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Alamance County�s delegation in the North Carolina General Assembly cast the following votes this week.
House roll call
HB 13 � State Agency Property Use Reports: Requires state agencies to biennially report to the Department of Administration and to the Program Evaluation Division on their use of real property; and requires the Department of Public Instruction to report annually on the amount of revenue generated through leasing space on residential school campuses. Introduced by Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie. Adopted 115-1. Sent to the Senate for consideration.
YES: Dennis Riddell (R), Stephen Ross (R)
HB 29 � Methamphetamine Penalties: Creates the offense of possession of pseudoephedrine if the defendant has a prior conviction for the possession or manufacture of methamphetamine; and aggravates the penalty for manufacturing methamphetamine when children, disabled, or elderly are present. Introduced by Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union. Adopted 116-1. Sent to the Senate for consideration.
YES: Riddell, Ross
HB 77 � Board of Law Examiners Expenses: Deletes a provision for a $50 payment to members of the Board of Law Examiners that has not been paid since the 1970s and clarifies a provision relating to expenses of that board. Introduced by Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford. Adopted 117-0. Sent to the Senate for consideration.
HB 82 � IRC Update: Amends the reference to the Internal Revenue Code and decouples it from certain provisions of the federal American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Introduced by Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie. Adopted 80-36. Sent to the Senate for consideration.
YES: Riddell, Ross
Senate roll call
HB 5 � Temporary Funding Extension for Group Homes (Senate Version): Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to provide temporary, short-term financial assistance to group homes serving residents who lose eligibility for Medicaid-covered personal care services. Introduced by Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake. Adopted 43-0. Returned to the House for concurrence.
YES: Rick Gunn (R)
HB 66 � Captivity License and Permits: Amends the law providing for the issuance of captivity licenses and permits by the Wildlife Resources Commission. Introduced by Rep. Roger West, R-Cherokee. Adopted 41-2. Sent to the governor for approval.
YES: Gunn


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ReleasesBack to
Terence Blanchard
Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard has come further in a sense than any of the 1980s Art Blakey alumni. While Wynton and Branford Marsalis may have higher profiles, Blanchard is the player who has most improved as both a soloist and an ensemble player. He is an excellent bandleader whose great taste in arrangements and sidemen are reflected on nearly all of his recordings. But most of all, Mr. Blanchard has become one of jazz's most sophisticated and erudite composers. Combining elegance; sleek, shimmering surfaces; and lopping, limpid ambiences with wonderful harmonic and melodic invention -- not to mention a great cast of soloists -- there's no wonder why Mr. Blanchard is Spike Lee's chosen soundtrack composer. On Bounce, Mr. Blanchard and his septet (which includes the brilliant pianist Aaron Parks, saxophonist Brice Winston, drummer Eric Harland, B3 and Fender Rhodes maestro Robert Glasper, guitarist Lionel Loueke, and bassist Brandon Owens) explore various sides of the Latin music experience while not making a "Latin" record per se. Blanchard seems to be interested in the colorations of rhythm on his own modern creative and post-bop experiments in texture, structure, and musical elasticity. And these tunes do stretch into melodic arenas he's never explored before. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the achingly beautiful "Passionate Courage," where a long, slow opening statement form the horns moves in linear fashion to engage both piano and Rhodes at different junctures as they wander at a luxuriant pace through shaded key signatures and satiny harmonic figures, and engage counterpoint without actually delving into it. On "Azania," Owens' bass creates the Afro-Cuban motif that is gently funked up by Glasper on B3. Finally, the African side of the rhythm becomes dominant with chanted vocals by Loueke and the tune moves into Abdullah Ibrahim's brand of township jazz, while never straying from the blues all that much. Remarkable. Ultimately, Bounce is the most perfectly paced of all of Blanchard's recordings. He divides his time between tempos, but always comes back to silence to ground himself and begin over. In terms of his lyrical lines, they have never been in a sense more simple or more sophisticated (check out the blissed-out harmonics in "Innocence"), where the individual players become identified by their ensemble contributions first and then as soloists. Mr. Blanchard's own soling has never been more restrained or more profound. In his economy of phrase, entire sound worlds become evident that were never noticeable before. On Bounce, Blanchard proves that he is the trumpet player, composer, and bandleader who is moving jazz, albeit at his own pace, in new directions that encompass both a new look at Western musical systems and never leave the human heart out of the equation. This is his masterpiece thus far and a high-water mark for anybody else to follow. ~ Thom Jurek


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|Top and Skirt: Bec and Bridge
Watch: Swatch
Handbag: Shakuhachi
Shoes: Shakuhachi
Jumper: DKNY for Opening Ceremony
Nothing is more timeless than black and white stripes. This Bec and Bridge set brings a playful aspect to the standard black and white stripe. The white top with black stripes has a beautiful open back, which is perfect for summer and contrasts well with the body con, black with white stripe mini skirt with front zipper. For a relaxed feel I have added my newest obsession and equally as timeless DKNY for Opening Ceremony sweater.
Venue: Papi Chulo, Manly
Go to dish: Wood-fire grilled jump king prawns and Dan Hong's (not a) chopped salad
Highlight: Merivale's fit out (of course)
It's Me, Eloise x


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Ten Point Health Check
The Health Check is now only available to NHS England or Licensed customers of the NHS Institute.
If you would like access to the Health Check, please log in. If you are still unable to access and meet the above criteria, please contact us at (email@example.com) or by telephone on 0845 300 8027.


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Von Miller's six-game suspension, handed down last month, was something of a puzzler, given that he reportedly hadn't produced a positive drug test. This morning, however, Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen uncovered new details about Miller's case that explain the length of the ban.
According to the report, Miller had tried—and failed—to persuade his urine collector to collect a different sample. From ESPN:
Sources said the collector worked in Miami, where Miller spends offseason time, and the collector reveled in knowing the Broncos linebacker while being, according to a source, "star struck." It led, sources said, to the collector's willingness to substitute another person's urine specimen for Miller. It might have worked, sources said, had a second collector not discovered that Miller was not in the city where his collection was supposed to have taken place.
"He's fast," one source said of Miller, "but he's not that fast."
Photo: Justin Edmonds/Getty Images


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Smaller Learning Communities (V-D-4)
Several studies have concluded that students attending smaller high schools are more engaged and, consequently, experience higher levels of attendance, academic achievement, and involvement in extracurricular activities .Whether large high schools can be restructured to achieve the same results has been less frequently examined. This program supports local efforts to create smaller learning communities within large high schools.
How It Works
This competitive grant program provides grants to school districts to create smaller learning communities in large high schools.
Key Requirements
Grantees may use their funding for a wide range of activities including: (1) studying the feasibility of creating smaller learning communities; (2) researching, developing, and implementing strategies for creating smaller learning communities; (3) providing professional development for school staff in innovative teaching methods that can be used in smaller learning communities; and (4) developing and implementing strategies to involve parents, business representatives, and community organizations in activities of the smaller learning communities so that teachers may pursue professional development opportunities and to provide links between students and the community.
How It Achieves Quality
Previous research suggests that students in smaller schools perform better on several indicators than students in large schools. This occurs, it is argued, because smaller schools offer a more personal learning environment that is better able to engage students. The smaller learning communities program attempts to replicate the qualities of smallness in larger high schools. It supports strategies to (1) restructure the high school by creating academies, houses, schools-within-a school, and (2) engage students through teacher advisors, mentoring, alternative scheduling, and other innovations designed to personalize high school and thereby, improve student achievement.
How Performance Is Measured
School improvement is measured by tracking changes in test scores, attendance, graduation rates, and student course-taking.


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For Measurement Complaints such as Scales or Gas Pumps:
Brett Gurney, Program Manager
For Food Safety complaints:
Jay Schvaneveld, Food Supervisor
For USDA Agriculture Disputes requesting Mediation:
Melissa Ure, Policy Analyst
For Pesticide Complaints:
Scott Oldham, Program Manager
For Livestock Complaints:
Cody James, Brand Bureau Chief
The mission of the Egg and Poultry Grading program is twofold:
First, provide grading services which will assure the consumers of Utah safe, wholesome, quality eggs, egg products, and poultry. Second, enforcing grading standards and regulations thereby assuring uniformity and compliance throughout the egg and poultry industry.
The Egg and Poultry Grading Program provides needed services to the egg and poultry industry and the consumers of Utah. Eggs are a valuable food produced for the consumer. They are highly nutritious and are an important part of our diet. Eggs are capable of carrying bacteria and require special processing and handling.
The egg and poultry grading program provides highly trained and competent grading personnel to accurately grade shell egg and poultry carcasses. Grading involves physical examination of the products and application of appropriate grade designation AA, A, B, Non-Grade or Undergrades. Grading provides second party verification of the quality of shell eggs and poultry, which enhances the farmers ability to market the product and the consumer confidence in the purchase of the product.
Grading serves egg and poultry producers, large volume purchases of these products and household consumers.
The various program activities include:
Additional Resources
(801) 538-7144
(801) 538-7158
|Small (Less than 1,000 sq ft / 4 or fewer employees)
|Medium (1,000 to 5,000 sq ft, limited food processing)
|Large (Food processor over 1,000 sq ft / Retail food establishment 1,000 to 50,000 sq ft and two or fewer food processing areas / Food storage warehouse 1,000 to 50,000 sq ft)
|Super (Food processor over 20,000 sq ft / Retail food establishment over 50,000 sq ft and more than two food processing areas / Food storage warehouse over 50,000 sq ft)
|Inspection fee, per hour
|Food and Dairy Inspection fee, overtime rate
|Certificate of Inspection
|Citations, maximum per violation
Registration Fees
Small: 1 to 3 scales, 1 to 12 fuel dispensers, 1 meter, or 1 to 3 scanners
Medium: 4 to 15 scales, 13 to 24 fuel dispensers, 2 or 3 meters, or 4 to 15 scanners
Large: 16 to 25 scales, 25 to 36 fuel dispensers, 4 to 6 meters, or 16 to 25 scanners
Super: 26 or more scales, 37 or more fuel dispensers, 7 or more meters, 26 or more scanners
(801) 538-7149
Structure and Mission:
The Compliance Program is part of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Agency responsible for ensuring that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, and properly labeled. A component of FSIS' Meat and Poultry Inspection Operations, the Compliance Program is composed of a small Washington, D.C. headquarters staff and five man field offices located in Moorestown, New Jersey; Des Moines, Iowa; Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; and Alameda, California. Established during the 1960's, the Program supplements inplant inspection by monitoring meat and poultry products as they move through channels of distribution.
The Compliance Program investigates violations of the inspection laws; controls violative products through detentions, civil seizures and voluntary recalls; and assures that appropriate criminal, administrative, and civil sanctions are carried out. The Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act provide the Program with its legal authority and mission.
A geographically dispersed staff of approximately 130 compliance officers explain inspection and other requirements to industry officials, review records, and maintain a nationwide monitoring program to prevent adulterated of misbranded meat and poultry products from reaching consumers. Four major approaches are used to ensure compliance with meat and poultry inspection laws:
Examining product at various stages of distribution to ensure continued wholesomeness and proper labeling, and to remove violative product from food channels;
Educating regulated industries regarding meat and poultry laws and regulations;
Detecting, documenting, and acting on violations that occur; and
Cooperating with other Federal, State and local authorities to assure that product control is maintained throughout the chain of distribution.
All firms and individuals that process, store, or distribute meat and poultry products are subject to random reviews. Where prior history or known risks identify a need for closer monitoring of a particular firm or individual, there is a systematic method for determining frequency of follow-up reviews.
During a typical review, compliance officers contact management officials and discuss applicable FSIS requirements. Inventories of meat and poultry products are observed to see if they comply with Federal regulations, and appropriate records concerning the sale, purchase, shipping, or storage of products are examined. Additional investigations may occur when evidence of a violation is found.
Enforcement Actions:
When investigations disclose violations of meat and poultry inspection laws or regulations, the Compliance Program initiates appropriate administrative or legal action. Control mechanisms and sanctions include detentions, seizures, voluntary product recalls, letters of warning for minor violations, injunctions, prosecutions, and withdrawals of inspection. Cases involving major violations of Federal law are referred to USDA's Office of the General Counsel (OGC) for review. OGC, in turn, forwards them to the Justice Department for further review and legal action.
(801) 538-7124
Not too many years ago, if someone had suggested you could get rich by selling bottled water, you probably would have called them crazy. However, yesterday's craziness has become today's craze with most grocery stores dedicating much of an aisle to various bottled water products. Even though you might suspect the water market is already saturated, new bottled water products are busy fighting for their space on those shelves.
Each new company wants its chance to convince the public that their product is somehow better than the water you get from your tap or public drinking fountains. Fancy labels, names and verbiage suggest their water either has the best taste, some special health benefit, or will donate money to your favorite charity - each entrepreneur vies for a share of the market.
Strict requirements for bottling facilities and good manufacturing practices, analytical tests of the water itself, and inspections by state or federal officials all ensure that bottled water is as safe as tap water. However, because there seems to be a public perception that spring, mineral, or well water are in some ways better, cleaner, or more natural than tap water, FDA has written two sections of the Code of Federal Regulations to define terminology, set standards, and form a framework for the regulation of bottled water.
These regulations help prevent fraudulent or misleading product representation and help ensure that bottled waters throughout the country are safe and wholesome. Nonetheless, consumers are still ultimately responsible to choose those foods and beverages they believe will contribute the most to their health and well being.
Bottled water is water that is intended for human consumption that is sealed in bottles or other containers with no added ingredients except optionally added safe and suitable antimicrobial agents and/or limited amounts of fluoride.
The name of the food is "bottled water" or "drinking water" and may include other appropriate terms depending on the source and treatment of the product.
Water that has been processed by distillation, deionization, reverse osmosis, or other suitable processes so that it meets the definition of "purified water", may be labeled "purified drinking water", "deionized water", "distilled water", or "reverse osmosis water" as appropriate. Water from a community water system that doesn't qualify for one of these names, must include the words "from a municipal source" or "from a community water system" as part of the product name.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has defined several other categories, including: spring water, ground water, artesian well water, mineral water, or sparkling water.
"Spring water" designates water that flows naturally from an underground formation to the surface of the earth. The word "spring" cannot be used as part of the product name or description for any other type of water.
"Ground water" is the name of water from a sub-surface saturated zone under a pressure that is equal to or greater than atmospheric pressure, but must not be under the direct influence of surface water.
"Artesian water" or "artesian well water" is water from a well tapping a confined aquifer in which the water level stands at some height above the top of the aquifer.
"Mineral water" is water that contains not less than 250 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids (TDS) coming from a source tapped at one or more bore holes or springs. Mineral water may be distinguished from other types of waters by its constant level and relative proportions of minerals and trace elements at the point of emergence from the source. Minerals may not be added to water to create "mineral water".
Mineral water with 250 - 500 ppm TDS is called "low mineral content Mineral Water".
Mineral water with greater than 1500 ppm TDS is called "high mineral content Mineral Water".
"Sparkling water" is water that has naturally occurring carbon dioxide.
In the preamble to the final rule on bottled water, FDA noted that "Firms may manufacture nonstandardized bottled water products with ingredients such as minerals for flavor . . . The common or usual name of the product must reflect these additions, such as "purified water with minerals added for taste".
Taking advantage of this statement and the fact that bottled water may be an ingredient in other beverages and dietary supplements, many companies have chosen to add other ingredients, i.e., sweeteners, flavors, colors, and recently caffeine, oxygen, or dietary supplement ingredients to bottled waters. Addition of such ingredients removes the product from FDA's definition of "bottled water". However, such products are frequently shelved with bottled water products in stores, which may lead customers to assume that they are similar in content. Obviously consumers should read the ingredient statements to discover which additional ingredients are contained in them.
Owing to the large numbers of new products introduced to the marketplace yearly, it is impossible for state and federal employees assigned to label compliance to review them all. FDA writes the rules for food labeling for most products, but doesn't have a label approval requirement or process. They take action on products whose labels are discovered to be seriously misrepresentative or fraudulent when they are brought to their attention. However, much of FDA's time and effort is spent addressing food issues with a bearing on health and safety, such as product contamination and not on label violations. Health and safety issues include bacterial contamination, problems arising in the processing of food, ingredient statements that do not list known allergens found in the product, etc. Therefore, to a large extent, food labels, including labeling of bottled water products are largely out of control.
Manufacturers come up with imaginative words and graphics intended to garner the largest possible market share. Other manufacturers examine labels on products comparable to the product they intend to market and decide to use similar label ideas and formats adding their own creative twist. Much of the violative labeling in the marketplace is caused by ignorance of label laws and a desire to create customer appeal and interest.
As American consumers' interest in nutrition and "healthy" eating grows, supermarket shelves are being filled with products bearing claims on the health effects of their ingredients and/or the finished product; some are valid, many are not. Consumers should use common sense in assessing the reasonableness of claims, not just assume that if it's on the label, it's true. Some companies are charging incredible amounts for small quantities of product that are supposed to cure everything from skin rashes to ingrown toenails. If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it isn't true.
"Oxygenated" bottled waters are one recently introduced product type whose numbers are rapidly increasing. These products purported health benefits stem from the concept that our bodies need oxygen to survive and the more oxygen we receive, the healthier we will be. Manufacturers suggest that by drinking their product or by drinking small amounts of it mixed with other beverages, larger amounts of oxygen reach our cells, organs and systems. We haven't seen any scientific evidence that indicates that oxygen is absorbed through the digestive tract. Although companies have indicated to us that oxygen levels in the blood increase following ingestion of these products, they have not supplied us with any documentation to verify these claims. We have been unable to confirm that added oxygen remains in the product for any length or time or that it enters the blood stream in an appreciable quantity.
Some labels merely state that the product contains added oxygen, others imply or state health claims ranging from "increased energy, stamina, or mental acuity" to "internal and external cures of diseases, injuries, and chronic ailments. Some manufacturers promote their products through testimonial-filled brochures which often contain statements of enthusiastic praise by "Dr. so and so" telling how much the product has helped his "patients".
While FDA has responsibility for food labeling, there seems to be a gray area defining responsibility for such brochures, pamphlets and books. When is additional product literature labeling? When it is advertising?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has responsibility for Truth in Advertising, but like the FDA, FTC's limited personnel and money prevents them from pursuing all misleading advertisements. They have settled at least one case involving false health claims on an oxygenated bottled water product. See this news release.


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GungHo might be a surprisingly strong contender. They have the money and the interest...Edit: You know, the more I think about it GungHo might actually be the ideal candidate.Why is that? Well, first of all there's the basic issues like the fact that they can probably afford it. In case you don't know, GungHo has been doing really well lately, in no small part thanks to a mobile game called Puzzle and Dragons. Maybe you've never heard of Puzzle and Dragons because its popularity is mainly in Asia, but it's actually the number one grossing mobile game in the world, on both iOS and Android. Eat your heart out, Angry Birds.Now you might think that a company with a mobile game that successful would be all about mobile games, but that really doesn't seem to be the case with GungHo. They have their fingers in a lot of different pies, and in super-success in the mobile space doesn't seem to have changed that. They recently acquired Grasshopper and have largely left them to do their own thing, so that's a good sign. Heck, do you know those PS1 Imports, the random obscure untranslated PS1 Classics put on the US store? GungHo was the main company behind that. Now while it's quite probable that the PS1 Import thing has been profitable simply because the expenses involved are pretty low, we're probably talking about a miniscule amount of revenue. Most big companies simply wouldn't bother with it, profitable or not. But GungHo doesn't shy away from random, obscure things.And they're clearly ambitious and want to expand. I remember there being news a while back about the comments their CEO made with regards to wanting to surpass Nintendo. So maybe they lack humility, but they clearly want to be a player everywhere. One place their are lacking is in western localization (their success has largely been in Asia so far), which is why you've seen them team up with Xseed for a lot of their recent releases (Ragnorak Odyssey, the upcoming Killer is Dead). But Atlus USA might make a pretty good fit there too. They've localized lots of non-Atlus stuff in the past (though I feel they've been shying away from that lately...) so they ought to be able to handle some of GungHo's stuff too. It seems like a good fit.That's why GungHo might want Atlus. As far as Atlus goes, GungHo offers financial stability without intruding on their creative process. So yeah, GungHo-Atlus 2013!
It's sad that I can think of 2 or 3 games that statement could be referring to.
Actually, I just had a conversation with a few folks about this stuff and it might not necessarily be bad. If Sega becomes in charge of what gets localized by Atlus, then that will be bad. But you know, imagine if Sega were in the conference room as Sega's talking about whether or not to localize their newest Valkyria Chronicles. Perhaps Atlus would be able to take charge of that localization. We might be able to see some Sega stuff localized we wouldn't normally expect.There's also another nifty thing that could come of this. PC releases of Atlus games. I mean, just imagine seeing P2 Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment getting PC releases. Also, given Sega and Nintendo's friendly partnership thing, FExSMT could be even better if Sega could pool some good resources into that.
Namco - They're still recovering from some serious losses.
I'm always surprised when I realize Sega has money.I can never understand where it's coming from.
Quote from: Logick on August 04, 2013, 06:59:24 AMNamco - They're still recovering from some serious losses.Losses from what?


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BUY IT NOW: $80 Off Neo Cover 22-inch Hard Side Spinner Carry-On + Free Shipping
How many times have you almost grabbed someone else's luggage during your travels? Are you tired of the crazy expensive fees to check a bag and you're looking for a better solution? Today, while I travel the U.S. visiting TV stations, I have a big deal to share!
I have been on seven flights since Sunday. With tight connections, not only was I reluctant to check a bag, I did not want to pay any additional fees. I'm breathing a sigh of relief thanks to today's bargain and an understanding that no one will accidentally grab my carry-on while exiting a plane.
Today's deal of the day on Amazon takes an $180 piece of luggage down to a much more attractive price point of $99.99. More importantly, "attractive" is the operative word of the day.
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Who is Matt Granite?
- Matt Granite is a freelance consumer reporter who produces stories and video for this Station, Amazon and others. He is not compensated by the brands featured here. This Station and its parent company may receive a share of the revenue from the site that sells the product if you purchase one of these products using the link on this page.


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LAVAL, Que. - Daniel Briere feels he is finally ready to play for the team he worshipped as a kid in Gatineau, Que.
The best-known of the Montreal Canadiens' off-season acquisitions, along with tough guy George Parros and defenceman Douglas Murray, was mobbed by media as he joined his new teammates for the first time at the club's annual charity golf tournament on Tuesday.
Briere, 35, signed a two-year contract worth $4 million per season after he was bought out by the Philadelphia Flyers, who were in salary-cap trouble and couldn't keep the five-foot-10 centre.
"I take it a step at a time, with today being the first step," said Briere. "The biggest step will be wearing that jersey out onto the ice.
"That will be a big thrill. It's something I've always dreamed of doing."
Briere had a chance to do it in 2007, when he turned down the Canadiens to sign an eight-year, $52-million deal with the Flyers. This time, he said he didn't want to miss what may be his last chance to play for Montreal.
"I think I'm ready at this stage of my career," he said.
It hasn't been determined whether he will play his usual position at centre, where the Canadiens have lots of bodies, or on the wing. Either way, he will add skill and experience to one of the top attacking lines, even if he won't make a smaller-than-average team any bigger.
General manager Marc Bergevin, entering his second season, hopes to have addressed that with the six-foot-five Parros and six-foot-three Murray.
"Two of the guys bring size and toughness, which was a need we had to fill," said Bergevin. "And Danny brings leadership.
"He's a player who had options and he chose to come to Montreal. For a French-Canadian, I think that's huge. He's happy to be here, and to us that means a lot."
Briere has been a solid points producer throughout his career, but he is mostly known for playing his best in big games, especially the playoffs, where he has 109 points in 108 games.
And he feels the Canadiens have become a hard team to play against with their speed and a balanced attack.
"More and more, the pieces are coming together for this team to be successful," he said. "They took a major step in the right direction last year with key additions (Brandon Prust), and also with some good young players taking a step.
"With guys like myself, Parros and Murray coming here, hopefully we'll move even more in that direction. I'm not coming here to be a passenger. I want to be here, but I also want to make a difference. I want to be a guy they can rely on for offence and who can help at any time."
The 33-year-old Murray, who signed for one year at $1.5 million, was acquired by Pittsburgh in March from the San Jose Sharks and was part of the Penguins stunning playoff collapse.
Some feel the hard-hitting Swede has lost a step, but Bergevin had his eye on Murray since last season.
Without giving details, Bergevin said Murray can be a valuable defenceman on the right team and with the right defence partner. He sees him as a top-six rearguard.
That suits Murray, who said he signed with Montreal "because of the way they viewed me as a player and how they were planning to using me.
"You don't get handed anything. You still have to earn it, but I liked the way they viewed how I should play. Also, there's an unbelievable hockey tradition here. I think there are more cameras here than I had in seven years in San Jose."
Bergevin said Murray is more than a temporary replacement for Alexei Emelin. They had hoped Emelin would return by late November, but Bergevin said he will be out at least into December and that they want the tough Russian to be fully healed before he returns to action.
Parros gives the team a heavyweight enforcer who will take pressure off Prust, a willing fighter who is more of a middleweight, in a division where many teams have been adding muscle in recent years.
The 33-year-old had off-season surgery to repair a rotator cuff in a shoulder but hopes to be ready to play when the regular season opens on Oct. 1.
"I'm looking forward to the challenge of playing here," said Parros, who spent six years in Anaheim before moving to the Florida Panthers last season.
He said his Twitter following exploded after joining Montreal and he is already being spotted by fans on the street.
The main attractions of the day were goalie Carey Price and Norris Trophy winning defenceman P.K. Subban, who both attended last week's Canadian Olympic team orientation camp.
Bergevin is confident that Price will bounce back from a weak end to last season, especially with the hiring of goaltender coach Stephane Waite from Chicago.
Price will need to be sharp to secure a spot on the Olympic squad.
"You can look at it that way, but the bottom line is, I want to play well no matter what," he said. "Whether I'm trying to make the Olympic team or playing here, it shouldn't make a difference."
He also admitted he has yet to try on the new league-mandated smaller goalie pads he will use this season.
"I've been practising in my old ones, so I'm probably going to be in for a bit of a shock here," he said.
Subban will be a restricted free agent after this season and the Canadiens are expected to try to sign him to a long-term deal some time during the season. Subban didn't want to talk about it.
"I still have a year left on my contract so right now my focus isn't about that," he said. "It isn't fair to focus on me before the season's even started.
"We have new players on our team. It's a new season. The focus should be on that, not on contract talks."


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In this column we've already bigged up digital mixtapes and been taken around London in a cab with a collection of troubadours.
This week is a little different, showing what the web can do for the older, more analogue, touchy-feely, makes you a bit tingly, _real world. We head you over to CassetteFromMyEx.com's Jason Bitner to tell us of the hows and whys about his great site full of mixtapes, and their stories..._
I was rummaging around my basement a few months ago when I happened upon a relic of my teen years: Music To Soak Your Toe To. This mixtape, lovingly compiled for me by my then-girlfriend Kate, managed to stay with me for 17 years. And though I hadn't kept a cassette player, I'd never considered purging the tape.
Mixtapes, with their glittery artwork and handwritten track listings, hold memories far beyond the individual tracks. We would labour over these tapes, hoping to melt minds with our musical taste and careful song selection. We would get rugburns while splayed out in front of the stereo with one finger on record and another on play. We had to ride our ten-speeds to record stores to boost our collections. We became the curators, the stars of the mixtape. We wooed lovers with our deep stacks, for love, for sex.
My instinct was right: if I'd managed to hold onto an old mixtape, most everyone my age-ish must have one in a dusty shoebox or their parents' basement. And so began Cassette From My Ex. (They were into you, so they made you a tape. Today you don't have a cassette player, but you still can't toss that mix. We share the stories and the soundtrack to your earliest loves.) I quickly recruited six smart friends and we started collecting stories from a bunch of creative types.
I knew we'd end up sharing a bunch of tapes with The Smiths, The Cure, and The Replacements, and there'd be an instant nostalgia for those bygone days. Some people come to CFME to listen to music, but far more hang around because the stories are about being young and in love and how the music shaped people's lives.
Claudia Gonson (of The Magnetic Fields) notes in her CFME story: "Anyway, I am grateful beyond words for John and his mixtapes... I am certain I would not be the person I am today had I not had this orthodox musical education. I'd probably be a banker or something."
And Chicago DJ Jamie Hayes writes:_ "My boyfriend delivered it, along with breakfast in bed, on the morning of my 20th birthday (hence the title: Good morning, you're 20!). In the mix you can hear the excitement and enthusiasm in the tape of being young, newly in love with each other, and in love with music."_
We, of course, love online music sites like Muxtape and Mixwit, and we've discovered tons of new music through their handy and immediate playlists and searches. They offer instant access to new music and an awesome way to share with friends and strangers alike. But what they don't offer is a huge and compelling part of the mixtape process: the context.
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Writer Fiona Maazel shares a typical early '90s mix titled Something Sweet From NYC. Songs like Zeppelin's 'Going to California', Dire Straits' 'So Far Away', and The Doors' 'The End' take on so much more meaning when provided their situation. She tells us:_ "In May of that year, my parents announced we were moving to Los Angeles. I'd had a party in our apartment a couple months before, which sent one kid to the hospital with kidney failure, so there was no trusting me to stay behind and finish out high school in New York. Me and John were doomed." _ A cross-country move with a heart-wrenching soundtrack? Oof.
There's a section on the site, your stories, where anyone can share their tales of love and heartache. We're looking forward to reading them.
Previous Tech (No) Logic columns:
Discuss: Care to share any stories about tapes you've sent or received? Do you feel we've lost some of the magic of things like mixtapes in the modern, digital, quick-fix age?


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A few years ago, after just one growing season of Extension testing data, a certain cotton variety topped yield tests in both Missouri and Arkansas. It was the new hot variety and many farmers wanted it blanketing their fields. The variety's lack of history stopped very few farmers from coveting it.
"Look, it's human nature to want to hit a home run," says Bill Robertson, Arkansas Extension cotton specialist. Continuing with the baseball analogy, Robertson says the problem is homerun hitters "tend to strike out a whole bunch. So when this hot variety came available, a lot of farmers stepped up to bat wanting to be Sammy Sosa. Way too many acres of that variety made it into Mid-South soils."
Robertson says the variety limped to a base hit. There was no home run.
Right now, many of those reading this are wondering what variety started out with such promise and ended with such mediocrity. Robertson says that isn't the point. Instead, he says, farmers should have learned not to plant their acreage wall-to-wall in one variety. However, if reports about the numbers of acres planted in Paymaster 1218 are accurate, it appears many didn't.
"This year, I'm hearing a lot of the same comments on Paymaster 1218. Growers are saying that last year 1218 yielded very well and was some of the best cotton on the farm. This year, I've talked to farmers who have many varieties planted. 1218 is at the head of their list — but it's the head of the bad list.
"I'm also hearing heavy discounts on 1218 are coming out of the classing offices. I don't know if we've harvested enough acres yet to be comfortable in saying something absolute. But the signs are certainly discouraging thus far," says Robertson.
What about diversity? Is there a formula Robertson uses in bringing new varieties to a farm?
"There's no set rule. But I try to plant about 65 percent of my acres in varieties that are proven on my farm. I want the majority of my land in cotton that I know how to manage, that I'm comfortable with and that I know will do well."
Robertson limits brand-new varieties to 10 percent of his acreage. Of the varieties that make the grade at 10 percent, he'll expand to 25 percent of his acres the second year.
"I'd never plant a new variety — even one that's touted as the hottest thing ever — on more than 10 percent of my land. And most of the time, that 10 percent is divided up into many new varieties — usually five to seven varieties."
John Barnett, Louisiana Extension cotton specialist, agrees with Robertson's slow, cautious approach.
"I've repeatedly recommended that farmers not plant an entire operation — or even close to an entire operation — in the same variety. I believe you should always plant a minimum of three or four varieties for a number of reasons," says Barnett.
Among the reasons are different varieties react differently to climatic conditions and you also want to space harvest out. Another thing is variety performance often hinges on soil type. Barnett says farmers should pay close attention to what research station work shows.
"Last year, the problems with planting heavy in just one variety were very evident. Farmers who planted entire farms in a single variety often found they had poor crops while across the turn row, their neighbors had different varieties that looked great. That led to some irate farmers. The moral of the story is to not put all your eggs in one basket. Fit your varieties to soil type and then plant three or four different one across the operation."
Barnett doesn't have any written suggested guidelines about planting percentages of one variety. "My rule of thumb is to never plant over half an operation in one variety."
There is tremendous pressure on seed companies to produce high-yielding varieties. In doing so, those companies also warn against going too heavily with one variety, says Tom Kerby, Delta and Pineland vice president for technical services.
"Do we have a responsibility to not put a high-yielding variety on the market that farmers want to plant? Well, we're supposed to provide options and information to customers that help farmers make decisions. We've built a staff of high-quality agronomists to assist with that.
"I've seen many growers who have given us their classing numbers and gin sheets on 1218 and another DPL variety of higher fiber quality. We looked at those numbers and realized the farmer had made more money with 1218. Even though they didn't get the same price per pound, because of the high yield they made more."
So what is the producer expected to do? The producer is expected to grow whatever will give him the most revenue at the end of the day, says Kerby.
"It's true that he'd love to have high yields without fiber quality questions but the bottom line is actually healthier by planting 1218. With the things we've been through in the last three years with some fiber-quality issues that were probably truly environmental cropped up. Still, I say growers will plant what gives them the most return," says Kerby.
Kerby believes there should be diversity and there are many ways to get it.
"You don't get it by saying you'll plant some 1218 and some other varieties of the same maturity. If you planted 1218, Suregrow 501 BR (which isn't as high-yielding as 1218, but has a heck of a lot better fiber) and one other, then you'll be closer to what diversity means. You want two or three varieties in your lineup. That way if it's a 1218 kind of year, you're covered. If it's a year conducive to bronze wilt, you've planted a variety that isn't affected by that malady."
But freedom is a great thing. Specialists and researchers can encourage diversity all day long. When it comes right down to it, though, farmers will do what they want, says Kerby. "We can't stand there when they're making out a seed order and demand they plant certain varieties."
When Kerby saw the numbers coming in for 1218 seed orders was he worried?
"My reaction was one of caution. When I think of 1218, the first thing that comes to mind is bronze wilt. If you have the environment for bronze wilt, it can hurt your yield badly. Secondly, I had some thoughts about influencing average fiber quality. 1218 is on the lower end and if a huge portion of the region is planted in that variety it'll cause people to think that trends and issues of fiber quality that have been bandied about for the last few years are continuing. That really worries me, actually."
Kerby says he's preparing a paper on this that says some of the trends seen in fiber quality over the last six years are associated with varieties planted. Environment still plays a larger part, but there's some data suggesting part of the problem lies with variety choices, he says.
Five years ago, farmers were producing better fiber but weren't getting yields as high as today's most popular varieties.
"The yield change has more than offset the quality discounts. The bottom line, again, is that growers are making more money," says Kerby.


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'Captain Phillips' (Oct. 11)
Director Paul Greengrass; cast: Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener. Hanks plays a cargo ship captain taken hostage by Somali pirates. Greengrass ("United 93," "Bloody Sunday") knows how to craft compelling cinema from true stories, and it's about time the academy recognizes him for something. Hanks' presence should help pave the way.
Copyright © 2019, Chicago Tribune


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I really believe with all my heart and I thought a lot about this, that before we can reach the world we have to leave it. And maybe that sounds paradoxical, but it really isn't. Before we reach the world we are going to have to leave the world. In John chapter 8, and you don't need to turn to it because I am going to mention several Scriptures to you. Jesus said, "Ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world. Jesus, even though he came into the world, reached the world from the vantage point above the world." The only way to really reach the world is to leave the world or to be from without the world, and to bring to the world a divine dimension.
In the 18th chapter of the gospel of John, in the 361h verse, Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world, if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from here." Again Jesus emphasizing that the vantage point from which he reached the world was not the world, but it was above the world. Seeing this in a theological sense we would need to look at Romans chapter 12 and listen to this, "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God which is your spiritual worship and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Jesus reached the world from a vantage point beyond the world and The apostle Paul says that we are going to reach the world also when we are no longer of the world.
In Galatians chapter 1 in verse 4 the apostle further says, "the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world." And here is a hint at what we are talking about. Jesus' kingdom was not of this world, he reached the world from beyond the world. Paul says if you are going to reach the world, you are going to reach the world from beyond the world. And it all begins in Galatians 1:4, when you come to know Jesus Christ who delivers you from this present evil world. You know it is an interesting set of thoughts to think about, but this paradox runs all through the conversations that Jesus had with his disciples and elsewhere in the New Testament.
For example, Jesus said in his prayer To the Father in John 17, verse 5, "Father do not Take Them out of the world." In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus spoke to all of us and said, "Go in-to all the world and make disciples." Writing to Titus in chapter 2 in verse 12 the apostle Paul said, "Live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world." And in I John, chapter 4, verse 17 John reminds us that we are to live like Christ in The world.
Now isn't it interesting that you have allof those statements about being in the world, reaching the world, living as Christ in the world, living righteously in the world, and you have that whole other dimension of having to reach the world from out of the world. Or how are you going to resolve the paradox. How can I say that you have to reach the world from beyond the world when Jesus says go into the world? When John says, be Christ in the world, how can these two be brought together? It's very simple really? It isn't complicated. You know it already. It's simply this. Your inside lives in heaven and your outside lives here. That's all. And I really am convinced, I know you are, you who know and love Christ, and know His word. I know you are equally convinced that until a Christian in his heart and his soul and his mind has learned to live his spiritual life in the heavenlies he will never be able to touch the earth with the truth of God. It won't happen.
I was reading this week the memoirs of Robert Murray McShane which I periodically read when I frustrate myself with my own carnality, and this is what I was reading. I was reading about Robert Murray McShane as he was evaluated by some of the people who knew him and this is one man's comment, he said this of him: "The man of whom I speak seems to have got up to the full height and to have entered into the secret places of the holiness of God." Here was a man who knew Robert Murray McShane the great preacher. He seemed to have dwelt in the secret places of the holiness of God. The man went on, "when he preached the gospel you could see strong men, hard and stern, melt like wax before the fire. Their breasts would swell and heave as if they would burst and the whole place became a place of weepers."
Now there is a man who touched the world. There is a man who reached the world, and the commentof a man who observed was, the reason he reached the world was because he lived in the presence of God. Jesus did the same. We find, if he read carefully between the lines a little bit, and sometimes not between the lines, but right in the text, that every night Jesus would retreat, wouldn't he, to the Mount of Olives, because that was his real world really. That's where he communed with the Father. That's the place he had come from and the place to which he would go when his work was done. It was there that he lived and communed with God, and from that vantage point he went into the world. AS long as we are earth bound, as long as we are preoccupied with the world's system, as long as we are caught up with money and fame and prestige and popularity and fashion and education or whatever. As long as those of the things you love the most, and you can tell what you love the lost, as we saw last week by what you think about the most, as long as you do that you are earthy, and you will not reach the world with the gospel as God would want.
You know somehow I guess it gets down to the fact that we have to push ourselves away from the world, and we have to become bystanders and maybe that's what a presentation like this helps us to do. Somehow we have to have an objective look. We have to have a very uninvolved eye, so that we can at least begin to see The real poverty of soul, the real destitution of spirit, the real hopelessness, the real helplessness, the real loneliness in the world without Christ. And unfortunately I don't think we can ever see it in our own culture, because we are too much a part of our system we live in. You know I have been on enough mission fields around the world to know that I get very sentimental. I gel very spiritual. I get very concerned, I even get tears in my eyes when I see other cultures without Christ, but as soon as I come, home it's all over with, because I can't push my culture away to look at it objectively. I am too caught in it. I wish to God I could push it further away and really see it for what it is. I wish I could see the world the way Jesus sees it. I wish I could see Panorama City and Los Angeles and California and The United States the way Jesus does. But I am still in the process of having my transformation by the renewing of my mind. Every once in a while I get a little glimpse of it and I try to hang on to it, but boy, it's tough isn't it? And I can sit in my seat and I can watch this and I can get concerned, can't you? I can't be indifferent, it breaks my heart, and I have been there and I have seen it, and I have had those little beggars pull at my clothes, and I care. And then I come home and for some strange reason, because this is my system, and this is my culture I can't objectify it anymore. And somehow the Christians has got Go get to the place where he is able to do what Paul and all the great men of God throughout the ages were able to do. What Robert Murray McShane was able to do, and that's get out of a system and get into the presence of God so you can minister to this world.
When Paul said, "come out from among them and be ye separate," he wasn't just talking about personal holiness, he was talking about evangelism. There is no way you are going to touch the world until you get out of it, and see it's needs genuinely and honestly and realistically, see. In Ephesians, the apostle Paul tells us to leave the world. He tells us to take our hearts and our hopes and our thoughts and get them out of here. And you know how he does it? By telling us that everything we really want is up there anyway. He says for example, "and you have been blessed with all spiritual blessings," where, "in the heavenlies." He tells us in chapter 3, verse 10, that the angels are there in the heavenlies. He tells us in chapter 1, verse 20, that Christ is there in the heavenlies. He tells us in chapter 2, verse 6 in Ephesians that our position is there. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. As if to say to us, "look, the blessings are there, the angels are there, the Lord is there, your seat is there, what are you doing messing around down here?" And that is really the message of Colossians chapter 3.
Let's look at it, verse 1 to 4. These verses are going to help us somehow to begin to think through this whole idea of getting out of the system in our hearts and minds, if not in our bodies until Jesus comes, at least in our hearts and minds so that we can minister to it. Colossians 3:1 says, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God, set you affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."
Now there is a simple message in those verses and the message is this: get out of the system, divorce yourself from the world in terms of your spiritual attitude, in terms of your inner man. Now Paul has closed out the doctrinal section of the book of Colossians. It ended at the end of chapter 2, that great, great two chapters that we have studied in so much detail in the last few months. The doctrinal section is over and now having stated sound doctrine he makes some practical implications and doctrine always has practical implications.
The first great practical principle that he wants to tell us is, get out of the system. The only way you'll ever reach the world, the only way you'll ever touch the world is to ascend beyond the world into the presence of God. I kind of like to call these verses, "Living the Risen Life." You know when you think about it we have already experienced a dramatic change anyway. I mean we have already been divorced from the world in terms of the real issue.
Look with me at several Scriptures. Take your Bible, and I mentioned it earlier, and I want to point out to you Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6, and let's kind of set the setting for our Thoughts here. I don't know how far we'll get, but we'll see. Ephesians 2:6. Talking about The benefits of salvation, that which occurs when you come to Christ, Paul writes, "and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." In the Greek this is the past tense, an eros tense, something that already happened, past action. Whenever a Greek wanted to say something, that was already done, and absolutely irrevocable and couldn't be changed, he said it in the past and that is what it means The moment you came to Christ, when you were dead in sins, verse 5, when you were made alive together with Christ, when you were saved by grace, you were instantaneously raised up and given a place in the heavenlies in Christ. Spiritually speaking, you ascended. Your conscious mind is occupied with Christ. You entered as it were into the holy of Holies. The veil was ripped and you walked into the presence of God.
In Philippians chapter 3 we find the same thought in verse 20, where he says, "For our citizenship," or our manner of living, or our life if you will, or our existence, "is in heaven." You say, "Well what are you talking about, we are not there yet?" No, but though our bodies aren't there, that is to be the occupation of our mind, the heavenlies. Notice II Peter chapter 1, verse 3, "according as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." Great statement about that fact that we have been granted everything we need for living the Christian life. Verse 4 opens it up a little bit, "by which are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having already escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
When you were saved, now mark this, when you were saved, positionally you were taken out of the world. In the words of John, "who is he that has," what, "overcome the world." Or what is it that overcomes the world, "even bur faith." When you put your faith in Christ you overcame the world. When you received the divine power that came in salvation, the great and precious promises, when you were made a partaker of the divine nature you escaped the corruption that is in the world. You were transformed. You transcended the world. Your conversation, your manner of life is in the heavenlies. It's a great reality. So every oneof us as believers has entered into a genuine, spiritual, relationship with the God to the universe, the Christ that is right hand, the Holy Spirit in the heavenlies.
Now if this sounds kind of mystical, it is, but I want to see if I can give some feet to it if I can, because I am not much of a mystic as you know. And if I had to live with mysticism I'd be in bad shape, so I want to give some feet to it. But let me just clarify the point I am trying to make beginningly. We'll never the reach the world till we get out of the world. The world knows, so the moment you were saved you transcended the system. The moment you were saved, God granted to you the capacity to enter and to live consciously in his presence. Spirituality is then a heavenly kind of life. That means, as Paul says here in Colossians 3, it is a life that focuses on things above, not on earthly things. It is a preoccupation with the divine. It is the upward look if you will. We could talk about all kinds of Scriptures, relative to this. It is II Corinthians 3:18 if you want one for example. It is where you continually gaze on the glory of the Lord and are transformed by the Holy Spirit into his image. Well, how can you gaze on the glory of the Lord unless you have your mind in heaven, unless you are thinking about God, unless you are thinking about Christ, unless you are thinking about the spirit of God.
This chapter, this little section here that begins it is a call to true spirituality. And true spirituality is setting your affections on things above and not on things on the earth. It is getting divorced from the system, so that you can step away from the world, you can see the world, and you can reach the world from the vantage point of divine enablement. The key thing in missions is not seeing the need, that's a part of it all. The key thing in missions is not knowing all the Bible verses and what they mean relative to that. The key thing in mission is not finding the place to go, the key thing in missions is to be dwelling in the heavenlies so that you can come back to the world wherever it is from the vantage point of divine power and make an impact.
Now I want to look at, the section and I want us to consider several things. And I'll run them by you quickly. I'll start with r. #1 is the reminder. The reminder in verse 1, "If ye then be risen with Christ," stop right there. Now that is the if of reality, and it should probably be translated since, because it is already an accomplished fact. "Since you have been risen with Christ," is literally what the Greek would say. "Since you have been risen with Christ, and already accomplished reality."
Nowlisten to me, do you realize, think about it, that you have already died, right? We have seen that in Galatians, we've seen it in Romans. You died. When did you die? At salvation. You were crucified with Christ. So, you died when you were saved, you died to the world. Romans says in chapter 7, you died to, that former husband as it were, and then after that you rose from the dead and you took on what kind of life, eternal life. Eternal is not a quantity of life, it is a quality of life, it is heavenly life. So when you came alive in Christ, at the moment of your salvation, you came alive to the dimension of God's heaven. You literally, your mind was open to understand God and what God desires, and what God wills for your life.
Now you died with Christ and you rose with Christ. Don't forget that. Don't forget that from the moment of your salvation you entered into a new dimension of life. You are not living plain old bios, remember that? Biological life. You are not living zoe, that's real life. You are living eternal life, which is a quality in a dimension of life that only God can give. And so the moment you became a believer you were risen with Christ, You live his resurrection life, and that's why, as I read you earlier the apostle Paul says, "your manner of life," Philippians 3:20, "is in heaven." Listen, that's where we live folks, and if your mind is stuck in the things of the world then you are not living up to your position in Christ, are you?
We've talked it so many times the fact that the Christians life is basically becoming what you are, isn't it? This is what I am positionally, I better become like I am. I better live up to my position. Our position is in Christ. In Christ we have eternal life. Having eternal life takes us into the presence of God and when we live his kind of life, we breathe his kind of air.
Now if you will notice the first four verses, I'll show you something interesting. He says in verse 1 "with Christ," in verse 1, "where Christ," in verse 3 "with Christ," in verse 4 "when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear," there it is again, "with him in glory." With Christ, where Christ, with Christ, with Christ, The emphasis is pretty clear. Having Christ is having everything. He is is the center of our resurrection life, and the conscious preoccupation of the believer is to be on Christ. That's what it means when it says, "seek the things that are above." Get your preoccupation on Christ, He is the center of your life. Remember chapter 2, spiritual intimidation? Don't let anybody come along and intimidate you with human philosophy. Christ is all. Don't let anybody come along and intimidate you with human rules and rituals and legalism. Christ is all. Don't let anybody come along and intimidate you with their angels and their visions and their ecstatic experiences, Christ is sufficient. Don't let anybody come along and intimidate you with their acts of self-styled fleshly self indulgence. Christ is all And Colossians 2:10 put it as well as it will ever be put. "Ye are complete in him." And that is what he is saying here. You have everything in having Christ. You don't need any of the world's systems of religions. You don't need to say Christ, plus human philosophy, Christ, plus legalism, Christ, plus mysticism, Christ, plus asceticism, all you need is Christ.
Nowifyou just get yourself up there where you belong, you wouldn't get bugged by the rest of that stuff. I think some Christians get intimidated because they don't spend enough time with Christ to find out that he is all they need. You know that? When somebody comes to me and says, "you know, have you had this experience?" You know what I say? "What for?" "Well, I was reading a book this week, if you haven't had this certain experience, you are incomplete, you haven't arrived." You know what my answer to that is, "Listen, I have Christ." A song writer said, "What want I more?" I live in the heavenlies. Marvin Ford may have gone there, but he came back. I am still there. So are you if you know the Lord Jesus and you are living the kind of life he designed for you to live. No wonder there are some Christians running around chasing people like that trying to find out how they can get that experience because they have never learned what it is to get in the heavenlies and enjoy the Christ who is there and see that he is all they need. I am not intimidated anymore. Hallelujah, that's a good place to be, because I know what it is. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and he has fulfilled every need I could ever have. Jesus Christ is sufficient. I have lived just enough in the heavenlies to know that, and so will you when you get up there and enjoy it a while. You see the whole issue is to live a Christ conscious life, and the basis of it all is this simple reminder, hey after all, you have been risen with Christ I mean the old life is gone, you are living the new life, the new eternal life, and as long as you are there positionally, just remember where your position is and start operating to get toward that in reality. Don't forget who you are.
There is a second here that I want you to see. Not only The reminder, but the responsibility. Since you have this reminder, he says, if you have been since you have been risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
Now stop there for a minute. Seek those things which are above; literally, continually be seeking those things which are above. Make it the pattern of your life to be preoccupied with heaven.
Now Paul is not offering another kind of asceticism, he is not inviting us to be spaced out spiritually. He is not inviting us to walk around you know in a fog, he is not Telling us to sit in a corner like Buddhists and contemplate your naval until you wind up in Revana. That isn't the idea. The spirit of God is not telling us to do something weird and strange, he is simply saying, "let your preoccupation with heaven govern your earthly responses."
Now I am going to give you even more practice. You know what it means to think on heavenly things? You can't just think about heaven. You have to think about who is there, right? He is not saying, "just imagine yourself strolling down the golden streets and turning right and there is." you know, no no. Or imagine yourself polishing off one of the jewels and, no. Imagine yourself smiling into the pearl, no. That isn't the idea. The idea is not a preoccupation with what makes up the city, but the idea is to think heavenly thoughts is to be preoccupied with the one who reigns in the city, the Lord Jesus Christ. Since you have this reminder you have also a responsibility he says. Continue to seek the things that are above. You know what the world needs? You know what would really change this world? What would change this world would be a heavenly set of values, wouldn't it? We're in an election time in our country. Wouldn't it be fantastic if somebody could just take the New Testament and write out a whole platform for this nation. Boy, I'd love to do that. And then get elected, wouldn't it be fantastic? It would be absolutely fantastic to have a biblical set of values for our nation. That's what it needs. But listen, the only way you are going to be able to bring a heavenly set of values to the earth is to get up there and find out what it is.
Wouldn't it be great to see things and people and events the way Jesus sees them? We entered in the heavenlies when we were saved. But you know what happens? It happens to me, it happens to you. We just have a hard time shoving our hearts up, there, don't we? We get preoccupied with how much money we have, preoccupied with what our house looks like, what our clothes look like, whether we are keeping up with the society around us. Preoccupied with all the piddley, mundane stuff in our world, and so we can't really offer to the world anything about a heavenly dimension, because we are not too sure what it is yet. And then some joker comes along and intimidates us by telling us about some weird experience that you can reach out and get kind of spiritually spaced out, and we're the first ones to grab onto it because we really don't understand anything out there anyway. The verb here is to be constantly seeking. Jesus put it this way, "Seek ye first" what, "the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and what will happen, "all the other things will follow and be added." That's not a new principle. You can look in the Old Testament. Check out I Chronicles 22:19, you'll find it there too. What are the things above? See what it says; seek the things which are above." What are they? Well the spiritual values that are embedded in the heart of The glorified Christ, realities like tenderness, kindness, loveliness, meekness, long-suffering, patience, wisdom, forgiveness, most of all love. Those are the bounties of heaven. Those are the things that fill the hearts of Jesus, and those arethe things, that if you spend enough time with him, are going to fill your heart.
You know if I could make my Christian life reduce itself to a simple prayer, you know what it would be? Father, I want for me and for my brothers and sisters and for the whole world what Jesus wants for them, Isn't that it? Isn't that John 14, "if you ask anything," what, "in my name." Consistent with who he is. Father I want for myself and my brothers and sisters in Christ, and the world what Jesus wants. if I think about that long enough, there is an obvious second thought, and that is, I better find out, what, who Jesus was. How am I going to do that? Spend some time with him.
So Paul carries us to the heights in the heavenlies. He takes us to the other side of the grave. Puts us into the end of the spirit, where the Christian has new ideas and new desires and new resources and all heavenly and it kind of makes us feel like a skylark who flies higher and higher and higher and all the time singing. When a Christians begins to live in the heavenlies, when he begins to live in the Jerusalem from above as Paul calls it in Galatians. When he begins to find that city that really is the true home of God. And the true resting place of the believer then he begins to bring down to this world something this world desperately needs and that is a heavenly set of values.
Notice what he says in verse 2. Continuing the same Thought, he says, "Set your affections on things above not on things on the earth." And I want to show you something verysimple here. Verse 1 says, "seek," and verse 2, literally in the Greek says "keep on thinking the things above." That's a simple thing. You not only seek heaven, but you think heaven. In other words your mind ought to be on heaven. How are you going to seek heaven? How are you going to seek the things above? By thinking on the things above. That's a simple thought. Couldn't be any simpler. Seek, from one Greek verb, zeteo, and set your mind on, from another one, If you are to really seek the things above you have to program your mind to think on those things. These two terms are important in Paul's vocabulary. They had the idea of kind of a chosen orientation, like the needle of a compass seeks to find the line with the pull of God toward the heavenlies. And maybe the second term is the most important. To seek is one thing, but how to seek, set your mind. Set your mind. I really believe that this is the intellect, the mind. "Be transformed by the renewing of your what," what, "your mind." And I think we need to know the things that God wants us to know. I think we need to understand the thing that God feels and thinks and wills by knowing the revelation that he has given us.
Let me give you a practical thought. Somebody is saying by this time, "Well John, how do you get into the heavenlies as it were?" For me it comes always the same way. And this is just a very personal thing. For me, always it comes the same way. I always dwell in the heavenlies when my mind is preoccupied with the Scripture, because the only thing that I know of God and the only thing I know of Christ, and the only thing I know of the holy Spirit, and the only thing I know of their character and their values is what I have read here, right? And so it is only as I reiterate in my heart and my mind these truths that God is actualized in my thinking, that God becomes real to my conscience mind, and that the realness of God and the values of God are then translated into my action. So I say that until I leave the world I have nothing to offer. If ever there has been a time, and I hope there have been a few, when I have come in here and spoken to you as if it were heaven speaking it's because I am coming from that experience. The experience of spending a week with the mind of God, plants his thoughts in my mind, and I have a heavenly message to bring in an earthly vessel. Simple, but profound.
So the Christian.: who has risen with Christ, has a new focus. There is a new focal point. He has a new direction. Just like the compass needle is drawn to the north so his spirit is drawn to the heavenlies to be occupied with Jesus Christ. That's clear, because he says it in verse 2. Notice it again. "Set your affection," or set your mind, "on things above, not on things on the earth." And then backing up To verse 1, "Seek Those things which are above where Christ, sits." In other words the preoccupation is with Christ.
Let me give you a Third Thought. We have a reminder by Paul, we have a responsibility. I love this, and I just hinted at it, we have a resource, you might say, "Boy, you know I hope something happens when I get up there. I hope, if I spend the time to study the word and set my affections there and put my mind on it and seek those things, I hope there is somebody up there. That's a long trip if nobody is home." Well look at the end of verse 1, "Seek the things which are above where Christ, sits on the right hand of God." He is there and he is seen in sitting position and he is waiting in majesty and honor for us to enter his presence and claim his power. This is the resource people. The reminder, the responsibility and now the resource. The truth of Christ's coronation, the truth of his exaltation at the Father's right hand means that he is "the fountain of blessing for his children. Because he is there, because he is exalted, because he is at the Fathers right hand, the Father has said, you are honored, you are praised, you are glorified, I give you everything I have, and we go into his presence to receive it.
When we seek to obtain things above, we are not chasing phantoms. We are not like the Gnostics who tried by a superior knowledge to get a superior spiritual experience and never got anything but the pandering of their own flesh. I promise you something Christian, everything you seek is there, because he is there. Everything you seek is there. If you think about it, you know that don't you? Because when you needed something and you went there and it was there. In our new life then what do we have? A reminder. You have already been placed in the heavenlies positionally. A responsibility. Get your practical life up there and seek the things that are there by setting. Have the confidence to know that what you seek is there.
Fourthly he reiterates what was alluded to in verse 1, the reason. The reason, verse 3, look, "for you are dead." Dead to what? Well if you were to read Galatians chapter 6:14, you would read that you have been crucified to the, what, to the world. You are dead to the system, you are dead to the world, your life is hidden with Christ in God. The reason that you should follow this admonition is because that is where you are alive. You have an entirely new life and a new consciousness. I love the thought; your life is hidden with Christ, in God. People have talked a lot about what that means. What does it mean to have your life hidden with Christ in God. Well I thought of three things.
Number 1, it means I am all wrapped up with God. And Jesus Christ, My life is tangles up with their life. That's super. I mean he that is joined to the Lord is what, one spirit. The Father and the Son and plain old John MacArthur, we are all in this thing together.
Now when I go up there, they don't say, "Yes, let me see your card." They say, "Hi, where I have you been?" "We have been waiting for you, this is home you know, did you forget?" See? No, my life is all wrapped up with Jesus Christ and you know God doesn't see me apart from him and God doesn't see him apart from me. Is that staggering? God looks at Jesus Christ and sees John MacArthur. God looks at John MacArthur and sees Jesus Christ, That's what it means that my life is hidden with Christ in God. But it means something else too. I thought about this. It means that my life is hidden with Christ, in God and the idea of the hidden hit me. Do you know something? My new life is concealed from the world. They don't know it. They think I am just like everybody else. They don't know what I know and what you know. You know the world doesn't know about us. "The natural man," what, "understands not the things of God." Do you think they know you from anybody else" Do you think they understand what makes you tick? Do they know that you are a citizen of heaven living in the heavenly? They haven't got any idea. All the phony religionists and the eratist and the people beseeching the Colossians coming along and saying "you need this and you need that and you need this, or you'll never make it." What they didn't know was they had already made it. But it was concealed from their diluted minds.
And so when I think about my life being hidden-with Christ, in God that means I am all tied up with them and it also secondly means that I think maybe this is the primary point of the text here. My new life is concealed from the world, and I have to realize that they are not going to understand me, that this isn't my domain, that this isn't my playground, that this isn't the place I dwell. I am a stranger and a pilgrim. And there is a third thought that came to me, and it is this. If my life is hid with Christ, in God, that sounds to me like everlasting security. if my life is hid with Christ, in God, that's secure, there is a book that has been recently written in which a particular person admonishes Christians to watch out for demons, and he has a whole list at the end of all the demons you should look for, and watch out. And one of them he names is the demon of eternal security. You know for me that's blasphemous.
My life is hidden with Christ, from God and I think about the security that he gives me and when I read Romans 8 my heart is thrilled. What does it mean that my life is hidden with Christ, in God. I have a new life all wrapped up with him. It's concealed from the world but it is secure with him, and if all of that is mine I might as well get up there and enjoy it. That's the reason. Live in the heavenlies. It's going to be kind of fun when my spirit and my body gets up there with my mind.
Well, the religious may tell you that you are not making it. Somebody may try to intimidate you into thinking you are not going to gel the higher knowledge, deeper life, second blessing, true humility or whatever. But you are there. And you are hidden from them, but you are there, and you are secure and you might as well get up there and enjoy it. And finally, just to prove all this, I love this, there is the revelation. It is almost like God saying, "now world we are going to have an unveiling and see who really made it. When Christ, who is our life, verse 4, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. They may not recognize us now, they may not know that we live in the heavenlies, but some day they are going to know, because when he appears at his second coming, you can read it in Revelation 19, we will appear with him also. He comes back with, remember in the white robe riding a white horse with all those other while horses and the armies out of heaven and that's us folks, along with the angels. The verdict of eternity, I am afraid is going to reverse the verdicts of time. People are going to see who it was that really attained to God's presence. Do you like this phrase, when Christ, who is our life? Fabulous. He is our life. I've often said that Christ, doesn't give life, he is life. He gives himself. When he appears at his second coming, we will be manifest with him in glory.
Lightfoot says, and it is a beautiful statement, he says, "The veil which now shrouds your higher life from others, and even partly from yourselves, will then be withdrawn. The world which persecutes, despises, ignores now, will then be blinded with the dazzling glory of your revelation. I live by faith, soon I'll live by sight." What is he saying here? He is saying, what is the center of your life if the center of your life is to set your mind on Christ; you are going to live in the heavenlies. And from that vantage point you have a set of values and a power to give to the world. And then you can go out and reach people for Christ. And then you can touch life in the way it matters. And it all boils down to the fact, who is The center of your life?
Tolehmy taught that the center of the solar system was the earth and everything revolved around the earth. For 1300 years that theory went on until it was finally proved to be an illusion. Capernica said, the sun is the center and everything goes around that. You know I know some Christians who are still living under a Tolehmic illusion. They think the world is the center of their universe, but it isn't. The Son is. Christ, is everything. I hope he is the center of your life. I hope you are living in the heavenlies. It's the only vantage point from which you could touch the world.
Let me tell you about a man who lived in the heavenlies, before I close. His name was Hudson Taylor. He was so burdened with China, and you know what burdened him with China? His biographers tell us that he lived so much in the presence of Jesus Christthat he began to feel the great heartbeat of Jesus for the lost souls. And he himself says that the burden of Christ became my burden. You see he lived in the heavenlies so much that he began to feel like Jesus felt. This is what his biographer says. He found the self satisfying hymn singing congregation in Brighton, England intolerable. He looked around pew upon pew of prosperous bearded merchants, shop keepers, visitors, demure wives in bonnets and crinolines, scrubbed children trained to hide their impatience. The atmosphere of smug piety sickened him, he ceased his hat and left. And later said, "unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand and more Christian people rejoicing in their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone in great spiritual agony." There on the beach he prayed for God to give him 24 laborers to go to China.
I wonder we are that congregation in 1976, sitting in our security with smug piety and at the center of our universe is the earth and not the Son of righteousness. Hudson Taylor felt the way he felt because he lived with Jesus so long that the heart of Jesus became his heart. And so he left the world and dwelt with the Saviour so long that he could come back to the world from the divine vantage point. You know that even the Roman Catholic mass ends with the words ite mytha est, get out. The implication is, there is a world out there, get out and do something about it. And we have learned that first you must ascend into the presence of Christ and see it for what he sees.
Would you bow your heads with me? I have asked Paul to share a song with us, while your heads are bowed you listen as he sings; "Let me see this world dear Lord, as though I were looking Through your eyes, a world of men who don't want you Lord, yet a world for which you suffered and died. Let me be there with you in the garden, blurr my eyes with tears of agony, for if once I could see this world the way you see, I just know I'd serve you more faithfully. Let me see this world dear Lord through your eyes when man mocked your holy name. When they beat you and spat upon you dear Lord, let me love them as you loved them, just the same. Let me stand high above my petty problems, grieve for men, help out eternally, for if once, once I could see this world the way you see, I just know I'd serve you more faithfully. Let me see this world dear Lord, let me see."
While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed for just a moment I know the prayer of your heart were certainly echoed in those words that Paul sung to us and that he lifted a prayer for us all I trust. In your own heart right now this probably would be a great time, maybe as great as any ever in your life to really face the issue. Are you living in the heavenlies, is the Son the center of your universe, or is the world? Do you know what it is to seek, to set your mind on him who is our life. Him, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Some of you perhaps have never come to know Jesus Christ. My, what a great time it would be right now for you to give him your heart. Most of you do know him, but maybe the reason you haven't been able to really make an impact on the world is because you have been trying to do it from in I he world. You have to leave the world.
Father thank you for tonight and for what we have shared. Thank you for all you mean to us, thank you for loving us, thank You for dying for us. Lord a lot of us tonight have taken a stand, and just publicly said, 'from now on I want it to be the way you want it to be, I want to set my mind on you.' Father help us get into the Word daily, so you can fill us with your thoughts. Father I get excited when I think of what this could mean if all this commitment really found legs and voices and hands. So I commit it to you in Jesus' name, Amen.
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Black Revolutionary Poets Film Screening
Monday, March 18, 2013, 7:00pm
IU Cinema More.
A. B. Yehoshua, Author
2013 Jewish Writers Series
Monday, March 18, 2013, 5:00pm
State Room East, IMU More.
Jessica Brantley: "The Pavement Hours in Literary History"
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:00pm
Maple Room, Indiana Memorial Union More.
Judith Irvine
Bakhtin and Beyond, Senegal and Beyond
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 4:45pm
Woodburn Hall 221A More.
Lost Films of Kathleen Collins
Milestone Film Series
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 7:00pm
IU Cinema More.
Consent: Terms of Agreement
The 10th Annual International Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 6:30pm
Rachel Ablow
'Natural Magic': Harriet Martineau and the Body in Pain
Friday, March 22, 2013, 10:00am
CAHI Building, 1211 East Atwater Avenue More.
Daniel Reed
Folklore and Ethnomusicology Research Colloquium
Friday, March 22, 2013, 3:30pm
Performance and Lecture Hall, 800 N Indiana Ave More.
Consent: Terms of Agreement
The 10th Annual International Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference
Friday, March 22, 2013, 5:15pm
Screening of Portrait of Jason (1967) Directed by Shirley Clarke
Milestone Film Series
Friday, March 22, 2013, 6:30pm
IU Cinema More.


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Creating crafts for holidays is always fun with kids!!
Easter Crafts are especially fun since bunny rabbits are such a fun cuddly creature to create. My kids love creating things from styrofoam balls! The possibilities are endless! This
Easter Craft is great because it doubles as a Easter Decoration too! Have fun!


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