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As we come to the 16th chapter of Acts, we are coming, really, to a chapter that is going to, I think, leave an impression on all of us. It's one of those chapters that you always remember, just the record, alone, of Lydia and her marvelous liberation. And I've appreciated, so much, the interesting comments of you folks over that little study we've done. And then the little incident about the woman who was possessed of a demon.
And now we come to a third incident in this chapter that is going to indelibly impress it on our minds, and it's a very familiar story about a Philippian jailer and how God reached him through an earthquake. Now, there are folks in this church who can identify with this jailer (laughter). Some of you have told me that very thing. But there is, in this particular portion of verses 19 through 40, which is a long portion, but it's quite a bit narrative and very simple to understand, there is in this portion just one little facet that leaps off the page. Because in this passage, the ultimate question that a man can ever ask is asked. Verse 30: "What must I do to be saved?" And the only answer is given, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, we believe that all men need to be saved. And at the same time we believe there is only one way to be saved, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And, thus, at the beginning of the service I read to you the words of Peter, "neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." This then is the story of salvation.
Now, as all records in Scripture, there are many facets to it. And we can focus in on the story of salvation at the very beginning and then see it in the flow of the context, at the same time, picking up other very important and helpful truths. The man said, what do I need to do to be saved? And the answer came, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I think, sometimes, we don't recognize the fact that people are really looking for salvation. I believe that people are seeking deliverance. I think that we get the idea that when we go up to somebody to present Christ to them, that we are really intruding on their lives when, in fact, we may just be giving them that which they are desperately searching for and maybe don't know where to look or aren't willing to admit they're looking. The other night when we had our new members meeting with the elders, somebody stood up and said that they had gone on for years and years searching for salvation, but no one ever told them. I believe that it is a basic thing in the heart of a man that he seeks answers. And the ultimate answer is what is life about and where am I going and what am I doing here. And, of course, when a man comes to the place of terrible distress over his own life, that's the man who's ready to hear the message of salvation. Now, another reason we know that people are looking for salvation is because there's so many systems of salvation that have been invented. You know, people only invent what they think is going to sell. And people are...there are all kinds of systems. I just read about a new way of salvation the other day in a magazine. It's too a particular kind of occult trance operation, but it's another way of delivering men from meaninglessness and sin and guilt and boredom and loneliness and the dread of death and insecurity and anxiety and whatever. There's all kinds of panaceas being attempted and being offered to men. And the man in this account, a jailer, a crusty, hard, ex-Roman soldier most likely, who was sort of put out to pasture and ran a stinking, rotten jail in the city of Philippi...how do you know it was stinking and rotten?...they all were. Now, this guy was a hard-nosed character who really just lived and died for the fact that he had a little bit of honor left by being a jailer. At least he had a commission from Rome to do that job and he lived for that thing. You know, everybody, sooner or later, who doesn't have salvation, reduces his life to some little box that gives it meaning. For some people, it's money. For some people, it may be prestige, popularity. For some people, it may be a promotion. For some people, it's a new car. Just every once in a while when their life starts to get boring, they buy another car or they get another wife or something new. Maybe some people, it's sex. Maybe for some people it's athletics. There's many, many things. For some people it's drink; for some people, it's dope. And there's some people who get their little box and then it falls apart and they kill themselves. But eventually, men find that they have to face the reality and unreality of life and so they get a little box, whatever the little box is, and they put everything in that little box. And if the little box goes, that's the end. This man had a little box. His little box was prestige, status. All he had left was his name as a jailer and the fact that he had some honor because he was commissioned by Rome to occupy the jail. In the midst of this little account you know what happened to his jail? It fell apart. All the doors flew open, the chains fell off, the stocks were separated and every prisoner was loose. And you know what the man decided to do?...kill himself. Why? His little box had broken. The only thing he had to live for was his prestige as a jailer. If all of his prisoners got away, he'd lost it. And no matter how he tried to wiggle around it and call it an earthquake, somebody would've blamed him. And there wasn't anything to do but draw a sword and kill himself because he had nothing to live for. And that's exactly the way it is with people. They reduce life to some kind of simple commodity that they can stick their hopes in. Or maybe they run so fast around in their little box they don't realize that they don't have anything to live for. But they've got to escape somehow. Well, this man had no answers. He had no escape. And he came to the biggest crisis in his life up to this point, and the only left to do was kill himself. But instead of killing himself, God had something else in mind for him. And you know what he did? He just fell down at the feet of Paul and Silas and he asked the right question. He said "What must I do to be saved?" How do I get out of the mess of having my little box broken? Where do I turn to get rid of my fears and anxiety and loneliness and the meaninglessness of life and the fear of death and all this? Where do I go? And the answer came very clearly. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" and you'll be delivered, and not only you, but anybody else in your house who believes. Now, that's the main message of this passage. It has to be because it's the main message of Christianity. Let's set the scene a little bit and kind of sneak up on that message.
Now, we're traveling in this little trek through the book of Acts with a pretty sharp bunch. We're with a missionary team made up of four men. Without question, it's the best missionary group that ever went out. Paul, Silas, Luke and Timothy...now it's hard to beat that kind of outfit. Now, these four men are making up this little group. Now, they have arrived at Philippi, which is the beachhead in Europe. And the gospel has landed in Europe. And the first thing, God directed them down by the riverside and they met some women there, some women who were worshipping the true God. They were either Jews or Jewish proselytes. No men, at least not enough men to found a synagogue, so the women had to meet at a little place called a proseuche, a place of prayer by the river. And there, God directed them to these women and the one woman in particular by the name of Lydia. And God opened Lydia's heart and she was saved and her whole household was saved. And just like that, the church was founded in Europe. And you know what happens immediately when God begins a work? What happens? Satan begins a counterwork. And so immediately they ran into another woman, only this woman was a demon-possessed girl. In verses 16 to 18 it records that little incident. And she followed Paul around and she did what Satan loves to do, she tried to infiltrate. She said, Oh, they're telling you the truth. You ought to believe them. You say, what is Satan doing agreeing? Satan will agree long enough to get into the organization and to be accepted as part of the same system and then he'll begin to do what he wants to do. And so Paul didn't like this kind of agreement, so in verse 18 he just turned around, didn't even talk to the girl; he just talked to the spirit in her. He said, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ...come out of her. And the spirit came out the same hour." Now, two women that we've met, one a liberated lady and one an enslaved lady. Well, when the enslaved lady was freed, you say, what was the reaction. Well, the reaction was very typical for these kind of people. Look at it in verse 19. "And when her master saw the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers." Now, watch, friends. That's very interesting. The reaction was negative on the part of the guys who were using this girl to make money. Now, that reaction sets up what happens in verses 19 through 40. Satan's infiltration plan failed 'cause Paul just cast out the demon. Now, if Satan can't infiltrate, he's got another alternative. It never works, but he does it anyway. It's called persecution. Infiltration works; persecution doesn't. You know what happens when the church gets persecuted? It grows. You see, the blood of the martyrs has always been the seed of the church. But Satan's so uptight about the church, he can't resist whacking away at it even though he knows it doesn't work. There's a great principle, beloved, and it's this principle and you see it over and over in the book of Acts: persecution always results in blessing. You persecute the church in chapter 4 and what'll they do? They multiply. You come back and persecute the church in chapter 5 and what'll they do? They multiply. As if that's not enough, Satan comes back and persecutes the church in a great persecution of chapter 8 and what happened?...scattered the church everywhere and they went everywhere preaching. It multiplies. Persecution brings blessing. Infiltration is what destroys. That's why, you know, all these people walking around and talking about, oh, this is such a great day for the church and so forth and so on and, you know, this is probably a time when Satan is as active as he's ever been. Because we're not under persecution, which really causes us to grow, we're under the process of infiltration, which is Satan's subtle and effective work. Well, God overwhelmed infiltration in the case of the maid and He's about to overwhelm persecution and we'll see how.
Now, I want you to look at five features and I put them in the little outline for you to follow. If I was going to give you a proposition to base those points on, I would say How To Turn Persecution Into Production. How do you take a negative situation and make a positive out of it? How do you take a persecuted church or a persecuted man or men and make them productive? What is the process or what are the steps or what happens to bring about a positive result from a negative situation? Well, there are five things. Suffering persecution led to singing praises which led to preaching salvation which led to seeing production which led to securing protection and the cycle ran fully.
Now, let's begin at point one. The first thing we see in our text is suffering persecution. Now, this gets exciting because as soon as you start to suffer, you're gonna start seeing something happen. It's inevitable in the book of Acts, absolutely inevitable. Paul cast the demon out of the girl and her masters saw the hope of their gains was gone. It hit them right in the wallet, you see. I mean, this girl was essentially doing what all the rest of those women soothsayers, fortune tellers and palm readers and all do; she was making a fortune, only she had some agents who were taking in the gravy. She was just getting the residual. Now, it's amazing to me that their reaction was what it was because it shows that they didn't care about the girl, right. They could have cared less about the girl. They didn't say, Oh, she's delivered from that devil. These guys must be supernatural. Well, let's find out about this. They said, Oh, no, we've lost our income. Now, you know, that is not so abnormal. I remember in Mark, chapter 5 when Jesus took a little boat across the Sea of Galilee and came to a place called Gerasa or the land of the Gerasenes. And there was there a maniac. And, I mean, this guy was really a maniac. When he was asked his name, he said, "Legion, for we are many." He was infested with a legion of demons. And he cut himself, you know. And he lived in the tombs. And they tried to bind him with things and he broke them. And women and children were panicked at the guy. I mean, you know, you wouldn't even go out of your house. He was a complete madman. And Jesus came along and met the guy and cast all the demons out of him. And the Bible says he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And you would say, oh, the people in town will say, oh, thank you, thank you for delivering us. No. Jesus sent the demons out of him into a herd of pigs and they went right off the end of a cliff. Plop, right in the sea and all drowned. And you know what the reaction of the townspeople was? Oh, they didn't come out and say, oh, you've healed the maniac; they said, you get out of here, you killed our pigs (laughter), see...the crass response...typical. The same thing right here...they didn't care about the girl; they only cared about their gain. Believe me, people, the Bible is very explicit when it says that money can get into the way of spiritual perception. Do you know that? You say, well, that'll never bother me. I'm so poor it's not even a factor. Well, let me tell you what the Bible says. "For the love of money is the root of all evil." It doesn't say money is. So you can have none of it and love and you can have a lot of it and not love it. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. He says "they that would be rich fall into temptation, a snare and into many foolish, hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and loss." People get messed up because of money. Listen to this in Mark, chapter 10, verse 23. "Jesus looked round about and said unto His disciples, 'With what difficulty shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God.'" He just talked to a rich young ruler. Remember this story? And the guy was not willing to say, if You want all of my money, You can have it. It wasn't that you get saved by giving away your money; it was just the fact that it was obvious money was his god. And Jesus said, boy, wow, it is so difficult for rich people to get saved. "And the disciples were astonished at His words."...verse 24..."But Jesus answered again and said to them, 'Children,'...He liked to use that word when they didn't understand what He was saying...'how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" Now, you can speculate about it must be a small camel or a big needle or whether the needle means a little gate or whether the word kamelos should be bamelos, which means cord, etc. You can do all of that, but the point is, what Jesus is saying is it's hard for rich people to get saved. You say why?...because money becomes such a god, such a dominating thing. "And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, 'Who then can be saved?'" And I like the answer. Well, Jesus says, "With men it's impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." There's a few that'll get saved cause God can do miracles. He said, actually, it's harder for rich people to get saved. Now, here were these guys making money like crazy off this girl and so preoccupied. Listen, money is a tremendous captor of men's hearts...tremendous. When you begin to worry about how rich you are, you're falling into many hurtful snares. Over in the 19th chapter of Acts, well, look what happened in Ephesus, just a terrific story. They preached in Ephesus and, man alive, things were going, Paul was teaching three years. I mean, he turned that city inside out. You can imagine Paul teaching night and day for three years in the same town. You think he'd have an effect. Wow! Well, the place was just tremendously affected. All kinds of things were happening. People were getting healed and saved and demons cast out and many believed. Verse 18: "...many...believed...confessed...showed their deeds. Many of those who used magical arts brought their books together...burned them before all men...they counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed." Do you know what reigned in Ephesus? The Word of God dominated the city of Ephesus. Do you know what that does to people who are in the idol-making business? Oh, that's tough. Watch what happens. Verse 23: "At that time there arose no small stir..." That's putting it mildly. "For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines for Diana"...they used to make these little silver shrines for Diana...probably had a magnet on them and stuck them on the front of their chariot (laughter)...but they "brought no small gain unto the craftsmen..." They were profitable items. And it says "he called together the workmen of like occupation," he says, "Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth." We made our money on these little statues. "Moreover you see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but all throughout Asia, this Paul"...you can see them getting uptight..."this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are no gods which are made with hands..." They're saying that our little deals aren't for real. "So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth." And all the dumb people in the crowd all say, Oh, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." You know _____ (laughter). "And the whole city was filled with confusion..." Well, you see what happened? They hit them right in the wallet. The gospel messed up selling little idols. Well, you see vested interests always react negatively to the gospel. And the same thing happened over here...go back to chapter 16...when this girl lost her lucrative capacities, then of course, they got mad.
Well, it says they drew them into the marketplace. You know, it's such a gentle word, "drew." The word literally means "dragged by the heels." They dragged them in. This is a switch for Paul. You go back to chapter 8, verse 3 and you'll read that's what Paul did. He dragged Christians. Remember, it says hauling them out of houses, both men and women. And you remember what the Lord said to him after he was at Ananias' house after he had his vision. He said to Ananias, now you go tell him that he's a chosen vessel unto Me to speak to the Gentiles and also tell him he's going to suffer many things for My Name's sake. So Paul was being dragged by the heels and probably remembering how many times he'd been doing the dragging.
Well, they dragged him away and you know how Paul spells persecution? O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y, persecution. So here came opportunity and they dragged him off and it says they took him to the marketplace, agora, Greek, which is equivalent to the Latin word forum. This was the big center area, city center, with all the Senate houses, courts, the temple, the places of public office, everything was in this big agora in the Greek cities. The magistrates and the dignitaries congregated there and did whatever they do. So they took him there. Well, they brought him in verse 20 to the magistrates. These people, their official name was duoviri, but they chose to be called praetors because that was kind of a classy Roman title. Every Greek colony, Roman colony in a Greek city, was given two of these men and these two guys had supreme authority. So here were the two praetors. And they said to the praetors, "These men, being Jews"...and you could just feel the contempt, the anti-Semitism...and you know anti-Semitism was a big thing in the Roman world. Over in chapter 18, verse 2, you can read that Claudius Caesar actually commanded all Jews to be thrown out of Rome. Now, maybe the edict of Claudius, which had been made, had already reached Philippi and so these people were just kind of picking up on that edict anyway and said, "These men, being Jews..." And they cast a terrible contempt toward Paul and Silas who were Jews. It's a marvelous, marvelous thing that God had just the right men who were the right nationality with all the right citizenship and all the right background to do exactly what he wanted them to do. They were Jews, which added to the contempt, which added to the beating, which added to the jailing, which resulted in a man's conversion, all planned by God. So in their anti-Semitism, they haul these two guys in and first they just cast this kind of a contempt at them from the standpoint of their Jewish-ness which is interesting. Then they go from there to this. They "do exceedingly trouble our city..." And the term "exceedingly trouble" means to throw into total disorder. These guys are just really throwing this city into chaos. Now, in a very technical sense they were right. Verse 21 says, they "teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans." That is correct. According to Cicero and Tertullian and some other writings, the Romans had a law that no Roman could believe in or follow the teachings of any religion that had not been approved by the Senate. You see, within the framework of Roman government, they desired, most of all, that the people worship the emperor, you know. Apart from that, they allowed certain worship in order to keep peace in some of the lands they had conquered. But nobody could worship in any way that was not approved by Roman law and Roman Senate. So this new deal about Christ and all had not gone through approval of the Senate. And so they said, they are teaching things that are anti-Roman and we are not allowed to believe them; they are against Roman law. Well, right there on the spot, they had a kangaroo court. It was just a mob scene. A lynching was all it was. They had thrown the little contemptuous thing of anti-Semitism at them and then they blamed them for creating disorder through the town and then they said it's all because they're teaching something that we are not allowed to believe.
So here came the situation. Point one: suffering persecution. They got into this mess in the first place by being bold. Don't ever restrict your boldness for fear of persecution. Persecution only translates your boldness into new opportunity. Remember Acts 4? They preached so they threw them in prison. What'd they do when they got in prison? They preached to the Sanhedrin. They sent them out and they told them not to preach again. And they preached again and people got saved. Every time they did it boldly, the Lord brought results. I mean, you know, Satan, he has to learn, the dumbest thing you can do to a Christian is put him in prison because the cross turns into what?...the crown. And so they are. They're going to drag him off. Well, first before they put them in jail, they got something else they want to do to him. They had this little kangaroo court, no trial, no questioning, no inquisition, no nothing.
Verse 22: "The multitude rose up together against them..." You know, somebody could do a terrific study of the "multitude" just throughout the Bible. Great big gob of people mindlessly, like a pot of water, somebody sticks a fire under them and they boil and haven't got any idea what they're doing. So "the multitude rose up together against them..." And, oh, you can just hear the swelling crowd yelling and here's Paul and Silas just standing there and this big mob is screaming. And the magistrates come down and ripped off their clothes till they were naked "and commanded to beat them." Now, the magistrates had a group of guys that were local police. They were called lictors, l-i-c-t-o-r-s, and they were a kind of policeman. They carried around, for the purpose of punishment in these places where Greek people live, like, a pile of rods wrapped together. They were like birch rods, very hard. And they would wrap them all together. And in the middle they would insert an axe. And the axe was for the purpose of capital punishment when it was needed. On the spot, they could execute. When they didn't need the axe, they laid the axe aside, take the bundle of rods and just flail people with them. Well, that's what they decided to do. This was a Roman punishment. Incidentally, Paul got it three times. "Thrice was I beaten with rods," II Corinthians 11:25...three times. It's a fantastic thing to even conceive of this kind of a beating. And Paul says in II Corinthians 11:23, he says "in stripes above measure." There were so many wounds inflicted by this mass of sticks flailing away that you couldn't count them. No trial, no nothing! "And when they had laid many stripes," verse 23...and not even being able to count them...Paul simply said, "above measure,"..."they threw them in prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely." And what happened? When he received the charge, he "thrust them into the inner prison..." Boy, they said, get those people secure; we don't want them out of there. So he put them in the inner dungeon "and made their feet fast in the stocks." Now, the jailer was just doing his job. I mean, there was no sympathy in him. He'd seen prisoners come and go. He was an old crusty character. That didn't phase him. He just chucked them into the inner dungeon, dirty, filthy, dank, dingy, unsanitary jail in the inner dungeon. And to make it worse, he put them in stocks. Now, we think of stocks in the sense of early America, you know, with your feet and your hands, which is bad enough. According to archeology, the stocks that they used in those days had a series of holes that got wider and wider and the idea was to spread the legs of the individual as far as they could go in order to induce cramping. And so after all the beating was done, in this filthy dungeon where they would be living in absolute filth, their legs were stretched to the extremity to induce cramping that was excruciating. Already having been flailed by a bundle of heavy rods in the hands of an expert, their backs would have been a horrible pulp. Sometimes these things caused internal hemorrhaging, almost always, injuries to organs, smashed vertebrae, broken ribs and very often, death. They endured every bit of that. Then the aching, bleeding, limping men pushed into the dark cell, far from the light and far from the air in solitary confinement, lice, rats, disease, infested first century jails, the prisoners were forced to exist in their own filth, their legs were slammed into stocks which clamped them and that's the way they existed. You say, but all of that just to preach. You guys, you get yourselves in messes. Why don't you calm down? I'm sure some dear soul would have said that. Oh, Paul, you just go out there and you get in all that trouble, then you say, pray for me, pray for me. Why don't you stay out of trouble? (Laughter) If you didn't get into those messes, you wouldn't take so much of my prayer time (laughter). I was watching Monday Night Football last week and there's a guy doing a comment on one of the running backs and he said, You know why he's good is because he's reckless. That's right. That's one game where you better be reckless. And I'll tell you something, being effective in the Lord's work, you better have an abandonment to the cause...an abandonment to the cause...recklessness. Take no thought for yourself. You just cast yourself into the melee, present Christ and let it all fly and it will (laughter). Most of us are going carefully, very carefully through this evangelism thing, won't offend anybody, see. Well, they did what they knew was right to do and they suffered. But that didn't bother Paul...just hopped from prison to prison and later on in his life he was in another prison and he wrote a letter back to the same Philippians. And he said, Philippians 1:12, he said "...brethren...the things which happened to me have fallen out unto the furtherance of the gospel." He says, I'm in jail again but, boy, is it terrific. He ended the letter, he says, "All the saints greet you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household." You know what he was doing in prison?...winning all the soldiers to Christ. And I've often thought that he was chained to a soldier, but [if] a soldier was chained to him, I think that'd be worse (laughter). Philippians 2:17, he says, "...if I be offered on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." He said, you dear Philippians, if I died in your behalf, I'd be happy. And that's about what he was doing right here, isn't it? But, you see, that's how he saw his ministry. He was reckless because he was expendable. He wasn't seeking to protect himself at all so he cast himself into it. And he said, I even bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ. He got a certain glory and joy out of receiving wounds that were meant for Jesus Christ when he got to stand in Christ's place. And so the real ministry began with suffering persecution and, boy, that just set it in motion.
The second thing that happened, suffering persecution led to singing praises. You know, the way to handle persecution is an attitude problem. Right? Now, I don't know any of you who have ever had yourselves beaten with rods and none of you have ever been in inner prison like that and none of you ever had your feet in stocks. I don't know that we've ever suffered anything that could even begin to relate to this. But I want you to see the attitude of these guys in the midst of this. It's just overwhelming. Look at verse 25. "And at midnight..." You know what happened? They couldn't sleep. You think you could sleep in those circumstances? They couldn't sleep. But "at midnight Paul and Silas prayed"...they just talked to God for awhile, and then I love this..."and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them." You know, they wanted the prisoners to hear them. I mean, they were giving a witness. You say, what did they sing? I don't know what they sang. They sang praises. Maybe they sang the Hallel, Psalms 113 to 118. Maybe they sang some wonderful hymns that somebody had gotten together in the early years of the church. I don't know what they sang, but they sang praises to God. You say, yeah, but they don't...what are they gonna praise Him for? Don't you see, friends, this is just what everybody gets mixed up in the Christian life. You say, how could they praise God? On what basis could they praise God? Simply this, friends; God never changes. Did you hear that? God never changes. If God is worth praising right now, He's worth praising any moment. Are you with me? You say, but oh, if you knew my trouble, ah, oh... Listen, praising God has nothing to do with your trouble. Paul said in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the"..."in the Lord." He didn't say rejoice in your circumstances. I can't rejoice in my circumstances. Paul didn't do that himself. He said I have continual sorrow and heaviness of heart. You say, God, I don't know what this is all about and it sure hurts and the cramps aren't any fun and my back's killing me, but I know You're on the throne and I love You and I praise You for what You're doing. You know a Christian is defeated, he is dead, when he begins to focus on his problems. Did you get that? He gets his eyes off his God. Boy, we've hit that so many times. Oh, Habakkuk did that. Remember what Habakkuk's problem was? He couldn't understand his problem. He finally said, Forget the problem, God; I'm gonna talk about You. He felt so good he said, God, if the whole world goes crazy, I'm gonna keep trusting You. I don't know anything about the problem. I can't figure out the answer, but I know You're there and I know who You are and I know what You are and I know You're consistent. You know what bothers me? Christians will say to me, oh, I have this problem, John. Where is God? Oh, what's happening in my life? Has God forsaken me? Has God, oh... You know what they're doing? They're running around...circumstance, circumstance, circumstance, see. (Laughter) They got a big old telescope looking for all the circumstances, see. (Laughter) God hasn't changed. If you just be patient and wait, God is perfecting you. And God is about to unfold some fantastic ministry. And so they're there singing away in pain that's unbearable and singing praises. They're not saying, oh, ah, nobody knows the trouble, ah... (laughter)...you know. They were singing praises. Now, you've got to be above your circumstances, right, to do that. Listen. Just get a grip on who God is and what He wants to do and remember that after you've suffered awhile, He'll make you perfect. That's I Peter. Now, you know, if you only realize Romans 8:28 says "And we know that all things work together for"...what?...we always say that and then we ooohh..."all things work together for good." We all read it, recite it, memorize it; we just don't believe it (laughter). You know, Jesus said in John 16, of course, talking to His disciples, and He knew that He was going to be leaving and it was going to be rough on them and He said, You'll have sorrow, but your sorrow shall be turned to joy. Remember that? And then He said, It's like a woman who has a baby. It is the same pain that makes her cry, that makes her laugh when the baby's born. It's not, well, these are bad circumstances and later I'll get good ones. No. It's the same bad ones that 'cause the pain that will issue the joy. It's the child that's born out of the pain, you see, that causes the joy. And so they're just there. They're in the labor pains now but they're waiting for the child to be born. And so they're praising God for what's going to happen and for the fact that God hasn't changed. Listen. The Christian life, beloved, depends upon your knowledge of God. Did you get that? You know, you can base your whole Christian life and your whole Christian attitude on who you really believe God is. --You got that one. That's worth 50 cents; believe me. When you understand that God does not change...and that's why I've said so long that Jesus movements bother me because they end up in kind of a sentimental humanism and Holy Spirit movements bother me 'cause they end up in kind of an emotionalism. I like God movements because then you get things in perspective. And when you understand who God is, then you got everything else in perspective. God doesn't change. Watch it. They never let their problems alter their theology. Boy, is that an important one. Most people's theology comes from their situations. Well, God does this because He did this and you know. Or I don't know if God can do that because He didn't and you know. They just organize God around their circumstances. Not at all. So they were suffering purposefully and they knew it. They were just sitting there, singing away, waiting for God to do what He was gonna do. Well, God didn't have much...let them wait too long cause things began to happen real fast. You say, you know, John, I wish I could have that kind of song. You know how to have a song in your heart? Ephesians 5:18: "...be filled with the Spirit" then you will speak "to yourselves in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." That comes out of a Spirit-controlled life. If somebody is an unhappy person, they're not Spirit-filled. When I meet miserable people I say you got a problem and your problem isn't your miseries; your problem is the fact that you're not really living a Spirit-controlled life because the Spirit gives a song. Now, when you're Spirit-filled, you're gonna have problems. It's just the glory of being able to go through them with victory. You know, in II Corinthians 4:8, we got a little insight into Paul's heart. He says this, "We are troubled on every side and not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair." What he's saying is we have problems, but they never get us down, see. He says, "We're persecuted, but not forsaken" and the next phrase in Corinthians says "We're knocked down, but never knocked out." You say, well, how can you handle that, Paul? Well, he says, in verse 16, we don't faint. We don't say ooohh, you know. We don't fall under the thing. Why? "...our outward man is perishing, but our inward man is renewed every day." Why? We're plugged in on the inside to the supply. What happens on the outside is immaterial. He says this, our light affliction, it's only for a moment and "it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Here's our secret. "We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal...the things which are not seen are"...what?..."eternal." You know who he looked at in his problems? He looked at the eternal God. That's who he looked at. That's the key. Get your mind on the Spirit and on who God is and not on your circumstances. Well, there they were singing praises. It was about time for God to act.
Now, God does what He needs to do to get who He wants to get. With Lydia, her heart opened like a flower to the dawning sun. With this guy, it took an earthquake (laughter). But God always...but God always uses what He needs to use to accomplish what He wants to accomplish. It was like that with me. You know, I've always said that some people God speaks to and they listen, others, He grabs them by the nape of the neck, hits them on the pavement and they say, uh, did You want me? That was me. I got thrown out of a car going 75 miles an hour and the whole thing and through that terrible accident got my life right with God. Well, this guy went through a terrible experience. That's how it is with some of us hard cases. Verse 26, here it comes. They been singing "And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed." Now, that friends, is a very specific earthquake. You know, it was localized right at the jail (laughter) see. And the effect of it was that it opened all the doors and opened all the chains. Now, that's amazing. That's just one of those special earthquakes (laughter). You want to know what that says to me? I get excited when I read about that. Do you know, do you really realize that when you go out to share Christ with people that God is on your side and if need be, He'll move the earth? He'll move the earth to accomplish what He wants to accomplish. Don't ever think that when you go out in evangelism to share Jesus Christ, that you're going alone. You have all of Sovereignty behind you. And when the time comes when God's gonna reached the prepared heart through you, whatever it takes, God's gonna do it. Have you ever heard a person give a testimony and say, You know what happened...and in this circumstance...and I couldn't believe it...immediately after that...this...hn...hn...hn Have you ever heard anybody's testimony like that, how all these things, bang, kept fitting together? Well, of course, no big mystery (laughter). Nobody ever got saved by accident yet. Just the perfect miracle, just rattle that jail till all the doors flew open, all the little chains fell off and it was exciting. God is always, beloved, listen, God is not only active in protecting His saints; He is active in doing what needs to be done so that His saints and ministry is effective. God will take care of you and God will do what He needs to do to cause you to reach that which He wants you to reach. We have divine resources. I'm telling you, I just sometimes think to myself, well, I'm going out to minister today. God, whatever it takes, earthquakes or whatever You got to do, let's do it. And you know that God is on your side. Well, the earthquake hit and, of course, verse 27, the jailer was staying at his house, probably next door to the jail. "The keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep..." He sure didn't lose any sleep over Paul and Silas did he? He wasn't real sympathetic about anything, he just...out. But this thing woke him. And he saw the prison doors were open and what happened? He had his whole life in his little box. And what was his little box?...prestige and honor as a Roman, doing a good job as a jailer. He lived for that. All the sudden his jail was open. His automatic assumption: what jail ever had all of its doors fly open? Secondly, if a jail ever did have them all fly open, what prisoner would stay inside? He was right. And so he figured they're all gone, I've lost, the only reason to live, I'll lose my job, my prestige, they'll blame me, this localized earthquake and all that stuff. There's no indication that the people in town even felt the thing. Isn't that amazing? And so he takes out his little sword. The word "sword" is little one, dagger, and he's gonna kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. Well, out of the darkness comes a voice. It's the voice of Paul. He says, "Do thyself no harm, we're all here." I don't know the reaction of the jailer, but you can imagine (laughter). You say, well, why didn't the prisoners leave. I don't know except that God kept them there. Maybe the attachment of Paul and Silas; I don't know. For some reason they didn't leave. Maybe they were so scared that they couldn't leave. They'd been hearing Paul and Silas singing praises to God and all the sudden God moved this earthquake. They might have been too afraid to move. But they stayed and Paul says, Don't hurt yourself; everybody's here. That was too much to handle. It says that "he called for lights"...plural...he "sprang in and came trembling"...shaking..."and fell down before Paul and Silas." Now who's on top? Boy, how God can reverse the situation that fast. Here's a guy on his knees and Paul and Silas are standing there. And God did what He had to do. You see, salvation, beloved, and get this in your mind, salvation is a sovereign work, isn't it. It's the work of God. The man had had conviction of sin in his heart. God had done all the preparation. All that he needed was the blast to throw open his consciousness and the earthquake supplied that. And the guy came in and he knew that he was a lost man and he knew that he had no answers and he knew that life was meaningless and he knew that he was sinner and he knew everything and it all came to one great big head and he fell down before Paul and Silas. And here, God had just taken two guys that had been beaten up, sat around in that jail singing praises, and God now gives them an opportunity for point number 3, salvation preaching. And, man, they took advantage. It's so exciting to see how this works. Salvation is the work of God and you and I are just around to supply the content. You got that? It's the work of God. You and I are just there to provide the content.
So he comes and he asks the right question. He says, "What must I do to be saved?" He didn't say, uh, well, wha--how did this happen? W--why aren't you guys gone? W--well, what happened--what happened in this earthquake? He couldn't even think of the earthquake. You know what he saw in his own mind? He knew God was working in his heart. God had convicted him to that point already supernaturally. All he could think about is I'm in rebellion against God; I gotta get squared away. I'm sure he didn't even understand who this God was and all about Him; he just knew he was a lost man. And he fell on his knees and said, "'Sirs,'...the word is Lords or Masters...'what must I do to be saved?' And they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.'" Now, I like a simple question and I like a simple answer. You know, another man asked Jesus a question very similar...a rich man. What do I need to do? he said to Jesus. And Jesus said, Well, you need to do this, friend. You need to sell all you have and give to the poor. You say, well, oh, are you saved by doing that? No. You say, well, why did he tell him that? Because he could never put his faith in Christ until he'd gotten the barrier out of the way and the barrier was money. Do you know what the barrier in this man's life was? There wasn't any. He wasn't hung up on anything. He was so desperate, he just said, "What must I do to be saved?" and he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." I mean, it was just, like, point me in the direction I need to go. That's all. He was ready. Nothing stood in his way. Beloved, that's the question and that's the answer. And after they had said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house, they spoke unto him the Word of the Lord." They first said salvation is by believing in Jesus Christ, then they taught him what Jesus Christ did and who He was, you see. And they taught everybody in his house.
I like the fact that he states the method of salvation very simply. Presentation is so simple. And I don't even need to say it; it's so obvious. Salvation comes by believing in Jesus Christ, doesn't it? There is no other salvation apart from faith in Christ. In Romans, chapter 3, Paul is talking about the terrible sinfulness of man and he says, How are you gonna be righteous? Righteousness is apart from law; it is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all that believe, you see. Salvation is simply believing. In John 1:12, John said, "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that"...what?..."believe on His Name." Believing in Jesus Christ! Chapter 2 of Acts, chapter 4 of Acts, chapter 8, chapter 11, chapter 13, chapter 15...in all of those chapters you'll find statements regarding believing in Jesus Christ. That's the only way of salvation. [In] Ephesians it says, "by grace are you saved through faith." Believing...a man is saved by believing, simply and only. There is no works involved. "...not of works lest any man should"...what?..."boast." We'd just all be bragging about everything. You say, well, John, what am I supposed to believe? I don't want to just believe in believing. You know, a few people say I have faith in faith. I believe in believing. That is ridiculous. You're supposed to believe in something. What are you supposed to believe in? Jesus Christ. What about Him? One: who He is...who He is. John 20:31, "These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through His Name." You need to believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He can give life. That's who He is. The second thing you need to believe is what He did. Right? I Corinthians, chapter 15 says...really recites the gospel. He says, I preached unto you the gospel by which you are saved, unless you believe in vain. And then he says this. Here it is. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures...buried...He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." There you have it. Believe in who He is and what He did. And what does Romans 10:9 and 10 say? "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." So, salvation is a question of believing that Jesus is who He claimed to be and believing that He did what He claimed to do. Now, that's salvation.
Well, that's all they said to the man. And then they went on, of course, having said "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," they told him, surely, in that verse 32 what it was that Christ had done that he was to believe in and his whole family. You say, well, does that teach that if a man gets saved, his whole house is automatically saved? "Thou shalt be saved and thy house." No, no, that doesn't mean if the father gets saved everybody's automatically a Christian. They all believed. You say, how do you know they all believed. The end of verse 34 says, "believing in God with all his"...what?..."his house." They all believed. Salvation is by believing. Don't think you can get saved by going to church, reading the Bible, singing a hymn, thinking religious thoughts, sprinkling your human activity with divine salt. You can't get saved by being good, being baptized. You can't do it that way. You can be saved only by believing that Jesus is who He claimed to be and did what He claimed to do. And that's it and there's no works to it.
Well, suffering persecution led to singing praises led to salvation preaching and you know what happened. That led to the seeing of production. God gave results. Boy, when the gospel is preached and the heart is ready and everything is in motion, the results come. I love what happened. You say, what happened? The whole family got saved. It says at the end of verse 34 they all believed. And now there was a little group of women and now there was a jailer and his family and the church of Philippi had two groups coming together as one. You say, this is what the Lord wants, isn't it, production? Yes. Jesus said in John 15:16, "I pray that you might have fruit and that your fruit might"...what?..."remain." I want you to be productive. You say, well, did this fruit remain. You say, oh, I think this guy was really saved. You say, why?...four reasons.
One, verse 33, "he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized..." "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord..." I think it's not only a question of believing in your heart, but being willing to take a public stand and confess Him as Lord. Right? He was baptized and his whole house, which is a public declaration of his commitment to Christ.
Second thing that shows me his salvation was real, it says at the beginning of verse 33, "he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes." Now, just get a hold of that, friends. This guy couldn't have cared less about them. In a flash, in an instant, he's washing their wounds. You say, what happened? Did they pay him some money? No. I'll tell you what happened. He was transformed. The only thing that could take a hard, old, beleaguered, belligerent, totally unsympathetic old crusty jailer and have him washing the wounds of people he just chucked into the deep dungeon is when God changes his life. Jesus said, "by this shall all men know that you are My disciples, because you have"...what?..."love one for another." Boy, he revealed that he was for real, bang, like that, because of his love for Paul. You know, he instantly fell in love with Paul and Silas. Have you had that experience since you believed? When you became a Christian, you all the sudden fell in love with Christians. Fantastic! That's exactly what happened to him. I John...I just love I John 5:1 and it says this. Listen. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." That's how you get saved, believing. Now, watch. "And everyone that loveth Him that begat"...everyone that loves God, the one who begat Christ..."loveth him also that is begotten of Him." Now, there's all kinds of ways to look at this. If you really love God and you really love Christ, you'll also really love who...Christians. John says in another place, if you say you're a Christian but you don't love your brother, you're a liar. They automatically, when they were saved, that little family fell in love with Paul and Silas. You know, in I Thessalonians, Paul said to the Thessalonians, nobody needs to teach you to love; you're taught of God to do that.
Third thing that tells me they really were saved was hospitality. They did just what Lydia did. Verse 34: "When he had brought them into his house, he set food before them." They just...I think old Paul must have sat there, eating, thinking of the Psalm, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." You see what a little singing in jail did? Just...God used...here this guy puts them in his house and he cleans them up and he feeds them. You say, well, that doesn't necessarily qualify as salvation. It does in my mind. In James...listen to what James says...2:14...he says, Can faith save a man? A guy comes along and says, I believe, I believe, I believe. How do you know if he was for real? Well, here's a good test. Faith without works is what?...dead. And "if a brother or a sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him, 'Depart in peace; be warmed and filled.'" That's like, hey, I hope you find some food and some clothes. We'll be praying for you, friend (laughter), see. Oh, he says, come on, that kind of faith is dead. You know what true faith does, says James? It takes that brother, feeds him and gives him clothes. That's exactly what they did to Paul and Silas, fed them and gave them some clothes. That's why I know he was really saved. He had the fruit of it...the works that issue from true faith.
Fourth reason I know he was saved is in verse 34. "...he set food before them and"...what?..."rejoiced." Do you know that a few minutes before that he was a suicide? Now, you say, what would make a man change that fast?...God and God, alone. God alone can transform a man that fast. This guy, he was gonna kill himself and now the jail's in crumbles. Who knows where the prisoners are? He's in there having a party (laughter). God changed him. I have no question about the fact that he was a believer. You see, there's production when there's preaching, when there's praise and when there's persecution.
Lastly, and I'm just gonna fire this past and we'll be done, just this simple thought. The last point was securing protection. What was Paul's greatest concern whenever he had a group of believers?...take care of them. Inevitably he was concerned with taking care of believers. So he thought to himself, I'm gonna leave town now and, you know, all these little Christians here are gonna be under the gun. So God had a plan. Oh, it's so exciting and fantastic! Look at verse 35. "And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants saying, 'Let those men go.'" Here these two big wheels sent; you tell them, let those guys go. They've had enough. We beat them up good and one night in that crummy jail and they'll get out of town and won't bother us anymore. The keeper of the prison told this to Paul. He comes in and he says, hey, "the magistrates have sent to let you go, now...depart in peace." Terrific! Look at this. "Paul said unto them, 'They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans..." Wham! You see, it was forbidden under Roman law to ever corporeally inflict a wound on a Roman citizen. That was against the law. All a Roman had to do was say, I am a Roman citizen and they couldn't put one wound on his body. That was the right of Roman citizenship. You know what happened? They had violated Roman law. You say, well, why didn't Paul say it earlier? God didn't want him to, because if they hadn't got beaten, they wouldn't have got to jail. If they hadn't got to jail, this whole family wouldn't have gotten saved. But here, Paul now says, I am a Roman. Now, he says, they threw us in prison, now are they gonna thrust us out so quietly and privately? "Nay, verily"...well, he is really in control...he says, "let them come themselves and fetch us out." He says, you go tell those boys I got something to say to them. Get them over here (laughter). Get those guys over here. So these lictors, these policemen, go back and they "told these words unto the magistrates"...verse 38..."and they feared." Oh, they were scared when they heard they were Romans. Why? They had violated Roman law. You know what that meant? They could lose their position. And they probably had the same box the little jailer had, too. And they were gonna lose their Roman position and that scared them to death. But don't you know how good this is? This is what's called spiritual blackmail...mmm...(laughter). See, in effect, Paul is saying, you touch one Christian and I'll report you to Rome. You see, Paul is establishing the fact that he knows they have violated Roman law and they are now really afraid of Paul. Listen. He came back to Philippi later on and they didn't lift a finger. And so here he secures that little group of believers. Isn't that beautiful to see Paul care for his flock? And incidentally, he left Luke there to care for them, too. Isn't it important that they didn't take Timothy and Luke into prison since they didn't fit the perfect picture of the Jew and the Roman citizen that Paul and Silas did? Oh, how God orders everything. Well, then the magistrates did come. Boy, they knew and they were scared. Verse 39, they actually showed up and they besought them and they brought them out and they desired them and it's just kind of a pleading. Oh, oh, I'm so sorry, oh, oh, please, quiet, you know, leave...see. So _________ Paul and Silas played it pretty cool. It says "they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia"...just stuck around town for awhile just to let them know who was boss (laughter)..."and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed." There you have it, securing protection. Beloved, that's just exactly the cycle of evangelism all the way around to the fact that they actually cared for the new believers.
Let me close with this. A man stood up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada four years after the sinking of the Titanic in a testimony meeting and this is what he said. He said, I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought a man toward me in the sea and his name was John Harper. He was hanging to a piece of wreckage. And as he neared me, he said, Man, are you saved? No, I'm not, I replied. He said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And the waves took him away but strange to say, they brought him back a little later and he said, Are you saved yet? (Laughter) And I said, No. And he said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And I watched him go down. And he said, there alone in the night with two miles of water under me, I believed and I was saved. He said, I was John Harper's last convert.
You know, there's a lot of sinking men in this world. It's a simple message. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and...what?...thou shalt be saved. Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for salvation offered in Christ and we pray for anyone who's here today who's not met Christ, that they might believe and be saved. We pray in Jesus' blessed Name. Amen.
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Drama, Drama, Always More Drama!
Three days ago I woke up in so much pain I didn't know how I would finish the urgent things that need done. I was considering going to the hospital. I finally got upstairs and Mom was also very sick and needed an ambulance, so I helped her get ready to go in the ambulance and went to be her advocate (if you don't take someone with you to this hospital, they neglect you.) I was glad to do it but wishing I had someone to take me to the E.R.
They sent her home and told her to go back the next day if she still didn't have a BM. Today is one month from the day Dad died, and today I was sick enough for the hospital again, but again Mom needed to go, so I took her, and they admitted her. This time though, I asked at the front desk if there was any way if I could sign myself in, but be seen in my Mom's room, instead of being separated in my own bed for many many hours. Usually they won't let me be with Mom if I ask that, but this time they did, so I got the medical help I needed while taking care of Mom.
She is talking about death a lot, and if the Lord is planning on taking her soon, I really hope He send a few more angels for Doug and I to bear it spiritually, emotionally and physically, financially. We will both be homeless if Mom dies, because disability income is not enough to live on alone.
So we won't be making any Christmas dinner. We will be opening gifts at the hospital and maybe eat lunch in the cafeteria there. They have turkey dinner that day.I hope Mom is here for 1 more Christmas at least.
Drama #2
My husband was near a building that exploded today due to a suicide bomber. God protected him AGAIN! He got a "percussion injury", where the air that is blasted hits you like a rock and makes a huge bruise and makes you fly through the air, and his ears are still ringing so he might have slight hearing damage. I am so sorry he has to live like that. I want him HOME and safe!...but I would not be very helpful to him right now. Maybe he is being delayed because we can't help each other the way we will need help right now. He will have PTSD for sure, the longer he stays, the worse it will be. Today he said he didn't know how he could stand this anymore, but we just do. We just keep waking up the next morning and we keep surviving.
Maybe he is being delayed by God because no man can live in a house with this much drama and crisis all the time. I don't want to ruin his life and make him unhappy by the hard lifestyle of living with a sick wife. He deserves children and I can't give him that. I'm finished with that. So hard to wait for him, and to wonder why the delay in him getting home.
I have an Aunt who barely ever talks to us because we have more dramatic crisises in 1 year than she has ever had in her life and she thinks its not possible or that we are making up all these things. Her crisis is to get a grass stain on her white pants.
I am SO exhausted, in so much pain, no one to help me or even to help Mom so I can rest enough...one of those times that I feel like I could die soon, but I won't. Lupus is a LONG severely painful existence. Lupus gets worse with stress, shutting down more organs. As soon as it hits the heart or liver or kidneys, you are getting close to death. My brother wonders about him dying soon too because all this stress is making his heart do crazy things...so wouldn't that be weird if all 4 of us died within a year or so of each other?
I thought God sent me a husband for strength to go through all these things with, but if I go through all these things alone, it shows I do not need a husband...but I would like the companionship. Maybe God is waiting until both parents have passed away, so I won't be lonely, but then Mom won't have to deal with living with a son-in-law. She really can't live alone anymore so we'd have to live with her to help her. I totally overthink things and constantly think "why". It wears me out. I'm going to go "lay me down and bleed awhile, then rise and fight again."

subset: commoncrawl


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Woods says he's healing slowly from back surgery
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Tiger Woods says his recovery from back surgery is going slowly and he's not sure when he'll be able to return to golf.
In a wide-ranging blog on his website Monday, Woods says he remains sore from the incision during the March 31 operation for a pinched nerve. The surgery forced him to miss the Masters for the first time. He has said he hopes to return this summer.
Woods says he is hitting a few putts and chipping without having to rotate his back.
The Players Championship will be the second tournament this year in which Woods has not been able to defend his title because of his back. He also missed Bay Hill, and had surgery a week later.


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US home prices jumped 6.3 percent from a year ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S home prices climbed 6.3 percent in June from a year earlier, as affordability is becoming a greater obstacle for would-be buyers.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose at a slightly slower pace than the 6.5 percent annual gain in May from a year earlier. But home values are increasing at more than double the pace of average wage growth, weighing down property sales despite the robust job growth.
Mortgage rates are also higher than a year ago, creating another price pressure. The National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes have declined for the past four months.
Home prices in three metro areas have increased by double digits in the past year: Las Vegas (13 percent), Seattle (12.8 percent) and San Francisco (10.7 percent).


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The Dynamo could not get settled on a wet, artificial surface and allowed Andy Welsh to score from a set piece to give Toronto a rare win. Dwayne De Rosario, a native of Toronto suburb Scarborough, played his first MLS game in his hometown, but the rowdy, sell-out crowd of 19,123 cheered loudest for its new team and a 1-0 win.
Houston Dynamo (2-3-1) vs. Toronto FC (2-4-0)
May 16, 2007 -- BMO Field, Toronto ON
Scoring Summary:
TFC -- Andy Welsh 1 (Ronnie O'Brien 1) 25
Houston Dynamo -- Pat Onstad, Richard Mulrooney, Ryan Cochrane, Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett, Brian Mullan, Ricardo Clark, Dwayne De Rosario, Brad Davis, Brian Ching, Joseph Ngwenya (Stuart Holden 68).
Substitutes Not Used: Zach Wells, Corey Ashe, Kelly Gray, Patrick Ianni, Craig Waibel, Chris Wondolowski.
Toronto FC -- Greg Sutton, Marvell Wynne, Andrew Boyens, Kevin Goldthwaite, Jim Brennan, Ronnie O'Brien (Chris Pozniak 73), Maurice Edu, Carl Robinson, Andy Welsh (Adam Braz 83), Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian (Andrea Lombardo 65).
Substitutes Not Used: First Last.
Misconduct Summary:
TFC -- Jim Brennan (caution; Reckless Foul) 43
TFC -- Alecko Eskandarian (caution; Tackle from Behind) 54
HOU -- Eddie Robinson (caution; Game Disrepute) 76
TFC -- Chris Pozniak (caution; Reckless Foul) 86
Referee: Terry Vaughn
Referee's Assistants: Greg Barkey; Craig Lowry
4th official: Carol-Anne Chenard
Attendance: 19,123
Weather: Raining-and-42-degrees
All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial


text: The Cincinnatian Hotel is a Forbes Four Star, AAA Four Diamond hotel that epitomizes modern luxury in an historic setting. Guests at the Cincinnatian are treated to legendary service and an elegant atmosphere that includes the esteemedPalace Restaurant for American fine dining and state-of-the-art meeting rooms and banquet facilities. Comfort and style are never compromised at downtown Cincinnati's only small luxury hotel, accommodating Cincinnatians, Cincinnati tourists, and Cincinnati's business community since 1882.


text:
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is part of the University of Wisconsin System, one of the largest systems of public higher education in the country, serving more than 160,000 students each year and employing more than 32,000 faculty and staff statewide.
The University of Wisconsin System is composed of 13 four-year universities, 13 two-year UW Colleges, and statewide UW-Extension.
Together, these institutions are a tremendous academic, cultural, and economic resource for Wisconsin, the nation, and the world.
News and Updates on Governor Walker's Proposed UW-System Budget for 2015-2017 Biennium
UW System Guidance on Holiday Displays
Guidance on Political Campaign Activities at UWRF


text:
Calling all developers, hackers, social do-gooders, and activists: want to develop Windows 8 apps for social good? Well, you're in luck - the Microsoft Windows 8 Contest is ON!
Microsoft has teamed up with NetSquared to support you in generating apps for nonprofits and activists on the Windows Marketplace. The Contest is about YOUR great ideas and projects, and we're here with tools, resources, and incentive prizes to get (and keep) you going.
What is an app for "social good"?
An app (or other good or service) that is designed to benefit to the general public and doesn't solely exist to provide the maximum possible return to shareholders. Some classic examples of social good are: clean water, literacy, food security, healthy and safe environment and digital inclusion, among many others. For the purposes of this contest, we're accepting apps on any topic within TechSoup's Hacker Helper Wiki.
What are the prizes?
There are 3 categories of prizes:
- Best Overall Windows 8 App wins $15,000
- Best Overall Windows 8 Phone App wins $15,000
- People's Choice App wins $10,000
Ready to get started? Here's how to proceed:
- Check out the Contest Page for all the details
- Create an app on Windows 8 (or Windows 8 Phone) that positively impacts the social good (collaborations encouraged!)
- Add your project to the NetSquared platform
- Submit your app for consideration in the Windows Marketplace
- Check out the other apps, share yours with the world, then vote on your favorites
After the project is submitted, any interested person will be able to provide feedback by:
- reviewing published projects
- sharing compelling and locally relevant projects via social media
publishing comments to existing projects and ideas for refinement
...and voting!
Important Dates
Project submissions: November 5 - February 28
Public voting: March 1 - March 15
Winners announced: March 25
You can find more information, including participant criteria and other "fine print" details here.
Show the world how a great idea, a few lines of code, and Windows 8 can change lives for the better.


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This is an user contributed article.
When it is time to upgrade the memory on a Linux host, it is important to understand the existing memory information of the system, which will help to plan the memory upgrade appropriately without opening server chassis (especially, when you have Linux rack mount server).
What is the current total RAM used in the system?
This can be obtained using free command or from the /proc/meminfo file as shown below. In this example, the current RAM is 1GB.
# free
Sample output:
total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 2074016 2002592 71424 0 480908 937296 -/+ buffers/cache: 584388 1489628 Swap: 1951888 79116 1872772
You can also display memory ram, info using /proc file, enteR:
# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
Sample output:
MemTotal: 1034624 kB
What is the maximum RAM supported by the system?
You can use dmidecode command to query all memory related information from the system DMI table. In this example, the maximum RAM supported by the system is 8 GB as shown below.
# dmidecode -t 16
Sample output:
# dmidecode 2.9 SMBIOS 2.3 present. Handle 0x1000, DMI type 16, 15 bytes Physical Memory Array Location: System Board Or Motherboard Use: System Memory Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC Maximum Capacity: 8 GB Error Information Handle: Not Provided Number Of Devices: 4
How many memory slots are available for expansion?# dmidecode -t 17 | grep Size
Sample output:
Size: 512 MB Size: 512 MB Size: No Module Installed Size: No Module Installed
dmidecode can also be used to identify details about several other hardware related information. dmidecode command reads the systems DMI table for the hardware and BIOS information. DMI stands for Desktop Management interface and SMBIOS stands for System Management BIOS.
Distributed Management Task Force maintains the DMI and SMBIOS specification:
- DMI Specification
- SMBIOS Specification
- man pages – dmidecode, free and proc


text:
AHL Game Night: 3/19/11 Devils at Admirals
The Presov Mafia almost completes the comeback.
Cedrick Desjardins allowed 3 goals on 11 shots before being pulled after the first period. Jaroslav Janus entered and allowed 2 goals on 20 shots the rest of the way before allowing 1 of 5 shooters to convert to take the shootout loss.
First Period
ALB Magnan, (2) (Anderson), 2:01
ALB Wiseman, (14) (Mills, Gionta), 12:08
ALB Zajac, (2) (McIntyre), 18:24
Second Period
NOR Szczechura, (17) (Labrie, Harju), 2:03
NOR Roy, (3) (Milam), 15:17 (PP)
ALB Zalewski, (13) (Perkovich, Wiseman), 19:29
Third Period
NOR Durno, (17) (Labrie, Angelidis), 1:00
NOR Szczechura, (18) (Pouliot, Vernace), 3:16 (PP)
ALB Anderson, (21) (Wiseman, Urbom), 3:50
NOR Mihalik, (1) (Wright), 7:34
ALB- Zalewski
Paul Szczechura was the game's 2nd star. After months of wandering aimlessly without his family's Michael Corleone, Juraj Simek, to direct him, Vladimir Mihalik finally scored his first goal of the season 7:34 into the final frame to tie the game and force overtime. Janus and Mihalik almost made Albany sleep with the fishes.
Mike McKenna turned away 40 shots and all 5 shooters he faced to get some revenge on his former club.
Norfolk keeps pace with Hershey, which lost in OT to Portland, will gain a point on Charlotte with the Checkers getting the snot beat out of them 6-1 in the final period in Syracuse (BoltProspects projects Syracuse will beat Charlotte!), and they lose 1 point to Binghamton, which blanked Springfield 2-0. So, at the end of the night, Norfolk will be tied with Charlotte for 3rd in the East Division at 84 points with 2 games in hand and they'll remain 7 points back of Hershey with 3 games in hand. They'll also be 7 points up on Binghamton with 1 game in hand. 12 games remain in the regular season, and just a couple more wins will likely give Norfolk enough points to get a playoff spot, considering they also picked up a point on Worcester in the crossover tonight and will be a full 10 points up on the Sharks with 1 game in hand. Worcester would have to make up a 10 point deficit in their remaining 11 games, and that seems unlikely. So now, it's all about seeding and the outside chance of catching Hershey and getting home ice for the opening round.
Box score from TheAHL.com.
- 2121 reads
- Printer-friendly version


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Hey! How about that opening ceremony that concluded a few minutes ago? Now we get to watch it! Thanks NBC.
From our hater's guide earlier today:
The opening ceremonies are basically a three-hour episode of Project Runway, only there isn't a bitchy gay judge there to explain why the Qatari dresses lack cohesion.
Deadspin's style correspondents are ready to answer questions, entertain you, flirt with you, argue with you. Parade of Nation outfits! Bob Costas! Whatever insane shit that Boyle dreams up! Who looks good, who looks stupid, it's all on the table. Get to know:
Nick Axelrod: He's the editorial director of Into the Gloss and a former editor at Elle. He deftly reviewed the Yankees cologne for us.
Irina Aleksander: She's a former editor at Elle and a cold, lethal Russian. Talk to her about boxing! Irina just wrote a monster piece for The Atlantic on an American lady boxer.
This is our red carpet. Let's talk.
UPDATE, 11:16 p.m.: We're done. These two have been here for almost four hours. I'm sorry for keeping you so long. But you did great. And so did everyone else! U-S-A! U-S-A! Also, apologies to Paul McCartney for not getting to your performance. But we'd love to have you another time.
Otherwise, conversation we had tonight is saved below. Good night!
For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.


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Think Progress has a couple of posts up today about Republican politicians, when directly asked if they think President Obama is a socialist, admitting that he's, you know, not. House Minority Leader John Boehner's interview is especially telling:
GREGORY: Do you really think the President is a socialist?
BOEHNER: Listen, when you begin to look at how much they want to grow government, you can call it whatever you want, but the fact is —
GREGORY: What do you call it though?
BOEHNER: This is unsustainable. We're broke.
GREGORY: That's fine. Do you think the President is a socialist?
BOEHNER: No!
The tone with which Boehner says "no" is, to my ear, exasperation: of course we all know that the President of the United States is not actually a socialist. But it serves the Republican party to spread the lie that he is, because they count on two things: 1) People not knowing what "socialist" means, and 2) Never being asked point blank if they think it's true. These factors are intertwined: the idea is, anyone informed enough to know that Obama isn't a socialist won't bother asking point blank, because we (where "we" includes the lying politicians) all know it's not true. The people who don't know that won't ask, either, because they assume they are not being taken for a ride by the people who give them their news. When asked, point blank, by someone who'd normally fall in the "us" category, Boehner has no choice: he has to answer no.
This connection might be tenuous, but stay with me. Fatshionista's Lesley (who, let's face it, is a total rock star when it comes to being both pithy and right) wrote an awesomely spot-on post today about health care and personal responsibility, in which she, too, suggests we quit the bullshit and ask, point blank, what people really mean:
In fact, I have a better idea, one that would likewise save the industry quite a bit of money in healthcare costs.
Let's just punish all sick people.
Should healthcare only be made available to the virtuous and conventionally-attractive among us? Or to people who aren't poor and who can therefore afford such things as quality food and gym memberships? Would you argue that only people who are well-educated, or people who are Christian, or people who are able-bodied should get full insurance coverage? Should healthcare only be offered to people who have never failed to report a symptom that resulted in a late diagnosis of a treatable disease? Is healthcare only for people who get themselves screened for breast cancer or colon cancer or prostate cancer at the appropriate ages and as often as recommended?
Is healthcare only for the physically perfect and morally pure?
These questions are a natural extension of the suggestion to restrict the coverage and punish the millions of Americans who qualify as being under that questionable umbrella of "obesity", for having no self control or discipline, because this argument's proponents also tend to accept the fallacy that fatness is easily enough managed with a little motivation. And what the "charge fat people more!" comments really come down to, in plain English, is people expressing that they don't want to pay for certain people's healthcare because they just don't like those people.
I know some people get angry when we talk here about debunking stereotypes about fat people, because it tends (especially for the fatphobic people who toss around those stereotypes easily) to spawn discussions about good fatties and bad fatties, or regular fatties and "really fat" fatties — and if we're fighting for the civil rights of all fat people, then why do we need to say "Most fat people aren't like X," when we believe it would be okay if they were? The fact is, we're very sympathetic to that line of thinking; we are achingly aware of the fact that every time we say "Most fat people don't eat five pizzas a day," there is probably someone out there thinking, "Well, how many pizzas do I get to eat before I count as a bad fatty, Miss Most Fatties Aren't So Bad?"
But what today's various posts about socialism and health care and fat have reminded me is that it is next to useless to debate with someone who doesn't share your terms, who doesn't mean the same thing by "socialism" or "obese" that you do. Why do Republican politicians work so hard to spread the idea that Obama is a socialist? Because to a lot of people, "socialist" is a slur, even though to a lot of other people, it's a legitimate political philosophy that, in fact, still influences geopolitics. To some people, "fat" is a horrible insult, and they'll do anything to convince you (and themselves) that they don't really mean you, or you're chubby but you're not obese, or what have you. Here is a list of some things that some people would categorize as offensive slurs, but which I don't mind being used to describe me from a friendly party:
- feminist
- radical
- queer
- dyke
- fat
- bitch
- freak
Here's a list of some words that I still can't believe are used as insults, because the conditions they describe are not self-evidently negative to me:
- socialist
- retarded
- fat
- cripple
- gay
- black
- poor
As in, I can't imagine that everyone who uses those words as insults has actually thought through what they're saying. Don't get me wrong; there are people out there who trade in absolute hatred, and who get off on the power they have to demean others. I'm not talking about those people here. I'm talking, instead, about people who may not realize their own privilege or how soaked their language is with it. I'm talking about the people who say "That's so retarded" and when I say "You know, my brother is retarded," they apologize because they never thought about who they mean when they say that. I'm talking about people who say "Fat people are going to drop dead any second," and when you say "Even this fat person? And this one?" they realize they were picturing the archetypal Headless Fatty*. The people who claim that the obesity epidemic (booga x 2) is ruining all our lives, and you say "This obesity epidemic?" they say "Shut up, those people aren't even fat." There are people out there who are open to the idea that Words Mean Things, and that they might not know everything already.
I don't think being a socialist is a bad thing. But I also don't think that President Obama is a socialist. Those are two things that both need debunking, and I don't think their debunkings have to be mutually exclusive. Disingenuous people are taking advantage of widespread misconceptions and prejudices and using them to argue something they wouldn't dare say out loud** if asked point blank: (socialism is un-American) + (Obama is a secret socialist) = "Obama is not a real American." When they are asked, point blank, about their premises, by someone who knows what they're trying to do, their logic unravels.
People who argue that fatties are all sick*** and deserving of the death they brought on themselves by eating so many baby donuts are relying on the undercurrents of fatphobia and ableism that aren't always visible to people who have certain privileges. But when you ask, as Lesley does, "So do you think we should punish sick people?" — well, god help us, but I'd like to think that some of them would answer "No."
*Who, of course, is still not guaranteed to drop dead from being fat.
**Well, some of them.
***That's why it's "morbidly" obese, after all!


text:
Welcome to the Luck of the Irish Giveaway Hop, brought to you by The Hopping Bloggers & Up All Night Blogging!
St. Patrick's Day is such a fun holiday that Adam and I enjoy celebrating--we both have Irish heritage, and a lot of our wedding details were actually very Irish as well. I wore my family claddagh ring on our wedding day, and we also toasted with our claddagh wedding flutes!
From a young age, I knew that being Irish was special! So every year, I make a point to celebrate the holiday in some way or another. It makes it even more special since the love of my life is also Irish, so we can enjoy our holiday together for the rest of our lives :-)
When I heard about this giveaway blog hop, I instantly knew I wanted to partake in it!
For those of you who have never been to our blog before, I want to say "hello" and invite you to read more on our about us page.
Adam and I use our blog to post and share primarily our recipes and DIY projects, but we also share Arizona local news and the occasional giveaway or blogging related tutorial.
Follow Our Mini Family's board Pride of the Irish! on Pinterest.
I invite anyone who likes using Pinterest to follow our St. Patty's Day board!
And good luck to all of you who are planning to enter our giveaway below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Each blogger participating in this hop has a giveaway with a prize value of at least $15 – and some are much more than that! Be sure to scroll down the whole list and visit them all – there is no limit to how many prizes you can win! Good Luck and Have Fun!


text:
Blueridge BR-70CE Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Dreadnought Guitar
Sku #H82510000000000
6 String Acoustic Guitars
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Prewar tone with a modern look and added versatility.
The Blueridge Contemporary Series dreadnought acoustic-electric guitar is constructed of exquisite Santos rosewood back and sides and topped with solid Sitka. The high quality tonewoods offer clear and harmonic projection with natural resonating bass tones. The artful abalone trim, deep cutaway and quality Fishman Pickup system make this acoustic-electric right at home on any stage.
- Solid Sitka spruce top
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- Nut width: 1 11/16 inch
- 25.6 inch scale length
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Go vintage and modern all at once, call or click to order.


text:
You too, thanks for asking though. I haven't played Sun that much since I got it back in November, but I recently started devoted more time to it. Having a good time with it.
I'd love to, but my internet is so retarded, it won't let me do any type of online competitive stuff. Though if you must know, my Nintendo Network ID is ginganinja1347.
Its a shame Ruby Gloom never aired in America. It was a nice show until it ended IMO
Any message from you always is.
I haven't checked stickpage in ages, so I just saw this.
I would definitely fuck the asshole and pretend it was a chick. However, if I had to GET fucked, I would choose to drink the molten shit.
Either way, dick-cutting is not an option.
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday. I'll give you a cake.
hi how are you doing?
I don't know. That depends on what's been going on? How's the site since 4 months ago?
biyomon is a cool digimon
Send an Instant Message to Charry Using...
Skull Enforcer
Senior Member
It's a Cruel world.
Prank pls.
Sophisticated Perversion
I prefer the air


text:
More than just a map, National Geographic Trails Illustrated topographic maps are designed to take you into the wilderness and back. Printed on tear-resistant, waterproof material, this map can go anywhere you do.
Each map is based on exact reproductions of USGS topographic map information, customized, and enhanced to meet the unique features of each area. The maps include valuable wilderness tips and Leave No Trace guidelines, along with trails, trailheads, points of interest, campgrounds, and much more. With a color palette and stunning shaded relief, backcountry navigation has never been easier.
This Trails Illustrated topographic map is the most comprehensive recreational map for Washington's Olympic National Park. Within the park, there is detailed coverage of Mount Olympus, Tshletshy Ridge, Hurricane Ridge, Huelsdonk Ridge, Bailey Range, camping areas, facilities, ranger stations, nature trails, waterfalls, boat launches, and much more. Also included are the Mount Skokomish Wilderness, Ozette Lake, Lake Pleasant, Lake Crescent, Lake Mills, and Olympic National Forest.


text:
CSPHCL Data Entry Operator Recruitment – 2018
|Posted On
|Updated On
—–Short Description—–
CSPHCL – Chhattisgarh State Power Holding Company Out Their Vacancies for Data Entry Operator Recruitment – 2018. Candidates Who Are Interested in CSPHCL jobs Recruitment and Completed the All Education and Physical Eligibility Criteria Are Requested To Read The Full Notification And Apply For Data Entry Operator Recruitment – 2018 And then fill the Online Recruitment Application Form.
CSPHCL – Chhattisgarh State Power Holding Company
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text:
We are a CLIA-certified laboratory focused entirely on providing expert consultations in dermatopathology, head and neck and ophthalmic pathology for pathology groups, hospitals, laboratories and their patients.
Through an innovative workflow solution we help pathology organizations worldwide establish and support subspeciality service in their communities.
We also provide second opinion consultations for patients.
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(Founder and Medical Director )
Secure Registered Practice Access


text:
Sometimes you can get reform by applying a small principle more broadly. The case of Senate Bill 1233 is an example of this.
The bill, sponsored by California State Sen. Alex Padilla, a Los Angeles Democrat, has been quietly moving its way through legislative committees. It appears to be a simple fix in one part of the initiative process: a new requirement that, in multi-lingual California, the title and summary for ballot initiatives be translated into foreign languages.
In those counties where significant numbers of people speak those languages, the translations of the title and summary should be part of the petition that circulates for signatures.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
That all makes the sense in the world, because of this basic principle: people who are making laws through the initiative process should understand what the initiative says.
Of course, that's a principle that California's initiative process fails to live up to.
Initiatives are long and getting longer -- 5,000 words or more is common. Often in the name of political concerns, the text is confusing or vague. There are real debates about what initiatives would mean.
I had an exchange just the other day with a budget expert about particulars of Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative to raise temporary taxes -- and where exactly that money would go. Even on this high-profile initiative, the details aren't entirely clear.
How could we reverse this trend toward complexity and confusion?
Translation is the answer.
It's not enough to translate only the title and summary. Every initiative -- the whole thing -- should be translated into the major languages of California. Why would that matter? Because the act of translation requires simplification.
Of course, translation would be difficult to impossible given the complexity of many measures. So to get accurate translation, the writing of initiatives would have to be done by some neutral body -- not by initiative sponsors.
California should have an office of translators, linguists and other experts who could do this work.
Sound strange? It isn't. This is exactly how Switzerland, the home of initiative and referendum (and the inspiration for California's direct democracy 100 years ago), handles initiatives.
The Swiss have four national languages, and this office is devoted to working with initiative sponsors to turn their intentions into language so plain that it will mean the same thing in many languages. In this way, translation is a force for making initiatives, simpler and easier to understand.
I visited the office of this Swiss body in Bern, where I was told that the office motto is: "Think Like a Philosopher. Write Like a Farmer."
That's the spirit we need in California. So Senator Padilla, this is a nice little first step to help those voters who don't speak English. But Californians need those initiatives translated for everyone, regardless of language.
Lead Prop Zero blogger Joe Mathews is California editor at Zocalo Public Square, a fellow at Arizona State University's Center for Social Cohesion, and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (University of California, 2010).
Send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


text:
Top articles
Russia: Positions of Brewing Companies
Ukrainian beer market 2019: companies and brands
Brewing industry in Kazakhstan 2019
Cannabis: product that changes markets
Russian beer producers 2018 (catalogue/database MS Excel)
Dmitry Nekrasov's Philosophy — on the Past, Present and Future of Ukrainian Brewing IndustryA meeting with Dmitry Nekrasov always turns into a training course: "Introduction to brewing business". We are talking to a clever "playing trainer" a person that can be called a godfather of the Ukrainian craft. He has a dozen of successful projects to his name. Dmitry told us about craft beer in Ukraine, on market cycles, on specifity of operating in retail and HoReCa, on union of Ukrainian brewers and certainly, how a brewery of his own, First Dnipro Brewery is doing.
The market of import beer in Russia: review and databasesThe market of import beer is rapidly growing and changing. But while in the past years it was growing due to brands variety, in 2019 major and affordable brands from TOP-10 were developing actively. It seems that the fact of a brand origin from far abroad counties, even if it is not well known but has moderate price and good distribution provides for million liters of sales in the territory of Russia. Among distributors AB InBev Efes was far behind, yet the role of Baltika and suppliers of the second row got more important. The boom of German brands was followed by stagnation of import from other traditional regions (and Belarus) instead the supplies from Mexico, Lithuania and Asian countries grew considerably.
Russia: Positions of Brewing CompaniesThe review contains an analysis of interim performance of brewers in the first half of 2019. There are rather dynamic changes behind a modest industry growth. Baltika is again experiencing a stage of volumes and market share slid due to competition with AB InBev Efes. Because of the price competition and presence expansion in the modern trade company #2. has come close to the leading position. At the same time sales of Heineken Russia have continued growing which makes the premium part of the portfolio heavier. The market premiumization trend had been also confirmed by import brands. MBC and Zavod Trekhsosenskiy have been the most successful among federal market players. The market share of independent regional brewers and Ochakovo have continued falling as they are being squeezed out by the market leaders at their competitive fields.
Ukrainian beer market 2019: companies and brandsIn 2019 beer production and market have been still fluctuating about zero point. However, the past season was successful for brewers judging by the sales profitability. The price mix has improved due to rapid general market premiumization, as well as its particular aspect, the growth of import beer sales. By the season end AB InBev Efes improved its positions considerably. It turned out that consumers had not forgot Efes brands that had to leave the market, but started to recover rapidly. Against the stagnating market that meant sales decline of other companies, in the first place Carlsberg Group that most of all beneficiated from Efes exiting the market. PPB turned out to be stable to branding activity of its competitor and Obolon kept the same volumes and at the moment it is the absolute leader of the economy segment. The share growth of independent producers took place thanks to leading craft breweries, that so far do not have a big market weight, but they are rapidly gaining it.
Brewing industry in Kazakhstan 2019During the first half of 2019, the majority of Kazakh brewers made their contribution into positive dynamics. Yet it was companies of the lower division, not the two transnational leaders that raised their production and sales. The shares of draft beer and aluminum can which is rapidly squeezing glass bottle out of the market, have been growing. The price segmentation has remained stable despite the substantial rise of retail prices and fluctuations of brand market shares, while the borders between segments have become blurred. The main events in the industry have been: the announced revision of the beer excise policy, launch of BeerKhan brand in the strong beer segment, and most important – purchasing assets of Shymkentbeer by Arasan.
The trend of complication of Russian beer market is going on and in several directions at the same time. The range has got wider, the import and small segments are growing, namely craft beer, alcohol-free beer and special flavor beer. At the same time, all ex-mega brands and light lagers by Russian brewers are experiencing a decline of their shares. AB InBev Efes, Heineken, MBC and Pivzavod Trekhsosenskiy have exceeded the market, Carlsberg was developing slower than the market and Ochakovo as well as some other mid-sized breweries have been cutting down their volumes. To a big extent brewers' performance was connected to their ability to reach agreement with networks, sacrifice their margin and enter new markets. Craft brewers are facing a serious danger of producers' registration introduction – de facto licensing. ...
Puerto Rico brewer creates new premium beer
The company that makes the popular Medalla brand says it has created a new premium lager called Magna Special Craft. Cervecera de Puerto Rico said in a statement it invested $100 million to produce the beer with technology from Germany and hops from the Czech Republic. It is being produced at the brewery in the western city of Mayaguez and was expected to hit stores this week.
Spokeswoman Vannessa Valiente says the company is not exporting the beer but won't rule it out for the future. Cervecera dominates the island's $850 million beer market, Heineken ( HINKY.PK - news - people ) reigns in the premium category.
2 Авг. 2011