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Marie Wallace has enjoyed a fulfilling career as a librarian, beginning in 1951 in academia with the University of California and transitioning in 1971 into the private law library world until her 1995 retirement from O'Melveny & Myers. She is the 1997 recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries' highest honor, the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award. Throughout her professional life, Marie has been a guiding force in the Southern California Association of Law Libraries, Practising Law Institute's programs for law librarians and Teaching Legal Research in Private Law Libraries (TRIPLL). Today, Marie has commenced on a new path she terms "Life in Progress," which enables her to pursue a diversity of interests as a master swimmer, law librarian, trainer, storyboarder and designer of wearable art. She continues to be a dynamic speaker and prolific writer on such topics as private law library management, presentations and training. She is a member of Toastmasters International and is active with the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) and in continuing education for private law librarians. She devotes her "free" time to various non-profit and civic activities. Always open to new ideas, Marie can be reached at: [email protected]. |
There are ample instructional opportunities to learn speaking, writing and graphic skills but almost none to master coordinated use of all three. Savvy communicators know when to orchestrate the trio and alternately how to make strategic selections. In essence, they know how to communicate tri-lingually, aware that each skill in the suite has its unique best uses and that each is assimilated by the audience in a different part of the brain. Information and knowledge providers using the communication suite skillfully will deliver focused and user-friendly content to their customers. Characteristics of the Three Modes of CommunicationSpoken language is an image-based idiom involving words and is best used to persuade, motivate and express emotion. It tends to flow from personal experience, be simply structured and often is grammatically fractured. (Anyone who has transcribed a speech for publication is humbled by the experience.) Written language is a word-based idiom and best used to express thought, abstract ideas, complexity and details. It tends to be linear, logical, objective, permanent and grammatically correct. Graphics are image-based using line, form, shape, pattern, texture, color and a predominately non-word vocabulary to capture actions and ideas. Words used in graphics function as elements of a picture. ExerciseCompare the content of the written paragraph above with the content of the graphic below as an exercise in assessing the nuances between spoken and graphic communication.
Common Communication Pitfalls
- Reading a written text as a substitute for delivering an oral presentation. The speaker forfeits the persuasive power of the spoken language. Conviction, excitement, and personal charisma are lost. In their place are dispassionate analysis and dull detail.
- Presenting an involved proposal without complementary written and graphic material. The decision-maker drowns in facts and complexity, and thinks of little except escape.
- Reciting detailed quantitative information in a speech when a comparative metaphor, such as "as big as a footfall field," would convey the picture.
- Using presentation technology so the speaker is hidden from the audience by screens or darkness or reading text from the screen that the audience can read three times faster.
- Training or teaching a multi-cultural staff without using graphics for clarification. Universally-understood pictures, drawings, or charts can replace hours of explaining.
- Forgetting to use graphics to distinguish things beyond the audience's experience.
- Using presentation software to display the speaker's script rather than to present ideas graphically.
- Designing slides and Web pages on linear rather than graphic principles.
- Mechanically decorating text with clip art instead of graphically showing relationships.
Use the Written and Spoken Language chart below to determine whether to use spoken or written communication for a specific purpose (train, teach, motivate, report, persuade, lead, manage or orientate). Then check the results against the list of When to Use Graphics. How would you pair them for balance? When would you use all three? Which do you favor?
Written and Spoken Language Compared
Written |
Spoken |
Left brain | Right brain |
Language of information | Language of persuasion |
Logical | Analogical (metaphors) |
Linear | Branching |
Dispassionate | Passionate |
Formal | Informal |
Individual, interior experience | Group, exterior experience |
Single sense | Multisensory |
Eye to brain | Ear and eye to brain |
Permanent | Transitory |
Impersonal | Personal |
Sequential | Associative |
Detailed | Gestalt |
Analytical | Anecdotal |
Facts | Patterns |
Planned | Spontaneous |
Two dimensional (2D) | Three dimensional (3D) |
Easy to recycle | Recyclable when recorded but loses a dimension |
Portable | Fixed location |
Updating is slow | Updating is quick |
Static | Dynamic and interactive |
Inflexible | Flexible |
Humor used cautiously | Humor used often |
Audience unseen and unidentified | Audience seen and identified |
Audience feedback is slow | Audience feedback is immediate |
When to Use Graphics
- Compare events in time and space
- Illustrate an idea, concept or principle
- Show a step-by-step action or procedure
- Suggest "the big picture"
- Show hierarchy and organizational relationships
- Identify a specific person, place or product
- Show relation of parts to whole
- Present correlation between variables
- Indicate sequence
- Demonstrate size and proportion
- Map and navigate physical spaces
- Show direction or route
Communication Clues Are Where You Find Them
When you wonder what a printed word means, you go to the dictionary. Clues for the meaning of spoken words include the speaker's face and body, pauses, intonation and the audience's reaction. Research indicates that the spoken message is about 93% non-verbal and only 7% verbal. A speaker's gestures, body language and vocal variety can color words sufficiently to completely alter their meaning.
By contrast, written language is 60% based on the words and 40% based on the non-verbal format features. Words are more important but two-fifths of the meaning in written documents comes from the look, created by:
When the meaning of a graphic is not immediately understood, the reader goes to the accompanying text or asks the speaker for clarification. Communicators should be aware that readers' eyes go immediately to the graphic on a page containing both graphics and text. This means when the graphic is at the bottom of the page after text, the text may not be read. Hook the reader with the graphic first and then follow with an explanation.
An excellent example of how the "communication suite" functions is in the Mar/Apr 1998 issue of ASTD's Technical Training, where Peggy Tampson lists 36 Management Competencies on page 13. Written communication skills are described as a "thinking, analytical" competency and oral communication skills are listed as an "energy, dynamism" competency. Interestingly, there is no visual literacy or graphics competency designation but a very clear and concise graphic at the top of the page accompanies her article. The author demonstrates her graphic competency but fails to articulate it. This is why trial lawyers often have witnesses show acts graphically rather than describe them verbally.


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Remember when Barack Obama made that big announcement at Camp Lejeune about how all US combat troops were going to be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30? Liberals jumped around with joy, praising Obama for ending the war so that they could focus on their "good war" in Afghanistan.
Of course, the celebrations were and remain unwarranted. Obama's Iraq plan is virtually identical to the one on Bush's table on January 19, 2009. Obama has just rebranded the occupation, sold it to liberals and dropped the term "Global War on Terror" while, for all practical purposes, continuing the Bush era policy (that's why leading Republicans praised Obama's plan). In the real world, US military commanders have said they are preparing for an Iraq presence for another 15-20 years, the US embassy is the size of Vatican City, there is no official plan for the withdrawal of contractors and new corporate mercenary contracts are being awarded. The SoFA Agreement between the US and Iraq gives the US the right to extend the occupation indefinitely and to continue intervening militarily in Iraq ad infinitum. All it takes is for the puppets in Baghdad to ask nicely…
In the latest episode of the "Occupation Rebranded" mini-series, President Obama is preparing to scrap the June 30 withdrawal timeline.
As The New York Times reports: "The United States and Iraq will begin negotiating possible exceptions to the June 30 deadline for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraqi cities, focusing on the troubled northern city of Mosul, according to military officials. Some parts of Baghdad also will still have combat troops."
According to the Times, the US is playing with the definition of the word "city" when speaking of withdrawing combat troops from all cities:
[T]here are no plans to close the Camp Victory base complex, consisting of five bases housing more than 20,000 soldiers, many of them combat troops. Although Victory is only a 15 minute drive from the center of Baghdad and sprawls over both sides of the city's boundary, Iraqi officials say they have agreed to consider it outside the city.
In addition, Forward Operating Base Falcon, which can hold 5,000 combat troops, will also remain after June 30. It is just within Baghdad's southern city limits. Again, Iraqi officials have classified it as effectively outside Baghdad, so no exception to the agreement needs to be granted, in their view.
Combat troops with the Seventh Field Artillery Regiment will remain in the heart of Baghdad at Camp Prosperity, located near the new American Embassy compound in the Green Zone. In addition to providing a quick reaction force, guarding the embassy and noncombat troops from attack, those soldiers will also continue to support Iraqi troops who are now in nominal charge of maintaining security in the Green Zone.
Camp Victory is of tremendous strategic importance to the US occupation. In addition to the military's share of Baghdad International Airport, it includes four bases — Victory, Liberty, Striker and Slayer — as well as the US-run prison "Camp Cropper." That's where the US keeps its "high value" prisoners. While the US officially handed control of Forward Operating Base Freedom to "Iraqi control," the US military is keeping the swimming pool.
Meanwhile, future plans are being laid for other US bases. Camp Prosperity is going to house US contractors and other personnel, while at Camp Union III housing is being built for several thousand soldiers, trainers and advisers.
What is abundantly clear is that there are enough cosmetic changes going on in Baghdad intended to make it look like the occupation is ending, while continuing it. Again, from the Times:
The Green Zone was handed over to Iraqi control Jan. 1, when the agreement went into effect. In addition to the United States-Iraqi patrols, most of the security for the Green Zone's many checkpoints and heavily guarded entry points is still done by the same private contractors who did it prior to Jan. 1.
"What you're seeing is not a change in the numbers, it's a doctrine change," said First Sgt. David Moore, a New Jersey National Guardsman with the Joint Area Support Group, which runs the Green Zone. "You're still going to have fighters. Every U.S. soldier is trained to fight."
The Iraq occupation is like The Picture of Dorian Gray. No matter what public face the Obama administration attempts to present, it only grows more heinous with each passing day.

subset: commoncrawl


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At the end of last week, Apple published iOS 7.0.6, a security update for its mobile devices.
The update was a patch to protect iPhones, iPads and iPods against what Apple described as a "data security" problem:
Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS
Description: Secure Transport failed to validate the authenticity of the connection. This issue was addressed by restoring missing validation steps.
Apple didn't say exactly what it meant by "a privileged network position," or by "the authenticity of the connection," but the smart money – and my own – was on what's known as a Man-in-the-Middle attack, or a MitM.
MiTM attacks against unencrypted websites are fairly easy.
If you run a dodgy wireless access point, for example, you can trick users who think they are visiting, say, http://example.com/ into visting a fake site of your choice, because you can redirect their network traffic.
You can then fetch the content they expect from the real site (you are the MitM, after all), feed it back to them with tweaks, modifications and malware, and they may be none the wiser.
But if they visit https://example.com/ then it's much harder to trick them, because your MitM site can't provide the HTTPS certificate that the official site can.
More precisely, a MitM site can send someone else's certificate, but it almost certainly can't produce any cryptographic "proof" that it has possession of the private key that the certificate is meant to validate.
So your visitors end up with a certificate warning that gives away your trickery.
At least, your visitors get a warning if the application they are using actually notices and reports the certificate problem.
→ Recent research suggested that about 40% of mobile banking apps do not check HTTPS certificates properly, or at least do not warn if an invalid certificate is presented. This led us to advise our readers to stick to their desktops or laptops for internet banking. Certificate warnings are important.
What was wrong with Apple's SSL code?
Apple's reluctance to give away too much is perhaps understandable in this case, but the result was to send experts scurrying off to fill in the blanks in HT6147, the only official detail about this risky-sounding bug.
The problem soon came to light, in a file called sslKeyExchange.c in version 55741 of the source code for SecureTransport, Apple's offical SSL/TLS library.
The buggy codepath into this file comes as a sequence of C function calls, starting off in SecureTransport's sslHandshake.c.
The bad news is that the bug applies to both iOS and OS X, and although the bug was patched in iOS, it is not yet fixed in OS X.
If you'd like to follow along, you need to make your way through these function calls:
SSLProcessHandshakeRecord() -> SSLProcessHandshakeMessage()
The ProcessHandshakeMessage function deals with a range of different parts of the SSL handshake, such as:
-> SSLProcessClientHello() -> SSLProcessServerHello() -> SSLProcessCertificate() -> SSLProcessServerKeyExchange()
This last function is called for certain sorts of TLS connection, notably where forward secrecy is involved.
That's where the server doesn't just use its regular public/private keypair to secure the transaction, but also generates a so-called ephemeral, or one-off, keypair that is used as well.
→ The idea of forward secrecy is that if the server throws away the ephemeral keys after each session, then you can't decrypt sniffed traffic from those sessions in the future, even if you acquire the server's regular private key by fair means (e.g. a subpoena) or foul (e.g. by bribery or cybertheft).
Now the C code proceeds as follows:
SSLProcessServerKeyExchange() -> SSLDecodeSignedServerKeyExchange() -> SSLDecodeXXKeyParams() IF TLS 1.2 -> SSLVerifySignedServerKeyExchangeTls12() OTHERWISE -> SSLVerifySignedServerKeyExchange()
And theSSLVerifySignedServerKeyExchange function, found in the sslKeyExchange.c file mentioned above, does this:
. . . hashOut.data = hashes + SSL_MD5_DIGEST_LEN; hashOut.length = SSL_SHA1_DIGEST_LEN; if ((err = SSLFreeBuffer(&hashCtx)) != 0) goto fail; if ((err = ReadyHash(&SSLHashSHA1, &hashCtx)) != 0) goto fail; if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &clientRandom)) != 0) goto fail; if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &serverRandom)) != 0) goto fail; if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &signedParams)) != 0) goto fail; goto fail; /* MISTAKE! THIS LINE SHOULD NOT BE HERE */ if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.final(&hashCtx, &hashOut)) != 0) goto fail; err = sslRawVerify(...); . . .
You don't really need an knowledge of C, or even of programming, to understand the error here.
The programmer is supposed to calculate a cryptographic checksum of three data items – the three calls to SSLHashSHA1.update() – and then to call the all-important function sslRawVerify().
If sslRawVerify() succeeds, then err ends up with the value zero, which means "no error", and that's what the SSLVerifySignedServerKeyExchange function returns to say, "All good."
But in the middle of this code fragment, you can see that the programmer has accidentally (no conspiracy theories, please!) repeated the line goto fail;.
The first goto fail happens if the if statement succeeds, i.e. if there has been a problem and therefore err is non-zero.
This causes an immediate "bail with error," and the entire TLS connection fails.
But because of the pecadilloes of C, the second goto fail, which shouldn't be there, always happens if the first one doesn't, i.e. if err is zero and there is actually no error to report.
The result is that the code leaps over the vital call to sslRawVerify(), and exits the function.
This causes an immediate "exit and report success", and the TLS connection succeeds, even though the verification process hasn't actually taken place.
What an attacker can do
An attacker now has a way to trick users of OS X 10.9 into accepting SSL/TLS certificates that ought to be rejected, though admittedly there are several steps, and he needs to:
- Trick you into visting an imposter HTTPS site, e.g. by using a poisoned public Wi-Fi access point.
- Force your browser (or other software) into using forward secrecy, possible because the server decides what encryption algorithms it will support.
- Force your browser (or other software) into using TLS 1.1, possible because the server decides what TLS versions it will allow.
- Supply a legitimate-looking TLS certificate with a mismatched private key.
Safari on OS X is definitely affected, because it makes use of the buggy version of SecureTransport.
You can work out if a application is affected by this bug by using Apple's otool program, which is a handy utility for digging version details out of program files and code libraries.
You use the -L option, which displays the names and version numbers of the shared libraries that a program uses:
That's only a start, since the Safari app is just a wrapper for the Safari.framework, which we need run through otool in its turn:
Other popular apps that link to the buggy library include, in no particular order: Mail, Numbers, Keynote, Pages, Preview and Calendar.
Clearly, not all of these apps put you in quite the same immediate danger as Safari, but the list presents a good reminder of why shared libraries are both a blessing (one patch fixes the lot) and a curse (one bug affects them all).
Popular apps in which encryption is important but that don't seem to use the buggy library include: Firefox, Chromium (and Chrome), Thunderbird and Skype.
What to do?
The good news is that Apple has broken its usual code of silence, by which it "does not disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches or releases are available."
Reuters reports that an official Apple spokesperson, Trudy Muller, has gone on the record to say, "We are aware of this issue and already have a software fix that will be released very soon."
Sadly, she didn't define "very soon," but you should watch for this patch and apply it as soon as you can.
→ When you update, be sure to follow the advice below about avoiding insecure networks. The Software Update app uses the buggy Security library!
We suggest that you try any or all of the following:
Avoid insecure networks
Connecting to other people's Wi-fi networks, even if they are password protected, can be dangerous.
Even if you trust the person who runs the network – a family member or a friend, perhaps – you also need to trust that they have kept their access point secure from everyone else.
If you are using your computer for business, consider asking your employer to set you up as part of the company's VPN (virtual private network), if you have one.
This limits your freedom and flexibility very slightly, but makes you a lot more secure.
With a VPN, you use other people's insecure networks only to create an encrypted data path back into the company network, from where you access the internet as if you were an insider.
Use a web filtering product that can scan HTTPS traffic
Products like the Sophos Web Appliance and Sophos UTM can inspect HTTPS traffic – ironically by decrypting and re-encrypting it, but without any certificate shenanigans like a man-in-the-middle crook might try.
Because the Sophos web filtering products do not use Apple's libraries, or even Apple's operating system, they are not vulnerable to the certificate trickery described above, so certificate validation will fail, as it should.
Switch to an alternative browser
Alternative browsers such as Firefox and Chromium (as well as Chrome) use their own SSL/TLS libraries as a way of making the applications easier to support on multiple operating systems.
In this case, that has the effect of immunising them against the bug in Apple's SecureTransport library.
You can switch back to Safari after Apple's patch is out.
Try this completely unofficial patch!
(Only kidding. You wouldn't dream of applying a little-tested hack to an important system library, would you?)
This patch exists only:
- To demonstrate that emergency "fixes" don't always fix, but often can only work around problems.
- To show what C code looks like when compiled to assembler.
- To give some insight into how unauthorised hacks, for good and bad, can be achieved.
- To introduce the OS X codesign utility and Apple's code signing protection.
- For fun.
By all means take a look – but for research purposes only, of course.


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- Home
- Government
- Departments
Animal Care & Control
The Mt. Juliet Police Department Animal Control Division employs 3 civilian animal control officers and has many helpful volunteers. They are responsible for investigating animal cruelty, reports of rabid animals, and animal bites. The animal control officers enforce the leash law and other city ordinances regulating dogs, cats and other animals.
Building & Codes Department
The Building Division is responsible for the administration and enforcement of building, electrical, and plumbing codes and permits.
Economic Development
Finance Department
The Finance Department safeguards Mt. Juliet assets through adherence to sound financial management practices and procedures, and provides the public, Board of Commissioners and staff with the financial analysis needed to develop appropriate policies.
Fire Department
Geographic Information System (GIS) Department
A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.
Human Resources
Human Resources
Information Technology (IT) Dept.
The IT Department seeks to facilitate availability and efficiency of all City departments and services through effective use of technology.
Parks & Recreation Department
The Mt. Juliet Parks and Recreation Department works to create and provide recreational activities and facilities, as well as, leisure and community services necessary to promote public well-being and quality of life for the citizens of Mt. Juliet.
Planning & Zoning Department
The Planning and Zoning Division serves as a liaison between the public and City government in specific subject areas.
Police Department
The mission of the Mt. Juliet Police Department is to provide the highest quality service, in partnership with the community, to preserve and protect life and property through education, prevention, proactive problem solving, and enforcement.
Public Works Department
Mt. Juliet Public Works is one of the largest and most diverse departments with six divisions, Construction Plans Review, Sewer Maintenance Division, Street Maintenance Division, Pretreatment Division, Transportation Division, and Water Quality/Stormwater Division.
The Communications division manages internal and external communications and handles media relations for the city.
Engineering Department
The Engineering Department assists with Development Services as well as providing engineering support for Capital Projects.
Utility Department
The Utility Department manages our Sanitary Sewer and Storm Water systems.


text: Character Analysis Mollie Unlike Boxer, who always thinks of others, Mollie is a shallow materialist who cares nothing for the struggles of her fellow animals. Her first appearance in the novel suggests her personality when she enters the meeting at the last moment, chewing sugar and sitting in the front so that the others will be able to admire the red ribbons she wears in her mane. Her only concerns about the revolution are ones prompted by her ego: When she asks Snowball if they will still have sugar and ribbons after the rebellion, she betrays the thoughts of old Major and reveals her vanity. She is lulled off the farm by the prospect of more material possessions than she could enjoy in an animal-governed world, marking her as one to whom politics and struggle mean nothing.


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Chutes And Ladders Drinking Game
All About Cocktails
Classic Drinking Games
Go out and buy the childrens board game.
Modify the rules as such:
Whenever you go UP a latter, count the number of squares OVER and UP that you are propelled, and distribute that many drinks among your opponents. (eg. 4 over and 3 up7 drinks: 2 to person A, 3 to B, 2 to C, for ex.).
Whenever you go DOWN a chute, count the number of squares OVER and DOWN that you are propelled, and drink that many YOURSELF. For computer geeks, just tell them to count the Hamming distance.
If, when you spin the 'spinner', and it comes up a tie (i.e. it doesn't land on a number, but the line in between), you must spin again, and take the number of drinks that is shown. Then proceed normally.


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Related links:
The constellation Leo is known as the Lion. Leo's head and mane make up an upside-down question mark called the Sickle. One of the brightest spring stars, Regulus (Latin for "little king"), is at the base of the question mark. The rest of Leo's body, legs, and tail extend to the east.During the dry season in ancient Egypt, the lions of the desert came close to the valley of the Nile when the river flooded, which used to happen when the Sun was in Leo. Some have interpreted this as the origin of the name of the constellation. The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Persians, Syrians, Greeks, and Romans, all recognized this constellation as a lion.
Leo is visible from February through June. Cancer sets to the east and Virgo is to the west. Hydra and Crater are below.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Show All Answers
There are 17 sectors that are considered "essential service" under Texas Executive Order GA-14.
Follow this link for steps to determine whether your business is an "essential service" as defined by Texas Executive Order GA-14.
Effective 11:59 PM March 27th until 11:59 PM April 30th
Citizens should stay home unless they have an essential need to get out, for example:
CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
See the tutorial and how to make a home made mask at www.brownwoodtexas.gov/cdcmask
City playscapes and park equipment are closed.
City parks are open, but people must observe social distancing and limit groups to 10 or less people at all times.
Green space and walking trails are open for use.
Yes, but observe social distancing and limit groups to 10 or less people at all times.
Yes. If you have any signs of COVID-19 (fever, shortness of breath, cough) then you must stay home until you no longer have fever for 72 hours, AND your symptoms have improved, AND 14 days have passed since you first had symptoms. These are based on CDC guidelines.
No. No one may leave the house for 14 days unless going to seek medical care.
Entertainment businesses (game rooms, movies, bowling, and related businesses)
Non-health related personal services (hair salons, hair stylists, barbershops, beauty shops, nail salons, tattoo shops, piercing businesses, and any services requiring close personal contact)
Take necessary action to have social distancing for employees and customers.
Take the necessary steps to sanitize the workplace for employees and customers.
Monitor the health of employees regularly.
Employees with a temperature of more than 99.9 must be sent home and follow the stay at home order regarding sickness.
No, but clergy and church leaders are encouraged to follow best practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The Brownwood Municipal Development District has created a consolidated resource guide include federal, state, and other aid available here.
The following symptoms may occur 2-14 days after exposure
Per CDC not everyone needs to be tested for COVID-19. This information might help in making decisions about seeking care or testing.
Please see https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html for more information from the CDC.


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Will you open your Bible to 1 Peter chapter 3? Our text for tonight is verses 13 through 16, 1 Peter 3:13 through 16. Let me read these verses to you as we come to a new passage in our study. "And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. But, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. Yet, with gentleness and reverence. And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame, for it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. The title of this particular paragraph we could make: "The Christian's Securities in a Hostile World. The Christian's Securities in a Hostile World."
Now, just a little bit of background so we understand what it is that Peter is saying here. Remember now, the beloved apostle Peter has been giving some clear, some crucial, essential instructions to the believers about living in a hostile world. They, in fact, to whom he wrote this letter were undergoing persecution and great difficulty. They were under heavy trials of being rejected by the society they were in, so severely rejected that they were experiencing on some occasions hostile persecution. As he writes to them he wants to give them a perspective on this persecution and how to deal with it. It has really taken him all this time, up until chapter 3 verse 13, to get to his main theme. In fact, in some sense, everything preliminary to this 13th verse of chapter 3 is somewhat preparatory, or introductory. He began, you'll remember, by identifying Christians as the chosen of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and then set apart to holy living in the midst of an unholy society. In fact, that is the theme from chapter 1:1 through chapter 2 verse 10. That whole section basically identifies believers. They start out in chapter 1 verse 1 as the chosen. By the time you come to chapter 2 and verse 10, he is saying, verse 9 rather, he is saying you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
So, he has been through chapter 1 and chapter 2 verse 9 and 10 identifying the believer as the chosen of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, set apart to holy living in the midst of an unholy society, for the purpose of reaching that society with the saving gospel. Then, starting in chapter 2 and verse 11, he begins to discuss the relationships that Christians must have in that society. He identifies Christians in verse 11 as aliens and strangers. We are foreigners. We are pilgrims. We are, if you will, other worldly. We are only temporary in this world. We are not the permanent residents or permanent citizens here. And so, we have the very difficult task of being in the world but not of the world, of being the chosen of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, set apart for holy living with the purpose of evangelizing our society, and realizing at the same time that we don't really belong in this society. We have, then, the very difficult task of reaching a threatening world with the gospel of saving grace. We are to so live, says chapter 2 verse 12, that because of our living, people might come to salvation and thus glorify God in the day of visitation. The day when they face the Lord will be the day they glorify the Lord because they have been redeemed through the instrumentality of the preaching of the gospel by faithful Christians.
So, in chapter 2 verse 13, the apostle begins then to describe all the human relationships that are essential for us as we attempt to reach this world for Christ. He talks about our relationship to government. He talks about our relationship to authority. He talks about our relationship to our employer. In chapter 3 verse 1, he talks about our relationship to our marital partner, husband to wife, wife to husband. And all the way through that whole section, everything is evangelistic. How we are to live as citizens under the government with an evangelistic goal in mind, how we are to live as employees under an employer with evangelistic purpose in mind, and how we are to live as a Christian married to an unbeliever with an evangelistic purpose in mind. Then, coming down to verses 8 to 12 he talks about the general attitude with which we live in the world which touches everyone that we meet.
So, as I said, up until now he has really been sort of laying a foundation: this is who you are, and here is how you are to act in the midst of a hostile society. Now, he is going to say: given that you live this way in a hostile society, here are your securities when that society comes against you. Here is the purpose reached, to arm the elect with the right attitude as they face the hostile world, how we are to trust in the power of righteousness, to triumph over hostility and to triumph over suffering. He wants us to have in spite of the fact that we are strangers and aliens, and in spite of the fact that we are treated with hostility and persecution, he wants us to have cause for confident joy rather than alarm or anxiety.
Now, in Peter's time this, of course, was different in some ways than it is in our time. There was direct hostility and some direct persecution against the people of God. There is still that in some parts of the world, though in our own nation it is not as overt and aggressive as it might be in some other places, at least not officially. I believe there is a mounting hostility toward Christianity. In fact, there is an escalating hostility toward Christianity among the general populous. You can see it in a number of ways. I was handed this little catalog. It's one of those kind of catalogs that you get in the mail. if you ever get one of them, pretty soon you get all of them. It's called "Casual Living USA," it's a catalog of distinctive gifts and it has bird feeders, and cat litter, and little computers, and puzzles, and little barometers, and coffee cups, and all that kind of stuff that you expect in here, frames for your baby pictures, bookends, dog houses.
And then, in the middle of it is a most interesting new game that is introduced. It is offered for a price of $25 and the name of the game is "Fleece the Flock, The TV Evangelist Game." It is called a "signs of the times board game." You get to play one of the TV evangelists. Everybody in the game is a TV evangelist who prefers new limos to the Old Testament, it says. You struggle to amass a fortune while you're gripped by intrigue, strategy pressures and subterfuge that keep everyone in suspense. Two to eight players, the game box includes $400 million, devil cards, angel cards and God's will cards, 30 TV stations, 90 tokens for power assets, theme parks, corporate jets, et cetera. This is the new TV evangelist game. Fleece The Flock.
Tongue in cheek, yes. But betraying an underlying hostility to the charlatanism of Christianity, obviously. And in a society where Christianity continues to discredit itself on large scale, and a society that has a flourishing secularism, a flourishing materialism, a flourishing humanism, a society that is bent on fornication, a society that has made homosexuality nothing but an alternate lifestyle, a society that is drowning in pornography, a society that is deep into man solving his own problems in whatever way he chooses to feel comfortable about himself; in that society you have an emerging hostility toward the definitive character of Christianity. And I believe that as we live out our lives in days ahead, we may sense more and more of this hostility if not on an official governmental level, on an unofficial personal level, to be sure.
This passage then does speak to us. It speaks to all of us who live a godly life in the midst of an ungodly culture, as to how we are to defend ourselves against the threats of that hostile world. How can we silence the critics? How can we do what chapter 2 verse 12 said, have such behavior that those who would slander us would have to slander us for something good because they can't find anything evil? How can we so live that we can silence our critics, that we can be secure in this hostile environment?
Well, Peter's going to give us a handful of principles here. And I like to call them the "securities of the believer in a hostile world." They are what we have to lean on to secure us, to minimize the threat, to minimize the hostility. They are our defenses against those who would attack us.
Number one. Number one, we'll call a "passion for goodness. A passion for goodness." Now, remember, Peter has already identified who we are. He has already identified how we are to live in a hostile world. In general, we are to live evangelistically. And now he gets very specific about what our securities are as we confront this hostile world. Security number one is a passion for goodness, verse 13. Very basic statement. "And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?" Now, beloved, there is the first line of defense that we have. It is very difficult, Peter is saying, it is very unusual for some people, for most people, to mistreat those who are zealous for good. Even a hostile world is slow to hurt people who do good, who are benefactors of society, who are gracious, unselfish, kind, merciful, thoughtful, loving, caring. Very difficult. The world doesn't have any problem at all attacking with great hostility the charlatans and the frauds who steal from the widows and the orphans, who make themselves rich at the expense of other people. But the world is not so eager to come against those who are doing good. And I think what Peter has in mind here is very general: a good life, a beneficent life, the kind of life that is marked by generosity, unselfishness, kindness, thoughtfulness toward others. That's hard to harm. It has a way of stopping their hand.
So, Peter begins by insisting then that one of our securities in the midst of a hostile environment is a passionate zeal for what is good. And if that's the character of your life, who is there to harm you or to do you evil, literally? It's a rhetorical question: who is there to harm you? The implied answer is no one, or very few. It says, "Who is there to harm you if you prove," the verb really translates, "if you become, if you become zealots for what is good?" In other words, if that is your character, you are a zealot for what is good.
Now, what is this word "zealot," zltai mean? Well, it is a person with a passion. It is a person with a great ardor for some cause. If you study the New Testament background, you know that during the New Testament time there were a group of people called Zealots. They were fanatical patriots in Israel, and they pledged to liberate Israel from foreign rule at the cost of their own lives, if need be. In other words, they were so committed to the liberation of Israel from foreign power that they would literally murder, steal, lie, cheat, or even give up their own lives. That's how devoted they were. There was one of them among the Twelve whose name was Simon the Zealot. So, they were a political radical party who were willing to lay their life on the line. The Zealots in particular began at the time of the Maccabees which was between the Old and the New Testament. They resorted to violence, they resorted to assassination, absolutely anything they could do to express their hatred of pagan foreigners.
Apparently they become. They became, I should say, a relatively significant force in Palestine. In Acts 21:38 it mentions: "Then, you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a riot and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness." That may well be a reference to the Zealots. And if so, there were at least in that reference as many as 4,000 of them. They were men prepared to take their lives and lay them on the line, sacrificing ease, comfort, worldly goods in the ardor of love for their nation.
So, Peter says, "You be a zealot, only you be a zealot for what is good. You have such a passion for goodness, for kindness, for tenderness, for mercy, for love, for philanthropy, that the world will have a great difficulty persecuting you." Sir John Sealy once said, "No heart is pure that is not passionate." And Peter is saying you should be passionate for what is good, and that produces a purity of life that is very difficult to persecute. Even the world has trouble doing that. As I said, it's easy for them to persecute those who do evil, difficult to persecute those who do good.
What is Peter saying? Be in love with goodness. When it becomes your delight, when it becomes your joy, when it becomes your goal, when the wrong things lose their fascination, when the wrong things lose their power to attract and you become consumed with doing what is good, the world will find it difficult to persecute you even though the world is hostile. Now, that's just a general principle. And Peter is not going to leave us there. That's just the first security he wants to bring up. But it also must be noted quickly that in verse 14 he says, "But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're blessed." And the implication there is that this is not a gilt-edged guaranteed promise that if you do good you won't be persecuted, it simply makes it all the more difficult to do. We are to have a passion for doing what is good. Jesus had that passion. Jesus did good and only good. He is our model. And yet Jesus Himself also ultimately was killed by a hostile world.
But, the point that Peter wants us to get here is that our lives are to be lived in a manner that is opposite scandal. We're never to be scandalized. We are to live lives that are impeccable. He's not guaranteeing that we will not suffer; he is simply saying it's very difficult for the world to act that way toward us if our lives are good. They have no real grounds for the persecution. They have no real grounds for the attack. And that tends to stay their hand a bit. So, we are to live lives that are zealous for what is good, zealous for what is honorable. That's our first security.
Look at our second one. Verse 14 which I just read a moment ago gives it to us. The second security we have is "a pliability in suffering." Not only a passion for what is good, but a pliability in suffering. In spite of the general truth of verse 13, there will be times when those who do good suffer. But, he says, even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're blessed. The little phrase "but even if" could be translated "per chance," or "contrary to what is expected." This by the way is in the Greek, a construction attached to a verb in the optative, which simply means it is subjective possibility without a definite time. In other words, there's no certainty of fulfillment, but it could happen. And that's what he's saying. But even if it per chance should happen that you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're blessed.
It's a good thing Peter brings that up, because some of the people to whom he wrote may well have been suffering for doing good. It is also true, beloved, and you hate to say it, but it is also true that many Christians are suffering at the hands of the world. The problem is they're suffering because of a failure to do what is good, and so the world feels a greater justification and therefore a greater freedom for their hostility. So, but Peter says if some of you per chance should suffer for the sake of righteousness, that means upright godly behavior, don't be surprised and don't be fearful. You are blessed.
Look at chapter 4 for a moment, verse 12. And we find an almost similar section here which again reminds us that this is a major theme of his letter. First Peter 4:12, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you." In other words, don't be surprised when it comes. "It comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." In other words, some thing that should never occur, I mean, don't be shocked if it does happen. "But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer or thief or evil doer or a troublesome meddler, but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed but in that name let him glorify God." And there again Peter says basically the same thing. You will suffer perhaps for doing good, accept that. The Spirit of glory and of God will rest on you. God will have a purpose in it all should it happen. It may happen. In fact, if you go back into chapter 2 and verse 21, you might even consider it a privilege. Christ also suffered, it says, leaving you an example. He committed no sin. There was no deceit found in His mouth. And while being reviled, He didn't revile in return. While suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. In other words, there's a sense in which you can identify with the very sufferings of Christ. You can know what Paul says in Philippians 3 is the fellowship of His sufferings.
So, first point: we are secure if we have a passion for goodness. Second point, we must also, on occasion, have a pliability in suffering, should it come. In other words, we have to bend with it, we have to accept it, we have to acknowledge that God is bringing it to pass, or allowing it for our testing, as chapter 4 verse 12 says, in order to perfect us. There will be points at which our society will not tolerate even a good life. They will not tolerate a righteous man or a righteous woman. The very presence of holy virtue will irritate them to the point that they will have to act aggressively against you. But, says Peter, when we suffer for what is right, we are blessed. Literally it says, even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, blessed. Blessed. Almost like an exclamation.
Now, what does "blessed" mean? It's not so much the idea of happy, not so much the idea of joyful as it is the idea of privileged. Okay? Privileged, or honored. Do you remember where the text says of Mary, "Blessed art thou among women?" It didn't necessarily mean "happy." In fact, her heart was pierced with many sorrows. But it meant privileged, and it can mean that. It meant honored. It meant that she was the object of divine favor, and divine grace, and divine goodness, and special dispensation from God was granted to her to do a special task, and to enjoy special goodness at the hand of God. And that's exactly what it means here. Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you're privileged, you are honored. Why? Because you can join, as it were, in the sufferings of Christ, you can fellowship in His sufferings, as Philippians 3:10 mentions.
Notice for a moment Matthew chapter 5, because it's perhaps from this teaching of our Lord that Peter drew his understanding of this particular thought. In Matthew 5:10, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven, blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great." There it is. Why are you privileged, and why are you honored? For the more you suffer the greater the glory, the greater the reward.
So, your first line of defense against a hostile world is a zeal for goodness, a passion for what is good. The second one is that when it does come against you, the hostility of the world, you're pliable in suffering. You defend yourself by simply accepting the suffering as within the purposes of God which shall cause you to be made a privileged individual to so suffer, and thus enjoy the eternal blessedness that God sets aside for those who have specially suffered. And I won't take the time tonight, but I believe the great, great rewards of glory will be proportionately given out to believers on the basis of their suffering. God will honor those who suffer.
So, you're blessed. Then, Peter quotes from an Old Testament passage. Do you see it there in verse 14? "And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled." That comes out of Isaiah 8:12 and 13. Let me read you what Isaiah 8:12 and 13 says. "You are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy, and He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread." You are not to fear what they fear. Now, in that particular portion, the setting of the Isaiah quotation is significant. Ahaz, king of Judah, faced a crisis because of an impending invasion by the Assyrian army. The kings of Israel and Syria wanted Ahaz to join them in an alliance against the Assyrians, but Ahaz refused. So, because he refused, Israel and Syria threatened to invade Judah.
Behind the scenes then, Ahaz made an alliance with Assyria. And the prophet Isaiah warned him against ungodly alliances, and urged him to trust God alone for deliverance. And he says to him, "Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread and fear not their fear." In other words, don't you, king of Judah, be afraid of the Assyrians like the Syrians and the people of Israel are, the Northern Kingdom. Don't fear their fear, fear the Lord, and set the Lord apart, sanctify Him. That's behind the scenes in Isaiah. And here, Peter is quoting that and essentially saying, "Do not fear their fear," or as it's translated in the NAS, "Do not fear their intimidation." It could mean the fear that they're being they're being made to fear. In other words, don't fear like they are fearing, like others are fearing. Or, don't fear the intimidation of those who would make you fear. Either way its meaning is don't fear; don't be afraid. And then he says, "Don't be troubled. Don't be shaken, don't be disturbed."
Now, this is a very simple verse with simple understanding. He says this, "Should persecution come against you for the sake of righteousness, you are honored, you are privileged and God will reward you in eternity." So, don't be afraid and don't be troubled. Face it with courage. That's a pliability in suffering. No reason for a believer to think any other way. John Bunyan, you know, when he was in Bedford Jail, he was put in prison because of the hostility of his society. They didn't want him to preach so they locked him in prison so he couldn't have the public place of preaching. And this is what he wrote, among many things, of course, that he wrote there. He wrote these words, "This prison very sweet to me hath been since I came here and so would also hanging be if Thou didst then appear." He considered it a privilege to suffer, and perhaps even to die because it would bring him to his Lord.
And so, we need Christians who have a pliability in suffering. What does that mean? To accept it as a source of blessing and not compromise with the world, not backtrack, not try to eliminate it by changing your theology. You know, Martin Luther stood before those who would condemn him, the hostile and the religious world, and he said, "I can't recant, I cannot. I cannot." And many Christians have stood their ground and lost their life, as you know. I think many more Christians have caved in to hostility through the years. But we want to be Christians who are courageous, and bold, and righteous, and holy, and zealous for good. And if we are persecuted, we will rejoice in the special glory God bestows upon us, we will rest in the Spirit of glory and in our God and count it joy to suffer for the one who suffered for us.
Now, this also means that you can't have your mind and your heart set on earthly things. If you're preoccupied with possessions, and pleasures, and ease, and comfort, and popularity, then you're going to be really be threatened. But if your focus is right, and you understand God has honored you highly by the suffering and will give you a greater weight of glory in the future, then you can count it all joy when you fall into various trials, as James said.
So, the world comes against the Christian? His first security is a passion for goodness which makes it difficult for the world to do anything to us. But in the event they do, the second line of defense is a pliability in suffering, because even though we might suffer at their hands, they can never touch our true treasure. They can never touch our relationship to God and the fact that we suffer will grant to us the Spirit of glory and of God which will rest upon us and a greater weight of glory in eternity yet to come.
And now a third, a third security in a hostile world, let's call it "a place for Christ." A passion for goodness, a pliability in suffering and a place for Christ, I love this. This too is taken from Isaiah 8:13, as I read a moment ago, "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts." And stop right there. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. In Isaiah, the word "God" is used, rather than Christ. And here the Spirit of God replaces the word God with the word Christ. But, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. It is the Lord that you must regard as holy. It is the Lord that you must give deference to. Now, what does it mean? It means that no matter what comes against you, no matter what attacks you, you affirm in your heart that Christ is Lord. And we're right back to what we talked about this morning: you are affirming the sovereignty of the Lord. You are affirming. The only one I really have to fear, the only one I really have to dread is the Lord. It does not bother me what men may do to me. It does bother me what God may do to me.
That's the intent of Isaiah 8:12 and 13, and that's the intent of Peter here as well. To sanctify means to venerate. It means to adore. It means to worship. It means, by implication, to exalt, to magnify, to give the primary place to. You are recognizing the holy sovereign majesty of Christ. You are saying He is the object of my love; He is the object of my loyalty. He is the one to whom I am committed. He is the object of my awe. He is the object of my reverence. He is the object of my worship. I recognize His perfection. I magnify His glory. I exalt His greatness. I honor the living Christ as my Lord, and therefore I submit myself to Him and this is in His plan. And I will not fear; I will accept what He has brought. I will please Him with loyal submission. That's the idea. That's your third line of defense.
If they do come against you with hostility, even though you're doing good, and you have to have a pliability in suffering, at the heart of that pliability is a place for Christ. And that place is the priority place. You affirm that I will venerate, I will adore, I will worship, I will exalt Christ as Lord. I recognize that I must give to Him loyal, confident, submissive obedience. For this hostility against me from an ungodly world must be within His will or it would not be happening.
Marvelous to live life that way. It's like adorning the doctrine of God, as Paul said to Titus. This is the Christian who at his deepest point, the deepest part of his being, is totally committed to the great reality that Jesus Christ is Lord, and I will honor Him as Lord even in my sufferings. He is Lord over me. He is Lord even in my difficulty. Loyal, confident submission will give you courage, boldness, fortitude in the face of a hostile society. It will secure you and you'll feel that security.
Then, says Peter, there is yet another security. Verse 15, "Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." Let's call number four "a preparedness to answer. A preparedness to answer." Verse 15 simply says that when we are attacked by a hostile world, we are to be able to make a defense. Now, it might seem at first as you look at this particular passage that this is a formal defense. When he says "always being ready to make a defense," you take the word defense, apologia, from which we get an apology, or an apologetic, a defense of something. You might assume that this is a formal defense in a court somewhere. And by the way, it is so used in 2 Timothy 4:16. Paul speaks about his formal defense in a courtroom situation. Also in Acts 25:16. But you have the same word, apologia, used in Philippians 1:16 apparently in an informal sense, just being able to give a defense to anyone who asks you, not just a judge or a magistrate or a governor or somebody formally sitting in judgment over you.
Furthermore the word "always" indicates that it's not just while you're on some official trial basis, but always. In all situations, you are to be ready to give a defense not just to a judge or a magistrate but to everyone who asks you. So, I take it this is very general here. Formal in a court at a trial, or informal. You are to make a defense, give a speech of defense. And what is it about? It's a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. What is that? Very simply, that's the Christian faith. The hope that is in you is the Christian faith. It's just another way to identify the Christian faith. In other words, you are to be able to give a rational explanation and defense of why you are a Christian. That's it. The Christian faith or the Christian hope, synonymous really.
Peter has been talking about our hope. Chapter 1 he says, "We have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ," and there that living hope is tantamount to our living faith or our living Christian life. Peter loves the word "hope," by the way. He uses it again in chapter 1 verse 21. He talks about the fact that our faith and hope are in God. If we had the time, we could dig deeply into this concept of Christian hope being a definition of our Christian faith. But suffice it to say that that is indeed what it is. And if you want any background on that, go back to the notes or the tape in the first chapter when we discussed a living hope and you will find there that that living hope is a perpetual quality of life that is the same as eternal life, or the Christian life, or the life of faith.
So, he's simply saying be able to defend your Christianity. Be able to tell people why you believe what you believe. Understand why you believe what you believe and then be able to articulate it. And then, he adds in verse 15, "Yet with gentleness and reverence." And there is to be a tenderness and a graciousness in our spirit. The word "gentleness" is actually the word for meekness or humility. Power under control is one way that we think about that word. And then, the word perseverance, I think it says here, or in some Bibles it says that, here it says reverence, properly so, is actually the word for fear. It's the word phobou, from which we get phobias. In other words, reverence, a healthy reverence for God, a healthy reverence for truth, and even a healthy reverence for the person to whom you speak, a graciousness. Second Timothy 2 it says we're not to strive, we're not to be argumentative as we present truth.
So, here is another line of defense, a very basic one, a security for us. And that is, that we can properly, carefully, thoughtfully, reasonably, biblically give everyone who asks us a clear reason for why we are a Christian. That's part of our security. You say, "In what sense?" I'll tell you in what sense. If you can't do that rationally, and you can't understand it fully and clearly and articulate it, and you get into hostility, persecution and an attack against you, guess who's going to crumble? You are. Because, if you can't articulate it to be understood by someone else, you may have difficulty reminding yourself of enough information to convince yourself you're truly a Christian. And you can fall into doubt. If you don't have the helmet of the hope of salvation, those blows of the enemy can be quite devastating.
So, to be effective standing against a hostile world we are to have a passion for goodness, a pliability in suffering, we are to have a place for Christ, the priority place, setting Him apart, and in loyalty submitting to His perfect holy will in the midst of this suffering. And we are to have a preparedness to answer, not only by knowledge but by courage. We are to be eager and willing to give to every man who asks us a reason for the hope that is in us, and to do it with sweet gracious gentle humility and a sense of reverence for the God, for the truth and for even the person to whom we speak. That's how we face hostility.
A fifth principle. We also are to have "a pure conscience. A pure conscience," verse 16. "And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." And keep a good conscience. The word "keep" means to maintain, it's to have literally, to maintain or to possess a good conscience. What does that mean? That means that your conscience is not accusing you. Your conscience is a mechanism which either accuses you or excuses you. Your conscience is a device that God has planted within you to act as a source of conviction or affirmation. If you have a good conscience, it will be telling you that all is well. If you have an evil conscience, it will be reminding you that all is not well because there is sin in your life. And what Peter is saying is: live with a clear conscience, a conscience that doesn't condemn you so that when you face criticism, when you face hostility, when you face persecution, you don't feel any guilt. You see, if you're living a sinful life, if you're not zealous for goodness and if you're not loyal to Jesus Christ, and if you're like one of these people who has misrepresented Christ and you're living a life that slanders Christ, or bring reproach on Christ, and persecution comes against your Christianity, you're going to feel a very heavy weight of guilt because it's really what you deserve. Then, you have no defense against it. But if your conscience is clear, then you are not anxious, you are not troubled.
People always say to me, "You know, you get a lot of criticism." That's true. "And you get a lot of attacks against you." That's true. And they say, "Well, how do you respond to it." And I say, my first response is always the same: I look into my heart to see if the criticism is valid. And if I look into my heart and I can say I have a clear conscience, then I have no anxiety, because there is nothing there convicting me. And it brings me no pain; it brings me no trouble because it cannot produce any guilt. If, on the other hand, I am accused of doing something and I am somehow persecuted for, by someone and I look in my heart and say yes, yes that is a valid accusation, then the guilt wells up within me and I have no security against that criticism." So, I must maintain a clear conscience, because a defiled conscience cannot be at ease, a defiled conscience cannot withstand the onslaught of hostility. We have to keep our conscience clean.
And how does that happen? The conscience simply probes at us about what it knows to be true of us. If the conscience knows that we are in sin, it will pick at us. If the conscience knows that we are living in obedience, it will affirm us. It's that little voice inside, you know, of which Paul spoke so often and so frequently would say, "My conscience is clear, my conscience is clear, I am void of offense." It's that little voice that says your life is right or that says your life is wrong. And should hostility come and persecution come and you know your life is right, and you know you're faithful and you've set apart Christ in your life as Lord, and you're following in loyal submission to Him, and you're pursuing what is good and you're pursuing holiness to glorify Him; no matter what hostility comes there is peace and you have a defense in the midst of a hostile world. So, he says, "If your conscience is clear, then in the thing in which you are slandered, you'll have no guilt. And those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame because it will be a false accusation." That's the idea. It's the same as he said in 2:12: when they slander you, make sure they slander you for what is good.
By the way, that word "slandered," interesting Greek word, katalale. It is an onomatopoetic word. That is, it sounds like its meaning. A katalale, blablablablabla. We've seen it at other times. It's a word that speaks about verbal abuse, verbal slander. The word "revile" means to threaten, to abuse, to insult, to mistreat. And he says, "Should it happen if you have a clear conscience, you can say fine, the shame is on them, not on me. They should be ashamed for they are falsely accusing." You see, what makes the world feel so self-righteous and so right in condemning Christianity is to come against someone who has so scandalized the Christian faith. The world loves that. They absolutely love to do that because that makes them feel righteous, because there is truly a scandal there. And when they find that, they will press that to the nth degree because it makes them feel self-righteous and gives them just cause to condemn a Christian, one who claims to be a Christian. On the other hand, Peter says you ought to live in such a way that when anybody does that they should be ashamed of themselves, not you.
So, what are our defenses against the world's hostility? A passion for goodness, which makes it difficult for them to slander us at all. Should they, we have a pliability in suffering. We accept it as the Lord's will and then there's a place for Christ; we give Him the priority place. And in the middle of that suffering and hostility in loving loyalty to Him, we continue in our obedience and our faithfulness to Him. And then, we have a preparedness to answer when we have to face the questioners. We can give everyone who asks us a clear-cut reason about why we are Christians. And then, we maintain a pure conscience. In other words, we keep our life right, and by the Spirit of God we stay obedient to the Word of God so that we have a pure conscience. And when we are slandered, we do not feel ashamed but they feel ashamed because it is unjustified.
I want to give you one last point. Verse 17, we must also have a perspective on options. A perspective on options. Verse 17, "For it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong." Those are the two options you have, folks. You better get a perspective on your options. Option number one is: you can suffer for doing what is right, if God wills it. And you can be blessed in that suffering and eternally rewarded. Option number two is: you can suffer for what is wrong. Take your choice. The bottom line is: God wills both. He wills that if you do what is right, you suffer in order that you might be strengthened and that He might be glorified. And He wills that if you do wrong, you suffer because that's His chastening. Take your choice. You get a perspective on options, don't you? So, we know how to face a hostile world. The model for this is none other than Christ, and He becomes our consideration as we come back to this text in two weeks. Let's bow together in prayer.
Father, it's been good tonight to just spend these moments in Your Word. And sometimes we feel like we're hearing an echo from Paul in Philippians as he too was teaching his people how to live in a hostile world, and experience joy, and experience blessing. Father, we thank You for that which we have learned from Peter, those things that secure us against the threats of this hostile world. Father, help us to be able to implement them in our own lives as we faithfully submit ourselves to Your Word and Your Spirit. And this, we ask for the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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(visited by Florian Schindler)
04-Jun-2010 -- I woke up in my tent in Châlons-sur-Champagne and was greeted by singing birds. Two Dutch couples prepared their bicycles with bags for a long ride. I dismantled my tent and drove by car to the town of Chouilly. Passed a deviation – it was market day – I reached the northern exit of the town and saw the Confluence hill in 2.3 kilometres distance. Later I learned the exact point is located in the forest in the centre of the photo.
After about one kilometre my navigation system guided me on gravel roads through the vineyard to the top of the hill. I passed some workers and they greeted friendly. When the gravel roads got worse I decided to park my car with 380 metres distance to the point nearly on top of the hill. The roads are not a big deal for Mr. Boyle's Landrover but I wanted to be friendly to my car and I enjoyed the nice walk on the edge of the forest.
80 metres off the point (49°00.04'N 003°59.97'E) I am still out of the forest and had a marvellous view towards the North West. I struggled through the dense woods until I reached the point. The Confluence dance took some time and due to the dense canopy it was hardly possible to zero out the receivers.
My way back led towards North East, which is the easier way out of the forest.
Before I continued my journey to 49°N-03°E I enjoyed the view over the vineyards, where the famous Champagne is produced.


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Thomas Stafford
Thomas Stafford was an American astronaut who was born on September 17, 1930, in Oklahoma. Before he became an astronaut, Stafford was an Air Force pilot. He has logged over 7100 hours of flight time in 110 types of aircraft.
Stafford became an astronaut in 1962. He has spent over 504 hours in space on four spaceflights.
Stafford made his first spaceflight aboard Gemini 6 in 1965. The craft made a rendezvous with Gemini 7 in orbit. In 1966, he commanded Gemini 9.
Stafford commanded Apollo 10 in 1969. This was the final dress rehearsal for a manned lunar landing. Stafford and fellow astronaut Cernan flew to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface. Stafford made his last flight aboard the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. The American crew met a Russian crew in space.
Stafford left NASA in 1975.


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Man developed hepatitis after energy drink '˜overdose'
A 50-year-old builder was admitted to hospital with hepatitis after downing up to five energy drinks every day for three weeks.
After the man started consuming energy drinks, he developed malaise, anorexia and worsening abdominal pain, which progressed to nausea, and vomiting.
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Hide AdHe originally thought his symptoms were down to a flu-like syndrome.
But he became alarmed when he developed dark urine and jaundice, according to doctors writing in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
They said he didn't note any changes in his diet or use of alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs - apart from consuming energy drinks.
He said he used the energy drinks to help get through his labour-intensive working day.
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Hide AdPhysical examination revealed jaundice and right upper abdominal tenderness.
Lab tests revealed high levels of liver enzymes, called transaminases, indicating liver damage, and evidence of chronic hepatitis C infection. Liver biopsy showed severe hepatitis.
Doctors who treated the man explain that his development of hepatitis was likely due to excessive energy drink consumption, specifically vitamin B3 (niacin).
His intake was around 160 to 200 mg daily, below the threshold expected to cause toxicity, but similar to a previously reported energy drink associated hepatitis.
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Hide AdDoctors say toxicity is likely worsened by the accumulative effect. Each bottle of his energy drink contained 40 mg of Niacin - 200 per cent the recommended daily value.
The patient was treated with close observation, frequent monitoring, and symptom management.
He discontinued consumption of all energy drinks and he was advised to avoid any similar niacin-containing products in the future.
Around half of cases of liver failure in the US are due to drug induced liver injury, according to doctors.
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Hide AdThe list of associated drugs and toxins has significantly grown as the market for dietary and herbal supplements continues to rapidly expand.
Estimates suggest around 23,000 emergency department visits each year are due to adverse events related to dietary supplements.
The report concluded: "As the energy drink market continues to rapidly expand, consumers should be aware of the potential risks of their various ingredients.
"Vitamins and nutrients, such as niacin are present in quantities that greatly exceed the recommended daily intake, lending to their high risk for harmful accumulation and toxicity.


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O'Shaughnessy (Michael M.) papers
BANC MSS 92/808 c
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The M. M. (Michael Maurice) O'Shaughnessy papers, 1882-1937, consist of materials relating to his career as a civil engineer, working first as a consultant in private practice, and later as City Engineer of San Francisco. The collection contains primary and secondary source materials both created and collected by O'Shaughnessy in the course of planning, conducting, and overseeing a large range of engineering projects, and later kept as part of his own private files. His writings include typescripts and published versions of many speeches, articles, and books by O'Shaughnessy—both in his role as City Engineer, and as a consulting engineer who was active at the national and local level in professional organizations and societies. With these are his engineering notes and notebooks, a collection of reference materials, and a small amount of personal and family papers.
Michael Maurice (M. M.) O'Shaughnessy was born in Limerick, Ireland, on May 28, 1864, the son of Patrick and Margaret (O'Donnell) O'Shaughnessy. One of nine children, he was educated in the public schools in Ireland, and attended Queen's College, Cork, and then in Galway. He graduated with honors from the Royal University, Dublin on October 21,1884, and received the degree of Bachelor of Engineering.
125 linear feet 20 boxes, 54 cartons, 42 volumes, 5 oversize boxes, 154 oversize folders, 52 tubes
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Consulting Engineer Files
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San Francisco City Engineer / Public Utilities Commission Consulting Engineer Files
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Albeit of Salt
Donal Mahoney | Terri Kelleher
Seth and Abigail were a young couple who had run away from their Amish community in Ohio. They wanted to get married and start a new life. After stopping in a number of cities, some big and some small, they found themselves in San Francisco on a Sunday morning in July after riding many a Greyhound bus.
Seth and Abigail had some legitimate concerns about starting a new life among the English, as the Amish call Americans who are not Amish. They both were still very spiritual but they had decided they would like to strike out on their own. They wouldn't be the first Amish couple to leave the community. Some Amish leave and do very well among the English and others have to turn around and go back home.
Down deep, the young couple thought they could make it once they solved a couple of immediate needs—namely, find jobs and a place to live because otherwise their money would run out soon. Once they had jobs and an apartment they could get married. At least that was their plan.
San Francisco, they agreed, was a beautiful city, much nicer than some of the other cities they had seen between Greyhound bus stops. And it was especially bright and sunny on this particular Sunday morning. It looked like the kind of place they'd like to live.
Walking around, trying to figure out what to do next, they came upon a large park and noticed the start of what appeared to be a big celebration. They saw maybe 200 people, young and old, in tuxedoes and wedding gowns gathered on the grass as if they were waiting for something to happen. There was a big stage in front of the people but no one was on the stage.
"Looks like a big wedding," Seth said. "If we were dressed the right way, we might be able to join in." But that was not the case. Although Seth had left his black hat at home in Ohio and Abigail her bonnet, they still looked very much like a rural couple, not at all like anyone seen very often in San Francisco. But they had heard the city was open to everyone. It would be expensive to live there but they hoped they would eventually become part of the community.
Then Seth noticed something about the big gathering in the park. The men in tuxedoes were holding hands with each other and the women in wedding gowns were also holding hands with each other. Seth didn't understand exactly what was going on but he realized it was something different, probably, even for the English, many of whose customs confused the Amish back home.
"Abigail, even if we were all dressed up, I don't think we'd fit in."
Abigail, however, was truly entranced by the gathering. She knew less than Seth about how the English lived but she knew the people in the park were in a very good mood. She smiled and waved to them a couple of times and they all waved back. She even waved to the minister who walked onto the big stage. He was wearing a dark suit and tie and appeared to be holding a bible.
Seth was getting antsy. He figured they ought to be moving on so they could find a place to stay for the night and then get ready to look for work on Monday morning. He figured he could handle the grill in a diner and Abigail would make a good waitress, what with all her experience feeding long tables of Amish men after their day in the fields harvesting crops.
"C'mon, Abigail. Let's get going. We've got things to do."
Abigail started walking with Seth, even though she really wanted to stay and watch the people in the park get married if that indeed was what they were going to do. She and Seth had walked about half a block when Abigail stopped and let go of Seth's hand. She turned around and looked back at the people in the park. She had never seen anything like it. She just stood there, immobile and mesmerized.
Seth figured if he kept walking eventually Abigail would catch up with him. She knew less about life in a big city than he did and he didn't know all that much. But Abigail never caught up with him. At the end of the block Seth turned around and saw that she was still in the same spot, with her back turned, watching the ceremonies in the park. She looked frozen in time.
It's a long story, all that happened that day and afterwards, with Abigail and Seth. And some people have a hard time believing how it all worked out.
About a week later Seth got on a Greyhound bus and went back to Ohio alone. He hadn't been able to find a job and ran out of money. He had never talked to Abigail again after she had stayed to watch the people in the park. Eventually, two men and two women had come out of the park and had carried Abigail back with them into the park so she could be part of the fun.
Unlike Seth, Abigail never went back to Ohio. In fact, she is still in San Francisco and can be found every day in that park. There is no question she is now a pillar of the community, albeit of salt.