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WASHINGTON (Circa) -- Jackson Odell died on Friday after being found unresponsive in a sober living home, according to TMZ.
His family released a statement saying Odell "will always be a shining light and a brilliant, loving and talented soul." They also said they hope this is what the rest of the world remembers him for.
Odell, who had been acting since the age of 12, was also a musician and wrote songs that were featured in the movie soundtrack for "Forever Your Girl." He was a star on ABC's comedy "The Goldbergs" and made guest appearances on shows such as "iCarly," "Modern Family" and "Arrested Development."
"Modern Family" star Ariel Winter posted a tweet saying she was "devastated."
"We didn't talk much as we entered into our high school years, but I'm glad I got to spend time with him before his end," Winter said. "Very hard for me to hear about anyone passing away, but someone so young really saddens me. Sending love to his family and friends."
Jackson was 20 years old.
Here is the family's full statement:
The Odell family has lost our beloved son and brother, Jackson Odell. He will always be a shining light and a brilliant, loving and talented soul. He had so much more to share. Our family will always carry that truth forward. Our wish is that the rest of the world does as well. We are now going to try to make sense of our immeasurable loss privately.


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I don't think any other restaurant in Maine (okay, maybe J's Oyster, in Portland) inspires such love/hate as Conte's. Those in the love-it camp were crushed when it closed earlier this year (this after Anthony Bourdain paid it a visit and filmed it last fall). Take heart, folks.
Innkeeper Cheryl Michaelsen, of the Berry Manor Inn, in Rockland, reports:
Just so you know Conte's is alive and well at its new location on Rt. 73 – South Main Street. Same funky decor, same funky cook and same great food. A lot brighter (windows are still clean). Just for fun he hasn't decided if he will put a sign out front or not. It is located immediately after Primrose Framing at 156 S. Main Street. Just thought you would like to know. When I went last week he was serving a dessert that was 1/2 carrot cake (bottom layer) with a cheese cake on top!!
Uhm, okay, Cheryl. I'm going to give you a holler one of these days and meet you there.

subset: commoncrawl


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International trade controls
Many of the small arms which are legally sold or transferred later find their way onto the illegal market and into the hands of abusers or criminals. Both the state-sanctioned trade and the illicit trade in arms must be tackled, in order to prevent irresponsible use of arms and the terrible human cost that follows.
Measures to improve regulation of the international export, transit and import of weapons include:
- an effective global Arms Trade Treaty, the goal of the Control Arms Campaign
- strong national regulation on arms brokering activities, including transport and finance
- greater transparency in the reporting of international transfers (eg including small arms transfers in reports to the UN Register of Conventional Arms)


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The fall recruiting campaign focuses on recruiting new families to the fun and adventures of Cub Scouting. For resources, visit the council and national websites. Table tents and directional signs are available to use during your recruiting night. Fall recruiting night training is held at August roundtable.
Order Fall Recruiting Night Fliers
Ideas on how to produce a successful rally:
Packs are encouraged to hold spring recruiting events. Recruiting events can be any sort of fun activity that would entice elementary-aged youth to check out Scouting. This can be simply inviting potential recruits to an already scheduled summer pack activity, or it can be a separate event focused primarily on recruiting. Invite newly recruited Scouts to attend day camp and pack summer events. Sometimes we think we can only recruit in the fall, but spring is a great time to get new Tigers and their families involved early. The council provides a variety of support materials for packs, including fliers.
Request Spring Recruiting Fliers
Recruitment efforts take place throughout the year. Cub Scout units conduct a coordinated effort to enroll new members in the spring and fall.
The Boy Scouts recruit young men in 6th - 12th grades, and Venturing recruits young men and women ages 14-20.
Recruiting events are put on by Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops and Venturing crews throughout the local community. Studies have shown that families/youth prefer to attend meetings at their school and in their neighborhood. This will help ensure that every youth is invited to join Scouting.
Our main objective is to give multiple joining opportunities to ensure that every youth is invited to join Scouting, and to fulfill BSA's promise to new Scouts for a great Scouting program. Adventure is calling - join Scouting!
For additional information or questions about membership, contact the district membership chair or district executive.


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285 $USA/pers
Rely on our "Yes, we can!"
Is it possible to see the most notable and famous sights of St Petersburg in just two days? Yes, it is, if you take our famous St Petersburg Grand Tour! We worked out this well balanced program which has been a best seller since 2008. It is not by chance that the Grand tour has been copied by many companies and is now offered under different names...
As success is copied, we are certain that you will greatly enjoy THE ORIGINAL!
We offer you a very full day of touring but not a rushed manner; a busy but smoothly run program; an informative but extremely enjoyable two days to remember!
There are no trifles in this tour: each detail is carefully planned and each minute is counted! You are in good hands under the care of an attentive, experienced guide who has run this program for years, a professional and knowledgeable driver and coordinated, professional office staff!
285/245 $USA/pers
Simply Splendid!
This program provides an excellent introduction to the magnificent "must see" sights of St. Petersburg and also includes a visit to the newly opened Faberge Museum. The incredible Faberge collection is housed inside the beautifully restored Shuvalov Palace, a gorgeous rococo palace located on the Fontanka Embankment. You will enjoy seeing the beautifully restored Shuvalov Palace as well as the magnificent Faberge collection (the largest collection in the world). There are 10 rooms open for viewing in the palace showcasing over 4000 Faberge pieces. The crown jewels in the collection are the fourteen Faberge eggs (purchased from American billionaire, Malcolm Forbes) as well as Faberge gifts to the Russian Imperial family.
240 $USA/pers
Enjoable and easy!
The program of the Comfort tour is the great choice for those who want to see the highlights of St Petersburg in leisurely style. It will take you to all notable St Petersburg landmarks and the most important of them are included into the tour for the interior visit with excursion provided by your personal guide. The Comfort tour participants will enjoy the boat ride sightseeing as well.
The popularity of the Comfort tour is growing fast and we are proud of having a high quality tour product to offer to our prospective clients!
385 $USA/pers
Be sure to get the best!
You are really lucky to have a 3-day stop in St Petersburg! We have a very special tour to offer you: our St Petersburg 3-day Grand tour now includes the splendid Faberge museum and the tour of world renowned Impressionists collection in General Staff building! Enjoy the advantages of the best tour products we designed!
695 $USA/pers
Grand indeed!
A great opportunity to visit both Russian capitals (St. Petersburg and Moscow) in one visit! This combination of a comprehensive sightseeing day in Moscow and our signature bestselling 2-day Grand tour in St. Petersburg will ensure that you get the most out of your 3-day stay in Russia!
145 $USA/pers
My perfect day!
Your ship calls at the port of St Petersburg for just 1 day? Get the "most" out of your brief visit!
The aim of our 1-day tour is to give you a comprehensive overview of St Petersburg, its suburbs, the past and present life of Russia and its citizens.
The most experienced and professional company guides, comfortable new vans with powerful air-conditioning, courteous, safe drivers along with the coordinated work of a superb office staff is your guarantee of a great tour and years of warm memories!
from 310 $USA/pers
Great value for the Great package!
One stop shop: see more, pay less!
Here are the three main advantages of taking a package tour with us:
The 10 most important reasons to choose Alla Tours as your host in St. Petersburg and other ports of call.
Visa, payment, meeting, touring, tipping, day and evening tours, packages and other subjects. Answers to all your questions!
The 10 most important reasons to choose Alla Tours as your host in St. Petersburg and other ports of call.
Alla Tours is a Russian tour operator with both a long history and a great reputation. We have been licensed to provide visa-free shore excursions since 2005. Google "Alla tours" and you will find many impartial assessments of our company.
We care about our clients' expenses: all charges related to processing client's credit/debit cards on the Russian side are covered by Alla Tours!
That's why NO banking fee of any kind or amount will be added on top of the tour price! We will use the STATE exchange rate to convert tour price form US dollars to rubles when processing clients' credit/debit cards. The State exchange rate is the most favorable and is always better than any company's commercial exchange rate
We have direct contracts with all museums making us independent from any intermediary. All necessary arrangements are made in our office and are under our constant control! This means that none of our group will face "museum closure due to unexpected special event" due to someone in an intermediary's office who has forgotten to book your entry to the museum!
Our guides are the greatest assets to our company! Guide will spend quite a few hours with yours and therefore we pay great attention to our choice of guide working for Alla Tours: not only professionalism and experience are counted but the guide's personality, dress style and speaking voice!
The importance of a quality transportation service cannot be underestimated. This is an area of tour arrangement to which we pay a constant and very keen attention. Reliability, punctuality and safety – are the main features of our drivers and fleet. You can be sure your driver is always waiting for you at the agreed upon spot in the most convenient area. We ensure that you are safe and always on time when driving with our fleet!
We pay attention to the smallest detail on our tour: all our guests are provided with one bottle of still water for each day of touring; all our groups over 7 people are provided with personal ear phones and the guide with a microphone. This will, undoubtedly, make hearing your guide easier and the sightseeing more comfortable.
We are at your service day and night, offering you a wide choice of evening programs along with handling any special requirements that you may have. We'll help you in all aspects of planning your trip. Whatever reservations or other arrangements need to be made, we will handle them.
Our tours in the capitals of the Baltic region and Germany will add to the value of your entire cruise! We have many years of experience working in the Baltic ports and guarantee your perfect touring experience in Berlin, the Warnemuende area, Tallinn, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Riga, Klaipeda and Gdansk! See our Scandinavia and German tours
We offer wide variety of tour combinations and tour packages along with substantial savings for multiple city bookings! A progressive discount program will be a pleasant discover for many of passengers see tour packages
Through our years of operation, Alla Tours has consolidated an efficient and well-coordinated professional team. Friendly relationships between the office members and a kind and understanding attitude toward our clients are standards of our operation. We believe that patience and politeness are the foundation of a comfortable atmosphere in the office which in turn, leads to the accurate work of each department. We are happy when our hard work is not noticeable: it is just a sign of a job well done!
Rely on us to ensure your perfect tour!
Alla Tours team
Copyright © 2005-2019 ALLA TOURS LTD St. Petersburg, Russia
+7 812 6160351, +7 965 0749600 [email protected]


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Just before Lindsay Lohan was arrested early Tuesday morning, she commandeered a car and took three men hostage -- this, according to the three men who were in the car with her.
TMZ interviewed all three, and here's the lowdown: Rewind to Monday afternoon. Dante Nigro, Jakon Sutter and Ronnie Blake drove to Malibu with the boyfriend of Lindsay Lohan's assistant. Lindsay and her assistant ran into Dante and friends. Later, the assistant text-messaged Dante, saying Lindsay wanted to invite him to a Malibu party that night.
Part One
The now former assistant finally lost Lindsay on PCH. Dante says Lindsay thought the assistant was going to her mother's house in Santa Monica so Lindsay went there. It just so happened that the assistant's mother was pulling into the driveway as Lindsay arrived.
Dante says the mother panicked at Lindsay's crazy driving, and backed out of the driveway in fear -- not knowing who was behind the wheel. The guys say Lindsay then began to chase her at speeds of up to 80 mph through Santa Monica, blowing multiple red lights.
Dante realized the mother was driving to the police station and warned Lindsay if she didn't stop she'd get in hot water. He says Lindsay responded, "I'm a celebrity. I'm not going to get in trouble."
The two cars stopped in a parking lot near the cop shop. When police arrived, Dante says it seemed as if Lindsay told officers, "I wasn't driving. The black kid was driving."
Dante and Jakon say they saw Lindsay flunk the field sobriety test. They say when she tried touching her nose, she almost fell over.
As Ronnie put it "It was pretty much the worst night of my whole summer."
Lohan's reps had no comment.
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Why See Andrew McMahon?
The Pen and The Piano Tour
Once best known as the lead vocalist and main composer of the bands Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, indie king Andrew McMahon has risen up under a solo moniker to critical and commercial success. Imbuing his upbeat pop with a trademark warmth and optimism, his blend of synths and electronic soundscapes is coupled with razor-sharp on-the-nose phrasing and definitive pop moments. For 2018, Andrew McMahon brings his fans a special acoustic tour, The Pen and The Piano Tour.
When it comes to his live shows, McMahon pulls no punches, giving them the same boundless energy that can be found in his songs. He's dynamic performer who climbs onto speakers, regularly rises from his piano chair and throws himself into the audience to crowd surf. This vigour, coupled with his songs' raw and emotional honesty makes for an arresting performance.
Additional Information
Performance date: 8 March 2019
And before you stop reading
Photo: Adam Shlossman Used under Creative Commons License
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- Artist
- Sir Eduardo Paolozzi 1924–2005
- Medium
- Etching on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 227 x 190 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented anonymously through the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1980
- Reference
Catalogue entry
P01981 [from] CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY MACHINE 1970 [P01961-P01984; P11003; complete]
24 sheets inscribed 'Eduardo Paolozzi 1970' bottom right and '9/24'. I sheet (cancelled proof) inscribed 'Eduardo Paolozzi 1970' bottom right and '⅓'
25 etchings, printed and published by Editions Alecto, various sizes
Presented anonymously through the Friends of the Tate 1980
Lit: op.cit., nos.63–86
This portfolio was the first for which Paolozzi used photogravure. The source material, drawn from his own stocks of magazines and science journals, was photographed and transferred to etching plates. The set is divided into four sections of six prints each: 'Secrets of Life - The Human Machine and How it Works', 'Manikins for Destruction', 'Pages from the Aerospace Medical Library', and 'From Genot to Unimate'. The first section (titled from a book Paolozzi was given in Paris in 1948) deals with the human body and methods of explaining its functions. 'Manikins for Destruction' deals with traffic accident simulations, and 'Pages from the Aerospace Medical Library' with aerospace experiments. The last section presents robots, real or as toys and humanoid or purely mechanical.
Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984
- objects(23,666)
- tools and machinery(1,341)
- robot(39)
- tools and machinery(1,341)
- people(35,852)
- emotions, concepts and ideas(16,929)
- formal qualities(12,949)
- movement(178)
- photographic(5,090)
- formal qualities(12,949)


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�How do I share my faith news in the newspaper?� is one of the most frequently asked questions we get in the Lifestyle department.
With a new year just around the corner, I wanted to take this opportunity to give you some tips on sharing your Faith news with Gazette readers.
Each Saturday in this section, we publish Fellowships a weekly listing of special events and programs planned by churches in the Gaston, Lincoln and Kings Mountain area.
So what qualifies as a Fellowship announcement?
*One-time or annual events such as a revival or anniversary celebration
*A guest speaker or special sermon
*A musical program or guest artist
*A change in service times or other schedule change.
*A community service project or event such as a free community meal or food or clothing giveaway.
What is the deadline for submitting a Fellowship announcement?
It�s always at noon on Wednesday.
How many times will my announcement run?
We update our Fellowship listing each week. The most current or timely events are given prioirity but we generally publish items until the event has occurred.
How do I submit my announcement?
The best way is by e-mailing it to firstname.lastname@example.com.
You may also FAX it to 704-867-5751
Or you can mail it to The Gazette, P.O. Box 1538, Gastonia, NC 28053/attention Faith Announcements.
Can I give information over the telephone?
We�re sorry but because of the number of announcements we receive each week, they must be submitted in writing, on or before the deadline.
What information should I include?
We�re looking for what we call the 5 W�s � Who, what, where, when and why. If you can answer those 5 W�s in a concise manner you have the makings of a good announcement. We edit all announcements for brevity and clarity.
What�s the biggest mistake people make?
Forgetting to include the complete address of the church. If you are looking for newcomers to attend your event, they need to know where you are located.
Can I submit a photograph?
Yes, we welcome digital images. They should be sent to us in a jpg format and complete information about the contents of the photo must be provided including the name or names of the people in the photograph.
Will MacDonald is the Community Editor. You can reach him by phone at 704-869-1838.


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adaptability media necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
2 ganadores han sido elegidos entre 228 diseños de 45 diseñadores freelance.
adaptability media
we are a husband and wife team looking to start our first business together. as a media design and content creation company, we will be helping small businesses, who have little or no online presence, take advantage of all forms of media to reach new clients.
we are looking to specifically help small businesses which are usually owned and operated by families-- often by parents and their children. these groups may feel wary about digital marketing so a logo that creates confidence by being friendly or elicit a smile would be helpful.
a logo for a media design and content creation company that is friendly and can make someone smile. it can be playful but not cartoonish, cheap or childlike. the logo should produce well in both full color and in silhouette as a single spot color.
please do not use stock images or clip art in the logo.
we were watching discovery's life series and found that so much of the wonder in each show involved animal adaptations. it allows for survival in difficult environments and contributes to the flourishing of a species. in much the same way, media is a difficult and constantly shifting environment.
some objects or animals that come to mind are:
- a butterfly, a caterpillar, a chameleon (animals that adapt)
some stylistic ideas are:
- origami, lego, transition from real to pixels, mosaics
- animals painting themselves with a digital brush
- object skipping across water with pixelated splashes
lego could be very interesting as they evoke the idea of fun, creativity, playfulness. they are culturally timeless, relate to touch and building something with your hands. they can also range from simple to very complex structures.
The files we will require are:
Print file format - .ai (RGB or CMYK)
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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It can be exhausting, admitted Russell Brand, being on all the time. Constantly looking for the laugh, thinking up witty comebacks, exuding rakish charm.
So last week, when the star of the new "Arthur" remake knew he had no audience to impress, he took the rare opportunity to taper his manic energy.
"If we were doing this interview on camera," he said, "then I would be looking for every single opportunity to say something funny to make you laugh," as he has in every late-night talk show interview he's given in the last month, in which he's bounced around delivering rapid-fire punch lines.
"It's difficult to say this without seeming self-involved, but really, primarily, what I care about is making people laugh. When it's my job, then I do feel pressure to perform — a professional duty. It can be exhausting. But I'm happy to be able to have quiet and intelligent conversation. In the past, I didn't have an off switch as much. But now, because I'm focused on work, and there are different kinds of dimensions to my life, I don't have that tendency."
Hiding out in the back room of an upscale Las Vegas restaurant may be an odd place to talk about calming down, but it was in service of that new focus on work. He had flown to Sin City for a few hours last week to stop by CinemaCon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners, where he was named "Comedy Star of the Year" and he made time to promote "Arthur," the remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore classic out Friday and his first leading role.
The 35-year-old, infamously a former drug and sex addict who now practices transcendental meditation, has already proved he has the ability to change his public persona. With "Arthur" — in which he takes on the role of the booze-loving playboy millionaire that earned the late Dudley Moore an Oscar nomination — he's out to show Hollywood that he has the range to play more than just the wild sideshow. (If you count animated films as part of his repertoire, he's already off to a good start. He's the voice of the teenage bunny at the center of "Hop," which exceeded box office expectations when it debuted last weekend to $37.5 million.)
It was just three years ago that American moviegoers were introduced to Brand, when he embodied an outlandish rock star named Aldous Snow in the comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." His turn as an over-the-top, sex-crazed miscreant proved so memorable that the film's creators, including producer Judd Apatow, proposed a sequel of sorts that centered on Brand's Snow character, "Get Him to the Greek," which was released last summer.
Prior to those films, Brand was primarily known in his native England as a lewd stand-up comedian whose personal troubles were frequently splashed across the tabloids. Now eight years sober, it took him longer to kick the proclivity for sleeping around that led the English tabloid the Sun to name him "Shagger of the Year" three years in a row. After a stint in rehab at Pennsylvania's KeyStone sex addiction clinic — which he wrote about in his first memoir, 2007's "My Booky Wook" — Brand began living life on the straight-and-narrow. Last October, after a year of dating, he wed pop star Katy Perry at a lavish ceremony in India.
Still, his reputation often precedes him.
Warner Bros., which produced "Arthur," was particularly worried about Brand's past behavior informing filmgoers' view of the character, the actor said.
"The studio was very particular about wanting Arthur to be sweet and vulnerable. And I think that was because they thought that I am perceived as a sort of — because of the films I've done with Judd Apatow — kind of hedonistic and decadent and kind of wanton and maybe obnoxious," he said, sipping his new drink of choice, a diet Dr Pepper, which his bodyguard had retrieved for him.
Jason Winer, who directed "Arthur," acknowledged that Brand's real-world identity prompted some script changes. "In the original movie, Arthur picks up a hooker. And for what people know about Russell and what he brings to the role — would you believe he needs to pay for sex? We had to address those things," the filmmaker said.
How the protagonist handles his drinking problem also had to be tinkered with to reflect modern attitudes about alcoholism. (In the new film, Arthur attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, though it's generally played for laughs.)
"Arthur is the kind of drunk I think people want to be — he's fun." His own kind of drunk was far different, Brand said. "I was like a lunatic, smashing stuff all the time and self-harming and kicking and screaming and getting arrested. This film is very sweet and light — it's not, like, got room for rage or hatred or self-immolation," he said of the movie that he executive produced. "But I really liked playing a drunk. Because, I suppose, I have a huge propensity towards drinking and taking drugs. So even minor recollection of that proved seductive and alluring to me."
Earlier, his party animal character in the Apatow films had proved challenging for the actor, said "Sarah Marshall" and "Greek" director Nicholas Stoller.
"There was a lot of fake partying in 'Greek,' and I think it was a little hard for him to be constantly fake drinking and smashing fake beer bottles. He definitely would go back to his trailer and center himself with the meditation and yoga," Stoller said.
As the restaurant's chef emerged to present Brand — a vegetarian — a platter elaborately decorated with seared tofu and a variety of legumes, the comedian's quiet demeanor shifted.
"These are English peas? Oh, her majesty," he quipped, instantly livening up. "And you seared the tofu? This is remarkable. It's not often you get the opportunity to use the word smorgasbord, but this is one, literally."
After the chef retreated, Brand confided about his overt effort to appear gracious, "If I thought they thought we didn't appreciate the food, it would trouble me. Like, if I am rude to someone now — I've developed a conscience. Imagine that? Like a literal Jiminy Cricket in my head going, 'Oh, you shouldn't have done that, that was mean.' It's not just, 'That's the bloke out of "Sarah Marshall" and he was rude.' It's more I have this crushing awareness of humanity now."
He attributes much of that shift to practicing meditation, but also largely to his wife, Perry.
"I've said that being in love is the most mundane thing in the world and that's how I feel about it — it's an incredible, wonderful, cosmic and geometrically jarring feeling. But ultimately, it's like, 'Oh, are you all right? What's going on? What'd you do today?' It's just companionship between us, and that's what I really like about it, is how normal it is," he said. "I think that's what my life is lacking."
"Arthur" too is a step toward something as yet missing in his life: his bid to be taken seriously as a comedic leading man.
Though his booze-soaked character is recognizably wild and antic — and sports Brand's trademark untamed hair, he does show moments of subtlety and depth.
"It's really important to me. I've worked really, really hard — the promotion, the filming, being diligent and present. It has huge potential for me as an individual," he said. "But I'm also really accepting of what happens in the world. Because I kind of believe in God. I don't like to sound zealous or fundamentalist or anything. But no matter how well 'Arthur' does, the grim reaper will not relent."


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Let's open our Bibles then this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We come again to this portion which we looked at by way of introduction last week, embarking on the last chapter of our study of this great epistle. And the subject before us has to do with employment, with your job. And that means it is a very practical portion of Scripture.
Just to set your thinking a little bit, in Genesis chapter 2 we read this in verse 15, "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it." The Fall of man didn't come until chapter 3. In chapter 2, God designed man to work. Man was created to be a worker. He was created to work. Work is not part of the curse, sweat is part of the curse.
It is the intensity of work necessary to earn the bread that implies the curse, but work is a blessing. Man was created to work.
I want you to understand something at the very beginning of this. Not only were we created to work but all of our work is a sacred duty, okay? All of our work is a sacred duty...whatever your employment might be. Now that may sound a little bit strange to you right off the top. You may be looking at your job and saying, "I drive a truck, I don't see anything sacred about it." "I am a carpenter, I don't see anything sacred about that."
"I work in a kitchen somewhere, cooking meals, it doesn't seem very sacred to me." Somebody else might say, "I sell insurance."
Somebody might say, "I work in an office as a secretary or as a clerk," or "I work in a bank." Or, "I'm a teller." Or, "I'm a grocery bagger at the local market, how in the world is that sacred?"
It is sacred. Whether you teach, whether you work on computers, whether you work on an assembly line, whether you paint houses, whatever it is that you do it is a sacred duty.
And in order for you to understand that you've got to draw a line somewhere in your mind that in...it's a circular line, not a straight line. Erase the straight line between secular and sacred and draw a circle and put everything in your life in it.
Most people have drawn that line between secular and sacred and you need to erase it and put a circle around everything and it's all within the circle of sacred duty.
What do I mean by that? I mean everything you do is with reference to your relationship to God. Everything you do. All work is sacred. Even back as far as Martin Luther, he was trying very diligently to get people to perceive that the role of shopkeeper and the role of housewife, as he termed them, was as sacred as the role of clergy and priest in terms of its relationship and reference to God. In fact, William Tyndale said, "There is different betwixt washing of dishes and preaching of the Word of God, but as touching pleasing God there is no difference at all." Whatever you do, whatever kind of work you're engaged in, housewife to senior executive and everything in between, whatever it is it is a sacred duty.
Let me give you a statement that I thought through and I'll repeat it a couple of times. I think it kind of embodies what it is that I want you to grab in your mind. Every job, every task is of intrinsic value. Every job and task is of intrinsic value not for its own sake, necessarily. Some jobs do have intrinsic value for their own sakes, some do not. But every job has intrinsic value not particularly for its own sake, but because when it is integrated into the life of a Christian it becomes the arena in which that Christian lives out his spiritual existence. That's a very important thing to understand. Every job, every task has intrinsic value, I don't care whether it's preparing a meal, making a bed, sweeping the floor, vacuuming, cleaning the garage, or whether it's when you go to your job and do your work there, every task you do has intrinsic value not necessarily for its own sake but because when it is integrated into the Christian's life it becomes the arena in which your spiritual faith is lived out. That's basic to Christian living.
Let me take it a step further. What is happening on the job for you is the single greatest articulation of Christianity that you will ever have in your life time, okay? And there are people who sit around saying, "Boy, I've got to get to the mission field so I can get into a place where I can be effective," or "I do my ministry at the church," and I want you to know that all of that, of course, if the calling of God is vital, but the most vital place where Christianity will ever be expressed is in the face of the world and where that most commonly happens is in your job.
And if you do not see that as your sacred duty, then you're going to approach the thing in the wrong manner.
Let me take it even a step further. You cannot be and I cannot be particularly concerned with how the job benefits us nearly so much as we are concerned as to how effective our work is in benefiting those around us by impacting them with the power of Jesus Christ to transform a life.
In other words, our day, as you well know, basically is a day of self-indulgence. So people work for self-gratification.
They work to accomplish their own goals, their own ends and finance their own indulgences. But a Christian thinks eschatologically. A Christian thinks in terms of the Kingdom. I work to advance the Kingdom. I work to the glory of God. I work with a view to eternal reward. I work to see people saved. And so everything I do and every response I make is covered by that kind of understanding.
John Calvin once said, quote: "There is no part of life or conduct however insignificant which should not be related to the glory of God," end quote. And that's simply another way to say 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God."
And let me take it a step further. I believe the single greatest deterrent to the clear testimony of the saving grace of Jesus Christ occurs in the work place. The single greatest impact is made there and the single greatest deterrent occurs there. And how you work either speaks to the blessing and glory of God or to the blasphemy of His name.
Now that's what Paul wants us to understand in these two verses. That how we work, how we function in an employment situation is of grave spiritual significance. It takes us all the way back to the marvelous truth of Matthew 5 where our Lord said that you're a light and you're a city set on a hill, you're not to be hidden under a bushel, you're to let your light so shine, verse 16, that men in seeing your good works will glorify your Father in heaven. And the idea, He used a little phrase in that verse "before men," the idea is to live your Christianity before men in such a way as to make the gospel noble and attractive. And that happens more than anywhere else on your job.
I'm not so concerned for Grace Church that we come up with more methods of evangelism. I don't think the real answer to evangelism is to have everybody trained in Discipleship Evangelism as important as that is. I don't think the real answer to evangelism is to have all of you sign up for community evangelism training, although you ought to do that because you ought to know how to do that. The real answer to effective evangelism is to have Christians so committed to Jesus Christ that they view their job as an arena in which it is vitally, vitally important for them to live out their faith. When that begins to happen, then we hit the world right between the eyes because that's where they're watching. That's what Paul is saying here. Our Christian faith and our testimony are to be lived out in the sacred duty of our work which is rendered not only on behalf of men, but on behalf of God.
Now let's look at the text for a moment, let me read you the first two verses and we'll consider them together. "Let as many slaves, doulo, as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor in order that the name of God and His doctrine not be blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not undervalue them because they are brothers but rather serve them all the more because they are believing and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort."
Now I want you to remember what we said last week. The terms "a slave and master" should not throw us off. We don't want to chuck this passage because we don't like the idea of slavery. And what we spent our whole time Sunday, a week ago, covering was the idea that slave and master were terms to describe the general employment situation of the time in which the Scripture was written. It was really a contracted method of employment. And unless it was abused was a very manageable, very workable and even respectable and honorable mode of economic and social employment, it worked. And as we saw last time, if the system itself was evil, the Lord would have spoken against the system. If the system itself was evil, we would have heard about it in the Old Testament, we would have heard about it from Christ, we would have heard about it from the Apostles. But nowhere is the system of what we call slave and master, and by that we are not talking about the kind of slavery, as I said last week, that we knew in this nation or other nations where it was racial and abusive, but where we're talking about contracted employment, the system itself is not evil. The abuses are abuses due to the heart of man, not the nature of the system.
Now granted there were abuses of that slavery system in biblical times. There were abuses in the Greco-Roman world, particularly the Romans were abusive from time to time. They did not permit some slaves to marry ever. They had conjugal rights with women and when they gave birth to children, the children became more slaves. They in many ways treated slaves as if they were animals, having no more rights than a beast of burden.
There were abuses particularly in the Roman area. There were less abuses than that typically in Palestine where slavery was a little bit more minimal. But surely there were abuses. And there are abuses of any kind of economic or social system of employment. We have it today. And that's why people strike and march and cry against the difficulties of their own employment.
Abuse has to do with the heart, not necessarily the definition of a system.
For many slaves, as we saw last time, that system was excellent. It provided security, good work, fair wages, met all their needs, all the needs of their family, brought them into a loving relationship domestically with another family. And if hearts were right it was a very, very workable relationship.
Attitude was the issue. The heart was the issue. And that's why in the biblical testimony all you have is God speaking to the matter of men's hearts. When Christ comes He does not come to overturn social order, He comes to change the heart.
When the Apostles speak, they speak not to overturn the social order but to change the heart. In fact, when Philemon who was a well-known slave owner with a New Testament book written to him lost his slave Onesimus who ran away and was, as Paul put it, very unprofitable to him, that slave ran into Paul in Rome. And while Paul a prisoner in Rome meeting Onesimus, he was converted.
He believed the gospel preached to him by Paul, became Paul's friend, became very profitable to Paul. In fact, became someone Paul would have wished to keep to serve him. But not wanting to violate the contract which Onesimus had violated, he having led Onesimus to Christ then says you have to go back to your master from whom you have run and you have to go back into that service.
So he sends him back, sends along a letter, the epistle to Philemon. In that letter he pleads with Philemon to take back his slave, to do it because he cares about Paul, to take whatever he has done that is wrong and charge it to Paul's account.
In other words, given a perfect opportunity to say to Onesimus in a biblical letter, "Look, this is a good thing. This guy ran away and now he's converted because we've got to abolish slavery." But instead of doing that, he sends the buy back to fulfill his obligation as a slave. And so the Bible does not speak against the system, but it speaks to the issue of the heart. Receive him with love, receive him with forgiveness, receive him with mercy and compassion and charge his costs and his iniquities and his transgressions against my account. So he encourages them to make the system work.
So, when you're looking at slaves and masters, if the hearts are right you're looking to a very workable human system of contracted labor by which a person sold himself into the service of another person to offer them what they needed in behalf of a livelihood.
Furthermore, when we think of slave and master, we do not want to think negatively for the fact that the very term "slave"
has an intrinsic beauty and an intrinsic quality as made evident by the use of it on the lips of our Lord and the New Testament Apostles to describe a believer's relationship to God. In 2 Timothy, for example, 2:24 it says the slave of the Lord. Paul writing to Timothy really is calling Timothy the slave of the Lord, the doulos of the Lord. And that's one of a myriad of texts so using that term. The New Testament is filled with epistles that begin, "Paul, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ...Peter, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ...and so forth."
So, that was a beautiful term, a term of dignity, a term of submissive service that is given even greater dignity by being used metaphorically to speak of one's relationship to the Lord Himself. Beyond that, the term "slave" is used to speak of believer's relationship with others. In 1 Corinthians 9:19 Paul says, "In my efforts to win the lost, the lost people, I become the doulos of all that by any means I might win some." In other words, I have to see myself as a slave to the crying needs of lost men so that I can best serve those needs by caring compassionately for them and approaching them in a way that is acceptable to them.
Furthermore, in Galatians 5:13 Paul says as believers by love we are to be doulos one to another. So I am not only a slave to the unbeliever to serve his spiritual need but I am slave to my brother in Christ in love to serve his need as well.
So when you see the word "slave" here, you have to strip it of all of its kind of contemporary negative connotation and see here a workable employment relationship, one that can be well used as an illustration of one's relationship to God, one that speaks of how we ought to treat even unbelieving people as well as lovingly serve other Christians. So there's nothing wrong with then taking the term "slave and master" and translating them into what we would understand as employee and employer. And I want you to do that in your mind.
Now remember, Timothy is in Ephesus, right? Paul has come out of his imprisonment. In the time that he has been away, the Ephesian church has...has really fallen on hard times. It has declined tragically. Paul was its founder. Paul was its original pastor. Paul is the one who ordained and trained the original elders. The church had all the best beginnings. It was used to found other churches in Asia Minor, modern Turkey. It was a tremendously blessed and powerful church. But by now the leadership has corrupted, the people have bought into ungodly behavior. All kinds of tragic things are happening. It has filtered down to the life style of the people so that in the work place they are denying and blaspheming the testimony of God. And it is to that issue that Paul encourages Timothy to speak.
Let me give you the simple picture here. In verse 1 we have the relationship between an employee and a non-Christian employer. In verse 2, the relationship between an employee and a Christian employer. And the instruction in both of these verses has to do with having a right attitude and the reason why you're to have that attitude. And I think, in a sense, like all the rest of 1 Timothy it tends to be polemic, that is it tends to speak against something that is happening there. It's a battlefield, sort of.
Let me give you the illustration. A Christian slave, right?
He's employed by a non-Christian employer. He goes to work and he recognizes that he's a child of God, he's an heir of God, he's headed for eternal glory, he's going to heaven. God has selected him out of all the world to redeem him and he's excited about that. He has a lot of fleshy attitudes. He is a victim of the mood of the mob, as it were, in the church at Ephesus. And among their sins of expressing their fleshy disobedient attitude would certainly be the possibility of him being proud about his spiritual identity and thinking himself superior to an unregenerate supervisor, manager, employer, boss or whatever.
And that's typically what would happen.
Not uncommon even today. A Christian who is working under a non-Christian tends to feel superior. In fact, even intolerantly superior, even belligerently superior. And after all, he's headed for hell and you're headed for heaven, after all you're elect and he's non-elect. And you're going to make sure you try to keep it that way. And it's very easy for a person who is spiritually blessed to feel himself superior to a person who is spiritually bankrupt. And his attitude of superiority begins to project itself in the way he responds to and the way he lacks respect for and the way he serves or does not serve his employer.
It's easy for that resentment to build up and if the guy does things you don't like, says things you don't like, and you just don't get along very well, that tendency toward a feeling of superiority is compounded.
I read recently about some company that was putting on some kind of health preparedness course and was taking systematically all their workers through all different kinds of diseases in order to help them to recognize them so they didn't bring some infectuous disease into the work place. It was a large area with a lot of people in close contact. And the instructor was asking one person, "What's the first thing you do if you found you had rabbis?" Without hesitating the employee responded, "I'd bite my boss." And I think there are a lot of employees who can really relate to that sentiment. That's just really how it is out there.
As Christians we can be irritated by the unbeliever who doesn't understand us, who doesn't understand our ethics, who doesn't understand equity, who doesn't understand compassion or all of the spiritual things that we understand and we become by being a problem to him a discredit to Christ because if we are a problem to him, then the only Christ he may see is us and Christ becomes a problem to him.
On the other hand, let's assume that a Christian employee works for a Christian employer. You say, "Boy, I wish I had a Christian boss. Boy, wouldn't that be paradise? Wouldn't that be perfect if I just had a Christian employer?" But there's a tension there as well. The attitude of a Christian employee who is sinful and fleshy and expressing a belligerent or disobedient spirit may come out in the sense that he feels equal to his employer and so he overrides the normal channels of authority.
In other words, because my boss is a Christian and I'm a Christian, I'm privileged. As one employee said to me recently, "I don't go with any of that protocol stuff, you know, I know the boss and he and I are close because we're Christians. I go right to him and bypass everybody else." Well, your privilege, sir, is probably a serious discredit to the cause of Christ, right?
Because all the rest of the people who can't do that resent you because of your openness and the inability that they have to enjoy that same thing. You can feel privileged over all the rest because you have this commonality in Christ. You could even feel that that's an excuse for poor work and after all, you're a brother in Christ. The worst he can do is come and give you step one discipline and you've still got two to go. And if you repent on the first shot, you're in. You might even think to yourself, "That because we're equal in Christ and because the Spirit dwells in me, I ought to tell him how he ought to run this company. The Holy Spirit's been talking to me lately and giving me all the input." Or you might even feel that you could get away with inadequate service without any negative consequence, or you might even feel that you can let your break time and your lunch time leak a little because you're studying the Bible or even better yet, listening to Grace to You, and it happen to go on a little past the end of your break time.
I mean, you understand the picture, don't you? I mean, let's face it, in our sinfulness, working for an unsaved employer can create problems for us...an intolerant superiority. But listen, having a Christian employer isn't going to necessarily change that or a Christian boss, or supervisor or manager, because there's still going to be a tension there for us to assume that in Christ we have just destroyed all normal social order, and that's not true. Apparently that's exactly what was happening in the Ephesian congregation. Their ungodliness, their lack of eusebeia, uses that word a lot of times in these epistles, their lack of godliness, their lack of holiness, their lack of understanding correct doctrine, their lack of having been taught properly had filtered all the way down so that they were not conducting themselves right before their non-Christian or their Christian employers. And so consequently in these brief two verses the Apostle Paul sums up the basics of attitudes necessary for a conscientious Christian employee.
Let's look at, first of all, verse 1. And we'll just touch these, they're very simple and they'll speak, I'm sure, clearly to your heart as they do to my own. Serving a non-Christian master...first of all we look at attitude and then we look at the reason for it because attitude is always the issue. Action/work flows out of attitude.
Now I want to give it to you in the Greek order because I think it puts the right emphasis. So listen as we flow through the verse. It starts in the Greek text this way, "As many slaves as are under the yoke..." He introduces himself to the slaves, to the employees. The word "slave" again can be synonymous with employee. The phrase "under the yoke" does not necessarily indicate something abusive. It does not mean that they were really burdened or that they were browbeaten, or that he was unjust or unfair. It's simply a colloquialism to express a person's relationship of subjective...of subjected service.
Jesus used it in Matthew 11:28 to 30. He said, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am meek and lowly." He said, "My yoke is easy, My burden is light and you'll find rest for your souls." In a sense Jesus sanctified the yoke with those words. When we enter into service to Christ, we put the yoke on.
That's a big wooden instrument placed over the necks of animals to pull things, pull plows, pull wagons or whatever. And it's a symbol of service. It's a symbol of submissive service. And so what Paul is saying here is, "Any of you who are employed in a role of submissive service..." It does not connote anything abusive or negative in terms of the actual conditions of that service. It simply refers to all employees under the authority of someone else. And that certainly really involves vast...the vast majority of all of us. We all work for someone to one extent or another. We all are answerable or accountable to someone.
So, to all of you people who are answerable to the authority of someone else, who are serving under someone, first of all, I require this attitude... And the attitude is this, first he starts by saying, "Their own masters," he puts that first, "their own masters," the use of that little word "own", idion, is very interesting. It implies a very personal bonding. It's like Ephesians 5, their own husbands, their own wives. It's a term of intimacy. It's a term of bonding. And the Spirit of God sees you as in some sense bonded to your employer. You are called into your employment. And there you are called to serve men.
You're not called to serve yourself. Boy, we have lost that, as I said earlier. We think we have a job for one reason and that's to make money to do what we want for our ownselves. But the biblical approach to work would say, "No, we have a job on the human level to serve someone else, that my employment is my way of lovingly serving another person for the common good."
The Puritans were so heavy on that teaching. Teaching continuously that work was to be perceived for the common good, and never to be perceived as a way in which you indulged yourself. For example, the Puritan, William Perkins(?), said of work, quote: "The true end of our lives is to do service to God by serving men." John Calvin said, "We know that men were created to busy themselves with labor for the common good." And Perkins again said, "Every man for himself is wicked and directly against the purpose of every calling." And by the word "calling"
he meant employment. And Martin Luther spoke in scorn of people who did not use their talents in the service of their neighbor, but used them only for their own glory and advantage.
The perception of a biblical work ethic is that I am serving my own boss, my own employer to whom I am bonded in some kind of intimate relationship whereby I offer to him the service he needs and he provides for me livelihood. And there's a sense of intimacy there. So he says, "All of you who are in an employment relationship, your own master...and here comes the attitude he wants...let them count worthy of all honor." Let them count worthy of all honor. That means you are to count your employer worthy of all honor.
Now the word "to count worthy" is a verb that basically means to assess by objective criteria, not by internal feelings. You may not feel very drawn to your employer, you may not feel like honoring him, but the assessment of the position and the relationship demands respect due to one who is providing your livelihood. And you must keep in mind, number one, that I am serving him, I'm not serving me. As soon as you perceive your employment as self-serving, then you will fight against everything you do...everything you do will be self-serving, self- indulgence.
That's why people strike all the time. They don't care about the employment situation from the viewpoint of the employer. They don't certainly care about the attitude they project very often. All they care about is the demands that they have for themselves. Now there are times when inequities do occur and equity can be brought out even from the negative thing of a strike or whatever. But it does for the most part demonstrate the selfishness and the self-gratification mode in which most people work.
So he says, "Look, you are to make sure that because of your employer's position you rightly assess that position, the dignity of it, the provision he is making for you. And on the basis of that, consider him worthy of all honor," timos. By the way, you remember the use of that word, don't you, in chapter 5 verse 3 where we are to honor the widow that is really a widow? And in chapter 5 verse 17 where it talks about the elders that rule well being counted worthy of double time, it's the same word here.
Honor to widows meant respect and also remuneration. Honor to elders, respect and remuneration. And here it means respect and service for remuneration. So we are to offer honor, honor in the sense of respect and honor in the sense of work and diligence...all honor, all honor in every case, dutiful service and respect. Now keep in mind the focus here is just on unbelieving employers. He's not getting to the believing ones until verse 2 when he's very clear-cut about that.
Now someone's going to say, "All right, you're telling me that I'm supposed to go to work, see my job as sacred duty. That's the arena in which I'm to live out my Christianity. You're telling me that I am supposed to work not for my own gratification, not to fill up my own indulgences, not to please myself but I'm to work in order to serve that man's needs. And you're telling me that I'm to honor him and respect him in everything and I'm telling you the guy is a turkey. The guy is harsh. The guy is bitter. The guy is inequitable. He's unfair. He's unkind. He's unjust. He's unreasonable. And I don't like him."
And I'm saying good, that is even a better environment in which to prove your spirituality. What does it say in 1 Peter 2, let's look at it. First Peter 2 verse 11, and he's writing to believers who are out there in the world and it's hostile and they're being persecuted and they're suffering far more than we would experience even in our society, in many cases. And he says in verse 11, "Dearly beloved, I beg you as strangers and pilgrims," in other words, you're just passing through this world, "stay away from, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and have your conduct honest, upright with integrity among the pagans."
In other words, it's important how you live in the face of unbelievers. And then he goes from verses 13 to 17 to talk about how you live as a citizen, submit yourself to the ordinances of man, to the king, to the governors, to the police who are sent to the punishing of evil doers. Verse 17, you're to honor the king.
And then in verse 18 having talked about citizenship, he now talks about employment. "Servants or slaves, you employees, be subject to the masters with all fear...all reverence, all respect." Now listen to this one, "Not only to the good and gentle but also to the...what?...to the perverse."
You say, "Well, that's my boss, the perverse." Just a greater test, that's all. It doesn't eliminate the responsibility, it's just is a greater challenge. Even to a perverse one. "And this is worthy of thanks if a man for conscience toward God endures grief suffering wrongfully." In other words, if you get abused for your goodness, so be it, you are to be thanked...you are to be thanked. And then he goes on to give the illustration, "Who was it who suffered most for the greatest good?" Who's his illustration? Jesus Christ. You want to identify with the fellowship of His sufferings, then work to the very best of your ability with the right attitude and diligence and do the very best work you can do in the face of the most perverse boss imaginable and you will stand in the place where your Savior stood...if indeed you are abused in the midst of your goodness.
So, Peter doesn't let us off the hook. In fact he strengthens what Paul said to Timothy by saying it doesn't matter what kind of boss you have, you're to honor him. Now go back to 1 Timothy chapter 6.
The attitude is very clear, count your masters worthy of all honor. Let's look at the purpose, or the reason or the motive.
"In order that the name of God and His--implied--teaching or doctrine be not blasphemed." Blaspheme means to speak evil of.
In other words, the way you work relates to how people will perceive God and the gospel. The word doctrine no doubt refers to the gospel. Now if you work in such a way as to dishonor your employer, then you will bring reproach upon the name of God and the gospel. People will say, "What kind of a God do you have?
You're the one who serves that God and look at the way you live and look at the way you serve. What kind of a transforming message do you preach? You don't look too transformed to me."
In other words, how you live is a vital issue in the matter of evangelism. The name of God blasphemed, what a horrible thought. By the way, that thought is introduced in Scripture in Isaiah 52:5 where it says, "My name is being continually blasphemed all day long." Paul repeats it in Romans 2:24, accusing the Jews of naming the name of God buy in living in such a way that His name was blasphemed. And we could be accused of the same thing.
I received a letter from one of our members this week, a letter that was full of sadness as he pointed out to me people who he sees coming to church naming the name of Christ and going through the motions here but whom he knows out in the world who are totally from beginning to end from all appearances an utter discredit to everything that they affirm on Sunday. And it grieved his heart and it grieves my heart. And it grieves the heart of God. I mean, the place where the rubber meets the road is on the job, it's out there, it's your attitude in the home when you're cleaning house and doing the work. It's your attitude when you're providing the needs of your family. It's the attitude when you go to the shop or the plant or the school or whatever, what are you conveying to people? The way you work speaks of the reality of your God and the power of His gospel to change lives.
Look at Titus chapter 2 for a moment. And Paul is on the same issue. He says, "Exhort servants, or slaves, those who are in a relationship of employment to be obedient unto their own masters." Again it's that "own" again, used as it is in Ephesians 5 when it references a marriage. There again is that bonding idea. You be obedient to that one who is bonded to you.
You provide service, he provides livelihood. "And please them well." In other words, do your very best in everything..."Not answering back," keep your mouth shut. "And not pilfering," that means taking petty cash and etc., other things. "But showing all good integrity fidelity faith honesty in order that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,"
etc., etc.
In other words, God says how you work is going to expedite potentially the grace of the gospel. Boy, what a duty that enjoins upon us. What an incredible responsibility. At the end of verse 15 he says, "Keep teaching this and don't let anybody despise you for it." And I go right back to where I was at the beginning this morning, it's definitely on my heart. My passion is to see people won to Christ. My passion is to see this church grow and grow and grow with a cry of newborn babes who are coming into the Kingdom. That's my cry but I know that where that will happen with the most power and impact is not in the walls of this church but it is within the confines of where you work in the midst of unbelievers. It's the believability of that life in that place that speaks in a way that no preacher will ever ever be allowed to speak. The reputation of God is at stake. The reputation of the gospel is at stake. You say you belong to God and that's the way you work? You say you've been transformed by the saving power of Christ and you're not as good an employee as 15 other people who aren't Christians? You say you're motivated by the glory of God and they're motivated by money and money is a better motivator if job performance is the criteria?
Listen, if people who are trying to earn more and more money are more motivated than people who are serving God, then the people who are serving God ought to repent. There's a tremendous responsibility upon us to live out our Christianity in the marketplace. And by this we commend our God and we commend our gospel and we do our preevangelism work. We give no cause for anyone to blaspheme or speak evil of God and we give no cause for anyone to be negative on the gospel but rather for people to say, "What is it that causes you to give so much, to work so hard?"
It's because I seek that my God's name would be exalted and that His gospel would be seen as life-changing, life-transforming.
And the attitude that you project and the way you work and the quality of your work all is the arena in which you are living out your Christianity. And so, in a very real sense may I be so bold as to say that the people on your job who don't know God are probably better judges of your Christianity than we are because what we see is what you want us to see. That's the heart of evangelism. That is the heart of it.
You say, "Well, fortunately in my job I have a Christian employer." Well good, let's get to you in verse 2. What does it say? "And they that have believing masters." People say, "Wouldn't that be wonderful...if I only had a Christian boss, employer, manager, supervisor, or whatever? Wouldn't that be wonderful if I had a Christian?" Well, some folks do. "And they that have believing masters, those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, let them not despise them," kataphroneo, to think down. Let them not devalue them as employers, that is pull them down off of their authority position to make them equal with you. Don't rub out the line.
Yes, Galatians 3:28 says, "Neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek," but you and I know, right, there are still Jews, there are still Greeks, there are still males, there are still females, there are still employers and there are still employees. Spiritually speaking there is a quality but the social order, the sexual order is not totally overturned anymore than the racial order is totally convoluted.
People still exist as Jews or Gentiles as men or women and as employees and employers, those lines are not rubbed out. There is spiritual equality in Christ, sexually, racially, socially distinctions must be maintained. And so when the fact is you're a Christian you have a Christian employer, it doesn't give you license to abuse that. It doesn't mean you could take an extra break because you're doing your devotions. It doesn't mean you could be late to work because you had a Bible study. It doesn't mean you could do slipshot work and just tell him the Lord just didn't lay it on your heart that day...to do anymore than that, you just...you felt the prompting of the Spirit to pray on the job instead of work. No, you don't want to use those kind of foolish excuses.
So, he says the ones who have believing masters, I love this, "Let them not look down on them because they're brothers."
You say, "Well, why would you look down on someone who is a brother?" Only in the sense that you devalue their position as your authority, only in the sense that you pull them down and make them your equal and take the teeth out of their authority.
You remove the fear and the trembling that ought to be there in a relationship of a subordinate to one who is a superior. Maintain the right working relationship.
You don't have to say to yourself, "But after all, I'm a deacon, he's not even a deacon. I'm an elder, he's only a deacon. I teach a Bible study, I don't think he even goes to one." That kind of thing perverts the social order which needs to be maintained. So he says this, "Those who are believing masters should not be despised because they're brothers but rather...here comes the command, the first thing was attitude, don't look down on them, here's the reason...do them service all the more," the adverb means better or all the more, "because they are believing and beloved partakers of the benefit."
In other words, if you're going to give everything you have all the time to do your very best for the sake of the name of God and the gospel to an unbelieving master, then you ought to do all the more to one who is believing and beloved, a partaker of the benefit who is your own brother in Christ.
That's kind of an interesting thing. It's talking almost in hyperbole because if you're...if you're giving all honor to the unconverted, how can you give more than that to the Christian?
Well, it's just a way of emphasizing how much more should you want to serve with your whole heart one who is a Christian. Your inner attitude should be to want to serve the believer even greater than an unbeliever. The phrase there "do service" or literally let them serve is douloo, the verb form of doulos, the slave. Do your service and do it all the more or even better.
And it emphasizes submission with the word douloo. Stay in that role of submission and do it even better for that Christian boss.
Now how is our service to be done? Well, what is the nature of that? We're hearing here that we are to serve in a right attitude for the purpose of glorifying God, we are to serve in a right attitude a Christian master for the purpose of benefiting him because he's a brother. By the way, I might note that phrase "they are believing and beloved," I think that's one of the most beautiful statements of the identify of a Christian anywhere in Scripture...beautiful. Who are we? We are the believing and the beloved...the believing looks from man to God, the beloved looks from God to man, isn't that wonderful? Rather than saying we're Christians, we can say we are the believing who are beloved. We are the beloved of God because we are the ones who believe in His Son. And so he says since they are the believing and the beloved who partake of this benefit, that is the benefit of your work, those who are the beloved of God, you ought to give them greater service than you would give anyone else.
Now what is it that our service is really to be? How are we to do it? What's the nature of it? I'm just going to read two passages, Ephesians chapter 5...or chapter 6 rather, you need to have this in your mind. Just briefly, Ephesians 6:5, "Servants,"
here's the basic nature of how we are to work, "be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh (your human supervisors, employers) be obedient with fear (that's reverence), trembling (that's a healthy respect for their right to fire you, demote you, cut your pay, punish you or whatever)." So, you are obedient, you are reverent, you have healthy respect in singleness of your heart...that means you have undivided devotion to your job, you are not unstable, double minded, as James mentions that concept in a different context, but you are wholehearted, diligent, eager, anxious, aggressive, doing the work as unto Christ, verse 6, not with eye service, that is not only when you're being watched, not as men pleasers, that is not doing what you do simply that men might think you're great or good or better than others, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Your job is where God has places you, that's His will, do it from your heart and do it unto Him. You're serving men but in serving them best you serve God.
You always have to have that perspective. We're advancing the Kingdom. I'm here not to fulfill my own desires, not to make money, to indulge myself, not to get a bigger car, bigger house, bigger boat, more money, more savings, more security, whatever it is, my task in life is to serve the advance of the Kingdom of God. So on my job I don't lose my testimony in trying to get a raise because my objective in life is not more money, my objective in life is to advance the Kingdom of God so under no conditions would I ever lose my testimony, right?
In other words, perception of my job is critical. I am there to serve the needs of others with my whole heart. And at the same time see my service as service offered to God to His glory on His behalf to advance His Kingdom. And I will never do anything that would in any way detract from the advancement of His Kingdom. Certainly not to indulge myself...or to add some creature comfort that I think I need. I do what I do because it's the will of God. At the end of verse 6 he says, "Do it from the heart...do it from the heart." That means heartily, giving your very best, do quality work, excellent work. And then he says in verse 7, "Will good will doing the service as to the Lord and not to men." You're not doing it as if you were doing it only to them, but to the Lord. "Knowing...listen to this...that whatever good thing any man does, the same will he receive from the Lord whether he is bond or free."
Let me tell you something. When you go to receive your reward in glory, you will be rewarded not just for what you did at the church. I don't think people understand that. "Oh, I taught so many Sunday School classes...or I went on so many D.E.
groups...whatever." You will be rewarded for your service to Christ and the major portion of your service to Christ all your life long will be your...what?...your job. And the Lord will reward you on the basis of how you perform that job within His will because that is your calling and there's no such thing as a secular job. That's a sacred service offered to God. Your eternal reward will be related to your attitude and performance on your job.
Does that frighten you? You say, "There goes a few crowns."
I can understand that. Look at Colossians 3 which is the comparative passage, verse 22. Paul in writing to the Colossians says much the same because this was such great, great potential problem...such a great potential problem in the early church, that it's repeated 1 Timothy, Titus, Ephesians, Colossians and alluded to as we saw also in Peter's epistle. This matter of employment is crucial so Paul again writes, "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men pleasers, in singleness of heart fearing God, whatever you do do it heartily as to the Lord, not unto men, knowing that the Lord will be the one from whom you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ and he that does wrong will receive for the wrong which he's done and there's no respect of persons."
Boy, whoo...pretty straight stuff. Your eternal reward when you go to glory is related to your job performance. You think you have to fill out job performance things for your boss, wait till you get to heaven. God is keeping account of your job performance. As I said at the very beginning, this is the most crucial arena in the world for Christianity to be lived out.
So, back to 1 Timothy and we'll just wrap up our thoughts.
If you work for a non-Christian employer, you are to give him all honor due to one who is in the position of authority and is providing your livelihood in order that the name of God and the doctrine of the gospel might not be blasphemed or spoken evil against.
If you are working for a believing boss, you are not to think less of him as your boss or employer because he's also your brother but you are to serve him even more because he is believing and beloved and will partake of the benefit. In other words, you want so much to serve him because he's a brother in Christ. And your heart cries out to benefit another believer.
That's the attitude. You are serving others but only insofar as you're serving God. It would be fair, I believe, and the Puritans used to do this, to begin to call your job your calling. And to begin to see your calling as your ministry. And to begin to approach it as the arena in which God has placed you for the advancement of His eternal Kingdom and glory. Got that?
Boy, that ought to give you a whole new shot when you hit the bricks tomorrow. It's a whole different approach and I believe...I believe, beloved, with all my heart that if we began to live godly lives and work with an attitude and a diligence that the Lord is asking of us here, that we would begin to see a harvest of salvation among the people around us because this is where Christianity becomes believable. How wonderful would be the benefit and then in eternity that which the Lord has deemed to give to those faithful servants by way of reward which we could enjoy cast back at His pierced feet who has Himself by His Spirit energized any and every good thing we have ever done.
Let's bow in prayer.
Father, thank You for this practical, practical section of Scripture. It confronts us all. It pulls us up short. It gives us a sense of inadequacy. I recognize, Lord, it's been intense this morning, we've really covered a lot of thoughts and I just pray that Your Spirit will somehow get it beyond our minds, even beyond the point of conviction, even beyond the point of repentance to the point of change. It's my prayer for this dear people that they would go out into the world and do their sacred duty in the face of the watching unbelieving throng in such a way that they would adorn the teaching about God, that they would magnify the beauty of the transforming power of the gospel, that by attitude and word and act they would prove to be the world's best and most faithful at all that they do that they might bring glory to Your name.
And in those cases, Lord, where they have the privilege of working under a believer, that they would see the holy sacred joyous privilege of rendering their service on behalf of a brother beloved of God, that they would see the thrill of benefiting another whom Christ died to save. We thank You for the prospects of blessedness in this life and the life to come that obedience to these truth brings in the Savior's name. Amen.
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Arch Scraper was born about 1820-25 in Cherokee Nation East1 beside the Chattooga River near where it joined the Coosa River, in what is now Alabama, about a mile west of the Georgia border.
Some info on Henry Starr from the Indian-Pioneer Papers.
A Brief Biography of James Taylor, who removed to Indian Territory after the Trail of Tears.
• Cherokee Senator • Blacksmith • Farmer • Marble Champion • Patriot
Redbird Smith believed the greatest danger to the survival of the Cherokee as a culture was 'acculturation.' He feared the people would be absorbed into the ways of the white people around them and forget their own ways.
• missionary • printer • farmer • postmaster • central political figure
Read this biography on Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee syllabary.
The Cherokee Phoenix printed this account of Sequoyah, at the time of the introduction to the Cherokee Syllabary.
• Sheriff • Cherokee Senator • Farmer • Trail of Tears survivor


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"An allowance is not a salary or an entitlement. It is a tool for teaching children how to manage money." – Joline Godfrey
When our oldest child turned four years old, we started an allowance system. Each week, we gave him fifty cents per year of his age (so, $2 as a four year old). He had a piggy bank with four slots – one for spending, one for saving, one for giving, and one for investing.
At first, he mostly put money into the "spending" slot. We required him to put one quarter minimum in each slot, but after that it was up to him, so the remaining quarters were put in there to spend. He found lots of little things to buy at first.
After a while, though, he began to start appreciating the "saving" slot. He saved up for a $50 toy over the course of several months when he was five years old, which was truly impressive to myself and my wife.
His younger sister watched this and, when she turned four, she started an allowance as well. She didn't even really go through the "spending phase." She just started saving immediately for larger toys.
After a while longer, the children stopped asking for their allowance each week. They wanted us to keep track of the savings on the calendar by marking allowance days. They continued to set big savings goals – I remember our daughter saving for a giant LEGO Friends kit and our son saving money for a game – but it wasn't something urgent for them.
When I talked to them about this, they told me that they had lots of stuff already to play with, so there wasn't much that they wanted.
Lately, though, we've reached another point. They no longer even seem to be saving for goals. I asked them just yesterday if either one of them was saving their allowance for a specific goal. They said no.
I then asked them what they wanted to do with their allowance. They both wanted to split it up in some fashion among charity and investing.
They no longer have a desire to spend money just because they have some cash available to them. I could not be more proud.
Here's a confession: I would have never, ever done this at their age. If there was money available to me, I would have spent it on something. There was always a long list of items that I wanted.
I've been trying to figure out what the difference is between my situation and theirs. One part is that they have siblings close to their own age, giving them someone to play with at home instead of having to entertain themselves.
I think a much bigger part of it is how they spend their time. They don't watch much television at all, and what little they do watch is commercial-free stuff, so they don't really have a lot of commercial-fueled desires.
They mostly play outside when the weather is nice and build lots of LEGO castles and draw when the weather isn't so nice. This is more or less what we encourage them to do.
When they play with something, they usually play with it over and over and over again, exploring variations and mastery of it, instead of moving on to something else because, frankly, that's what they see us doing. Sarah and I have a small number of hobbies and we stick with them diligently.
Whatever the case, they've already seemingly mastered one of the hardest lessons of personal finance: managing and controlling personal desires.


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Penn-Temple Team Discovers Gatekeeper for Maintaining Health of Cell Energy Source
Available for logged-in reporters only
KEYWORDSMetabolic Disease, Mitochondia, Calcium
Newswise — PHILADELPHIA - Most healthy cells rely on a complicated process to produce the fuel ATP. Knowing how ATP is produced by the cell's energy storehouse – the mitochondria -- is important for understanding a cell's normal state, as well as what happens when things go wrong, for example in cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and many rare disorders of the mitochondria.
Two years ago, Kevin Foskett, PhD, professor of Physiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues discovered that fundamental control of ATP is an ongoing shuttle of calcium to the mitochondria from another cell compartment. They found that mitochondria rely on this transfer to make enough ATP to support normal cell metabolism.
Now, Foskett's lab and the lab of co-corresponding author Muniswamy Madesh, PhD, at Temple University, have discovered an essential mechanism that regulates the flow of calcium into mitochondria, described in the October 26 issue of Cell. They demonstrated that the mitochondrial protein MICU1 is required to establish the proper level of calcium uptake under normal conditions. Maintaining the correct levels of calcium in the mitochondria plays an important role in cellular physiology: Calcium flux across the inner mitochondrial membrane regulates cell energy production and activation of cell-death pathways, for example. In MICU1's absence, Madesh and Foskett found that mitochondria become overloaded with calcium, generating excessive amounts of reactive oxygen molecules and eventually cell death.
Decades in the MakingMitochondrial calcium has been studied for nearly five decades at Penn, starting with observations made by the late Britton Chance, the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics, in the 1960s, and physiologist Tony Scarpa, in the early 1970s. Calcium uptake is driven by a voltage across the inner mitochondrial membrane and mediated by a calcium-selective ion channel called the uniporter. While the proper level of calcium influx is required for mitochondria to produce enough ATP to support cellular processes, too much influx overloads mitochondria and is toxic. Because producing ATP generates a large negative voltage that attracts the positively charged calcium ion, mitochondria face an ongoing risk of becoming overloaded with calcium.
Mitochondria somehow manage to keep the concentration of calcium in the mitochondrial matrix at beneficial levels. Remarkably, these levels are 100,000 to a million times lower than expected if calcium was simply in equilibrium with the cytoplasm. The molecular mechanisms for how this is accomplished have remained unclear.
Foskett and Madesh discovered that MICU1 interacts with the uniporter calcium channel protein MCU and sets a brake for calcium uptake by the mitochondria. This regulation is essential to prevent an overload of calcium in the mitochondria and associated cellular stress.
Past Studies Until recently, the molecular identity of the uniporter was unknown. MICU1 was identified as a protein found at the inner mitochondrial membrane and seemed to be required for uniporter calcium uptake. Subsequently, MCU was identified as the likely ion-conducting part of the uniporter. MICU1 and MCU interact biochemically and their expression patterns are tightly coupled across tissues and species. Nevertheless, the relationship between them was unknown.
The Penn-Temple team found that loss of MICU1 leads to an accumulation of calcium in the mitochondria through MCU-mediated calcium uptake. Rather than being required for MCU-mediated mitochondrial calcium uptake, as previously thought, they found that MICU1 acts as the gatekeeper.
MICU senses the concentration of calcium in the matrix of the mitochondria, establishing a set point that prevents calcium uptake under normal, resting concentrations of calcium.
These findings reveal a previously unknown role for MICU1 in preventing an overload of calcium in the mitochondria. Foskett and Madesh speculate that the interaction between MICU1 and MCU may be an important site for regulating cellular bioenergetics and oxygen molecule signaling. They also suggest that disrupting the balance of the two molecules could lead to damage in neurons and cells of the heart, liver and other organs.
"Mitochondrial calcium is important for metabolic and cardiovascular functions, and maintaining this homeostasis is crucial," comments Madesh. "Cells lacking the set point will lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death."
"Our findings suggest new therapeutics in a variety of pathophysiological conditions," notes first author Karthik Mallilankaraman from Temple.
"If we could discover molecules or mechanisms to impinge on the biochemical or functional interactions of MICU1 and MCU, or to modify their activities, it may be possible that metabolic dysfunctions observed in many diseases could be manipulated with beneficial therapeutic outcomes," concludes Foskett.
The research was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Science; the National Institute of Mental Health; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (grants HL086699, HL086699-01A2S1, 1S10RR027327-01, GM56328, MH059937) as well as the American Heart Association and an NRSA Fellowship.
Other co-authors are César Cárdenas, Marioly Müller, Russell Miller, Morris J. Birnbaum, Don-on Daniel Mak, all from Penn; Karthik Mallilankaraman, Patrick Doonan, Harish C. Chandramoorthy, Nicholas E. Hoffman, Rajesh Gandhirajan, and Brad Rothberg, all from Temple; and Jordi Molgó from the Institut de Neurobiologie Alfred Fessard, Laboratoire de Neurobiolgie et Développement, France.
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $479.3 million awarded in the 2011 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital — the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2011, Penn Medicine provided $854 million to benefit our community.