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Well we have the opportunity tonight to look again at Hebrews chapter 11....Hebrews chapter 11. We have come to the end of this great faith chapter. It is monumental for a number of reasons. It is a monumental case laid for a relationship with God based on faith and not works. It is monumental as well because it gives us a kind of summary of the Old Testament. It kind of sweeps us through from the family of Adam all the way through the prophets which brings us virtually down to the New Testament. It is somewhat like the sermon of Stephen early in the book of Acts where he summarizes the history of God's working in Israel. Here similarly there is this summary, the emphasis is on the necessity of faith to have a true relationship to God.
Let's read the verses that we'll be looking at tonight. Verse 30, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins being destitute, afflicted, ill treated. Men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us they would not be made perfect, or complete."
Now as you know, if you've been with us and if you haven't, I'll try to give you enough of a summary to catch you up, the Holy Spirit in this wonderful epistle to the Hebrews is making a concentrated effort to convince the readers and anybody else who will read this through history, of the necessity of faith as the only way to God. There are only two possibilities. Either you come to God by faith alone, or you don't. Fair enough? And if you don't come by faith alone, then you come by some other way and you're left with some form of works system. You either are saved by faith alone apart from works, or you're saved by some degree of works. The Bible rejects all works as a way of salvation and leaves us only with the concept of faith. Faith is believing what God has said simply because He has said it. And in particular, believing Him about what He says about a relationship to Him, that it is available to those who repent of their sin and put their trust in His grace and His mercy.
Even in the Old Testament people to be saved had to acknowledge their sin and then come to God and plead for the mercy and the grace which He promised to offer the penitent sinner. At any point in redemptive history, salvation is always by that kind of faith. Even before the cross they were believing God that He would give forgiveness, and mercy and grace to the sinner who repented and believed in Him. Even though they did not yet know the reality of the cross. On this side, our faith embraces the work of Christ in His death and resurrection but it is still faith.
Now here is the dilemma. In the New Testament period, as you know, the gospel breaks on the scene in Israel. Most particularly it is antithetical to the religious establishment and the established religion. Judaism by the time of our Lord and really long before that had become a works system. It had been embellished with all kinds of manmade rules by the hundreds and people were under the illusion that you work your way to God. It's not apart from faith but it's faith plus your own efforts. You believe in God, you believe in what God has said, but that doesn't complete the transaction. You have to accomplish certain things, achieve certain things, morally, spiritually and even ceremonially.
When the gospel of grace and the gospel of faith came along, the Jews heard it as if it was an alien message because they had been so well trained on works. To come along with this idea that salvation is by faith alone and that reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sin and entrance into the Kingdom of God and the hope of eternal heaven is a matter of faith and nothing more, seemed to them to be a corrupted message. They were convinced that your works and keeping of the law, therefore a kind of legalistic system, was the way into God's Kingdom. And so, when the gospel came along, they were offended by it. And the more invested they were in the works system, the more offended they were and the most invested were the leaders of the system in Israel and therefore they were the most hostile to Jesus and the gospel of grace and faith.
Well, of course, the New Testament unfolds the significance of salvation and reconciliation with God by faith alone. There are still some Jews who are having trouble getting the point. And the writer of Hebrews understands that because this letter is written to a community of Jews, presumably somewhere in perhaps in the land of Israel. It is to show them that the way of faith is not an alien message, it is not a new message, it is a very old message. To be reconciled to God, you must abandon your works and you must come by faith alone. Faith willingly admits inability and comes to God believing that He is merciful and will save the penitent sinner who believes in Him and in His grace and mercy.
Now how can the writer of Hebrews prove the point that salvation has always been by faith and never by works? Answer, go back to the very beginning of redemptive history, a biblical history of human history and look at what we find.
He starts with the family of Adam in verse 4, and talks about the faith of Abel. And then in verse 5, the faith of Enoch, two familiar characters in the early chapters of Genesis. Still in the early chapters of Genesis in verse 7 he talks about the faith of Noah. Still in the early chapters of Genesis he talks about the faith of Abraham and gives a rather extensive treatment to Abraham's life. And then he talks, starting in verse 20, about the faith of Isaac. And in verse 21, about the faith of Jacob. And in verse 22 about the faith of Joseph, those are the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. And they take up the book of Genesis.
And then you come in to the book of Exodus and he refers to the faith of Moses. And, of course, Moses' story sweeps through the book of Exodus. Moses then also becomes the author of the Pentateuch, the opening books of the Old Testament. Then he comes, having left behind the patriarchs in Genesis and Moses in the book of Exodus, and the rest of the Pentateuch, he moves to the next group starting in verse 30. This group of people moves us into the book, if you will, Joshua and Judges and begins the trek through the books of history and the Old Testament. And he points out here that by faith the walls of Jericho fell, by faith Rahab, you remember the harlot in Jericho, was not terrified by the threat against her life if she hid the spies, but believed in the true God against very, very challenging potential circumstances.
And then he moves on from there to what we're going to look at today in verse 32 and following, and that's where we left off. Here we sweep through the...basically the history of the Old Testament all the way to the end. We start with the Judges, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah. We touch on the kings, David. We touch on the first of the prophets since Moses really, Samuel. And then we sweep through the prophets with just an identification of the prophets and then following that there are all kinds of statements made about the kind of suffering that they endured and in every case their faith stood the test.
So, the point of the writer is to show us that redemptive history has always made clear that salvation is by faith. The intensity of the chapter is starting to ramp up, however. When we look at Abel and Enoch and Noah and we look at Abraham and we look at Moses, we look at Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, we look at the children of Israel, at the walls of Jericho, we look at Rahab, there are significant events going on in which they demonstrate their faith.
But when we get in to chapter 11 verse 32, there's a level of intensity that is added because their faith is now tested in the crucible of a life and death situation...a life and death situation. And what I read you from verse 32 to verse 40 indicates that this is life and death kind of faith. This is where faith is tested at its highest level in the crucible of severe threats.
Now backing up a little bit, before we go in to the text, years before this letter was written, the gospel of Christ had come to this group of people. We don't know how many years. We don't know what group of people it is. It's a group of Hebrews, obviously. But years before the letter was written and we don't even know who wrote the letter, the gospel came to this group of people. And if you go back to chapter 2 and verse 3, we learn there how the gospel came to them. Verse 3 of chapter 2, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard."
In other words, this gospel was given to this community of Jews by the people who were with Jesus. This is a first-hand, eye-witness account of the gospel passed on to these people. And they weren't just people who were with Jesus, verse 4 says, their testimony was accompanied by signs and wonders and various miracles.
Now who would they then be? Who would the preachers be? Well according to 2 Corinthians 12:12, signs and wonders and miracles are the signs of an Apostle. So here is a community of believers who have been with Christ, who have been commissioned by Christ, who in fact are the Apostles of Christ, who have come to this community of Jews and preached to them the gospel of Christ and the preaching has been attended by signs and wonders and miracles and manifest gifts of the Holy Spirit. These people then were the recipients of a powerful presentation, to be sure. Some in this Jewish community, wherever it was, this Jewish town, some had believed. Some believed and opened their hearts and received the message of the Apostles and received Christ as Lord and Savior. And we can even assume that their...their experience with the Apostles was after the cross and after the resurrection. So they heard the full message of the New Covenant gospel. Some of them believed it. Some of them fully, genuinely embraced it and formed a church, an ekklesia.
There were others who were impressed, intellectually convinced, who understood the gospel to some degree, who were drawn to it, who were attracted to it, who associated with the church. This would be consistent with what our Lord said, that the wheat and the tares would grow together, right? You would have believers and non-believers in the same environment that would be very difficult to separate. There are people who are interested, but not genuinely converted. So there were these people associated with the true believers who had not truly left their works system behind. They had not come all the way to faith in Christ.
Well, this little group of Jews that formed this church, this community both genuine believers and those associated and interested non-believers, apparently came under persecution which we know to be the case. Right? Jesus said it, "In this world you'll have tribulation. Don't be surprised if they treat you the way they treated Me. Don't be surprised if they hate you, they hated Me." So we understand that persecution certainly broke out against these community of believers very early, even in the age of the Apostles. In fact, even to the point that the Apostles were martyred.
So in this group of Christians and associates became persecuted, that raised the stakes on being a Christian. The true believers had the faith that endures. The true believers were hanging in there. But the superficial non-believers, those who were merely associated and attracted by not genuine were in danger of leaving. They could be described, I think, pretty easily by the rocky soil or the weedy soil of our Lord's soils parable. There was an appearance of life but it wasn't going to last, especially when the persecution started. They were in danger then of going backward, back in to their Judaism. And so throughout this letter there are repeated calls to them not to do that. And I just read you one. Back in chapter 2 verse 3, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" In other words, don't neglect, you've come this far, don't neglect this salvation...which was preached by the Apostles, confirmed by miracles. That's the first warning.
They're warned again in chapter 3 verse 7. "Just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart as when they provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tried me and tested me, saw my works for 40 years." In other words, don't be like that recalcitrant unbelieving group of Israelites who were stuck in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief. Verse 12, "Take care, brethren, Jewish brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, you want to be a true partaker of Christ...verse 14...holding fast, firm to the end."
So these are warnings. There are more such warnings in chapter 4, the most familiar warning comes in chapter 6...in chapter 6 verse 4, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened," that's to have your mind illuminated to know the information... "and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come." Now let's just stop there.
What is this? Who are these people? Who is he describing? Who has been enlightened? Who has tasted the heavenly gift? Whose been made a partaker of the Holy Spirit? Whose tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come?
Well please notice, none of those terms are ever used anywhere in the Bible to describe salvation. None of them. It doesn't talk about regeneration, new birth, conversion, justification, salvation, sanctification. These are the words used to describe the experience of those who heard the Apostles and saw their miracles and signs and wonders. In that sense they were enlightened. In that sensed they tasted the heavenly gift. They tasted the powers of heaven. They were made partakers of the power of the Holy Spirit, coming through the Apostles and the signs and wonders and gifts of the Spirit. They tasted the good Word of God and they tasted the powers of the age to come. That is all those miracle powers which one day in the age to come, the Millennial Kingdom will be in full display. They were tasters, not consumers...can we put it that way?
The warning comes then in verse 6, "If you have then fallen away, it's impossible to renew them again to repentance." In other words, if you have heard the apostolic gospel, if you've heard the message of Christ, you have understood it, you are enlightened, you have seen the power display by the Apostles and the power of the Holy Spirit, all of that is in your experience and you turn your back, you can't be renewed to repentance. Why? Because you can't have any more exposure, revelation than that. So the warning is, don't turn your back on it. You'll become an apostate if you reject full revelation and you'll be guilty of again crucifying the Son of God and putting Him to open shame.
There's another warning in chapter 10 and verse 26. "If we go on sinning willfully and the willful sin here is unbelief, if we go on sinning willfully, we Jews, after receiving the knowledge of the truth," if you know the truth, you know it fully, you've seen it, you've seen the display, the undergirding display of the Holy Spirit miracle power that attests to the validity of the message preached by the Apostles, if you go on in your sinful unbelief willingly, "then there is no longer any sacrifice for sins." There's no other salvation, right? What else can be done? Nothing. You have nothing left, verse 27, but a terrifying expectation of judgment in the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
And listen to this, verse 29, "Your punishment will be worse. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and regarded as unclean the blood of the Covenant by which you were sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" Your punishment will be worse because you had full knowledge and rejected it. And for that person, verse 31 says, "It's a terrifying thing to fall in to the hands of the living God." You don't want to know the full truth and walk away from it.
In chapter 12, the last one I'll refer you to, in verse 25, "See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if those who did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven and His voice shook the Earth then but now He has promise saying, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the Earth but also the heaven.'" If you don't listen to the Word of the Spirit of God and the Word of the Son of God through the Apostles, all that awaits for you is judgment.
Now, with that we can go back to chapter 11. The truly saved, let's pull it together, the truly saved were in danger of trying to lessen their persecution by drawing back into old Judaistic patterns, customs, worship, maybe even reconnecting with the priests. They are reminded all through Hebrews that Jesus Christ is a better priest who offered a better sacrifice and who is the mediator of a better Covenant. Don't go back to the old priesthood, the old ceremonies, the old sacrifices, the old worship. That's the message to the truly saved. Don't go back and pick up those pieces of the old religion.
The message to the non-Christians is come all the way to Christ...come all the way to Christ. Chapter 6 says, "Let us go on to perfection," perfection is a term used to refer to salvation by the writer of Hebrews. Come all the way to Christ. Now, how does one come to Christ? By faith. And so that's what the emphasis is in chapter 11. This is to help the Christians, the true Christians hold on to the reality of faith by seeing it as the only way ever to come to God from Adam's family on, and this is to encourage the non-Christians who are a part of that community and feeling the pull back away from Christ, turning their backs on the gospel to come all the way to faith because faith is the only way. The way of law and legalism and works will only condemn and damn.
And since this community apparently is under persecution, this last part of chapter 11 becomes maybe the most applicable to them. We have talked about all kinds of aspects of faith. We have talked about how faith walks. We've talked about how faith works. We've talked about many of the features of faith. But the last segment we're looking at now is on the courage of faith. Faith, true faith stands the test of persecution. It stands the test of life and death situations. So the word to have in your mind in this last section, particularly verses 32 and following is the courage of faith...the courage of faith.
Courage in struggle, courage in suffering, courage in waiting...waiting, because remember now, as the close of the chapter says, they hadn't received what they had put their faith in.
So let's just break it down. Let's talk about the courage in struggle that's illustrated here. Verse 30, the struggle at Jericho, we already talked about from Joshua chapter 6, the struggle of Rahab, Joshua chapter 2, and chapter 6. Both the story of Jericho and in particular the story of Rahab demonstrate that faith conquers in a struggle, that faith is courageous. As the New Testament puts it, it is a faith that endures. That's how Peter opens up his epistle, right? You have a faith that endures. That's the test of real faith.
Now when you come to...and we covered that in our last time several months ago. But verse 32, we'll pick it up. We move here from the patriarchal period of those names in the book of Genesis and Moses and Joshua, and we move now from the arrival to the promised land to the land of Canaan itself and the early history of Israel, which would be the history of the Judges and then the history of the Kings.
There are six men mentioned to us in verse 32. And they are not in chronological order but they were all very critical men in the nation of Israel who demonstrated their faith in God in crisis situations. They were all courageous in faith. So let's just briefly look at them.
"What more shall I say, for time will fail me," and I love that feature that's so human of the writer, and speaks to the reality of a human author certainly under divine inspiration, but nonetheless a human author who would love to tell the whole story of everything but just doesn't have the time to do it. But he does mention very familiar names and the people would be able to pick them up quickly. They are essentially the heroes of the early history of Israel. Remember when Israel comes back into the land of Canaan under Joshua, Moses having died before coming in to the land because he struck the rock and didn't speak to the rock. They are now in the land, the land is segmented there. They conquer the Canaanites, as we know. They settle in the land and now that they are in the land, there are heroes who rise from time to time in the pre-monarchy period who lead great triumphs and great victories for the people of God.
The first one is a familiar name to us, his name is Gideon. And if you want to read the story of Gideon, you open your Bible to the seventh chapter of Judges. We can't take the time to do all that for each of these characters. We could, that would be a whole different emphasis. But Gideon is a judge. Now the term judge doesn't mean that they were the ruling president of the nation. It simply means they were elevated to a place where their leadership and their wisdom put them in a ruling position somewhere in the life and the land of Israel. This judge had to face the Medianites. The Medianite army had a hundred and thirty-five thousand men...a hundred and thirty-five thousand men in the Medianite army.
Now you remember the story of Gideon. You open your Bible to the seventh chapter of the book of Judges. He starts out with thirty-two thousand, right? Thirty-two thousand, not impossible odds, but thirty-two thousand against a hundred and thirty-five thousand, not real good odds. And then God comes to him and says, "You have way too many men, you have way too many men, Gideon, you've got to pair this down, and pair this down, and pair this down and finally it gets paired down to three hundred. Three hundred? Those are not good odds against a hundred and thirty-five thousand.
Now, of course, all military strategy is out the window, at this point, because there is no military strategy by which the three hundred men can defeat a hundred and thirty-five thousand soldiers. So Gideon is now at the mercy of God. God has paired down his men to only three hundred so God is going to have to indicate what the strategy is as to how these three hundred men are going to defeat a hundred and thirty-five thousand Medianites.
God gives him strange instruction in the seventh chapter of Judges. He tells him to get pitchers, pitchers used to pour water, trumpets and torches and go find the Medianite army. You go find them. Now in history, no one has fought a battle with torches, pitchers and trumpets. You might announce the battle with a trumpet. You have might have a torch if you want to protect yourself at night, but that's not how you fight a battle. It is in an absurd battle strategy, humanly speaking. And Gideon, perhaps if he were thinking the way any normal human being would think, would say, "Lord, I'm not moving, are You kidding? You've paired me down to three hundred people and the only reason the three hundred are the three hundred is because of the way they drank water out of a stream? This is absurd.
But Gideon didn't argue because his faith was so strong and he understood the odds and he understood the potential for death was a hundred percent on a human level. You remember what happened. They split in to three groups. Gideon took his hundred and a couple of other hundreds, they got in the circles of the hills where the Medianites were and they lit their torches. And at the appropriate time of the announcement, they smashed the pitchers which made noise and revealed the torches and the trumpets began to blow and the Medianites went into panic, probably assuming that for every torch there was an entire division of troops when it was just one guy with a pitcher and a torch and a trumpet.
The Medianites panicked. The Medianites rolled out of their bunks, or off their pads on the ground, and massacred each other. In an absolute slaughter, thinking they were fighting these massive hoards of Jewish troops who had descended upon them. It would be pretty hard to believe God in that setting unless you had a supernatural faith in a supernatural God.
Then there was Barak. I love the story of Barak. It's one of the most interesting of Bible stories. I will take you to this one because it's a little bit shorter. If you go back to Judges chapter 4, it's one of my favorite stories probably for somewhat bizarre reasons. Barak had ten thousand men and he was going against the mighty and massive force of Sisera. Sisera was a Canaanite commander of some confederated chariot troops. Incredible odds, no way to win. But God sent a message to Barak through a woman by the name of Deborah. Barak believed the message. Barak believed that God would give him the victory.
In verse 7, "I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and as many troops to the river Kishon; and I'll give him into your hand." That is the message from God through Deborah who was deemed there a prophetess because God uses her as His mouthpiece.
"Barak said to her, 'If you go with me, then I will go. If you don't go with me, I will not go.'" I want the spokesman of the Lord with me. "She said, 'I will surely go with you, nevertheless the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you're about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.'"
In other words, if you just trusted God and didn't have to take along Deborah, you'd have gotten all the credit. Now you're going to be sort of embarrassed. "The Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman."
Well, of course, the victory came. It was an incredible victory. Skipping down to what I think is one of the most interesting events. "The Lord routed Sisera," verse 15, "and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak," just massacred them. "And Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot." That's the general of the army.
Well that didn't work out. "Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword." Not even one was left. That is a massacre.
Sisera is still running in the other direction. Listen to this, "He ran, he fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin and the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite." He was associated with Jabin. "Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, 'Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me. Don't be afraid.' And he turned aside to her into the tent and she covered him with a rug." Come on in here and I'll hide you.
"He said to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.' So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink, and then she covered him. He said to her, 'Stand in the doorway to the tent and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there anyone here?' that you shall say, 'No.' But...this is the interesting part...Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple. It went through into the ground, for he was sound asleep and exhausted." I love the last line. "So he died." I guess, if someone ran a tent peg from one side of your head to the other into the ground, that would do it.
This is a small band of almost unarmed infantry, routing a tank division by faith. Stepping courageously into an unbelievable battle, trusting God. These are men of faith.
Well then we come to Samson. Who doesn't know about Samson? Everyone knows about Samson. Judges 13 to 16, he was Israel's champion against the Philistines. And, of course, the Philistines we always identify, I think, as the primary enemy of Israel. They seem to show up on the scene more often than any others. And in spite of his stupidity, in spite of his bad relationship with Delilah, and I don't think in my entire life I've ever met a human being named Delilah. There's a reason for that.
In spite of his tragedy with Delilah, in spite of his loss of strength, this man had years of great strong faith in God. He recovered from that and he demonstrated great courage, stupendous courage and power. That man Samson, that man who had had risen to a place of leadership because of his prowess and his strength was called by God really to conquer the Philistines. And he approached it with immense courage. He never feared to enter into battle. And he knew that at any point in time his strength came from the Lord. There was a symbol of his strength, his long hair, Nazarite vow, but his strength came from the Lord and he knew when he went into battle that at any moment that strength could disappear because he knew his own heart and he knew he was not a man who had by any means deserved this power. He trusted God, let's say, not to pull the plug. He never feared the enemy, never.
First, in anger at the father of his Philistine wife for giving her away to somebody else, he tied the tails of 300 foxes together with torches in between them and set the torches on fire and sent them through the Philistine's grain field and burned them all up. Now he knew that could irritate the Philistines and again he's only one man and he knows that God has given him his power and since it came from God, God could withdraw it at any point, but he has this strong faith in his calling. When the Philistines found out who did it, they killed Samson's wife and father-in-law. He even was more angry and Scripture says, "He smote them with a great slaughter."
When they tried to retaliate, he took the jawbone of an ass and killed a thousand more of them. They tried to trap him in Gaza, he just picked up, you remember this?, the city gates, post and beam and walked up a mountain carrying them. He believed the promise of God, that God had called him to fight for Israel against the Philistines even against unimaginable odds, one against tens of thousands never phased him.
And finally, remember after recovering strength, he went in to the Philistine temple and brought it down on all of them. His last courageous act of self-sacrificing faith. Now he knew his calling. He knew his calling. Listen to 13:5 of Judges, "His parents are told, 'Behold, this young man, you're going to give birth to a son, you're going to conceive and bring forth a son, no razor will come to his head for the boy shall be a Nazarite,'" that takes a vow of separation to God, "'from the womb he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.'" So he always knew when he was doing that, that he would know and experience the power of God.
This is faith...this is faith and nothing but faith and he never flinched in conflict.
Now the next name that we see there is Jephthah and he also is in the book of Judges and the story about him is pretty brief. Verse 32 of chapter 11, "Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon, crossed over the Jordan River, Ammon is on the east. There is a city there today that you would know as Amon-Jordan. Ammon is just a variation of Ammon, this is the land of the Ammonites. So Jephthah who crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them and the Lord gave them into his hand. He struck them with a very great slaughter from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abelkeramim so the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel."
Another group, of course, of Israel's Canaanite enemies were the Amorites, conquered again by the courage of Jephthah. We leave the book of Judges and we enter the book of 1 and 2 Samuel because the next name is David. We know many instances against all kinds of odds. Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands. David was a triumphant, courageous general who fought the fight for the people of God.
Of course his most familiar fight was a one-on-one battle with what we might deem human monster by the name of Goliath in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel. And Goliath is just shocked that they would send this little shepherd boy out against him. And he, of course, is the great hero of the Philistines. And so he says, verse 43, "Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?" "And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, 'Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.' Then David said to the Philistine...probably in a squeaky voice.. 'You come to me with a sword, a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up in to my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I'll give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear for the battle is the Lord's and He will give you into our hands."
Wow! You would say that is a lot of moxie for a little shepherd boy. But we know the end of the story, don't we? Yes, it happened when the Philistine rose and came near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine." He's running after it, he's going into this battle full force in faith. "David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it." And believe me, that was a divinely directed stone. I'm sure David was good because he had fought off the wild animals while he was protecting the sheep. But there was no way this one would miss. Divine providence was involved.
"It struck the Philistine on his forehead and the stone sank into his forehead so that he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. And he struck the Philistine and killed him, but there was no sword in David's hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it.
"When the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled." You know, if a teenaged boy is this powerful, what are the men going to be like when they show up? "The men of Israel," verse 52, "rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley and the gates of Ekron," one of the major cities of Philistia. The slain Philistine lay along the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath and Ekron. The sons of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and plundered their camps and David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem but he put his weapon in his tent."
What in the world would give this man the courage to do what he did? It is faith in the calling of God. These are men of faith.
The next name is Samuel and for that, of course, we're already in 1 Samuel because we're where David is. Samuel also appears here in the first 25 chapters. He dies in verse 1 of chapter 25. Samuel was a great man of faith. He was...he was facing a rebellious people. He was facing idolatrous people. He faced them with the courage of great conviction. He spoke God's Word. He thought nothing of personal protection and personal safety. Samuel always said what he believed to be right against all threats. He was fearless when he warned people and he warned people, believe me, including even the great High Priest Eli.
And then it mentions in verse 32 the prophets. And with that, we sweep all the way from 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, the books of history, the period of the kings, the period of the unified Kingdom, the divided Kingdom. We sweep all the way through the prophets, all the way down to the end of the Old Testament...the prophets.
Now you can go back to Hebrews chapter 11 because we're going to remain there for just a few more minutes. And here he just mentions the prophets. That takes us right to the end of the Old Testament. The wisdom literature was authored by the kings predominantly; Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon. There are other historical books, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, goes back to patriarchal period. But we pretty well have swept across the Old Testament, and now we come to the prophets. And here you have no more names, but you have experiences that belonged to the prophets. These defining experiences we can find on the pages of the Old Testament. It's a list of horrible experiences which these men faced and women with unconquerable courage and faith.
The prophets, verse 33, along with all the rest who by faith, or through faith in every case conquered kingdoms, literally katagonizomai, overcame, overpowered, overthrew. It literally means to fight down or to subdue. And this would describe the Judges. This would describe Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah and David. And they not only conquered kingdoms, they wrought or they performed righteousness. Literally they executed justice. They executed judgment, leaders who upheld justice in very, very challenging times. They were men who did what was right no matter what the cost. It says of David, for example, in 2 Samuel 8:15, "David reigned over all Israel and David administered justice and righteousness for all his people."
Then it says they obtained promises. There are many illustrations of that. Joshua was given a promise of victory. Gideon was given a promise of victory. Barak was given a promise of victory, David was given promises by God that were fulfilled and some that were to be fulfilled later.
And then we move past those when we come to the next phrase, "shut the mouths of lions." Who does that describe? Daniel...Daniel chapter 6 verses 22 and 23. Daniel who obeyed God when it meant he had to go to the lion's den, believing God would take care of that and God shut the mouths of the lions.
Quench the violence of fire. Who would that refer to? Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as we know them, by their Babylonian names who standing in the fire were not burned. And, in fact, there was a companion in the fire, very likely an appearance of the Son of God. They conquered. They went into the fire. And do you remember what they said? They said, "We're not going to bow down to you and if we go in the fire, we'll burn, or maybe we won't burn, but in any case we will not bow down to you." They conquered by faith.
It can be said of these heroes also, they escaped the edge of the sword. Who was it that was always trying to kill David? Saul, wasn't it? No matter how often Saul tried to get David's head within the reach of his sword, he never could.
And then, of course, there was Goliath. And then there was Elisha. Do you remember when Jorum was rushing after Elisha in 2 Kings 6, wanting to kill him with his sword but he could not? And then it says they were from weakness, verse 34, made strong. You know who comes to mind when I read that? Hezekiah. Remember Hezekiah prayed for long life. He prayed for more life? Because he was a good king, God gave him more life. He had no son in the death struggle. He believed in God's promise and power and Hezekiah prayed and was healed and lived another 15 years and eventually bore a son, 2 Kings chapter20.
It further says about these heroes who lived by faith that they became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. And we just read about them. Back to the Judges and the Kings and even more of the Kings, particularly in the southern Kingdom.
And then I love this, "It is through the faith of these men," verse 35, "that women received back their dead by resurrection." When did that happen? First Kings 17, that's Elijah...Elijah, healing the dead son of the widow of Zarephath. And then in 2 Kings 4 it's Elisha raising the child of the Shunammite woman from the dead. The faith of these prophets in death brought great victory.
So this is a faith that conquers very, very challenging, life-threatening circumstances. The petty problems of suffering that these Hebrews to whom the letter was written might have been going through for their identification with Jesus Christ was nothing like what these men experienced.
But that's not the whole picture. Sometimes God chooses not to let His people conquer in struggle, but rather refines them through a struggle. Verse 35 again, "Others were tortured, not accepting their release." That's not a victory...that's not a release from torture but an endurance so that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Now here we saw the achievements of faith in the midst of the threat. Here we see the endurance of faith in the midst of the trial. Verse 35 says, "Tortured," tumpanizo, very interesting Greek word. Literally to torture with the tumpanium. What is a tumpanium? It's a torture instrument of ancient times. It's a wheel-shaped contraption over which criminals were stretched as though they were skins and they would have all their extremities stretched to the circumference of the wheel and they would rotate on the wheel while people pummeled them with clubs. This is the basis of the word "tortured."
There have been those people of faith who have been tortured. They rejected denial of the faith. They rejected release. They would not banish from their lips the name of the true and living God because they looked for a better resurrection. They looked to the future.
Others experienced mockings and scourgings and chains and imprisonments. I think of one who went through just about all of this and that would be Jeremiah...tortured, chained, imprisoned, thrown into a pit, Jeremiah 38, scourgings, beatings, imprisonments...that would be true of Daniel, too, wouldn't it? And there are surely others.
Verse 37, they were stoned. That happened to Jeremiah according to tradition. And the Old Testament record of Zechariah as well indicates a stoning. Sawn asunder, tradition says, Isaiah the prophet's life ended when he was sawn in half. They were tested, that's probably a better translation than tempted. They were tested, the torture of being tested, pressured to deny their God which they would not do.
These aren't the triumphant ones on a human level, these are the ones who suffered even death. They were put to death with the sword, died by sword. And some of them became exiles. Some of them went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill treated, mistreated, treated with evil force is the Greek verb.
And then down in verse 38, some of them wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And I think all of these things would be somewhat familiar to the Jewish people who were hearing this, being read in their congregations. They knew the stories of these people that we don't know because they're not necessarily contained in the pages of Scripture, but likely much of it was passed down. And so in a cryptic fashion, it can be rehearsed to them. They were wanderers, vagabonds, just existing because they had been put out society. That was the price they paid for their faithfulness to God.
And then the most commendatory statement that is made in this entire chapter is in parenthesis in verse 38 and it really ought to be in italics. "These are people of whom the world was not worthy." Isn't that a great statement? The world was not worthy. The world thought them unworthy. The world deemed them unworthy to live, unworthy to be comfortable, unworthy to be affirmed or approved, or left alone. The world felt itself somehow diminished by their presence. The truth is, the world was not worthy of them.
Why did they do this? Why did they do this against all this kind of terrible treatment? They did it because of what they believed was in the future waiting for them, a better resurrection. But look at verse 39, "All these having gained approval through their faith didn't receive what was promised." They didn't have anything in their hand, it was all faith, right? It was all faith. They didn't even know about Christ. Oh they knew the prophecies about Him, but they didn't know who He was. He had not come. He had not died. He had not risen from the dead. There was no confirmation that this would ever happen. They had to believe God's promise. And they did. They gained approval through their faith, though they didn't receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us that apart from us they wouldn't be made perfect. None of them would ever be in heaven if it weren't for what happened that we know about, right? The cross and the resurrection. The better thing is the New Covenant.
Perfect means saved in the book of Hebrews. Perfect means access, open and granted to
God, full access to what the Old Covenant couldn't give, access into the presence of God both in time and eternity. They lived by faith in something they couldn't see. They lived...and that's how the chapter's beginning launches it, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That's how these great heroes lived. Their faith was courageous faith. They conquered in struggle. They continued in suffering. And they counted on a salvation that would be provided in a way they could not see.
Now I'm going to read verse 1 of chapter 12. "Therefore," this is not the end of the story and shouldn't be the beginning of a new chapter. "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us..." We know who they are, right? We just met them all and to what do they witness? To what do they witness? They witness to the validity of a life of...what?...faith. "Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the faith race set before us."
These are given to us as models and examples to stimulate our commitment to run an enduring race of faith. Now, as I said, the chapter shouldn't end at the end of the chapter, it should go in to chapter 12, so it will next week. We'll look at the twelfth chapter.
Father, thank You again for a wonderful day of worship and fellowship and we have been so greatly enriched tonight to be swept through the ages. The wrapping our minds around these great pinnacle people, these heroes of the faith, these great men and women who endured so much for what they couldn't see. Blessed are the ones who have not seen and yet believe. May we run this faith race as they did for while we have seen through the eyes of biblical revelation the full record of Christ and His death and resurrection, we have yet not seen the future. We have not seen what God has prepared for them who love Him. May we endure in faith. May our faith be a real and genuine saving faith, an unwavering, enduring faith, tested and proven true. And may we enjoy the trials and tests that come against our faith because, as Peter said, they produce endurance and endurance has a perfecting work. We cherish the trials that demonstrate our faith holds because that gives us assurance that it's the real thing and there's no greater joy for us than to know that our faith is real and our salvation is genuine. We thank You for the consistency of Scripture and how it sweeps over vast eras of history without wavering from its integrity and the message that a relationship to God is always based on faith and faith will triumph where works must fail. Strengthen our faith, we pray, through these examples in Christ's name. Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
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text: When you think of Salzburg, The Sound of Music probably comes to mind… but journeyPod is here to tell you that you can visit this baroque city and have an amazing culturally and historically inspiring trip without the movie tour! Want to hear an interesting tidbit? The film actually failed in Austria – closing after only a single week's showing in Salzburg and Vienna. Now really… skip the tour and do Salzburg the local way!

subset: commoncrawl


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South Dakota TB Elimination Advisory Committee
The South Dakota Tuberculosis Elimination Advisory Committee was formed in 1995 to be an outside advisory body to the South Dakota Department of Health. The formation of a formal TB Elimination Advisory Committee had been a federal TB grant objective for many years and was recommended by the Division of TB Elimination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mission Statement
The South Dakota Tuberculosis Elimination Advisory Committee shall provide advice and recommendations to the South Dakota Department of Health. The Committee shall make recommendations regarding:
- Medical practice
- Policy development
- TB control strategies, objectives and priorities
- Assist in the development and implementation of a statewide TB elimination plan
- Review the progress made toward elimination TB in South Dakota
- By the year 2020, reduce tuberculosis to an incidence of no more than 3.5 cases per 100,000 population.
- Special population target: Native American 2015 Target = <15 cases per 100,000 population.
Membership on the committee includes representatives from the American Lung Association of South Dakota, Indian Health Service, infectious disease physicians, pulmonologists, USD School of Medicine, family practice physicians, the State Epidemiologist and other Department of Health staff.


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Ryan Newman turned a lap at 187.531 mph to set a track record and claim the pole for Sunday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Rocket Man got his fuel back.
Ryan Newman snatched the pole away from Jimmie Johnson with a blistering lap of 187.531 mph around Indianapolis Motor Speedway to set a track record for NASCAR races at the Brickyard.
Newman was the last of the 45 drivers to make a qualifying attempt Saturday as Johnson's No. 48 was atop the scoring tower for more than an hour with a lap of 187.438. Driver after driver had failed to knock Johnson from the pole, and the four-time Brickyard winner watched and waited to see if Newman could get the job done.
Newman, an Indiana native, pulled it off as Johnson smiled his approval.
"You can't count Ryan out, and he put up a whale of a lap," Johnson said.
Added team co-owner Tony Stewart, "They don't call him 'Rocket Man' for no reason. He had an awesome lap."
It's the 50th pole for Newman, who established himself as an elite qualifier with six poles his rookie season. He set a NASCAR record with 11 poles in 2003 and won at least one pole per year for 11 seasons.
But he'd been in a drought of late, and Newman's last pole was late in the 2011 season.
"I just am ecstatic," Newman said. "It's awesome because it's my 50th. It's awesome because it's Indy, and it's a track record on top of that, so it's like a double-triple bonus."
The normally stoic Newman admitted he got emotional on the backstretch of his cool-down lap.
"It's more special to me because it's the Brickyard, because it's Indy, because of the history of auto racing at this facility," he said. "So many drivers who are my heroes, so many drivers I've admired, so many drivers that have worked so hard in their career to get to here on this day, to be the fastest one, that's what's the most special to me."
The drought on poles had weighed on Newman over the last year.
"It's been bothering me for a long time," he said. "I feel like I'm a driver that can still hit his marks each and every lap and put it all together, and we didn't win a pole last year. We were close at times."
The 50th pole of his career is good enough for ninth on the career list, and it comes at a critical time for Newman. Stewart told Newman he was not being re-signed for next season two weeks ago, and Newman is currently looking for a job for 2014.
"No hard feelings," Newman said. "They made a move, and that move makes me move, and there's no hard feelings.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. Obviously this is a good step in publicity for me on the positive side, so we'll see what we can do tomorrow."
Carl Edwards qualified third at 187.157, and was already seated for the post-qualifying news conference when he watched on television as Newman knocked Johnson and Edwards down a notch.
"I felt really good — second is the worst," Edwards said about qualifying third. "It's the worst to qualify second, and nobody wants anybody to go through what Jimmie just had to go through. We all don't feel too bad for Jimmie, but that was pretty dramatic. I didn't really expect that."
Johnson, who on Sunday will try to win his fifth Brickyard and tie Formula One's Michael Schumacher as the winningest driver at Indy, said his lap wasn't perfect.
"I did miss Turn 2 a little bit on my turning point, and felt like I made that mistake," Johnson said. "But Ryan hit all four corners great and got it done. Happy for him. It's got to be a big day for him, being a hometown boy and all. Very happy for Ryan and very happy for our team."
Denny Hamlin qualified fourth and was followed by Stewart, a two-time Indy winner, as Stewart-Haas Racing has two cars starting in the top five.
Kurt Busch was sixth and followed by Kasey Kahne, Juan Pablo Montoya, four-time Indy winner Jeff Gordon and Marcos Ambrose.�


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After next school year, the decades-old rivalry between Irondale and Mounds View high schools returns to intra-conference stakes.
Flowers began to gather as folks stopped by after the school day to pay their respects following the Dec. 1 fatal car collision in Arden Hills that killed two Mounds View High School students and injured a third.
Two students were killed in a Dec. 1 car accident in Arden Hills; a third student, the driver, was injured and hospitalized.
Bulletin-area commencement ceremonies in chronological order:
• CLT Twin Lakes — May 25, 6:30 p.m., New Brighton Family Service Center
400 10th St. N.W. in New Brighton
Mounds View High School has a 3-D art installation created by students and made out of cardboard — "The Mother of the Sea" — on display now in the entry area of the school. (Linda E. Andersen/Bulletin)
Deputies directed traffic during the morning commute at the intersection of Lake Valentine Road and Old Highway 10/Snelling Avenue. (Hannah Burlingame/Bulletin)
A new school year normally brings with it a little bit of worry and stress. However, students and faculty at Mounds View High School are facing some extra road-related stress the beginning of this academic year.
The new "Everybody's Garden," complete with hanging tomatillos at Chippewa Middle School. (Danielle Korby/Bulletin)
Tomatoes and tomatillos are among the many different plants that grow in Chippewa Middle School's new garden.
Mounds View High School principal Jeff Ridlehoover estimates he has had to tell around 70 families over the phone their children won't be able to attend Mounds View High School this year.
Mounds View High School Mustangs baseball team. (Photo courtesy of Jim Blood)
Mounds View High School students Jacob Weightman, Emily Ruan, Abraham Chen and Sam Rush at the 2015 Minnesota Economics Challenge in April. (courtesy of Paula Keller, MCEE)
Mounds View High School recently came home with the gold after a team of four students won the 15th annual National Economics Challenge in New York City.
Jaymz Culver (Ignacio Perez/U.S. Navy)
Boatswain's Mate Seaman Jaymz Culver of Mounds View removes a line from a capstan on USS John C. Stennis' fantail in North Island, California. The ships comprising the John C.
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text:
Off-week in the brewhouse. Heading to 4 Hands' Lupulin Carnival in St. Louis.Anyone else headed that way?
I'm thinking about doing a 15 minute APA I saw on Basic Brewing Video. I'm going to be busy this weekend and I haven't done an extract batch since going all-grain about seven months ago. Should be a fun experiment and a quick way to get five gallons of beer. It also means less time brewing in the snow.


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There's an old joke about why the St. Johns River flows north, but out of respect for our good friends from Georgia, I won't repeat it here.
Instead, how about a good source for facts about the longest river in Florida?
That would be the St. Johns Riverkeeper, a Jacksonville nonprofit organization devoted to the 310-mile waterway, its watershed and ecological future.
Even better, the group mixes some fun with its activism by sponsoring river excursions that double as an interesting mixture of nature-watching and history that's unique to Florida. One of Riverkeeper's signature events, its two-day Eco Heritage Boat Tour between Palatka and Sanford, is set for Oct. 11 and 13.
It might be your last chance to experience it.
The Jacksonville company that charters the pontoon boats used for the two-day cruises is closing and Riverkeeper doesn't have a replacement yet, said Shannon Blankinship, the organization's outreach director.
"Our captain, Greg Samuels, has always chartered our boat for an affordable rate," Blankinship said. "I don't know if someone else would do that."
There are two Eco Heritage tours, one departing on the morning of Oct. 11 from the Crystal Cove Marina in Palatka and concluding the next afternoon at the marina on Lake Monroe in Sanford.
On Oct. 13, the second tour embarks from the Monroe Harbour Marina for a trip to Palatka. On both trips, passengers complete the round-trip by chartered bus.
What happens on the water?
In addition to spotting wildlife on the river and Lake George, guests will be entertained by author Bill Belleville ("River of Lakes"), Volusia County folk historian Bill Dreggors and others. There will be stops at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City and Hontoon Island State Park in DeLand. Guests will stay overnight at rustic Blair's Jungle Den in Astor.
Originally a three-day trip, the Eco Tours have been streamlined to focus on the most interesting sites, Blankinship says.
"It's just the right amount of stops and right amount of time in the boat," she said. "You can really get a feel for how the river changes as it goes along."
The $325 cost includes accommodations, transportation and catered lunches. Visit stjohnsriverkeeper.org for details.


text: Good news: Nau just opened their online store. Nau is a company that uses only eco-effective materials to construct their clothing, including a number of materials that they developed themselves from the ground up. Nau also closely monitors the production process of the clothing, to ensure good labor practices and environmental standards. Via Groovy Green


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Meet Myles Crosby. He's eighteen years old, six foot three, has cheekbones you could slice a ham on, and modeled for Calvin Klein. And according to the Dallas Morning News, he's decided to retire as a model and play football for SMU. An agent says if Myles modeled full time he could "easily" earn six figures a year, but Myles can't wait to ruin that perfect face and maybe tear some ligaments! But Myles doesn't care too much about the cash:
"I'm told I'm so stupid by every single person," Crosby said. "That every single person in my shoes should drop out of school now and go make the money."
"I have a passion for football and I want an education," Crosby said. "This modeling crap could only last another year and then I'd have no education and never get to play football. I'd regret it for the rest of my life."
Good luck, Myles! We'all always have this to remember you by! (Note: I have no idea which one is Myles in this shot.)


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Wool-lined Tropical Gabardine Car Coat
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- A protective tropical gabardine car coat lined in our archival Vintage check wool. Unbutton the sides for added movement.
- Coat length: 107cm/42.1in. This is based on a size UK 8 as proportions change slightly according to size.
- Model's height: 179cm/5ft 10in
- Outer: 100% cotton
- Lining: 100% wool
- Sleeve lining: 100% viscose
- Buttons: buffalo horn
- Single-breasted closure
- Flap patch pockets
- Signature details: hook-and-eye collar closure, button-tab cuffs, check undercollar, storm shield
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Item 80061541


text:
Eggs Florentine is one of those breakfast classics that have inspired countless variations upon the simple theme of a cooked egg topped with a savoury sauce and sitting on a small bed of cooked spinach. Well, count me in for another experiment, and I can honestly say that this Easter Sunday breakfast was not just the best Eggs Florentine I've ever had but probably one of the tastiest breakfasts I've ever made. Best of all, it takes very little time to prepare, especially if you make the lightly spiced but beautifully fragrant creamed spinach that forms the Indian-style base of these eggs Florentine the night before. Even so, the spiced creamed spinach takes only 20 minutes to prepare and cook.
You will need eight 4-ounce ramekins or custard cups to make these baked eggs Florentine, or you can use four larger gratin dishes and divide the same ingredients four ways instead of eight. They are best served right out of the oven, but warn your diners that they are very hot indeed, and a few moments of cooling might spare them a scalded tongue!
|Indian-Style Baked Eggs Florentine
|Recipe by Lisa Turner
Published on March 25, 2008
An Indian-style update on the classic Eggs Florentine with homemade spiced creamed spinach — a simple but stunning and extraordinarily delicious breakfast
Print this recipe
|Spiced Creamed Spinach (Malai Sak)


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| November 21, 2012, 1:31 pm
I always make turkey stock in advance so it's ready for the gravy and the stuffing. Plus, we do our turkey on the grill, so we don't have pan drippings to use.
Turkey Stock
You can use whatever turkey parts you like — neck, giblets, wings. I prefer thighs. And feel free to play around with the quantities. This is a rough guide. Makes about 4 cups stock.


text:
DescriptionWeb Id: 16728162
Brooklyn Bay delivers a lifestyle of superior quality and leisure, offering residents a standard of comfort and convenience unmatched in Brooklyn. 100% market rate condominiums and rentals, with a 15 year tax abatement.
PH29C is the largest three bedroom, three bathroom, line in the building. This Southern and Eastern facing corner unit has two private balconies, offering unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Sheepshead Bay Marina.
Three floors of penthouses sit atop 1 Brooklyn Bay. On the highest floor, two grand four-bedroom penthouses offer spectacular aerial views and over 2,800 square feet of indoor and outdoor space.
With ceiling heights of more than 11' and sweeping floor-to-ceiling windows, airy living areas highlight endless ocean and city views. Beautiful kitchens are crafted with custom Italian cabinetry and honed quartz countertops. Penthouse kitchens feature a high-end stainless steel appliance suite that includes a Viking double wall oven and range with hood, Sub-Zero 36" refrigerator, and Viking wine cooler. All homes are prewired for the latest high-speed technology and include vented GE washers and dryers.
Master bathrooms are encased by pristine Carrara marble, with custom Italian vanities feature Kohler sinks with Grohe hardware. Adjacent to the vanity, a mirrored medicine cabinet provides convenient storage for everyday necessities.
1 Brooklyn Bay presents a new vision for Brooklyn living. Rising amid the historic waterfront community of Sheepshead Bay, the one- to four-bedroom condominiums emphasize exceptional views of the Atlantic Ocean, New York Harbor, Manhattan skyline and beyond. An impressive 33,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity space includes a spacious double-height attended lobby, a high-performance fitness center with a yoga studio, a children's playroom and a resident lounge with a fireplace and dining area. The lounge opens onto a loggia leading to the outdoor swimming pool and surrounding sundeck with lounge chairs and cabanas. Beyond the pool area, the lush landscaped grounds accommodate a bocce court and multiple barbecue grills. On-site parking, bike storage and a dog run are also available.
The complete offering terms are in an offering plan available from the sponsor, file number CD16-0373.
Building Features
- New Development
- Attended Lobby
- Pet Friendly
- Garage
- Outdoor Space
- Fitness Room
Listed by
Stribling Marketing Associates
With more than 15 years of expertise delivering success for real estate developers both big and small, Stribling Marketing Associates is one of the premier project marketing groups in New York City today. Learn more
All information is from sources believed to be reliable and is subject to change of price, rental, commission or other conditions, prior sale, lease or financing or withdrawal without notice. No representation is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footage are approximate and all information should be confirmed by customer. All rights to content, photographs and graphics are reserved. Customer should consult with its counsel regarding closing costs. Nothing herein shall constitute an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any property in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is not authorized or to any person to whom it would be unlawful to make an offer or solicitation.


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text:
281 Cranston Crescent
Directions Midland, ON L4R 4L1
I wouldn't take my truck anywhere else. I feel like family when I bring my truck in for service.
I'd never been to Bourgeois before. I'd never even been to Midland. But the dealership was highly recommended so I made the drive from Peterborough. You have to like a sales team that's professional but not pushy. And they delivered my vehicle right to my door back home. I would definitely buy there again.
It was great. Eventhough we live 8 hrs away, everything was done smoothly from the first contact to the delivery of the vehicle. Because we live so far away, I had trepidation of how things was going to be handled but everything was perfect.
At Bourgeois Motors, we pride ourselves in being a full service Ford dealership and a solid presence in Midland and the surrounding community. Offering first class sales and service, our entire staff is committed to providing our valued customers with timely, efficient, and friendly service. We understand the needs of our customers, and make their "complete satisfaction" our #1 priority.
Latest News
After 68 years in our downtown location, Bourgeois Motors now has the platform to better service our customers via a larger building on Cranston Crescent, which is located at the top of King Street at Highway 12 in Midland!
Since our business has always been based on relationships, this new building has given Bourgeois Motors the space required to expand on the high level of service that has won us customer loyalty over the years. It will also allow us to further build and strengthen new and existing relationships while giving back more to our customers. A big thanks to all of you for your continual support!
From our family to yours,
Adam Bourgeois, Dealer Principal
281 Cranston Crescent
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Colleges and universities around the country have been concerned about suicides, campus shootings, and students who exhibit inappropriate or unusual behaviors that might present a danger or threat to them or their campus communities. Across CUNY, we share this concern and many of our campuses have established Student Behavioral Intervention Teams (SBITs) to address this concern.
The purpose of Behavioral Intervention Teams (BITs) is to formalize a method for each CUNY campus to (1) foster a culture of Caring for students whose behavior might present a risk or threat to themselves or the campus community; (2) facilitate the early recognition of inappropriate or unusual student behavior or patterns of behavior; (3) coordinate campus support and assistance to address inappropriate or unusual behavior.
BIT teams are charged to:
Student Behavioral Intervention Team Contact firstname.lastname@example.com


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MONTGOMERY | A new study of what makes voters choose incumbents says some voters arrive at their decisions irrationally. The Cambridge University Press says, "A new study has thrown doubt on the ability of the average voter to make an accurate judgement of the performance of their politicians, showing that voter biases appear to be deep-seated and broad." Researchers Gregory A. Huber of Yale University, Seth J. Hill at the University of California, San Diego, and Gabriel S. Lenz at the University of California, Berkeley, said voters are susceptible to biases even when facing financial rewards to act differently and even when countering information is available.
MONTGOMERY | A new study of what makes voters choose incumbents says some voters arrive at their decisions irrationally.
The Cambridge University Press says, "A new study has thrown doubt on the ability of the average voter to make an accurate judgement of the performance of their politicians, showing that voter biases appear to be deep-seated and broad."
Researchers Gregory A. Huber of Yale University, Seth J. Hill at the University of California, San Diego, and Gabriel S. Lenz at the University of California, Berkeley, said voters are susceptible to biases even when facing financial rewards to act differently and even when countering information is available.
"Irrational" behavior, the authors called it.
Huber said he believes voters do the best they can.
"I don't think they are stupid — they do a remarkably good job given all the other things they have to think about and all the efforts that are made to persuade them," he said. "They are still imperfect, and in important ways, but it is important to understand both the nature and magnitude of those distortions."
The study is titled "Sources of Bias in Retrospective Decision Making: Experimental Evidence on Voters' Limitation in Controlling Incumbents." It was reported in the latest edition of the American Political Science Review published by Cambridge University Press.
The three political science professors asked about 4,000 people to play a series of games assessing the performance of fictional politicians.
The study did not mention any candidate, political system or political party in determining that events such as hurricanes, lotteries and other actions clearly outside the control of politicians can be used to place blame.
"The findings suggest that incumbents who associate themselves with good news for which they bear no responsibility, implement policies that generate good news close to elections at the expense of overall voter welfare and use rhetoric that encourages people to focus on how they feel in the here and now, ignoring the long-term, could benefit at the ballot box," the study concluded.
According to Huber, "Our results suggest severe limitations in humans' ability to accurately and impartially judge the performance of politicians. This is a worrisome finding for democratic accountability because it creates a breeding ground for politicians to manipulate their electorate.
"They tended to punish or reward the incumbent based on whether or not they had won or lost a lottery, and gave greater weight to earnings closer to the election when they learned about the election closer to it or after certain rhetorical statements," the study said.
Voters "persisted in this irrational behavior" even when told the fictional incumbent had nothing to do with the lottery or events closer to the election were no more informative of the incumbent's true performance than events further from the election, the study said.
In an email, Huber said even in very simple settings and when given financial incentives to behave otherwise, voters show important biases.
When voters aren't paying attention, they appear to give about twice as much credence to recent events as overall performance when choosing whether to re-elect an incumbent, Huber said.
Secondly, they give incumbents about 40 percent credit for events they can't control over events they can control, even though they know the incumbent can't control the event, he said. The study mentions hurricanes.
And, simple rhetoric like "how satisfied are you right now" can cause voters to give disproportionate weight to recent performance relative to overall performance, he said.
The study said schools and the media are to blame, partly.
"The findings also raise a warning about the adequacy of civic education programs and media coverage of elections to help citizens to accurately judge the performance of their representatives," the study said. "Understanding how to improve voter decision-making may have important implications for democracy."
The authors say voters respond to "irrelevant but salient information when evaluating an incumbent."
"Random and uncontrollable events, such as droughts, hurricanes, shark attacks, and even sporting event outcomes appear to influence voters' decisions to retain incumbent politicians," the study said, citing previous studies.
Voters seem to evaluate information that is "arguably irrelevant to understanding the competence and effort of incumbent politicians."
"Analyzing presidential elections from 1896 through 2000, for example, (two other researchers) find that moderate deviations from ideal moisture levels in a state decrease the incumbent president's party's vote share by 0.7 percentage points, whereas extreme droughts or wet spells decrease it by about 1.5 percentage points," the authors said.
In other words, raindrops falling or not falling on voters' heads determine their political choices. "Although these random events appear to influence voters, we do not know why," the authors said.
A possibility, though, is that voters hold incumbents responsible because they believe incumbents could have prevented disasters or could have sought to soften their effects, the authors said.
For example, say a hurricane hits a major city. Even though voters know it wasn't the incumbent's fault, he or she may get blamed.
"In the event of a damaging flood, for instance, voters may believe that the incumbent could have invested more heavily in flood prevention or provided more effective disaster assistance," the study said. "A second possibility is that voters may know the incumbent is not responsible for a bad event, but may be unable to take that information into account when making a decision."
The authors said "rational voters act on the basis of a knowingly imperfect (rules of thumb) because doing otherwise is too costly."
The authors said that incumbents may manipulate the economy or surround themselves with symbols of "good" as campaign strategies.
"Experiments imply that manipulating the election-year economy and directing campaign rhetoric on the here and now" improve the incumbent's chances of re-election "regardless of cumulative performance," the study said.
The authors, who referred to numerous previous studies by other researchers, said it's possible to interpret their study differently.


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The Lord of Peace | Includes 10 printouts
The Lord of Peace | Includes 10 printouts
2 Thessalonians 3:16
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The University of Massachusetts Boston/Athletics Department
Student-athletes are subject to the provisions of the handbook under Student Affairs Code of Conduct (http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/policies/community/code) As University students, the policies in this book apply to student-athletes in the same manner as any student at UMass Boston. Disciplinary action in the event of allegations of academic dishonesty, housing infractions, illegal activity or any other form of inappropriate behavior on or off campus will be treated under the University guidelines for such violations of institutional policy (http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/policies/regulations/). Athletic Department actions may be applied in addition to the University's policies if such action is warranted. Department actions may include, but are not limited to:
· Official reprimand; · Suspension from practice and/or competition; · Suspension for a semester; · Forfeit of team membership
Department punitive action is per the review of the head coach and the supervising Senior Associate Athletic Director, and with the final authority of the Vice Chancellor of Athletics.
NCAA and Conference Regulations
Student-athletes are subject to NCAA, LEC and ECAC rules and regulations governing unsportsmanlike behavior, substance abuse, gambling, bribery and the acceptance of non-permissible awards, benefits and expenses, as well as other forms of misconduct. All such rules and regulations are found in the NCAA Manual, LEC and ECAC bylaws.
Sportsmanlike Conduct
Sportsmanlike conduct is essential to UMass Boston's during competition between intercollegiate athletic teams. As highly visible representatives of the University, student-athletes, like the coaching staffs, are expected to portray the mission and values of the institution. Unsportsmanlike conduct will never be tolerated at UMass Boston in any form. The specific rules and regulations governing sportsmanlike conduct are documented in both the NCAA Sports Rules and The Little East Conference Sportsmanship Statement (http://www.littleeast.com/information/sportsmanship/index)
UMass Boston Hazing Policy
Students must read and understand the University of Massachusetts Boston hazing policy as well as Massachusetts General Law outlined above.
The University of Massachusetts Boston in compliance with Massachusetts State Law, Chapter 269 Sections, 17,18,19, and the Board of Higher Education, prohibits any form of humiliation or hazing. The policy in effect protects the students and employees of UMB. "Hazing" is outlined in the Massachusetts General Law, below. Consent shall not be an excuse or defense to any form of hazing. In addition, whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing and is at the scene of such a crime, shall, without danger or peril to self or others, report such a crime to an appropriate law enforcement official or to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs or designee, as soon as possible.
Whoever fails to report, or is a principal organizer in the crime of hazing, shall be punished by a fine or by imprisonment. In addition to criminal charges, any alleged violations shall be reported to the Office of the Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs for disciplinary action, according to the Code of Student Conduct.
MGL Chapter 269: Section 17. Hazing; organizing or participating; hazing defined Section 17. Whoever is a principal organizer or participant in the crime of hazing, as defined herein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment.
The term "hazing" as used in this section and in sections eighteen and nineteen, shall mean any conduct or method of initiation into any student organization, whether on public or private property, which willfully or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person. Such conduct shall include whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical health or safety of any such student or other person, or which subjects such student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary, consent shall not be available as a defense to any prosecution under this action. MGL Chapter 269: Section 18. Failure to report hazing
Section 18. Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.
MGL Chapter 269: Section 19. Copy of Secs. 17 to 19; issuance to students and student groups, teams and organizations; report
Section 19: Each institution of secondary education and each public and private institution of post secondary education shall issue to every student group, student team or student organization which is part of such institution or is recognized by the institution or permitted by the institution to use its name or facilities or is known by the institution to exist as an unaffiliated student group, student team or student organization, a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen; provided, however, that an institution's compliance with this section's requirements that an institution issue copies of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations shall not constitute evidence of the institution's recognition or endorsement of said unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations.
Each such group, team or organization shall distribute a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to each of its members, plebes, pledges or applicants for membership.
It shall be the duty of each such group, team or organization, acting through its designated officer, to deliver annually, to the institution an attested acknowledgement stating that such group, team or organization has received a copy of this section and said sections seventeen and eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges, or applicants has received a copy of sections seventeen and eighteen, and that such group, team or organization understands and agrees to comply with the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.
Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post secondary education shall, at least annually, before or at the start of enrollment, deliver to each person who enrolls as a full time student in such institution a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen and also certify that said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with regard to the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy has been set forth with appropriate emphasis in the student handbook or similar means of communicating the institution's policies to its students. The board of higher education and, in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education shall promulgate regulations governing the content and frequency of such reports, and shall forthwith report to the attorney general any such institution which fails to make such report.