I mean we can have a Sunday night deal and have ice cream, and you'll have three thousand people over there gobbling up ice cream. You can have, you can call a prayer meeting, and you have to get binoculars to find the folks, you see, because prayer is so selfless. It, it, it, it's an embracing of things other than ourselves in its purest, truest sense. I'm not saying you don't pray. I'm not saying I don't pray. I don't pray as I ought to pray, and, and we all feel like we don't, don't we? We're going to have a monthly prayer meeting on a Wednesday night each month, and we're going to call the folks to prayer, and I believe God answers prayer. I said in an interview on the radio in Chicago yesterday that one of the benefits of growing older, and there are some, is that you begin to have a longer list of things that God has demonstrated in His power to answer prayer. And the older you get, the more you see God do things that only He could do. And the longer that list becomes, the more confident you become in your prayers. So I think older people pray better than younger people, at least in that sense, because they have the track record of the proving of God's response.
The second reason that prayer's difficult, not only because it's selfless, is because it's so private. It's so private, and this is sort of like the selfless idea; but, when you pray, you pray all by yourself and no one knows. And so you've got to have the self-discipline and the strength to do it without peer pressure or approval. I mean there are a lot of things we do because we know people will know we did them, right? I mean we go to Bible study because people will say, "He goes to Bible study." And we read the Bible because somebody's going to say, "Hey, I've been reading so." "Well, I've been reading so and so." "Boy, the other day I read so and so. Yeah." And you read it just so you could make sure that when the conversation came up, you could say you read it.
You see, prayer is difficult, first of all, because it's selfless and, secondly, because it has no visible rewards; and you don't have any peer pressure. Nobody sees you perform, and we perform much better when we know people are going around. Listen, I, I really prepare for sermons, because I got all these people listening. I find it much easier not to pray. In Acts 6:4, it says the apostles gave themselves continually to prayer and to ministry of the Word. I find it much easier to give myself to the ministry of the Word than prayer, because I don't have a whole lot of choice about the ministry of the Word. If I show up here on Sunday, haven't got anything to say, I'm in real trouble. But I can not pray and no one will know. Oh, eventually, you'd know; but you wouldn't know right away; and that's why prayer's such hard work. That's why the Bible talks about prevailing in prayer; because it's something that, first of all, is selfless and, secondly, has no visible rewards on the spot in terms of the affirmation and the approval of people.
I thank God for those selfless people who pray; and I pray God that we'll have more of them in our fellowship. We have a little group of people that pray on Monday, little group, older people. They're getting older all the time, but the Lord isn't letting them die because I don't know who'd take their place. It's a handful of people. They've been praying for years, over ten years. And they pray, and God hears and answers their prayers, and we cash in on their faithfulness. God help us to be faithful in our prayers. As I've said in the past, prayer is the nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence. I don't understand how it works. I just know God hears and answers prayer. And "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," says James. And I want to be that righteous man who prays, because I want to see God do all He can possibly do and give Him all the glory. So we must be committed to prayer.
And Paul couldn't have said it any more clearly than he said it in 1 Thessalonians 5, and he says in verse 17, "Pray without [What?] ceasing." We say, "What does that mean?" Well, it simply means that you pray all the time, which is to say you live in God-consciousness, that all, your whole life is offered as a prayer. You, all your whole life, is offered as a prayer. You just, you, all the time, you're aware of God, all the time, you think, you act, you respond, you talk, aware that God is there. Every, every act of life, every thought of life is offered as a prayer as if to say, "I'm going to do this. Is this all right, Lord? Oh, I see You in that." In other words, you interpret life as if you were looking through the very mind and heart of God. It isn't that you go around mumbling and with your eyes closed. Prayer is just the way of living in the conscious presence of, of God, so that everything is offered to Him. Everything is communed with Him. Prayer is two thing, a two-way thing, you know? You hear His voice. You feel the leading of the Spirit of God. You offer Him your petitions and your thoughts and your joys and your problems. It's living life in a God-conscious way. And so our functions are very, very foundational. Preach and teach. Evangelize and extend to the world. Worship. Pray. I'll give you the rest of them next time. Let's pray together.
What can we say, Lord? What can we say? You have blessed us so much. You've blessed us with salvation. You've blessed us with the Word, the Spirit. You've blessed us with the assembly of Your redeemed and beloved people. You've blessed us with friends, with family, with life partners who love you. You've blessed us with a wonderful place where we can fellowship and worship. You've blessed us with beautiful songs we can sing, instruments to which we listen, which cause our hearts to rejoice. You've blessed us with the beauty of your creation, which we, who are redeemed alone can fully appreciate as a gift of Your love, unlike the world who thinks it's some cosmic accident. You've given us so much. Father, it's our desire as Grace Community Church to function as You would have us function, preaching, teaching, evangelizing, worshiping, praying. Right back to those basic things, and to know that it isn't so important what the programs are. It's only so important what we do, as individuals, to be faithful in these areas. Thank You for sharpening our focus in these days. May we be faithful to respond as we see the truth. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
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text:
DEAR BRUCE: My home will be paid off in two years, leaving me with only an equity loan left to pay in the amount of $16,000, $360 a month. After I pay off my mortgage, it will free up $500 to $600 a month.
DEAR BRUCE: My home will be paid off in two years, leaving me with only an equity loan left to pay in the amount of $16,000, $360 a month. After I pay off my mortgage, it will free up $500 to $600 a month.
I will be retiring approximately eight to 10 years from now. I told my wife that I wanted to use the old house payment to invest in some sort of retirement account. All I have now is a thrift savings 401(k) based on my highest three earning years and Social Security. My wife wants to take that money and add it to the equity loan and pay it off sooner.
What is your opinion? What would you recommend as a good investment with this money for the next six to eight years?
P.A.M., via email
DEAR P.A.M.: Let me disabuse you of something. You say your mortgage will be paid off in two years; no, it won't. Your first mortgage will be paid off in two years, but you will still have a second mortgage of $16,000, $360 a month, which will be several years.
You didn't tell me what the interest rate is on the second mortgage. If it is substantial, you would be far better off to pay off the mortgage with the extra $500 to $600 a month that your first mortgage is no longer collecting. You will find that not having a mortgage when you retire is very comforting.
If you feel you can do better in the marketplace, go for it. I don't know what your experience is, but I would suggest that if you are not going to pay off the mortgage and you choose to invest in the market, make sure you start educating yourself right now on proper market selections and management.
DEAR BRUCE: How and when can Medicare claim the recipient owes them?
S.L., via email
DEAR S.L.: Generally speaking, it would depend on the efficiency practiced in the state the recipient is living in, and that can be anywhere from a couple of months to a year. As long as the house is transferred to your name, it is yours, but if the state feels it is owed money from Medicaid (Medicaid, not Medicare, as you asked), it can move against the house and sell it to recover as much as possible. If the recipient is using only Medicare, I can't think of any reason anyone would come after you.
DEAR BRUCE: My husband and I were given a half-acre lot in Florida as a wedding gift from my parents. My father paid $500 for it in 1954. We are now getting offers to purchase this lot from Realtors and individuals at the rate of two or three per week.
We recently visited the area and could see no reason for the sudden interest. We couldn't even drive on the street because of the overgrowth of vegetation. So far we've been offered as much as $30,000. Two years ago we couldn't sell it for $5,000.
We currently live in Indiana and have no plans to use the lot in the future. It looks to us like a good time to sell, but won't we pay a great deal in capital gains tax? Is there any way to get the best bang for our buck?
We could always use the extra cash, but would prefer to invest it. Can we avoid capital gains by purchasing land elsewhere, or could we use the money to pay off our present mortgage? We have heard of a 1031 exchange, but do not know how it works. Our adjusted gross income is less than $50,000.
J.P., via email
DEAR J.P: The first thing you should consider is that if you are being offered $30,000, it's worth considerably more than that, and you may want to try to recover as much money as possible. That is going to mean putting it on the market with a broker, hoping you can find someone to pay more.
Given the fact that you currently live in Indiana and you have no plans to use the lot, I agree that it's a good time to sell. You won't have a great deal to pay in capital gains, but let's assume that your basis is only $500, which means you would have roughly $27,000 after commissions. With a rate under current law of 15 percent, you would have somewhere around a $4,000 capital gains tax. Looks to me like you are going to be OK.
I wouldn't worry about getting the best bang for your buck. Grab the money and go out and have a wonderful meal, maybe a vacation over the weekend. In other words, get on with your life.
DEAR BRUCE: My significant other and I have been together since 1999. I am in the process of buying my home, and because of a little inheritance from my family and the selling of a home, I have a little money saved and invested.
We have talked about marriage, but I need to know if I would ever be expected to pay back any of his debts? He filed bankruptcy in California after having a stroke, but now he has really worked at getting his credit back. He has really been doing well.
I guess I just need to know if it will hurt me financially. We won't be commingling our funds, and the house is in my name and my son is the beneficiary.
Reader, via email
DEAR READER: As long as you keep your money completely separated from his, you won't have any responsibility for his debts incurred before the marriage. It's good that he is working on getting his credit back, but in terms of financial hurt, there shouldn't be any unless you establish a commingling of funds.
If you do marry, he will get one-third of the house should you predecease him. This could be changed very easily with a prenuptial agreement indicating that the home is yours and he will give up any rights to it. You will both require an attorney, and you must be absolutely candid about everything you own, otherwise this can be easily upset.
DEAR BRUCE: I am 87 years old, male, and in declining health. After a family death I registered a niece as joint tenant on my $300,000 home, which will automatically go to her when I die. Am I correct? My savings accounts are each with nieces as the beneficiaries. This, too, will go to them without hassles. Is this correct? Should this be noted too in my will?
My home is furnished modestly, but comfortably. In joint tenancy, is the furniture, etc. included? Should this be part of the real estate or should I will it to someone or donate it?
Reader, via email
DEAR READER: The niece gets the house when you die, period. If each of your nieces is a beneficiary on a savings account, that should be without a hassle. Should this be noted in your will? Absolutely!
As far as the contents of your home go, I would will it to the niece who is getting the house and she can donate as she chooses.
It seems to me that you have a good handle on things. Since you have a substantial estate, I hope that you have accommodated all these movements with the oversight of an attorney.
DEAR BRUCE: I'm 25 and I have about $20,000 in hospital bills that I currently make payments on. I have been approved for a home loan for $75,000. Currently, I live in an apartment and I make a car payment every month, which is about 90 percent of my monthly income.
Would it be smart to take a house now, even though I may be paying more? If I do get a home, I would sell my car so I can get away from payments and buy a car outright with cash.
I also feel bogged down because paying for my apartment is not helping my credit. I got stuck paying all the rent once I kicked out my ex-boyfriend. Should I stay in my apartment until the lease runs out or move?
O.P., via email
DEAR O.P.: Right now you are extended as far as you should be. Buying a home or condo, in my opinion, is not the way to go. Rather than go out and incur more debt, which may push you over the edge, I would stay in the apartment until the lease runs out. I am assuming you signed a lease and if you leave early you will be held responsible for the remaining portion.
You learned the hard way about kicking out the ex-boyfriend. I suggest you pay down many of your obligations, live close and, if possible at your tender years, get a second job to increase your income.


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First-year principal�s first class included student who accepted adulthood early
David Valdez didn�t allow his obligation to maturity to stop him from crossing the stage Thursday.
The Greene County Early College High School student was not only a leader on campus the past few years � he stepped up to take care of his family as the youngest of three siblings.
Valdez, 20, was born in Greenville and is one of two people in a six-relative household who is a legal citizen.
His young niece is documented, but is only in preschool.
Although his mom, brother, sister and stepdad should be cleared for citizenship soon, they cannot apply for jobs, so Valdez was responsible for primarily supporting his family in addition to school.
While Valdez said procrastination was a major challenge during his five years at Early College, it was his circumstances outside of school that affected his class work.
�Most of it dealt with trying to help the family out,� he said. �I would try to work and deal with school at the same time so I could help out my mom. That would really take away from my sleep and my studying time.�
Valdez worked at a pawn shop and a fast food restaurant while his family labored in local fields, where he would go on his days off. He said his mom always encouraged him to stay in school. His older brother graduated from Greene Central High School but his work options are limited because he is mentally disabled.
After pushing through a variety of tribulations, Valdez joined 24 other Early College students Thursday evening for the school�s graduation ceremony.
�It feels good,� he said. �Once you�re here, you know you made it. I�m just happy I�m here.�
First-year principal Patrick Greene called graduates across the stage Thursday, watching his first group earn diplomas and degrees. Under the Early College system, students can receive both a high school diploma and a transferrable associate�s degree.
�Sitting in graduation practice and calling their names, it already became a little bittersweet watching their faces as they came across,� Greene said. �It�s a lot of pride for me in knowing this is my first group and their last year. This is something we get to mutually share but for very different reasons.�
When he arrived on campus this year, he said the teachers spoke highly of Valdez and his leadership.
�When I came in this year, I didn�t even know that David had been in trouble in the past,� Greene said. �I didn�t know about any of this stuff. I saw a young man that was leading his class that other students listened to.�
Greene said Valdez didn�t realize how much Early College teachers trusted him as a mature person. He learned about Valdez as the year progressed and recognized how much the young student was responsible for outside of the classroom.
�You really see how that maturity was (thrust upon) him,� Greene said. �He thrives in it rather than uses it as an excuse as to why he can�t succeed in class.�
Valdez plans to attend Pitt Community College to study physical therapy.
The avid soccer player was injured and became interested in the field as he was being treated. During his last year, he coached intramural volleyball and soccer, as Early College does not have traditional sports teams.
�This year, I think, has been my best year,� said Valdez shortly before he graced the graduation stage. �I�ve helped out a lot because I wanted to, not because I was asked to.�
He said his teacher successfully kept him engaged in class with one-on-one attention and that he will likely give back to the school.
�I made many mistakes along the way but I learned from them and fixed them,� Valdez said. �I am somebody that got knocked down many times and got back up.�
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
GreeneCounty Early College High School Graduation 2013
25 graduates
25 high school diplomas
15 associate�s degrees
Valedictorian � Elizabeth Alejandra Acededo
Salutatorian � Yecenia Martinez
Principal � Patrick Greene


text:
AfriGeneas World Research Forum
Re: Net Noir
In Response To: Re: Net Noir ()
Yeah. You're both right; NetNoir was a great place to engage with other black people on the web. After seeing your posts I decided to see what was going on there now. It looks like it's coming back. And so far, so good. There doesn't appear to be much discussion going on there yet but they say they're launching this June. It'll be great to have them back. Best of all, they have one of the coolest chat rooms I've ever seen. I'm going to keep checking back as it will probably regain popularity soon.
Messages In This Thread


text:
New attachments make farm chores quick and easy.
A skid-steer loader continues to be a highly versatile piece of equipment on a farm, especially as manufacturers add more attachment options. Here's a selection of the latest skid-steer options, all designed to make farm chores easier.
Safe unhitching. Now you can unhitch attachments to your skid-steer loader quickly and conveniently without leaving the seat. Kasco is manufacturing the Hydra-Hitch that uncouples attachments hydraulically. The Hydra-Hitch attaches to the skid steer's original latching system with a simple bolt package. It is currently designed to fit the John Deere 200 series skid steers. Models for additional skid steers will be available in the future. Prices start at $450. Contact Kasco Mfg., Dept. FIN, 170 W. 600 No., Shelbyville, IN 46176, 800/458-9129, www.kascomfg.com.
Batch cement mixing. If you need to add a pad of cement to a building or feed yard but don't want the expense of a commercial cement truck, check out the portable mixer from Worksaver that fits on a skid steer. The new model SS-585 mixer handles one bag of cement mix in its welded steel drum. The hydraulically driven, self-contained mixer is equipped with internal paddles to ensure uniform mixing. Price: $2,950. Contact Worksaver Inc., Dept. FIN, Box 100, Litchfield, IL 62056-0100, 217/324-5973, www.worksaver.com.
Grapple rake. Clear fence rows, pick up trees, and move large pieces of debris with Worksaver's Grapple Rake. Three replaceable welded-on tines are spaced 50 in. apart to pick up debris while leaving dirt behind. The grapple mounts on either skid steers or tractor front loaders. Price: $1,850. Contact Worksaver Inc., Dept. FIN, Box 100, Litchfield, IL 62056-0100, 217/324-5973, www.worksaver.com.
Crane boom. A new crane boom from Worksaver designed for skid steers can help move or load hard-to-handle items. The boom can be attached to any skid -steer loader with a universal quick-attach system. It is made from 3-in. square steel tubing and is 6 1/2 ft. long. Featuring three attaching points, the crane boom is rated at 1,700 lbs. at the farthest point and 2,200 lbs. at the nearest attaching point. A clevis, chain hook and one set of adapter bushings come as standard equipment. Price: $450. Contact Worksaver Inc., Dept. FIN, Box 100, Litchfield, IL 62056-0100, 217/324-5973, www.worksaver.com.
Plowing snow. Make snow plowing easy work with the new Snow Wolf snow plow. Designed for skid steers, the snow plow scoops snow instead of pushing it and then sends the snow rolling off the blade to keep the skid steer in control of heavy snow. The oscillating blade follows ground contours without scraping. It is available in seven widths from 6 ft. to 9 ft. Suggested retail price of an 8-ft. blade is $2,548. Contact Snow Wolf, Dept. FIN, 6026 Pillsbury Ave. S., Minnespolis, MN 55419, 800/905-2265.


text:
In this page you will find all the answers today's puzzles for 7 Little Words.
Sometimes it is difficult to pick up with all the daily updates of Secen Little Words, so when you cannot find the answers to a certain day please make a search on the homepage.
Garbanzo bean 7 little words
Answer: Chickpea
Now just arrage the group of letters to match the answer.
Other puzzles for June 5 2018 7 little words
- Feeling of guilt and regret
- Molly Malone sold them
- Toenail clippers 7 Little Words
- Stretchy velvet-like fabric
- Garbanzo bean 7 Little Words
- Copland's was for common man
- Cap store in the mall
- Hummus ingredient 7 Little Words
- Aldi rival 7 Little Words
Related games:
If you liked Mystic Words, you will enjoy playing these other games:


text:
The issue of teachers� pay (or lack there of) is a hot topic among North Carolina�s legislation these days.
While this column is not directly about that, it is related.
The issue of teachers� pay (or lack there of) is a hot topic among North Carolina�s legislation these days.
While this column is not directly about that, it is related.
I understand the frustration of N.C.�s teachers, due to N.C. paying less than all but four other states (Missouri, South Dakota, Montana and Idaho) according to www.teacherportal.com.
I imagine it is extremely tough on a single teacher in N.C., however, I cannot recall too many instances of seeing a married couple of two teachers struggling.
Most have nice homes, nice cars and live fairly comfortably, even in these dire economic circumstances.
The issue of teachers not being paid well in the state naturally expands to coaches.
Two local young and promising assistant coaches in Craven County have recently uprooted to other states for family reasons mainly, but also for a much bigger paycheck.
Bobby Stauffer (West Craven) was an assistant football, baseball and softball coach for the Eagles for one year.
Stauffer is from Pennsylvania originally and re-located to coach at 1A Cochranton High School in Cochranton, Pa.
He was fresh out of college and a first-year teacher, his only year in N.C., and was being paid the state minimum for starting teachers which is roughly $30,000.
In addition to upwards of a $15,000 per year pay increase with his new job, Stauffer moved back to be closer to his hometown and family.
�I loved my time at West Craven, I really did, and if had not been for family and the money increase, I would have loved to have stayed there,� Stauffer said.
�The people are great and I met a ton of them. The kids are great, so it isn�t that I wanted to leave at all, it's just a great opportunity for me.�
Down the road at Havelock High, assistant football and baseball coach Nick McIntosh and his wife Amy also made a move.
McIntosh has a coaching history in Mississippi as well, where he won a baseball state championship as a head coach.
Like Stauffer, McIntosh is extremely personable and always has the kids� best interests at heart.
McIntosh also moved for family reasons, after his grandmother left him and his wife acreage of land back home in Louisiana.
He is teaching and coaching at Lakeshore High School in Mandeville, La., which is part of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System.
�It was mostly about moving to be on my land that my grandma left me, but also just with me and my wife as a household teaching and no coaching involved, it is a $24,000 pay increase,� McIntosh said.
Assistant coaches in North Carolina get a $1,000 supplement for each sport they coach.
Both McIntosh and Stauffer said that in there new respective dwellings, the supplements are more toward $3,000 to $4,000.
While I�m not saying N.C. teachers need to get paid something ridiculous like six-figures, they do need be better taken care of financially than they currently are, and maybe some quality assistant and head coaches will not be so tempted to leave.
Jordan Honeycutt can be reached at 252-635-5670 or at email@example.com. Follow Jordan on Twitter @JHONEYnbsj29


text:
Alone In The Dark
I'm having an issue with the upload script, no doubt a ripple created by some year change bullshit. It is no matter, I am resourceful and man enough to be called master by FTP. Behold, sir: your comic strip.
Uwe Boll is directing a film based on the (apparently liquefied and reconstituted) Alone In The Dark games, a trailer for which can be seen here but don't take that as an endorsement. I just put some HTML around it is all. That hardly counts as an edict, and anyway this new trailer doesn't really hit the high comedic notes like House of the Dead's "That's Spanish For Death." It's just a trailer for a movie I don't want to see, that happens to be called something I once recalled with affection. Budgets are, inexplicably, up. Look at Tentacle Bob there in the trailer. That don't cost a hundred bucks.
I never know exactly what it is I'm seeing as I watch the career arc of Uwe Boll. I've thus far considered him to be a kind of perpetual failure machine, like some lever is constantly being pulled and questionable films are being produced which are perceived by the optic nerve where they enter the brain and men die. I would never have suggested that he meant to do what he does - careening from license to license, scraping out anything wholesome and throwing the husk at me - but there is plainly a trajectory here and the universe does not appear to be reprimanding him.
The comic isn't about him, it's about Christian Slater. When we were in California last time for E3, I actually saw him outside one of the tchotchke holes that burrow up on Hollywood Boulevard. He had clearly reinvented himself as a thugged out hooligan who kept it real for the streets, and offered me a compact disc he had recorded under the pseudonym Slate Dogg. He also had a selection of excellent watches.
The album was only seven dollars. I recorded an album no-one ever listened to myself, so I gave it a shot. He makes it clear on the opening track that under no circumstances will he tolerate his styles being bitten, nor should one attempt bite his stylos. He also has dark words for wack emcees but I don't want to spoil it.
(CW)TB out.
i'm pretty when i lie


text:
The requested news item does not exist. Please return to News
Tom Melody, Tom Fish and Mike Melody hired to assume executive leadership roles for Americas Capital Markets
SINGAPORE, MAR. 19, 2010— Jones Lang LaSalle has announced the firm has bolstered its global capital markets platform with the hiring of three long-standing industry experts to lead its Americas Real Estate Investment Banking (REIB) business and assume executive leadership roles for the firm's Americas Capital Markets business. Thomas O. Fish, Michael J. Melody and Thomas J. Melody will steer the firm's Americas REIB business as Executive Managing Directors. The trio will partner with Americas Capital Markets President Jay Koster and the Capital Markets leadership team to help drive the expansion of the firm's overall Americas Capital Markets business.
Fish and both Melodys will focus on expanding and driving a REIB business that currently has a foothold in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C., with an emphasis on helping create a fully integrated investment sales and REIB business across the Americas. The REIB business incorporates debt/equity origination & placement, equity fund raising, resolution strategies, loan/note sales and investment advisory services.
"In the past six months, Jones Lang LaSalle has moved aggressively to build an industry-leading Americas Capital Markets business, which will complement our strong Capital Markets business throughout the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions and our dominant global Hotels Capital Markets business. Building a dominant REIB business is a critical component of our overall Americas Capital Markets strategy," said Koster.
"We are committed to being a significant market player, and attracting these senior leaders to our platform is clear evidence that our dominant global brand, strong financial position and expanding Americas local markets business create a unique opportunity for the best of the best in our industry," added Bill Krouch, Chief Executive Officer of Americas Markets.
Stuart Crow, head of Capital Markets for Asia Pacific comments "this further strengthens our global connectivity in the real estate Capital Markets and Corporate Finance area, and compliments the initiatives we have taken in Asia over recent years to provide services beyond traditional investment brokerage".
Melody, Fish and Melody, who recently departed CB Richard Ellis, will be based in Jones Lang LaSalle's Houston office, where they plan to build a strong base of operations for the Americas REIB business.
"The addition of Tom, Mike and Tom is a huge coup for our Americas Capital Markets business and our clients who know the talent these gentlemen possess," said Dan Bellow, Houston Market Director for Jones Lang LaSalle. "They have been consistent top revenue producers every year for well over a decade, and have a deep history of driving and leading businesses. We expect they will create critical intersections between Capital Markets and our other businesses. We intend to leverage their capabilities to our clients' maximum benefit."
With more than 75 years experience between them, the trio has been responsible for the completion of more than $20 billion in debt and equity transactions over the past decade. The three principals have a long history operating as strategic partners, with the Melodys having formerly helped build L.J. Melody & Company in its pre-CBRE days. Fish, whose friendship with the Melodys dates back more than 30 years, joined the team in 1996 upon CB Commercial's acquisition of L.J. Melody & Company. Collectively, following the acquisition, they helped develop L.J. Melody & Company into one of the nation's largest real estate investment banking firms. L.J. Melody & Company changed its name to CBRE Melody in 2005.
Mike Melody, Tom Melody and Tom Fish each served as Vice Chairmen of CBRE, and individually held various positions during their CBRE tenure including Co-CEOs of the Debt and Equity Finance Group, President of CBRE Capital Corp and head of the Southwest Region for the Debt and Equity Finance Group.
About Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. Our in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for our clients — whether a sale, financing, repositioning, advisory or recapitalization execution. In the last three years, Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets completed more than $143 billion transactions globally. Our Capital Markets team comprises approximately 1,500 specialists, operating in 180 major markets worldwide.
Stuart Crow
+65 6494 3888
Nicole Worthington
+65 6494 3641


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Granger on Movies: Fairfield County co-stars in 'And So It Goes'
Following is Westport News film critic Susan Granger's review of the new movie, "And So It Goes:"
While Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton get star billing, Connecticut's scenic shoreline quickly becomes the center of attention in Rob Reiner's new romantic comedy -- at least for local residents.
Filmed partially in Southport Village, as well as Greenwich, Bridgeport, Lake Compounce in Bristol and Black Rock (which is thanked in the credits), it revolves around an about-to-retire real estate salesman who avidly reads the Fairfield Citizen newspaper, sister paper of the Westport News.
While grumpy, misanthropic widower Oren Little (Douglas) is desperately trying to unload his palatial, overpriced mansion in Fairfield and retire to Vermont, he finds himself saddled with caring for a 10-year-old granddaughter, Sarah (Sterling Jerins), he never knew he had because his estranged, ex-junkie son, Luke (Scott Shepherd), has been sent to prison for nine months.
Help comes from Leah (Keaton), the wannabe lounge singer who lives next door. She bursts into tears whenever she sings love ballads because they remind her of her late husband. And you can easily predict where the plot goes from there.
Doing his best to create charm from Oren's smug, unrepentant obnoxious behavior, Douglas basically reprises his "Las Vegas" (2013) performance, while Keaton revives her customary neuroticism from "Something's Gotta Give" (2003). Working from a bland, formulaic script by Mark Andrus (co-writer of "As Good As It Gets"), veteran director Reiner ("The Bucket List," "When Harry Met Sally") elicits strong performances from his ensemble, particularly young Jerins, who underplays effectively.
Obviously drawing inspiration from coping with Cameron, his own real-life jailed son, Douglas' personal pain is palpable -- and, as he ages, he looks more and more like his father, Kirk. Keaton's quavery crooning is pleasant, as Reiner accompanies her on the piano when they audition for restaurateur Frankie Valli. As Oren's outspoken co-worker, Frances Sternhagen steals every scene she's in -- it's too bad there are so few.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "And So It Goes" is an engaging, yet forgettable 5. Aimed at a senior-citizen audience, it should enjoy a long life as a DVD.


text:
Schrödinger's Cat Executive Decision Maker
Give up your free will
- They pay you big bucks to make tough choices
- Slide open the window to observe the cat
- After a time of flux, the cat will be alive or dead
When decisions need to be made, sometimes there isn't a right choice. Drink coffee or tea? Hire Bob or Bob? Order pizza or Chinese? In the long run, these things don't matter. Give up your free will to the Schrödinger's Cat Executive Decision Maker.
To use the Schrödinger's Cat Executive Decision Maker:
- Ask your question. Any question that can be answered in a binary fashion will do. The cat is extremely bored in the box and will listen to whatever you say. It is open to questions of an executive, legislative, or personal nature. You'll never know the answer if you don't ask.
- Slide open the door. At this point, the magic will happen and you'll see the cat flashing in flux between life and death. You'll either find this disturbing or intensely magical. We won't pass judgement on your character based on your reaction, we promise.
- See your decision solidify before you. The cat will be alive (which we interpret as a "Yes") or dead (or "No"). The almighty Schrödinger's Cat Executive Decision Maker has spoken. Go and do its bidding. Meow.
Product Specifications
- Give up your free will to a box with a cat in it
- No real kittehs were harmed in the production of this product
- To receive the answer to your most burning binary question:
- Ask your question.
- Slide open the door.
- View live or dead cat.
- Batteries: 3 AA batteries (not included)
- Dimensions: 5.5" long, 4" tall, 4" deep


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You have hundreds of files with a header and you want to concatenate
all of them without the headers except the first one
=== Perl one-liner ===
$ ls
file.1 file.2 file.3 file.4 ...
# create a file with the header
# print only the first line of one of the files and
# redirect ('>') to the final file
$ head -n 1 file.1 > concatenated.file
# loop for all the files and print all lines except first one ($.==1)
# if your files have numeric suffixes and are correlative use `seq`
# if not use `find`, `ls | grep` etc ('find' is more secure than 'ls' [google for it])
## (be careful with `ls` if your filenames are not non-space or non-ascii)
$ foreach x ( `seq 1 10` )
foreach? echo $x
foreach? perl -lne 'print if $.>1' file.$x >> concatenated.file
foreach? end
$ for x in ($(seq 1 10));do echo $x; \
perl -lne 'print if $.>1' file.$x >> concatenated.file; done
$ echo {1..10}| xargs -n1 -t -I'{}' perl -lne 'print if $.>1' file.'{}' >> concat
## better to use xargs than a loop but is more difficult to have all in a one-liner
## because quotes problems when you need to do complicated things, or the redirection
## file needs also to use the loop variable.
=== Only non-perl commands (faster and shorter) ===
# you can use 'find ... -exec ...' or
# use tail -n+
$ head -n1 file.1 > concatenated.file
$ tail -q -n+2 file.* >> concatenated.file'
# the tail -q prevents to output the file name
# the tail -n+2 takes from second line to the end
# if the order of the numeric suffixes is important (the * expansion puts 10 before 2)
# you should rename the files
# and convert 1,2,...,10 to 01,02,..,10 with rename and "sprintf "%02d",$suff'
# or use a loop with the correct order of suffixes [ for x in $(seq 1 22)].


text:
PC Review - 'The Sims: Superstar'
by Tristan on July 10, 2003 @ 2:34 a.m. PDT | Filed under Reviews
Take your Sims to an online world where you get to be yourself or whoever you want to be. In this world you have your own piece of land to do with as you please. Create a house, coffee bar, dance club, museum, or whatever you can imagine. Explore the neighborhoods around you and meet scores of Sims along the way. Build a network of friends to enhance your power, wealth, reputation and social standing. Be a peacemaker or pest, a recluse or rabble-rouser. In this open-ended, online world, you choose your role, your attitude and your destiny.


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LINQ/SQL is dead! Long live SQL
One of the great improvements to the .NET 3.0 framework was the introduction of the LINQ (Language Integrated Query) technology that allows developers to make direct calls into a data store (likely a relational database, but not always) using language primitives. This advance moved data access into the first tier of programming by embedding it into the .NET language technologies. Instead of using a seperate and non-integrated technology, LINQ offered developers a way to write data access code faster, simpler and, hey, just way more cool than before.
Together with LINQ, extensions were created among them LINQ-to-SQL which allowed LINQ to bind to a relational database like SQL Server. Really cool technology and one which a lot of teams using .NET are rapidly embedding into their applications.
Then Microsoft rained on the parade.
For reasons unknown, Microsoft announced that the newly updated Entity Framework will be the recommended way to perform data access using LINQ in .NET 4.0 despite many voices shouting that this is the wrong way to go. Now we all know what "recommended" means - it's code for "anything else you're doing than this is DOA". Essentially, if you're using LINQ-to-SQL, you're using technology that although supported (for now) is no longer the recommended way to do data access.
So what is Entity Framework? If you have experience in the Java world, think "Hibernate" or "JPA". These are technologies that abstract away almost completely any notion of the underlying data store technology. You set/get/delete entities representing the objects in your application. If you need to drop down inside the technology to do some low-level data access, it usually provides a means to do so by direct SQL injection, etc. But the application code you write has no SQL in it - it's abstracted away by the data access technology.
From an architects point-of-view, this is ideal. Why force developers to learn messy SQL when they can just use C#, VB.NET, etc and write objects that know how to persist themselves? However, architects often have a tendency (especially in the software space) to convince themselves that something is good because it seems elegant. So we begin with SQL which is itself an abstraction of accessing the database to LINQ to Entity Framework. We're moving farther and farther away from the data store in an attempt to keep developers away from perceived nastiness in saving (and loading) data.
Ask yourself this question - how many high-performance Web 2.0 sites out there routinely use high-level data access abstraction technologies (beyond stored procedures) ? Likely zero.
Frameworks like EF are great at solving certain types of problems particularly where performance is not a great concern, where there is no underlying relational engine, and so on. But a .NET developer writing line-of-business applications using SQL Server doesn't have those problems. He simply wants to write code really fast, that works right the first time, and helps him deliver business value ever faster to his users.
With the rapid rise in competition from Google GWT, Adobe Flex, Ruby, and the myriad of Java technologies, the choices of how to build an application are ever more available. Hopefully Microsoft will consider whether they are helping developers become more productive, or helping developers consider other options.
Let's hope its the former.


text:
Download My Printer Utility for Canon printers / MFP
You can start downloading the My Printer Utility for Canon printers / MFP ver. 3.2.0 for Canon PIXMA iP1800 Printer. To start download file, click green «download» button on page below. We advise you to use a variety of download managers like «FlashGet» or «Download Master». Also, you can go back to the list of drivers and choose a different driver for Canon PIXMA iP1800 Printer.
- Drivers
- Printers
- Canon
- PIXMA iP1800
- This File
To start the download, select one of the servers and click "download"
Version, Date:
3.2.0, 07.01.2014
Operation Systems:
Windows 8.1 x64, Windows 8.1 x32, Windows 8 x64, Windows 8 x32, Windows 7 x64, Windows 7 x32, Windows Vista x64, Windows Vista x32, Windows XP x32
This application facilitates basic maintenance and trouble-shooting for your product.
Multilangual version.
The function [Multiple copies for drivers (icons) of the same printer exist] in [Diagnose and Repair Printer] cannot be executed in the Windows7/8/8.1 environment due to the OS factor.
Other drivers: