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Made To Measure Curtains Nantucket Straw
Made to measure curtains Nantucket Straw One of the most popular Clarke And Clarke Fabrics. This 100% brushed cotton is a great weight, has a great texture and drapes perfectly. Buy direct from our factory and save.
Product Info:
Fabric Content: 100% Cotton. Production Lead Time:7-14 Working Days. Full Specifcation: Here
Max Width: 520cms. Max Drop: 325cms. Pattern Repeat: Nil cms
Pencil Pleats: Approx. Double Fullness. Included as standard, supplied flat, you draw the tape up to your exact track width. 3 hook pockets, can be used with a pole or track. Measure from the top of your track or the bottom of your curtain ring for poles.
Eyelets: 1.75 times fullness. 40mm Pressed metal eyelets, 6 colours (select from the images below the main fabric image). Suitable for use with a pole only. Measure from the top of your pole. We use electro plated brass (don't rust) eyelets which are pressed and riveted through the fabric and stiffening buckram at the top of your curtains. We don't use plastic click together parts.
Pinch Pleats: Approx. 2.2 Times Fullness. Formed by hand not with a curtain tape. Measure from the botton edge of your pole, or the top of your track. Height adjustable hooks are supplied with these curtains. This classic curtain header comes as standard in the triple pleat form, which is by far the most popular. We can offer them as double pleats if required, please order via e-mail or on the phone.
If you need help or advice please either call us on 01422 375040 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Here are a few shots of my Viking army, intended to represent the Dublin and Man settlers. Because of this the troops are formed in open order.
Figures are Gripping Beast, from all the early ranges, some of which are currently out of production.
Allied Irish cavalry-this is a stand-in unit, as mine are being painted at the moment (hurry up Mystic Spirals!)
Hird unit
Another Hird unit
Thrall skirmishers


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Create a Ning Network!
A Virtual Dog Park With An Unbelievable Staff, And Set Of Goals!
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We are SL Kids united to support Dogland.
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Started by Vitolo Rossini in Real Life Dogs Jul 22, 2017.
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Patty has been making beautiful Latch Hook Wall Hangings, from actual photographs of people's pets. Here are a few of our dogs, made into wall hangings, along with the photos they were made from.…Continue
Started by Vitolo Rossini in Dogland and Virtual Dogs Dec 13, 2016.
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JazzyStudent Resident, is the owner of JazzLand.. a special place she built to continue the traditions of Dogland Park, and provide continuity with the remaining Dog Park. Please find the time to…Continue
Started by Vitolo Rossini in Dogland and Virtual Dogs. Last reply by Vitolo Rossini Jan 14, 2015.
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This is Dogland's Official advice concerning Regeneration of older VKC dogs. We recommend only updating and NEVER "upgrading" or "regenerating" (or other terms that may be used later). You can…Continue
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Started by Vitolo Rossini in Real Life Dogs Aug 10, 2014.
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Dogland Network member David B. said in a message to me;i have seen about the guide dogs i have been offered a chance to under go something called a blindfold walk? i dont know what it is because ive…Continue
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Isaacson Helped US to Sled Hockey Gold
By Wes Frahm | Published
Michigan Tech associate athletic director for external relations Joel Isaacson helped the United States Sled Hockey Team to the gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia, earlier this month.
The Hancock, Mich., native was the team's equipment manager as the Americans defeated the Russians 1-0 in the gold medal game at Bolshoy Ice Dome, which also played host to both men's and women's ice hockey gold medal games for the Olympic games.
"It was an unbelievable experience," said Isaacson, who worked with the team of disabled athletes for the last four years. "The venues and accommodations were top notch, and the Russian people were very welcoming. Working with this team and winning the gold will be unforgettable."
Team USA, which has won three of the last four Paralympic gold medals in sled hockey,
went 2-1 in its preliminary games. It then defeated rival Canada 3-0 in the semifinals
before besting the host nation 1-0 in the gold-medal game.
"It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said of the chance to represent the US at an Olympics. "I'm humbled and honored to be able to help these athletes chase their dreams of a gold medal."
The team consisted of 17 men ages 15 to 35. Some are military veterans who are amputees because of injuries suffered in active duty. Some experienced other accidents to their legs or spine. Others have congenital conditions that qualify them for the Paralympics.
"These guys are the best at what they do," said Isaacson. "It's amazing to be around them and see the adversity they overcome on a daily basis. It's also infectious to see their passion for the sport."
Sled hockey, also called sledge hockey, is played with regular ice hockey rules with some exceptions. Players sit on sleds with medal blades and propel themselves with modified hockey sticks. The handle end of each stick has spikes to grip the ice. Modifications are made to the benches to allow the teams to change lines, but otherwise it's played like hockey with skill, speed and checking.
While it may seem strange that Isaacson, who currently holds the title of associate athletic director for external relations at Michigan Tech, would be working as a hockey equipment manager, that's exactly how he got his start at Tech.
The 2001 Michigan Tech graduate worked as a student manager for the Huskies NCAA Division I Hockey program before being hired on full time as the equipment manager for the department. He was later promoted to assistant athletic director for NCAA compliance and then to his current position.
"I'm extremely thankful to (athletic director) Suzanne Sanregret and Michigan Tech for allowing me the flexibility to pursue this opportunity," he said.
Isaacson got his start with the sled team in 2011 when Michigan Tech athletic trainer Brian Brewster, who was already working with the team, recruited him to fill in at the Four Nation's Tournament in Nagano, Japan.
A year later, he was installed as a permanent member of the staff as they competed at the World Championships in Norway.
Isaacson's experiences, including another World Championship in Seoul, South Korea, and several more training camps and tournaments in North America, have all led up to his opportunity in Russia.
PBS aired a documentary on the team's preparation for the Paralympics. It can be found at PBS.org(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/medal-quest/ice-warriors/#film).
For more updates on Team USA, visit USAHockey.com.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university, home to more than 7,000 students from 54 countries. Founded in 1885, the University offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, and social sciences. Our campus in Michigan's Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway and is just a few miles from Lake Superior.


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'Triplett blanc' will be the first public release of wine varieties bred and developed by Fay Triplett. Mr. Triplett was a wine grape grower from Ceres, Calif., who was active in grapevine breeding for about 50 years until his death in 2000 at age 96. His breeding program involved crosses of little known as well as major wine varieties from throughout the world, and varieties from other breeding programs.
Through the years, Triplett cooperated with UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, UC Cooperative Extension — Stanislaus County, Allied Grape Growers and E&J Gallo Winery for input on vine performance and wine evaluation of his more promising seedling selections. He kept meticulous breeding and vine performance records.
In the mid-1980's it was agreed to transfer 40 of the more promising selections to the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. This would provide an opportunity to compare and evaluate them in expanded plots in a research setting. It would also enable access for industry observation. The American Vineyard Foundation generously contributed some financial support for the Kearney trials. Triplett continued to provide his input during visits to the trial block. Ultimately, it was Triplett's wish to share any released selections with the wine industry. 'Triplett blanc' is being released as a public variety by Foundation Plant Services, where it has undergone indexing for freedom from virus.
'Triplett blanc' is a cross between Colombard and Vernaccia Sarda. Vernaccia Sarda was evaluated by A.J. Winkler and M.A. Amerine in the 1930s and 1940s. They described the variety as a vigorous grower and heavy producer with large, long-conical, shouldered, well-filled to compact clusters, maturing in late mid-season. It produced neutral white dry wines of mildly distinct, fruity and full-bodied character in region IV. It was considered to be less well adapted to region V, although some fair table wines were produced due to its moderately well balanced fruit composition.
Adapts well
Colombard is well known for its adaptability to warmer regions, producing good yields of well-balanced fruit composition due to its high acidity. It has excellent versatility for the production of varietal and generic wines and for concentrate, brandy and blending wine.
Vine and fruit characteristics of both Vernaccia Sarda and Colombard can be readily noted in 'Triplett blanc.' The vine is very vigorous, with strong, upright shoots. The canopy is not dense, as it is not prone to strong lateral shoot development. Clusters are large (average 1 pound), long-conical, shouldered and well-filled. Berries are yellow-green with grayish bloom, medium size (average 2.3 g) and round. Vine yield over 7 years averaged 21.5 tons per acre, which included 3rd and 4th leaf. At full production, 5th to 9th leaf, the yield averaged 26.8 tons per acre. Vineyard design was 8-foot by 12-foot vine and row spacing, bi-lateral cordon training at 54 inches with a single foliar catch wire and standard spur pruning.
Harvest date averaged Sept. 25 with a fruit composition of 20.3 degrees Brix, 0.87 g/100ml titratable acidity and pH 3.42. The number of clusters showing some decay averaged 6 out of 94 total per vine. This is a measure of those clusters with 4 or more adjoining berries showing decay. Typically, it indicates clusters with some partial decay rather than complete decay. Susceptibility to bunch rot appears to decline as the vines become more mature. Clusters showing decay only averaged two per vine in the last four years.
The release of 'Triplett blanc' was prompted by its unusually high productivity with good viticultural characteristics and fruit composition. Winery interest in the variety has focused on a white wine blending base and concentrate. Its ultimate fit into winery use will be determined with time.
There are at least 10 more white- and black-fruited Triplett varieties that are advancing to winemaking status and final evaluation for possible release. Their differing characteristics include earlier ripening, muscat flavor, very high titratable acidity for a warm climate, very low bunch rot potential, and high color and phenolic content. If released, they will also become public varieties.


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YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Book Awards have been selected for teens from 12 to 18 years of age. The titles on YALSA's book lists contain a broad range of reading and maturity levels. We encourage parents to take an active role in helping individual teens choose those books that are the best fit for them and their families.
Alex Awards
The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.
Edwards Award
The Margaret A. Edwards Award, established in 1988, honors an author, as well as a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature.
Morris Awards
The William C. Morris YA Debut Award honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.
Nonfiction Award
The Nonfiction Award is given to the best nonfiction book published for the young adults.
Odyssey Award
This annual award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.
Printz Award
The Michael L. Printz Award, sponsored by Booklist, honors the best book written for teens each year.


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Godard, Jean-Luc
Jean-Luc Godard (zhäN-lük gôdär´), 1930–, French film director and scriptwriter, b. Paris. He wrote criticism for a number of Parisian cinema journals in the early 1950s before embarking on his filmmaking career. Godard is probably the most influential of the French New Wave directors. His highly personal films are marked by a freewheeling approach to style, content, genre, continuity in time, and story structure, and he initiated techniques that broke with traditional film narrative. In his first feature film, Breathless (1959), he introduced a number of innovative features. These include the jump cut, editing scenes so that only the beginning and end of an action are shown; the use of written material, interviews, and other documentarylike techniques to confuse the boundary between fiction and fact; and the introduction of himself as a character and commentator. Films of the next decade, such as Contempt (1963), Pierre le Fou (1965), La Chinoise, and Weekend (both: 1967), are openly essayistic in form and less concerned with character and story than with ideas and analysis of social issues. The 15 films made from 1959 to 1967 form the main basis of his reputation as one of the late 20th-century's great filmmakers.
Increasingly interested in and devoted to Marxist and Maoist philosophies, Godard for a period subsumed his identity into that of a filmmaking collective. After some years of inactivity, he returned in 1980 with Every Man for Himself and has since directed such films as Hail Mary (1985) and Hélas pour Moi (1994), both of which explore the possibility of the divine playing a role in everyday contemporary life, and Forever Mozart (1996). His eight-part Histoire(s) du Cinéma (1988–98) is an extremely personal meditation on the history and nature of cinematic art. Godard's 21st-century films include In Praise of Love (2001), a mournful study of the precarious nature of historical memory in a mass-media age, the three-part Notre Musique (2004), which uses the structure of Dante's Divine Comedy to examine humanity's thirst for destruction and document the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the 3-D Goodbye to Language (2014), a beautiful, evocative visual essay that defies meaning.
See his autobiographical film, JLG/JLG (1994), and Godard on Godard (1968; tr. 1972, repr. 1986), a collection of early writings; R. Brody, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard (2008); C. MacCabe, Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy (2004); studies by T. Mussman, ed. (1968), C. Barr (1970), R. Roud (1980), C. MacCabe (1981), Y. Loshitzky (1995), W. W. Dixon (1997), K. Silverman and H. Farocki (1998), and D. Sterritt (1999); Two in the Wave (documentary, dir. by E. Laurent, 2009).


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"The best you've ridden is the best you know." - Paul Thede RT Center Search
- Race Tech Event Calendar - Click for Dealer Application
The Shock Body Holding Tool is ideal for clamping WP and Race Tech G3-S reservoirs. Can be sleeved to clamp any smaller tube including Fork Tubes, Shock Bodies etc. Has four pinch bolts and can be used in a press for additional holding power. Machined from Billet Aluminum.
TFSH 58 – Add to cart
TFSH 65 – Add to cart
Some Damping Rods are difficult to remove because they spin. Making a special tool for each model can be a pain. This simple tool is a tapered aluminum rod. With a tap of a hammer, the taper wedges into the ID of most Damping Rods, late model and vintage. You may be surprised by its holding power! Many forks come apart easily, but this inexpensive tool is great to have when you need it.
TFDH 01 – Add to cart
Based on Paul Thede's wildly popular Race Tech Seminars taught around the world, this step-by-step guide shows anyone how to make their bike handle the way it should.
IBSB 01 – Add to cart
The Vacuum Master Shock Bleeding Tool makes high-tech shock filling more affordable. This machine not only saves time and increases efficiency, but it creates a "perfect bleed". The vacuum is so powerful it actually draws air out of the suspension fluid itself! ►Learn More
TSVM 01 – Add to cart
The Foot-Operated Fork Spring Compressor is designed to work on most sport bikes and road racers with cartridge forks. It allows the spring to be compressed while the fork cap is removed from the rod. This design is wall mounted and really easy to use.
TFSC 02 – Add to cart
Our H-D Adapter is recommended by Factory Harley-Davidson for the disassembly of their cartridge forks.
TFSC A01 – Add to cart
Most street bikes with cartridges require a spring compressor. The factory unit is expensive and hard to use. This portable Fork Spring Compressor can be used on or off the bike on many models.
TFSC 01 – Add to cart
TFSD Series - Fork seal drivers. Split design. These are the standard of the industry.
This unique tool offers three different sizes to fit a variety of sport bikes. TFCW 243241H - Add to cart
This BPF Fork Cap Wrench, along with the Cartridge Holding Tool TFCH 06 fit Showa BPF (Big Piston Forks). These tools are a "must have" for maintenance of 09- GSX-R1000, 11- GSX-R600, H-D XR1200X, 09- ZX-6R and 11- ZX-10R. TFCW 4549 - Add to cart
Fits 47 and 49mm Showa forks. Has 46 and 50mm octagons. Removes compression valving assembly on most models too. TFCW 4650 - Add to cart
Fits 48mm KYB forks. Has 45 and 49mm octagons. TFCW 4549 - Add to cart
Fits 48mm WP forks that require a special pin spanner wrench (slots - no hex). 40mm pin spacing x 3.2mm pins TFCW 02 - Add to cart
Fits KTM WP 48mm Dual Chamber forks that require a large 50mm hex. Also includes 29 spacing x 4.8mm Pin Spanner. TFCW 50H - Add to cart
This Nitrogen Gauge does not require a wrench and easily reaches those recessed valve stems without an extension. It comes with a 1/4" flare nut quick coupling to work with the Quick Connect Hose (TSNH 48).
Nitrogen Gauge - TSNG 02 Add to cart
This Nitrogen Regulator is excellent quality. It has output to 300 psi and comes with a 1/4" flare nut quick coupling to work with our Quick Connect Hose.
Nitrogen Regulator - TSNR 01 Add to cart
The Quick Connect Nitrogen Hose has special 800 psi "finger tight" 1/4" flare nut quick couplings. This simple assembly works perfectly with our Nitrogen Regulator and Gauge.
Nitrogen Hose - TSNH 48 - Add to cart
The Race Tech WP Nitrogen Charging Tool works on all WP shocks with a reservoir. This tool is quick and easy to use and a "must have" if you work on a higher volume of WP shocks.
TSNC 02 - Add to cart
This tool is designed for gas charged shocks with self-sealing type rubber valves.
Used with Nitrogen Gauge - ►TSNG 02
TSNN 01 Nitrogen Charging Needle Add to cart
TPNN 01 Replacement Needle Add to cart
The Nitrogen Charging Bolt is a simple replacement of the standard WP Nitrogen Bolt and allows a shock to be pressurized with a standard Nitrogen Needle (TSNN 01). The OEM WP nitrogen filling system is pricey and cumbersome. ►Read more
These Nitrogen Charging Bolts can also be used to recharge some "non-rebuildable" shocks. ►Read More
SPNV 0512 - Add to cart
This Shock Spring Compressor is strong, light-weight and easy to use. It comes with 4 adapters (60, 66, 72, and 75mm) for different size spring collars and both an eyelet and clevis adapter. Invented by Jason Eldredge of Corporate Suspension in Utah, this one is so cool you'll want to remove shock springs just for the fun of it. ►More Info
TSSC 02 – Add to cart
Provides quick removal and installation of most shock springs with spring rates up to 8 kg/mm. Features a Shaft Locking Device for safety.
TSSC 01 – Add to cart
This tool threads onto the Schrader Valve located on the reservoir cap for easy removal. (Simply screw the tool on and gently pull the cap from the body.)
TSCT 01 – Add to cart
TFCH Series - Holds cartridge during disassembly and assembly.
View ►Product Search for applications.
Designed to remove and install the seal head assembly from the inner fork tube in 41 and 43mm BPFs. It is reversable and has two hex sizes for the two sizes of forks. It allows changing fork springs without disassembling the valving stack.
TFCH 06 - Add to cart
This is a dual-purpose tool for the Showa SFF Air TAC Fork. This tool allows you to remove the Fork Compression Valve Assembly from the top of the cartridge AND, by reversing it, remove the Base Bolt on the bottom of the fork.
It also fits KYB Dual Chamber Compression Caps.
TFCT 3602 - Add to cart
Removes shock retaining clips without digging into the shock bodies. Made of hardened tool steel. If you work on shocks you'll really like this one!
TSCP 01 - Add to cart
Four sizes available. Mini's, Standard 40-50mm, Street and WP PDS 50mm shocks. Allows the user to easily push shock seal heads into the bodies.
Tired of chewing up your shock spring collars when you adjust preload? Well we've got the tool for you! Can be used aggressively on preload adjusting collars with minimal damage. Many people chuckle at this one untill they try it. You'll like it.
TSPA 01 - Add to cart
TSPS T Series - This is the PRO version of the needle removal tool. If you are servicing a lot of WP PDS shocks these are the one to have. It is driven with a T-handle, holds the Needle, and is self-centering in the body.
Note: It is ok for the pin diameter can be smaller than the hole it goes in to.
The WP PDS Shock Needle Tool removes the Compression Needle from the shock body on early KTM WP PDS shocks. This is the most economical way to go (see TSPS T Series T-handle version) but only available for the early model.
Required to install a SWCN 10 Telescopic Needle (15.0 pin spacing x 2.4d pins).
For later model PDS shocks see TSPS T Series Pin Spanners.
TSPS 1524 - Add to cart
RT Pin Spanners have a unique pin design with a reverse taper to keep them from popping out during assembly and disassembly. 2 pins - 4 sizes total: 4.0 / 4.5 and 5.0 / 5.5mm
5.0 & 5.5 Replacement Pins
We also offer other Pin Spanners specific to their applications.
These include: TSPS Series - for WP PDS Compression Needles TFCH PS24050 - WP KTM 65 Fork Seal HeadsTFCW PS38048 - WP 4CS Fork Caps TFCW 50H - WP 50mm Hex & 29 x 4.8 Pin Spanner Fork Caps
Allows removal of the stock shock piston without damaging the piston band on late model Suzuki Showa shocks. The tool fills the circlip groove allowing the piston to slide past without damage.
Fits 2010 -2011 RMZ250/450.
TSPR 50 – Add to cart
Voted as Dirt Bike Magazine's 25 Best Tools Ever Invented, the Sag Master is a tool that makes measuring Static "Race" Sag a snap because you read it directly. No more subtracting! ►Check out the Sag Master in action.
Also useful in determining proper spring rates and monitoring linkage and seal drag. Comes with instructions and, doubles as a tape measure!
TSSM 01 - Add to cart
Excellent quality Chrome Vanadium, deep socket, 6 point tools. Great price. TTHS 02 - includes 8, 10, 12, 14 and 17mm - Add to cart
Unique self-starting design easily threads onto the damping rod. Baffled so the oil runs down the rod eliminating the typical mess. Available as a set. (Works great with the TFSC 01 & 02 Spring Compressors for street applications).
TFBT 02S - Add to cart
Collapsible tube allows setting fork fluid levels with only two hands. Does not require a third hand!
TFOL 02 - Add to cart
Accuratly measures fork oil for filling Twin-Chamber forks. 500cc capacity
TFGC 500 - Add to cart
The Cartridge Rod Holding Tool allows you to more easily service Showa Twin-Chamber as well as most street cartridge forks. The tool holds back the spring allowing you to get to the bottom nut or the fork cap on the cartridge rod. Plastic design keeps shafts from being marred.
TFHP 01 - Add to cart
Holds fork damping rods, cartridges, shock shafts, etc. Unique design allows installation of dowels into the top of the vise jaws. The holding tools hang on the dowels instead of dropping on the ground when the vise is opened.
Race Tech Vise Jaws gently, yet firmly, hold fork tubes, fork legs and other round objects in a "V" down to a diameter of 12.5mm (½"). The "V" is offset and overhangs the edge of the standard vise jaw to provide clearance for large diameter tubes.
Made to fit 4 to 6.5" Craftsman vises with removable jaws. These jaws have a bolt spacing of both 2.5 and 3 inches and fit other brands. They can be drilled to fit other makes of vises as well.
Pre-drilled for the pins supplied with Race Tech's Shaft Holding Tools (TFSH Series).
TMVJ 065 - Add to cart
Used to install shock shaft bushings into seal heads. The set comes with 12.5, 14, 16, and 18mm drivers.
TSBD SET - Add to cart
Shock Seal Bullet Tools make installing seal heads onto shock shafts quick and safe. They eliminate the possibility of seal damage when installing the seal head onto the shaft. This tool is a must for serious tuners.
This tool is used to tap the bladder cap down to remove the snap ring on late model YZ's eliminating the possibility of damage to the Schrader Valve.
TSRC 01 - Add to cart
This Axle tool, made of hardened tool steel, fits many sport and dirt bikes.
TFHD 1724 - Add to cart
Remove and replace fork tubes from fork bottoms (AKA axle clamps, fork lugs, etc).
TFTT 01 - Add to cart
Removes burrs resulting from grinding factory peening during Fork Gold Valve installation.
TMBD 08 - Add to cart
Used to service shock compression adjusters.
Note: The punch marks at the threads must be drilled 1 mm deep prior to removal.
Stop rounding off the edges of your adjusters. These sockets allow you to perform fork preload changes more easily. Specially designed for fork preload adjuster size and shape.
TFPA 14 - Add to cart TFPA 17 - Add to cart
The Fork Compression Adjuster tool is basically a super-stubby screwdriver. It is designed to fit between the handlebar and the top of the fork tube.
TFCA 01 - Add to cart
This pin spanner is a dual-purpose tool for the WP 4CS Fork. It allows you to remove the fork cap AND by flipping it over, the Compression Base on the bottom of the fork.
TFCW PS38048 - Add to cart
This is a dual-purpose tool for the Showa SFF Air TAC Fork. This tool allows you to remove the Fork Compression Valve Assembly from the top of the cartridge AND, by reversing it, remove the Base Bolt on the bottom of the fork. It also fits earlier KYB Dual Chamber Compression Caps.
This tool is really handy for maintenance of the damping and spring on KTM 65s. It is possible to use a TPPS 02 Pin Spanner but this one is much more robust.
TFCH PS24050 - Add to cart


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Check out 1408 great deals for the search power kite. Take a look here for other great listings such as: sling shot, slingshot kite, power trainer, slingshot kites or free lines and also look through Kites, Lines to browse for more great Kitesurfing bargains on Sporting Goods items from HockeySandwich.com.
If you're looking for power kite you might also try searching for: power, kite, line, liquid, force and sling.


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Finding the best lawyer for your Michigan boat accident lawsuit may be a difficult task due to the numerous numbers of attorneys who advertise on T.V., billboards, and radio. However, when choosing your attorney after your boating injury, you want to make sure you hire the best lawyer, not the one that advertises the most. Finding the best lawyer for your Michigan boat accident lawsuit will mean the difference between a fair settlement and no settlement at all.
How To Find Best Lawyer For Your Michigan Boat Accident Lawsuit
You need a Michigan boat accident lawyer that will pay detailed attention to your case. By limiting the number of cases that we accept, our top rated Buckfire & Buckfire, P.C. lawyers can devote our full time and energy to each boat accident client. If we accept your case, you are assured that an experienced lawyer will handle your case.
You will also want to ensure that the attorney you hire has significant experience in these types of cases. You may want to ask the attorney if they specialize in boat accident lawsuits, how many years they have been practicing, and if they have ever had experience going to trial.
At the law firm of Buckfire & Buckfire, P.C. our Michigan boat accident lawyers have significant experience in these types of cases and have been practicing law for over 50 years. We have a track record of obtaining sizeable settlements and jury verdicts for our injured clients and providing the best service possible.
Other important questions you may want to ask to ensure you find the best lawyer for your Michigan boat accident lawsuit include:
- Do you have a website with information on boat accident cases and how to file a claim?
- What kinds of settlements have you received for your injured clients?
- Have you ever taken a Michigan boat accident case to trial and won a verdict for your client?
- Do you offer a No Win, No Fee guarantee?
Contact The Best Lawyer For Your Michigan Boat Accident Lawsuit
The lawyers at Buckfire & Buckfire, P.C. will give you direct answers to all of those questions above, as well as answer any other questions that you may have regarding your case and your legal rights. Our firm has represented boat accident injury victims and their families for over 50 years throughout the State of Michigan, and has the knowledge, expertise, and experience in handling these types of cases. In fact, most of our clients are referred to us from other clients, who have placed their trust in us to represent family members, friends and colleagues. To read some our testimonials, read our client reviews page.
For more information about our award winning law firm and to discuss your case with one of the best lawyers for your Michigan boat accident lawsuit, call our office now at (800) 606-1717. We represent our clients our No Fee Promise, which means "No Win, No Fees." This is our guarantee that you will not be charged any legal fees whatsoever unless we obtain a settlement or recovery for you. You have absolutely no obligation for legal fees unless we win your case. If we don't obtain a settlement for you, you owe us nothing! Call today for your free consultation!


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Dutch Collection Society Found To Be Source Of Infringing Content
from the everyone's-a-pirate deptRemember the story about the composer who found his music featured in anti-piracy ads and had a difficult time getting paid out, triggering a corruption scandal at collection society Buma/Stemra? It was obviously a bit ironic that the music in question was used in anti-piracy ads, but it appears the irony truck forgot to unload a package - filled to the brim with humiliation.
Using YouHaveDownload, a tool that tracks torrent transfers on various public torrent trackers and matches them with IPs, a popular Dutch weblog has uncovered piracy at that aforementioned collection society. They scanned the IP range of Buma/Stemra's HQ and among the pirated material they found:
- An episode of Entourage (whois).
- A copy of the game Battlefield 3 (whois).
If anything, this scandal really shouldn't be a scandal. Anti-piracy lobbying and campaigning has led to sharing becoming a taboo, while the money spent could have been used to facilitate sharing and to build sustainable business models on top of that. Despite pirates among their own ranks, organizations like Buma/Stemra feel that the Dutch policy of downloading from unauthorized sources for personal use being legal should be altered (read their statement). Even though the Dutch parliament disagrees, the Dutch government is trying to get exactly such laws altered citing EU pressure, even though the Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes (herself Dutch), has stated opposite goals. With people in parliament who do not know "what or who is a torrent," it's not entirely unlikely that the govt actually manages to get the law changed after all.
Buma/Stemra was quick to respond and acknowledge that IPs are not reliable to determine infringers. Apparently the IP addresses used for piracy (ending in .246 and .248) cannot be used by employees to access the
Sure, this scandal is humiliating, but it's not as embarrassing as the war against innovation. You can use this moment to better understand the human nature of sharing, to understand that downloads don't translate directly to lost sales, and to rethink your lobbying strategy to push for a more sane framework. Or, you know, you can continue to upset fans whilst amusingly tumbling from one scandal into the next.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if there are more pirates in disguise amongst hardline politicians, RIAA & MPAA folks, and other classic opponents of more flexible copyright legislation. You all know where to find the tool now, so perhaps it can happen through a lesson about crowdsourcing. That is, have fun and see what you can find...
Filed Under: caught, copyright, europe, netherlands, piracy, youhavedownload
Companies: buma/stemra


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HOLLAND - The Hope College Concert Series will feature S. Carey on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 8 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.
S. Carey (Sean Carey) will headline the show with a full band, featuring a variety of instruments and band members. Carey will draw mainly from his debut album, "All We Grow."
Carey is well known for his involvement in the band Bon Iver. He was one of the key creative minds in the formation of Bon Iver's newest self-titled album, and he currently serves as a drummer, vocalist, and co-bandleader for the band.
In his own group, however, he provides lead vocals as well as a variety of instruments. His classical training, coupled with his songwriting ability, creates a unique and powerful sound.
"Venuszine" recounted how one of S. Carey's live performances "left the audience in awed silence at the beauty and fragility of the band's intricate cohesion." The BBC has said of Carey's album, "The intimacy doesn't come from quietness, but from reactive, well-built and emotive arrangements."
Tickets for the concert are $10 for the general public and $3 for Hope students. Public tickets are available for purchase online at https://tickets.hope.edu/ticketing as well as at the ticket office in the main lobby of the DeVos Fieldhouse. The ticket office is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and can be called at (616) 395-7890. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door, which will open at 7:30 p.m.
The DeVos Fieldhouse is located at 222 Fairbanks Avenue, between Ninth and 11th streets. The Knickerbocker Theatre is located in downtown Holland at 86 E. Eighth St.


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Professor William YennaProgram Director
email@example.com: M211718-368-5655
COURSE:TEC 08230 -- Adobe Flash/Web Dev (3 crs. 4 hrs.)Adobe Flash is vector graphic development program that allows you to develop powerful and interactive graphics and web based content. Topics covered will include from basic animated drawings to interactive web sites.Prerequisite:
TEC 53 or Department permissionClass Website
COURSES:Web Design I,II, III
Professor Darshani Jayaweera
Class Website
This course of study provides graduates with the skills required to work in medical offices and hospitals in the metropolitan area. Students are trained in keyboarding and software skills as well as medical terminology, medical forms, medical billing, and coding.
Graduates will have the knowledge and ability required for entry-level employment in the health clerical worker field. They may obtain employment in physician's offices, clinics, public or private hospitals, nursing homes, or community health centers. Medical Office Administration
Degree Requirements
for Matriculants.
Student Showcase:


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The short-term politics of picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as vice-president on the Republican ticket are more astute than many Democrats are acknowledging. The pick has, in a moment's notice, galvanized the religious right, brought abortion back into the spotlight, and re-energized John McCain's candidacy for president as a maverick.
But the longer-term impact of the choice will likely undermine the confidence the American public will have in McCain's decision-making.
If Palin's choice as his running mate is indicative of his recklessness and willingness to gamble the nation's security for a bump in the polls, then the American public must face the possibility that we would have another president in the White House who would rule by gut instinct, hasty and uninformed decisions, and a reluctance to fully vet an issue before making important decisions.
In choosing Palin, McCain had his first face-to-face conversation with her the day before his announcement; a time that his staff was still researching information about her past and her qualifications. On the day before making her selection public, the McCain staff found out about her 17-year-old daughter being five months pregnant — not an issue in itself, but the fact that it was unknown until the day before more than suggests that the vetting process was rushed and uninformed at the very least. Yet, McCain maintains — as Bush so often did — that the facts are not as they seem; that the contradictory evidence is just the other side making a big deal out of nothing. (It also points out the weakness of those who, like Palin, support abstinence over birth control.)
Two undercurrents of the Republican Convention jumped from the stage so blatantly they became the white elephant in the room: the irony that the Republicans were running as a party of change, and the championing of bubba-hood over intelligence as qualifications to lead this nation.
Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and the subsequent convention rhetoric used to promote her nomination and lash out at the Democrats with partisan rancor, showed just how far the G.O.P. has sunk in its election strategy.
In a country that used to seek "the best and the brightest" to lead our nation, Republicans recently have chosen candidates who have ranked at the bottom of their classes academically (Bush and McCain) and rely frequently on personal beliefs, rather than accepted facts or critical review of performance, to make decisions that are crucial for the nation's future.
Bush's appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as head of the Defense Department and his willingness to keep him in place in the face of abysmal failure and a ruinous foreign policy for the first five years of his presidency, for example, were disastrous. Similarly, his decision to ignore the evidence that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and instead invade Iraq, while taking the focus off of capturing Osama bin Laden and defeating the Taliban, has been costly and counterproductive.
If Americans believe that "we are a better country" than what we have seen for the past eight years, as Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama said in his acceptance speech Thursday night, then that sense of hope will help propel him into the White House.
In what was an inspiring speech, Obama's soaring rhetorical style encouraged Americans to dream again of a country that leads the world, not by military might, but by the force of its optimism and a promise of opportunity available to all:
"It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect," Obama said. "It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
"Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves — protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology. Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
"That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
"That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now."
But Obama's speech wasn't just about hope. He also asked the American people to look critically at the failure of the Bush administration over this past eight years, and not excuse that performance.
"Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimming'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'."
The song was from the 1960s and Bob Dylan, who is widely noted as the most acclaimed and influential songwriter of the past half century, was talking about the changes rocking the country during that era of protests, demonstrations, love-ins and generation gaps. He was right on target, saying in his music of the day what political and social analysts would discuss for the next few decades in retrospect.
"Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
Dylan, who the Associated Press recently wrote "brought rock from the streets to the lecture hall," received an honorary Pulitzer Prize last week for what the Pulitzer judges called his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."
The break through for rock 'n roll was substantial. The AP noted that "the Pulitzer judges, who have long favored classical music, and, more recently, jazz, awarded an art form once dismissed as barbaric, even subversive."
Middlebury and Weybridge selectmen were right to reject the state's plan to close the Pulp Mill Bridge for up to a year for renovations before the town's proposed Cross Street Bridge was built. The state's plan would leave the town with just the Battell Bridge on Main Street to cross the Otter Creek — a move that would cripple the downtown's retail district and frustrate residents who already face traffic jams there several times throughout each day.
It's as if the town's shortage of bridges across the Otter Creek has been lost on the state transportation agency, even though the town has been pressing its need for a second span for more than 50 years and has been hard at work on the Cross Street Bridge for the past several years.
Let's hope the selectboard's message to do the work on the Pulp Mill Bridge after the Cross Street Bridge is in use is taken to heart and honored.
As important is that the work on the Pulp Mill Bridge is dictated by common sense, not sabotaged by misguided — though well-intended — strictures. In this case, the Vermont Historic Covered Bridge Committee must sign off on any improvements or changes to the bridge, which is being renovated at a cost of over $2 million. The current bridge has structural design flaws, according to at least one expert, that should be corrected as part of the renovation. The state's plan, however, preserves those design flaws (thus weakening the bridge) in order to maintain its historical integrity. Such stupidity, if the alleged flaws would weaken the bridge, would make a mockery of the state's historical preservation efforts.
A proposal to correct the flaws and construct a nearby educational exhibit detailing the original architecture — and the design flaw that was corrected — is a reasonable suggestion (see story Page 1A) that we also hope will be honored.
On Tuesday, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, held a well-publicized hearing with five of the nation's top oil executives. The theme: Explain why the nation's taxpayers should extend $18 billion in tax subsidies to an industry whose top five companies posted profits of $123 billion last year.
The obvious answer: Cut the subsidies and make it effective as soon as possible. Then, extend those subsidies to the alternative fuel industry and increase the nation's conservation efforts.
That is the very least Congress should do to right the wrongs promoted and passed by a Republican Congress and President Bush since he came to office. The Republican Congress and Bush not only have been in bed with the oil companies since 2000, the excesses border on the obscene. Hence, Exxon-Mobil's vice-chairman was testifying before the committee why it seemed reasonable that its former executive was given a $350 million salary and retirement package — an amount, as the senator from Missouri noted, that translates to $958,904 per day. When the average American is struggling to afford a tank of gasoline and oil companies are pulling in record profits, just how — the Democratic congressman asked — should he explain to his constituents why they are being taxed to pay for $18 billion in oil industry subsidies?
J. Stephen Simon, senior vice president for Exxon, did his best to explain the excess, but it was abundantly clear that greed has tarnished the oil industry as much as the hydro-carbons the industry produces.
The move Tuesday by Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington to abandon plans to close a loophole on a capital gains tax exemption initially proposed by Republican Gov. James Douglas turns state politics on its head. Since when do Democrats fail to close a tax loophole to the wealthy for potential gain to the common good?
Yet, that's what happened.
Not that there would not have been difficulties proceeding with the proposal. The Democratic Legislature and Gov. Douglas had disagreements over how to spend the estimated $21.4 million annually. Douglas wanted to give the windfall to middle income Vermonters as well as to the very rich. Democrats wanted to split the amount three ways: $4.2 million for targeted property tax relief; $8 million for the highway and bridge program and $7 million to pay off a portion of the $55 million the state owes on school construction projects (the latter two of which would also indirectly lower local property taxes for most Vermonters.)
Because Douglas objected to spending the money for the common good (as detailed above — no new programs, just meeting existing obligations of the state) and because he would be denied the possible campaign claims of saying he had reduced income taxes, a political battle was looming on the horizon. Both sides of the political aisle saw it coming and the decision to bail was greeted by sighs of relief from both parties.
Interestingly, the administration was relieved because it meant Democrats wouldn't spend the money — even if the expenses had already been committed or, go figure, were for property tax relief. (Why Douglas would support income tax relief, but not property tax relief is unclear.) Many Democrats, on the other hand, were relieved because of the future economic uncertainty and the very real possibility that legislators might need to tap that ready source of income in the near future for critical needs.
In Bristol this Tuesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m., the Zoning Board of Adjustment will meet to continue discussions regarding the proposed Lathrop gravel pit. It's a complicated project with an Act 250 filing as thick as a big-city phone book, but the central question that needs public input and board leadership is relatively straight-forward: Is the proposed location of the pit the appropriate place for a large-scale mining operation, and should the public have a chance to clarify wording in the town plan that has created much of the ambiguity pertaining to this project?
The ambiguous wording is the phrase "in any district" found in section 526 of the town plan. The dueling interpretations of the phrase contend that the phrase would allow gravel mining 'in any district' in the town (supposedly including the village or any other residential setting) or, opponents of the pit argue, that the phrase meant that mining was allowed 'in any district' (industrial, etc.) where mining was allowed.
Logic would suggest that full-scale mining operations — with rock-crushers and the consequential noise and dust that would come from such an operation — would not be suitable for residential zones or mixed rural residential, commercial zones. The Bristol Planning Commission, which has the authority to clarify zoning by-laws and revise them if necessary, has said it will take up this section of the town plan at upcoming meetings. That's welcome involvement because surely the commission members will make every effort to seek public opinion to determine the will of the community. Town plans, after all, are approved by a majority of the town's residents and crucial aspects of the plan should be reviewed and revised, if necessary, with the public will in mind.
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I want to draw your attention, if I might, away from 1 Timothy and to a passage of Scripture, which from time to time is important for the church to see. And this, for some of you, is a first. For others, by way of reminder. But for all of us is exceedingly important...I want you to realize...I wanna remind you that someone very powerful wants to take over this church, and that that person is working very hard to do just that. And we know that person to be Satan. He is the adversary of God. He is the enemy of Christ, and, consequently, he is the foe of the church. Beyond those who are delivered to Satan, as we've been seeing in 1 Timothy, he really would like to have the whole church. He would desire that this church literally be ineffective in terms of any significant ministry for Christ. He would desire to destroy its testimony...to cripple its outreach...that it might rather advance his kingdom than the Kingdom of God.
And we've been seeing, I think, in the study over the last four weeks in 1 Timothy that we are, without question, in a spiritual battle. But I want us to see it at this particular point, not so much in the personal dimension, as we see it in the corporate dimension. Nothing is more important for us who are here to affirm our commitment to this church than to understand what the issue really is in terms of why that commitment is necessary. It is necessary that we have a strong commitment to the ministry here, because we have a very strong enemy, and we are on his hit list. In fact, I don't think I would be stretching it to say there...there would be few churches in this area that he would be so aggressively desiring to have as this church. Because, through the years, God has given us such a great heritage. Because God has strengthened us. Because God has and continues to great things in and through us, we definitely make advance on the kingdom of darkness with effect. It is obvious that Satan would want to reverse that. He knows us well. His demons know us well, those who have done his bidding in our midst.
He would desire to discredit this work...to undermine and destroy it. And he would do that, for example, by attacking me, perhaps. I have no question about that, about that the fact that Satan would like to eliminate me from the picture...and if something were to happen to me by way of some spiritual disaster, some fall into sin, there would be a great ripple effect upon our congregation and its credibility and viability. And that would be true of others of the leaders of our church. Satan would no doubt endeavor to tear them down, to destroy them and their ministry. But also the whole church in general, and I believe that he will attack at wherever there is the weakest point.
And so the message today, though it's essential that I listen and understand what God is saying, and our leaders, is also directed at you. The old proverb says that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And we are knowledgeable enough of the technique of Satan to know that he will attack where he can succeed. And so all of us who are a part must be sufficiently warned.
Now the question is this: how can we know how he will attack us? How can we know where he will attack? He's invisible. We can't always see. We can't always tell. How can we know and understand the invisible supernatural attack of Satan?...Well, I think the answer comes from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and He gave it in a series of letters in Revelation 2 and 3. And I would like to have you turn in your Bible, if you will to Revelation chapter 2 and 3. Here we have the final epistles in the New Testament written to the church. They're not written by Paul. They're not written by Peter or John or James or Jude. They're written by Christ. Given to us by the Lord Jesus Himself, and recorded by John. But they are letters from Christ.
These letters, written to seven actual real historical churches founded in Asia Minor, which would be the geography known today as Turkey, that part of the world. These seven churches received the final letters to the church written by the Lord Himself. Five of the seven contain warnings about Satanic influence. Five of the seven contain warnings for any church and every church. And in those five warning letters, there is a five-step plan of Satan's to destroy the church. And all we have to do is follow the progression of those five letters of the seven, which have warnings, in order to see how Satan attacks the church.
But to begin with, I want you to understand who the writer is. Look at chapter 2 verse 1. "Unto the messenger of the church of Ephesus write: 'These things says He that holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands.'" Who is that? If you look into chapter 1, you'll find that that, in chapter 1 is part of the description of Jesus Christ. He is the One in verse 12, among the seven golden lamp stands, which represent the seven churches, the seven precious churches, the seven churches where the light of the Gospel shines. And in the midst of those lamp stands moves the One who is the Son of Man.
Down in verse 20, it says, "The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches. The seven...or angels...the seven lamp stands are the seven churches." So it is Christ Who moves in His church, Who writes the first letter. In chapter 2 verse 8, the second letter comes, and it says, "Unto the angel or messenger of the church in Smyrna write: 'These things says the First and Last, Who was dead and is alive.'" And we look over at verse 17 and 18, and we find the One who Is First and Last, Who was dead and alive, to be none other than the same Christ moving in the church, in the vision of chapter 1. In chapter 2 verse 12, the third letter to Pergamos is written, "From One Who has the sharp sword with two edges." We look at chapter 1 verse 16, and that also describes Christ. In verse 18 of chapter 2, it is "The Son of God who has His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine bronze," as described in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 1.
In chapter 3 verse 1, the letter to Sardis comes from "The One Who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars." In chapter 3 verse 7, it is the writer "Who is holy and is true, and has the key of David, who opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens." Of course, it refers to Christ. Chapter 3 verse 14, "It is the One called the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the most significant of all the creation of God."
Each of these title refers us back in one way or another, either by direct association or by an indirect one, to Christ as described in chapter 1. So clearly all seven letters were written by Christ. They were given by Christ to be put down by the Apostle John and recorded for us. They are letters from the Lord to His church.
Now, as I said, five of the seven speak of sin in the church and warn the church. By virtue of the order that they are in, in chapter 2 and 3, they provide for us a chronological digression or a chronological progression into devastation and destruction in which the church becomes Satan's. It goes from being the Lord's to being Satan's in this five-step progression.
Let's look at the first step, and here is where we begin to put up our guard. Here is why we need people who have covenanted together to stand for the truth. In writing to the church at Ephesus in verse 2, our Lord says, "I know your labor. I know your labor and your patience or your ability to endure and be steadfast and courageous in the midst of hardship. And I know you...you cannot tolerate those that are evil, and you have tried those that say they are apostles and are not and hast found them liars. And you have endured and have patience, and for My name's sake, have labored and not fainted." Now, that's all a commendation, and a wonderful one. He commends the church at Ephesus and, in a sense, this is a reflection of the ministry of Timothy, which has been our concern in 1 Timothy.
Now, we've been studying 1 Timothy the last few months. We noted that Paul had put Timothy in Ephesus to set things right. The two main objectives were to deal with false doctrine and ungodliness. To bring to that church a commitment to true doctrine and godliness. And Timothy must have been very successful. By God's Grace, he was able to purse out the false pastors, the false leaders, the false teachers. He was able to turn the people around from error to truth. He was able to bring about true godliness in that church by God's Grace through his ministry. So that about 30 years later, when this letter is written in the Revelation, the 30 years that have passed have seen the church in Ephesus go from being led by false leaders and false pastors and false teachers, and influenced by ungodly men to ungodly living and doctrines of demons and seducing spirits, all the way to true doctrine and godliness and effective service. So we may conclude that this church, which enjoyed the pastorate of Paul, enjoyed the ministry of Aquila, enjoyed the preaching of Apollos, who could mightily expound the Scriptures. This church that had the very best of leadership had also been benefited greatly by the ministry of Timothy.
And though this church was in a very pagan city, dominated by the worship of Diana, of the Ephesians, one of the seven wonders of the world was her temple filled with eunuchs and priestesses and orgy and drunkenness and...and gluttony and all the rest. Though that dominated that city, this church founded by the Spirit of God through Paul, recorded in Acts 19, "Knew great blessing and spiritual growth." They were drawn out of their false doctrine, drawn out of their ungodliness. They knew how to correct lies and heresies. They knew how to discipline evil men. They knew how to confront ungodliness. The recognized demonic doctrine. They were strengthened through all of these things to the place where their ministry was very effective.
Notice in verse 2, He knew their hard work. Kappas, toil to the point of exhaustion. He knew their steadfastness, that they had the courage to endure anything. He knew their intolerance of sinners. They didn't stand those that were evil. He knew they were able to deal with liars who perverted the truth. This is a strong, fundamental, orthodox church...and then out of the blue comes verse 4, a very, very tragic word. "Nevertheless, I have this against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Down in verse 6, He says, "I know you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. I know you hate the right things...the things that you oughta hate, and you love the right things...the things that you oughta love. But the one thing you don't love the way you once loved is the Lord Jesus Christ. You've left your first love."
What is first love? What is first love? It's the love of passion. It's the love of the enthusiasm. It's the love of exhilaration. It's the love of emotion. It's the love of zeal. It's the love of thanksgiving. It's the love of praise. It's the love of adoration. It's the love that pours out of a heart that has just experienced an eternal transformation. But in Ephesus, their hot hearts and passionate love for Christ and zeal for God and deep sense of thankfulness had deteriorated into cold, perfunctory orthodoxy. They were doing the right things, because they were in the habit of doing the right things. They were even doing them for the right reason. They wanted to honor the Lord. Verse 3 says, "You do 'em for My name's sake." It wasn't even a question of their own reputation. It wasn't even a question of their own blessing. It was a question of doing it for the Lord. They even had a right motive. But with a right motive and right activity and right theology and right perspective and right attitude toward Christian living, they still had a warning, and the warning came because they had left their first love. The enthusiasm was gone. The thrill was gone. The joy was gone. The honeymoon was over. And they had settled in to a comfortable, traditional, orthodox routine.
In fact, it was easy to perpetuate because it was more difficult to do wrong in that church than to do right. Because everybody was doing what was right. And so you just did what everybody did, and you would be doing right, and you got acceptance and credibility, but it was without a warm heart.
I'm reminded of the Puritan whose prayer I read this week, who said, "Oh, God, I know I often do Thy work without Thy power and sin by my dead, heartless, blind service, my lack of inward light, love, delight. My mind, heart, and tongue moving without Thy help." End quote. We can all identify with that. The church that left its first love. How do you remedy that?
Well, in verse 5, He says, "First of all, remember. Remember, therefore, from where you are fallen. Reach back and remember those precious love-filled days when first you embraced Christ." You see, spiritual defection comes from spiritual forgetting. That's why in the Old Testament God continues to recite over and over to His people, the history of what He had one for them. In order that the fire of gratitude might ever be flamed. I mean we have to go back and remember how it was in the days of the joy and the thrill and the exhilaration when we had just been taken from darkness to light. When we'd just been moved from death to life. When everything was going off around us, as it were. All the excitement of newfound faith in Christ. Remember those days.
Ask yourself a question or two. Do you love the Word now as you did then? Do you have the same hunger to listen to the teaching of the Word of God as you did then? Or have you been hearing it for so long that it's now beginning to have diminishing return? I can tell you right now that one of the things I've endeavored to cultivate in my own heart is a great excitement for this week's study than I've ever had in the past, and the Word of God continues, to me, to be exciting and fresh. How about you? Is the place of prayer as inviting now as it was once? Do you rush to worship? Is being here as important to you as it once was? How about fellowship? Do you long to be with Christians the way you longed to be with Christians the first times you began to meet with them and you were away from the world and it all seemed so wonderful and so new and so fulfilling and so enriching? Or is it...is it activity now? Activity that you enjoy. Let me put it this way. Do you enjoy your Sunday School class more than Christ? Do you enjoy your activity, your service more than the Word of God? If you do, it's probably that first love is gone. Remember how it was.
Secondly, He says repent. And repentance assumes what? Sin. And when on one of those fine, bright, clear, wonderful days when you're searching your soul to find some sin to confess, and you really can't find any...try this one. Having lost your first love. That's a sin. That is a sin. Confess it. Confess your lack of love. Confess your lack of desire for the Word. Confess the lack of enthusiasm and eagerness for the place and the people of worship. Confess your lack of zeal for joyful service to Christ. And, thirdly, he says, do the first works, verse 5. Go back and do what you did the first...times of your experience spiritually. Well, but I have to tell you, this is my greatest fear in the church, and on occasions in years past I've preached through these chapters, and always I say the same thing, and always I mean it. This is my greatest concern.
I really don't think that a heretic can come in and take over here. I think you'd have him for lunch before he ever got halfway through. I really don't think someone could come in here and just spread sin everyplace. That...that's not how it starts. This is how it starts. But I do believe that well-meaning, well-intentioned, good, faithful Christian people can grow very cold. That's step one.
Let's look at step two, chapter 2 verse 12. We skip Smyrna, because there's no warning in that passage, verses 8 to 11. But we come to verse 12, and we get a letter to the church at Pergamum or Pergamos or Pergamos, however you'd like to pronounce it. And the letter goes like this in verse 13, from the Lord. "I know where you dwell. I know what it's like trying to be a church in the town you're in. You dwell where Satan's throne is." In fact, at the end of verse 13, He says, "Where Satan lives." Not only is his throne there, but he lives there. "You live in Satan's hometown." And what does He have in mind here? Well, in the city of Pergamos, there was centered emperor-worship. Pergamos, it is said, was the center of the worship of Caesar in the Roman Empire. Certainly, that would be the throne of Satan, worshipping Caesar as if he were the true God. But it's also interesting to note historically that the leading god in the Pantheon of that culture was the god Zeus. And Zeus had built to his honor the largest, most renowned altar in the world, and that altar was shaped like a throne and was located in Pergamos.
So it may well be that what the Lord had in mind when He said, "You're where Satan's throne is," was this great throne-shaped altar to Zeus. But then, again, on the other hand, there was also at Pergamos a very special god. The god of healing, whose name was Aesculapius. And Aesculapius was called the Pergamese god because of his identification with this city. Aesculapius was represented in a snake. And if you've ever seen a medical symbol, you will see a snake wound around it. You've seen that symbol? That is a reference to the old mythological Aesculapius. In the temple to Aesculapius, there was a large floor covered with slithering snakes to represent him. And if you had an illness or a problem, you went and you would lie down, you lay down on that floor, and...lying there allowed for a period of time those snakes to crawl all around you. And every time you were touched by a snake, it was the touch of the healing of the god Aesculapius. Sounds like representation of that old snake himself, Satan and his demons.
So whether you look at Caesar worship or the...the altar of Zeus or whether you look at the temple of the god Aesculapius, when He says, "You're where Satan lives and has his throne," any of these could be in view. It's not an easy place for a little church huddled in the middle of that kind of pagan idolatry. And He says in verse 13, "You hold fast My name. You're a true church, and you have not denied My faith even in those days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you." They lost one of their own. May well have been killed right in the midst of their worship. But they still didn't abandon the truth. No, for the most part, they were a good church. They held fast. They endured without denying the faith.
But notice verse 14. "I have a few things against you." You see, this always starts subtly. In Ephesus, it wasn't everybody that had left their first love. It was just some. In Pergamos, it isn't everybody who is gonna be warned. It's just some. But, again, I'm back to the thing I said at the very beginning. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Wherever the inroads can be made, that's where they're made. I mean it doesn't take a whole lotta leaks to sink a boat. Only one, if you just give it enough time, will do it, if it isn't properly filled. So He says, "I have a few things against you." Because, and He gives 'em...gives 'em basically two reasons for this warning. "You have them in your midst who hold the teaching of Balaam"...now Balaam was a prophet for hire. You can read about him in Numbers 22 to 25. he was a prophet for hire, and he went out and seduced the people of Israel to intermarry with pagans, thus turning them into idolaters and, ultimately, the intermarriage could've destroyed the Messianic line, destroyed the Covenant people. He taught Balak, the king, to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and commit fornication.
He...He tried to bring the people of Israel into, follow this, idolatry, into idolatry, sexual evil, by getting them, and here's the key, to compromise with the people around them. To compromise with the world. Oh, he didn't want them to deny their God. He just wanted them to intermingle with the world. Then, in verse 15, "You also have some that hold that doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." The best we can ascertain, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was a teaching that found its way into the church, that said Christianity and sinful indulgence are compatible. You can be a Christian and indulge yourself sinfully. You can go to the table of demons to put in 1 Corinthians 10 terminology, and also to the table of the Lord. The two are compatible.
So here is the second step in the progression of the destruction of the church. First, the loss of first love. Second, compromise with the world. Compromise with the world. I wish I had time to speak fully on this issue, but I believe there is a big sellout of the church to the world. It goes on all the time. All the time. And I find myself, the longer I'm here, and the longer I stay firmly committed to the Word of God, the more isolated I am becoming. Because there is a drift going on, even in what we would know as evangelicalism. There...there's a move away from the things that we've always believed to be true. It is a sellout. It is a capitulation to the encroaching mentality of the system. I mean there are people who want to hold onto the Bible only if it doesn't cause them to lose any face with academics or with intellectualism. And wherever the intellectual community comes and says, "Well, that's really not intellectual," they'll opt out to be accepted by those people and deny the Scripture.
I mean this goes on. I...I had a seminary professor say to me, "I'm concerned about my reputation in the academic community. If I have to outwardly take the label of a fundamentalist who is orthodox, I refuse that label. They won't accept me." Well, there's a sellout on that level, of course. Those who are involved in teaching, and those who are involved in any kind of theological environment where there's an interaction among theologians can sense that sellout. You can sell...sense it even in reading things that are being written. People are moving to the occult. All kinds of things, and still tied to Christianity to some degree.
You oughta read the book Psychological Seduction written by a psychologist, in which he says the whole society's been seduced by psychology, which denies the sufficiency of Scripture. In the...the book by Dave Hunt, Seduction of Christianity, he points this out. By the way, he's gonna speak to us on New Year's Eve for an hour on the seduction of Christianity. So we'll hear firsthand. But, in many ways, there is a consistent sellout and compromise with the world. The church now tolerates things it would never tolerate in the past. I said to the seminary students the other day, speaking to them, it bothers me greatly that the number one voice for Christianity in America today is a rock singer. More people listen to her than any preacher. I am bothered by celebrity mentality. I'm greatly concerned by that.
But I see this as just a part of the encroaching worldliness, and when you try to draw very firm lines, and say, "Well, we stay right where the Word of God is," people think something's wrong with you. I hear every once in a while, someone who says, "Well, we have to pray for John. He's getting narrower and narrower and narrower." Well, the truth of the matter is, I haven't changed one bit. I'm...I mean it's...I'm still where I've always been. And someone said to me not long ago, "Don't tell me where a man is. Tell me what direction he's going." There might be two men here. One's coming this way. One's going that way. I wanna know which way he's going.
And so the compromise can come in so many, many ways. And in this church, it was a compromise with the world. Sad compromise. A compromise of intermarriage with the world. A compromise of a little bit of idolatry and a little bit worship of the Lord. And it curses the church. In verse 16, He says, "Repent, or I'll come against you quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth." Now, when the Lord fights His own church, it's in serious trouble. But that's the drift, folks. First, you lose the first love, your orthodoxy is cold. And when you lose your love toward Christ, your love sorta wanders around, and it'll attach itself to something in the world, and the world'll tell you it's all right, and there's a beginning marriage taking place. You get tolerant of sexual things, tolerant of the world's entertainment, tolerant of the world's attitudes, tolerant of the world's viewpoints on things. And pretty soon your heart is gone, and you've found your way back into a compromise with the system.
That leads to a third problem in the digression of the church, and that's in chapter 2 verse 18, as we come to the message of Thyatira just briefly. This city also a church in the midst of a pagan environment. Went one step further than Pergamos. He says in verse 19, "I know your works and your love, service and faith, patience, works." He commends them for their love and their...their service to the Lord and the church, their faith. They were a believing, loving, active group of people. They were on target in terms of serving the Lord, and even had a measure of love, not first love, obviously. And at the end of verse 19, I like this statement, "The last is more than the first." In other words, you're not deteriorating. You're really getting better. I mean your...your love is growing, and your works are growing, and you're doing very well. You're better than you used to be.
But verse 20, "Nevertheless, or in spite of all of that, I have a few things against you. And what I have against you is what you tolerate. It's what you allow. You allow that woman Jezebel...now, I don't know that that was her real name. She was a Jezebel-type. Maybe she was named Jezebel...She calls herself a prophetess...Obviously, she had usurped the place of teaching and preaching. They had allowed a woman preacher in their church...and not only was she taking a place that belongs to men, as we shall see in our further study of 1 Timothy 2...but she was using it to teach things that ultimately seduced the people to sexual sin and idolatry." Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
There was a sellout there, allowing a woman to preach when 1 Timothy 2, "I permit not a woman to teach nor to take authority." So they had violated that, and here was this woman who got that prominence by claiming to be a prophetess of God and wound up seducing people into sexual evil. So there she was in it, and there were the people, and they allowed it. That's the key word. They allowed it. Here's the progression. Loss of first love. Compromise with the world. Tolerance of sin. Tolerance of sin.
You see, once you've compromised with the world, you just wind up tolerating sin, because your compromise put you in a position where you couldn't even begin to deal with the issues. If the whole church is compromising or if the church advocates that kind of compromise or settles for that compromise, then how can you all of a sudden begin to discipline people? So the church takes the next step, tolerating sin. What kind of sin? Fornication, idolatry, probably again, 1 Corinthians 10, going over to this...the pagan feast and eating the meat offered to idols and having sex with temple prostitutes or whatever. Then going over to the table of the Lord and acting pious and singing hymns and praising God and drinking the cup and eating the bread, and...and it's just abomination. And the church just allowed it. And they let that woman teach and seduce.
Verse 22, He says, "You wanna go to bed? Is that what you want? You want sex? I'll put you in bed. I'll throw you in bed, all right. I'll put you in a bed, and everybody who commits adultery with you in a bed of great tribulation. I'll put you in a bed of judgment. That's the bed I'll put you in unless your repent. And I'll kill her children with death. All of her followers, I'll kill 'em." You think the Lord wouldn't move in and kill people in His church? He will. He did it in Corinth. He would do it here. Thyatira. He said, "I'll take their life." He did it to Ananias and Sapphira. He'd do it. He's done it since, obviously. We don't always know when He's done it, but He does it.
I heard of one person in our church we disciplined a few months ago who had turned over to Satan just recently in the hospital in very, very serious condition. We can only pray if...for repentance. The Lord may take a life. You wanna go to bed? He says, "I'll put you in bed. I'll put you in the bed of judgment, and I'll kill all of your followers, and the churches will know that I'm the one who searches the minds and the hearts, and I'll give to every one of you according to your worth." That's judgment. "I'll give you what you've earned." The bed of sexual sin will be exchanged for a coffin.
But notice in verse 24, "But unto you I say, to the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine and who have not known the depths of Satan, (as they speak), I'll put no other burden on you but that which you already hold fast till I come."
Hey," He says, "I'm not talking to everybody. I...I'm not gonna put any burden on those of you who are true. I'm just talking about the sinners in the church. Now, would you notice, not everybody in Ephesus had left their first love. Some had. Not everybody in Pergamos had compromised with the world. Some had. Not everybody in Thyatira was tolerant of sin, but some were, and they must've been in leadership to allow this woman that place.
But it seems to me in each of these letters that we've noted, it's the minority that are the problem, not the majority. Until you get to the next letter in chapter 3, and then something changes. He writes to Sardis. Seven hundred years before this letter, by the way, Sardis was one of the great cities of the world. One of its famous kings was a man named Croesus, whose name became synonymous with wealth. We have an expression: he's as rich as Croesus. It degenerated just like the church in it. And He writes and says in verse 1, "I know your works. You have a name that you're alive, but you're...what?...you're dead. You've got a reputation, but you're dead."
Now, look, this is the church content with programs...content with its name. This is the church that's nothing but a name, a place, a building. But no life. It's dead. It's the corpse, dry rot. He doesn't commend them for anything. At the end of verse 2, He says, "I have not found your works perfect before God." This is the dead church. The church over which God writes Ichabod. Socially distinguished, with all of its programs. "Oh, I know your works. I mean you're a busy bunch. You're running around. You've got your meetings and your conclaves and your activities. But you are dead." You're reminiscent of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Corpses man the ship. Dead men pull the oars, and dead men steer the vessel. There's no life. Nothing but form and routine and program, and you love your system more than you love the Scripture. And you love your doctrine more than you love Christ. Lots of activity, but nothing in terms of spiritual life.
See, that's the way it goes. Loss of first love by a few. Compromise with the world by a few more. Tolerance of sin by a few, including leaders who allow things to happen. And pretty soon the church dies, and all it is is a socially distinguished name with no life. No life. I dare say many of you have come to this church from a church like that. You have. You've come out of a dead church. You've come out of a church where there was no life. Where there were activities, but no power. Activities, but no joy. No one was coming to Christ. No one seemed to be growing. Everything was stagnant and stuffy and always the same. Sure.
So He says in verse 3, "Remember again...remember...how you received and heard; and hold fast and repent. Remember the way it was when you first received the truth and repent of such a sin. And if you don't be alert, I'm gonna come like a thief, and you're not gonna know what hour I'm gonna come." And the intent is to come with judgment. So in verse 2, He says, "Take a good look. Strengthen the true things that remain. Remember the other things. Repent of your sin and change, or I'll judge you."
Notice verse 4, "You have a few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy." Did you notice the transition there? Now it's not the few that are the problem. It's the few that are real. Do you get the difference? Now we've really turned a corner. "You have a few names." You know something? There are many of you in this church who represent that few. You were in a dead church, and maybe you said to yourself for months or even years, "You know, we oughta get outta this church. We oughta get outta of this church. Nothing's happening. God isn't at work here. The teaching isn't what it oughta be. They compromise with the world. They tolerate sin. There's no real love for Christ here. Oh, but we...we got our friends here. We've been here a long time. Mom, maybe we can help. Maybe we can change. We...we don't wanna be church hoppers," and, you know, you...you've gone through that. And, finally, you just said, "That's it. We're gonna go." And you went. So you've experienced that.
But when the church comes to the point where it's worked through the progression to step number four, there's just a few left. Just a few left. And then you come to step five, and the whole church is apostate. The whole church. That's verse 14. The church at Laodicea. "I know your works. You have activity. You have activity. You're into social activities, politics, busyness. Sure. But you're not cold. That is, you're not indifferent to God. You're not just hard soil, totally indifferent. And you're not hot. You're not saved, either. You're not indifferent, and you're not committed to Christ. I wish you were either indifferent or committed to Christ. The thing I can't stand most of all is that you're lukewarm." You know what that is? That's one who really is indifferent but professes to be committed to Christ. That's a hypocrite.
"And I'll vomit you out," He says. No real faith at all. This is a humanistic church, friends. This is the humanistic church. This is the apostate church. They're all over the place. There's no Gospel. There's no teaching of the Bible. Nothing. It's just apostate. It's a religious front. There's nothing there. Satan owns the place. Satan owns the place, and they'll say, "Well, we're rich." And sometimes they are. They own a corner in downtown somewhere. Big, high buildings. You know. "And increased with goods, and we don't have need...need of anything. And you don't know your wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." And he tells 'em to do something about it in verse 18 or in verse 19. He'll judge. He'll judge.
That's the progression. Now, listen for a moment. Listen carefully to what I say. We left two letters out. Those two letters are the church...were to the church at Smyrna and the church at Philadelphia. If there's anything distinct about those two churches, it would be that they endured severe persecution. They endured severe persecution. Lemme tell you something. Outside persecution tends to purify the church. It is inside defection in a tolerant society that tends to destroy the church.
I told you some months back when Joseph Taun from Romania and I were speaking. I said, "We pray for you, Joseph." He said, "Let me tell you my honest feeling. You're praying for the church behind the Iron Curtain, but I'm telling you I pray for you. It's...it's easy for us to maintain our purity, because the price is high. Our Christians can't figure out how you can do it in this tolerant society."
So the warnings that come to the church come because of the internal defection of those who lose their first love. The messages are all to the people in the church. The church that's persecuted from the outside is often the church that survives and is strong. Both those churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, are said to be under attack from the synagogue of Satan. Maybe that was the key to their success. The price was high for naming the name of Christ, and they knew what it was to live for Him. So we stand warned, beloved, about the progression. And we've gotta be alert to how the enemy comes against us.
Now, in closing, I want you to go back to chapter 1...and I've tried to show you what it is that we need to be aware of. But I also wanna conclude by drawing your attention to chapter 1, and what the Lord does for His church. We're not on our own, and that's such a hopeful truth. We're not at it alone. The Lord will do His Sovereign part as well. And that is our salvation. And I want you to begin with me by looking at chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. And I wanna just name briefly some things the Lord is doing in our midst, or the Lord does for us. It says that, "Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the...the chief of all those begotten from the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loves us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us a kingdom of priests unto God and His Father."
The first thing I want you to know is Jesus loves His church. The Lord Jesus loves His church. You think you love Grace Church? You don't love Grace Church one fraction of the way the Lord Jesus Christ does. He loves this church. I have great hope in that, beloved. While I pray for you to be true and for you to be faithful and to you...for you to maintain your first love for Him, I am also rejoicing in my heart to know that He loves this church more than I do...more than you do...more than anyone does. And, because He loves His church, He holds His church. He preserves His church. And the greatest confidence we have against the enemy is not our strength, but His love for us. That He will not lose us to the enemy. He loves us to the extent that He washed us from our sin in His own blood.
The second thing I want you to see is that He intercedes for His church. In the vision that comes beginning in chapter 1 and verse 12, as he turns around, John hears the voice of the Lord. He turns around. He sees the image of the Lord in the vision. And in verse 12, he sees Him among the seven golden lamp stands, and He's the Son of Man, and He has a garment down to His foot and a golden belt around His waist." And I believe this is most emblematic of the high priest. And here we see Christ in His priestly work, moving among the churches as He moves among the lamp stands, each representing one of the seven churches. And He moves among the churches, trimming the lamp and caring for the church. And this reminds us of His intercessory...cessory work on our behalf. No matter what the battle, no matter what the struggle, He ever and always intercedes for us. Comes to our rescue before the Father and with His power in our behalf.
The third thing we know, in verse 14, "His head and His hair, white as wool. His hair also noted and His head is white as snow." Emphasizing the whiteness, and, of course, to the Hebrew mind, that had reference to wisdom and purity. Wisdom and holiness. Or even holy wisdom. And then, "His eyes like a flame of fire." Judgment. He can see sin. He can penetrate evil. He can discover anything. And when He discovers evil, His feet are like fine bronze, as if they were fired in a furnace, and He will trample out judgment on that evil. And His voice comes with authority against evil, like the sound of many waters. "And He has...in verse 16...out His mouth coming a sharp two-edged sword. And His face is shining like the sun at the highest point during the day." Here He is in His great power, purifying His church, speaking with authority, judging, cleansing, purging, looking and finding it sin with His own holy vision. The Lord purifies His church. Oh, how wonderful.
There are things in the church of sinful nature that we can't know about, and we can't get to them, and we can't solve them. We say, "Well, Satan's making inroads. Satan's coming upon us, and we...we have to know all of this." And then we're reminded that the Lord knows it all. That what we never know about sin in the lives of people or about what Satan is doing, He knows. His searching eyes can see, and He can bring about judgment and action and discipline and purging in His church, whether we ever find out about it or not. Yes, He purifies this church.
There's another wonderful thing, too, in verse 17. John fell dead, as if he were dead at His feet. I mean he saw the vision. It was overwhelming. He saw the Christ, the Son of God in His glory, and he had the same reaction Isaiah did. He just collapsed like a dead man. Why? Well, he was afraid. Why was he afraid? Because when you see the Lord in holy glory, moving with a sword out of his mouth and speaking like roaring waters, and dealing with sin and all of that, you know you're in trouble. And the church might be fearful and say, "If the Lord is in our midst, will we not be consumed? Will we not die?" And I love in verse 17 where it says, "He laid His right hand on me." The touch of forgiveness. "And He said, 'Don't be afraid. Remember, I'm the First and the Last. I'm the One that lives and was dead. I'm the One that died for your sin. I'm the One that rose again. I'm now alive for evermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and death. And I'm not gonna put you there."
And we will say then that the Lord forgives His church. He has forgiven His church. There's nothing we can do that'll cause us to be cast into hell. He reaches out and touches us when we fall on our faces as dead men, fearing our own just retribution, and He says, "Don't be afraid. I died for you. I live again for you. I control death and hell." The implication being you have no fear. He forgives His church. Aren't you glad for that? If...if we were expecting only to be blessed if we were perfect, we'd never be blessed. But we are blessed because we are what? Forgiven. He forgives His church.
And then in chapters 2 and 3, He rewards His church. Yes, He will bring us all to glory. He will bring us all to a reward. And in every single letter, He gives an element of that reward. In the letter to Ephesus, verse 7, "I'll give them the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God.'" In verse 11, "He that overcomes will never be hurt by the second death." In verse 17, "The one that overcomes...and that's overcoming faith in Christ...the one who has faith that overcomes the world...as John put it...I will give him hidden manna, a white stone, a name which no man knows except the one that receives it." I love that, because people always say to me, "What is that name?" And I say, "It says there, it's a name which no man knows. How can I know what name it is?" I don't know what name it is. Whatever name it is, it'll only be for me and only for you and only for everybody, which is to speak of our intimate relationship with Christ, that there's a name for us that only the two of us will know.
Great. And in future glory, verse 28, we will receive the morning star. That's Christ Himself will belong to us. Chapter 3 verse 5, we'll "be clothed in white raiment. Our names will never be blotted out of the Book of Life, but confessed before the Father and His angels." In verse 12, We'll "be made pillars in the temple of our God. He'll write on us the name of My God, the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven from My God and a new name." And then in verse 21, He will "allow us the privilege of sitting with Him on the His throne as he also sits on the Father's throne." He'll glorify His church.
Yes, He'll reward His church, forgive His church, purify His church, and receive for His church, because He loves His church. And the hope in that is that, no matter what happens, the Lord is on our side, working in our behalf.
Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank You for the privilege we have had today to be reminded of what the church means to us. We thank You for what You do in Your church, that You love us, You intercede for us. You purify us and purge us and cleanse us. You...You forgive us when we fail in sin. You reward us. And someday You'll bring us to glory. We thank You, Father. And we desire to maintain that first love and not slip into compromise with the world and tolerance of sin and...and become a dead church, and then Satan's church...apostate, departed from the faith. Preserve us, Lord, by keeping us strong as a people and as pastors that we might do your work in a way that brings honor to Your Holy Name. May this day be a day filled with blessing, and we look forward to our fellowship tonight as we meet again around Your Word and with Your people. We pray that You'll even now bring to the prayer room those that You would draw to our fellowship, and that You would continue to add to the church daily, such as should be saved. For Your own glory, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.
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