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I want to draw your attention, this morning, to a special text of Scripture that is beloved to my own heart, and I am sure to the heart of many of us...2 Timothy chapter 2...2 Timothy chapter 2. God has put a high priority on leadership in His church. God has established very high standards for that leadership. You can even go back in to the Old Testament from the patriarchs on through the New Testament up until today, God has always had faithful men who were called and given gifts and responsibilities to lead His people.
The qualifications are high. They are demanding. They are difficult to fulfill. And yet they are crucial to the purposes of God. In Hosea the prophet said, "Like people, like priests." People do not rise higher than their leadership, generally. And where there is a real vacuum in leadership, there will be serious problems in the church.
I think most people understand that. Today there is a concern about leadership in the church. There are people who are very concerned that those who serve the Lord be stronger leaders, better leaders, more effective leaders. Numerous books have been written on the subject. There is even a preoccupation among some in the church with leadership books written by the secular world, somehow wanting to take principles and characteristics that make people successful in the secular environment and somehow transition them over to the church.
There's a lot of talk about what makes an effective leader in the world, and if we were to sort of sum up those characteristics the list would sound something like this:
Strong natural leaders are visionary. That is they can see beyond the moment, they can get the big picture and figure out a strategy to achieve the accomplishment within that vision.
Secondly, they are action-oriented. They're on the move.
Thirdly, they are courageous. To put it in another term, they are risk-takers. They're not afraid of the potential downside of things, they have the courage to march ahead against all opposition.
They are energetic. They maybe only sleep three or four hours a night. They're like someone with his finger plugged into a 220 socket . They wear us out with their endless energy.
And they are objective oriented rather than people oriented. People are only a means to an end, to be used or to be removed for the achieving of the objective.
Strong natural leaders are also paternalistic. They think they need to be the benefactor and the one in charge of everything and make everyone beholding to themselves. They are ego-centric. They are intolerant of incompetence. They are indispensable. And in today's world they are to some degree financially acute.
That's what seems to work in the world. That's what seems to be the characteristic of those driving kind of people who achieve immeasurable success. But the model really can't be transferred over to the church. In fact, God has a completely different pattern for His leaders.
Paul gives it to us in this chapter. And I want to take us through the whole chapter, jumping and skipping a little, to identify Paul's portrait of a leader. It helps us to sort of go back to where we started and regrip the identity that we must maintain as spiritual leaders. He's writing his last epistle before his death. He's writing it to his protege, his young son in the faith, Timothy, who is in his thirties at this time. Timothy, to whom Paul will give the responsibility largely for carrying on the work in the churches that he himself began, and at this particular time Timothy is in a down experience, in fact he's in a rut.
As Paul begins this letter to him he is aware that some things have gone wrong in Timothy's life. He reminds him in chapter 1 and verse 6 "to kindle afresh the gift of God which was in him." Apparently he wasn't teaching, he wasn't preaching as he should have been. He allowed his gift to fall in to disuse because of tremendous pressure. He was in the Ephesian church, there were all kinds of problems. He was supposed to straighten them out. He was running into a lot of opposition from the leadership of that church trying to replace the existing elders was a great challenge. He was running into resistance among the people who did not want to conform to godliness. He was battling the threat of persecution by the Roman government outside the church, against the church. And being himself linked with the apostle Paul was not good for his reputation, the Romans knew Paul well, being a prisoner there at the very time he wrote.
He was also confronting some very sophisticated Ephesian error for which he didn't feel he had a good apologetic or polemic and he felt a little beaten up by the subtleties of the current philosophy. He was young and there were people looking down on his youthfulness. All of that had caused him to reach this place where he let his gift fall into disuse. In fact, in verse 7 he even had a spirit of fear or cowardice, or timidity. Verse 8, Paul has to tell him, "don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, His prisoner, but join me in suffering." He really was trying to avoid any persecution at all, and to do that he had to silence himself with regard to his identity and his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the apostle Paul. Down in verses 13 and 14 we even have indication that he was holding the truth rather loosely. Paul says, "Retain the standard of sound words," and in verse 14, "guard the treasure which has been entrusted to you." Hold on to sound doctrine.
I think the sum of all of that in chapter 1 leads us to the conclusion that this was a down time of significant character in Timothy's life. And it was a frightening time for this to be happening because Paul was about to exist and Timothy was to take up the work and needed to be the leader that God wanted him to be. It is with that in mind, that weakness in Timothy's life, that Paul starts out chapter 2 with these words, "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Strong, not in your natural talents, and Timothy certainly had some. He may have been very winsome naturally. He may have been able to articulate naturally. He may have been a fairly good public speaker. He may have had some passion and some zeal in his personality. He might have had some fine, natural gifts.
But this calls for something more than that. His strength must be in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. He is going to have to look for enabling grace. He is going to have to seek some supernatural power to get back to the place of leadership where God wants him and needs him to be.
Now as the chapter unfolds after verse 1, Paul outlines seven pictures of a great spiritual leader...seven pictures of the pastor, the elder. They're very, very clear.
The first one is in verse 2 and it is the picture of a teacher. In wanting to show to Timothy what the leader looks like, he gives him vivid pictures, word pictures. The first one, verse 2, "And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." The operative word in the verse is "teach...teach." It taught you, you teach them, they'll teach others. Timothy, you are a teacher. Spiritual leadership starts at that point. That is the first and foremost priority in spiritual leadership, the imparting of truth, divine truth, transmitting the truth to others. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 7 we read this, "Remember those who led you," and then immediately it defines what that meant, "who spoke the Word of God to you." That is primarily how we lead. We who are in spiritual leadership lead by dispensing the Word of God. We are called to be teachers and preachers of God's truth and to produce teachers and preachers for the next generation.
A deposit had been given to Timothy. It was a deposit of truth, a deposit of sound words. Paul called it, as I noted earlier in chapter 1 verse 14, a treasure. He calls it basically back in verse 20 of chapter 6 the trust, he says, "Guard what has been entrusted to you." You have a trust, you have a treasure. You have a treasure of sound words, sound doctrine, the Scripture. It has been deposited with you as a trustworthy, reliable, faithful man. I gave it to you, and you need to entrust it to other faithful men who will be able to teach others also. It needs to go from you into multiplication. This is the first priority of spiritual leadership, it is the divine truth that must be transmitted to others, apostolic doctrine as it was called in the book of Acts, studied, understood and transmitted.
In Acts chapter 20 as the apostle Paul met with the Ephesian elders at Miletus, he said to them in verse 28, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the church of God....to feed the church of God." That's what we do is feed the church of God.
In order to do that effectively, he points out that they themselves must be nourished up, that they must be committed to the Word that is able to build them up. So this whole process of Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others is a process of teaching.
In Colossians chapter 1, at the end of that great chapter, Paul speaking of Christ says, "And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ." What brings a person to completeness in Christ? What brings a person to maturity in Christ? Teaching...teaching every man with all wisdom brings a person potentially to the place where they can be complete in Christ.
In 2 Timothy also chapter 3 verse 16, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work," same term, that the man of God may be perfect or mature. It is the Word of God taught, applied to the heart that brings about the maturing.
And so, Paul says to Timothy, "You are first and foremost a teacher." In Ephesians 4 he says the pastors and evangelists are giving to the church for the perfecting of the saints. We bring them to perfection by means of the Word which is able to build them up. Peter said, "Desire the Word as a baby desires milk that you may grow by it." And so we are committed to take the Word of Christ and put it into their hearts so it dwells there richly, and as a result they will have joy and speak in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and they will praise the Lord and thank Him for what happens in their lives and they will submit to one another and marriages and families will be as they should, and so will other relationships as unfolds in that great third chapter of Colossians.
In Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 8 it says, "They read the Scripture and gave the sense of it," and that's what we do. We read the Scripture and we teach its meaning. You cannot substitute for that. That is the heart and soul of spiritual leadership.
When Jesus was restoring Peter in John 21, He asked him three times if he loved Him, three times Peter responded and three times Jesus said, "Feed My sheep." If you're committed to Me, if you're called to ministry, feed the sheep. And man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That tells us that we teach the Scripture. In chapter 4 He says, "Preach the Word."
So Paul's first picture of the leader of the church sets out these essential qualities. He must be a diligent student of the biblical message and able to articulate its teachings. He must be loyal and faithful to that message in his own life. He must be actively involved in equipping others so that they also can teach.
Second picture is that of a soldier in verses 3 and 4, "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of every day life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier." Here is another metaphor, another word picture with regard to spiritual leaders and it is that we are seen as soldiers. Paul, you remember, back in 1 Timothy 1:18 urged Timothy to war a good warfare. And Scripture sees the leader as one engaged in war. We realize that, we are involved as we noted last Sunday from 2 Corinthians chapter 10 in fighting warfare, not with fleshly weapons but with divinely powerful weapons, and with those weapons we are literally demolishing fortresses. And what are those fortresses? Speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are armed, as Ephesians 6 said, as we battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. In other words, the whole demonic host and all of the ideologies that proceed from them. We are engaged in war. War means suffering, war means pain, war means difficulty. And so in verse 3 Paul says, "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus."
The verb literally means "to suffer bad treatment, mistreatment, maltreatment." He says, "Come alongside all the rest of us, you're not the only one." Have a readiness to suffer. Ready to take your share of rough treatment. So committed to the battle for truth, so committed to take the Word of God which is our divinely powerful weapon and with it assault the fortresses of humanity and demonic powers and to take what comes.
I'm sure many men wash out of leadership right here. They see it as a path to ease, or a path to glory and aren't willing to see it as warfare and take their share of pain. God is not interested in primadonnas but true soldiers who are willing to suffer. I remember my father when I first came into the ministry told me that it would be a time of great suffering, I needed to get ready for it, there would be many trials and difficulties in my life. The first year that was not the case and I asked him, "When is it going to start?" And he said, "Just be patient," and he was right. And it started and I have been through it all through these years, whether it is battling someone who is full of demons, whether it is being disappointed that someone you have discipled faithfully has walked away from the faith, whether it is being falsely accused and assaulted, whatever it is, whether it is, as it were, struggling over the souls of the lost that you battle the kingdom of darkness, whether it is battling error in the church and trying to get back to a sound doctrine...it's always some battle or another. Spiritual leadership is a warfare, it is not for those who seek ease, it is for those who are willing to be soldiers.
When you ask Paul, "What are your credentials, Paul?" He doesn't give you a list of his academic accomplishments, he doesn't give you a list of his degrees, he doesn't tell you what books he wrote, or what articles and the journals he wrote, he doesn't tell you what awards he's got, or plaques on his wall. He says, "If you want to know whether I'm an apostle, here are my credentials. I have been in far-more labors and far-more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep, I have been on frequent journey in dangers from rivers, robbers, countrymen, Gentiles, in the city, in the wilderness, on the sea among false brethren. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from such external things there's the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches." Those are my credentials.
"I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ." He had scars all over because of the stones and the whips and the rods that struck him. He was willing to be offered on the sacrifice of someone else's salvation. He was willing to suffer for their sake, as he said in Colossians 1:24. Being a soldier is being a leader and being a spiritual leader involves self-sacrifice, endurance, vigilance, obedience, and loyalty.
In verse 4 he says, "No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of every day life." In other words, you stop being a civilian. The recruit who comes into the military today is given a brief time to get his affairs in order. He disposes of all his commitments and is only a soldier. He is freed up from everything to devote all his time, all his energy, all his effort, all his thought, all his skill to being a soldier. He just cuts himself off from the past...total devotion to the duty he's been called to. And then at the end of verse 4, it tells us that he does what he does to please the One who enlisted him as a soldier. You can't be a man pleaser, that will paralyze you. He pleases the One who called him to be a soldier.
Paul was a man pleaser for a long time...all of his life, really, until his conversion. In Galatians 1:10 he says, "Am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men I would not be a bondservant of Christ." You can't be both. You can't please men and be the slave of Jesus Christ. You can't be a soldier committed to please your commander and be a man pleaser. First Thessalonians 2:4 makes it very clear Paul's commitment to service. He says this, "We have been entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men but God who examines our hearts." You have to answer to the Commander and to Him alone. Serving the Lord, Paul said in Acts 20:19, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, serving the Lord with many plots against my life.
Summarizing the soldier then, the spiritual leader must hear God's call, join the battle, break all ties with the world. The spiritual leader is willing to accept suffering as his Lord suffered, and other soldiers have suffered through the years, even to the degree that we heard in that song, "Though he slay me, I will serve the Lord." And the spiritual soldier is totally concerned with gaining his commander's approval.
The third picture that Paul gives us is in verse 5, and it is the picture of an athlete. "Also if anyone competes as an athlete," he reminds Timothy, "he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules." Games, obviously, were a great part of Greek and Roman life as they are of our life in this time. The verb here in verse 5, "if anyone competes as an athlete," is the Greek word athleo. It means to strive, it means to agonize, it means to compete. It is a word of devotion and discipline and passion. And he is saying you've got to look at ministry like an athlete looks at an Olympic event, the dedicated athlete who is wholly absorbed in his pursuit, who will settle for nothing less than his best, who wants success and victory. In other words, you can't approach ministry listlessly in a half-hearted way. You can't approach it as a part-time deal, as a come-and-go, give-and take. It takes everything, all you are and have and hope to be...everything. That's how you win, that's how an athlete competes. An athlete who doesn't compete like that is dishonored.
Then he says, secondly, he does not win the prize. In other words, he's saying here that the athlete competes with a prize in mind that he wants to win. He wants to be triumphant. You know, what really separates the greatest athletes from the good ones is desire and self-control. The ability to focus on a goal with such devotion and focus and singlemindedness that you can completely control everything around you to achieve that end. That's the difference. The talent level is much the same when you get to the pinnacle of athletics. What separates the great from the good is that passion and that drive that takes them pass the others because they stripped themselves of all the encumbrances. They want the prize...they want the goal.
Paul says, "Timothy, you have to compete with all the devotion and discipline and focus of a great athlete who really wants to win more than anything, who really wants to hear, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' Who really wants to receive the runner's crown."
But...end of verse 5...you have to compete according to the rules or you can't win. In all games there are rules. In all races there are rules. You can't break the rules and win. So it is not only a matter of self-discipline in your preparation and training, it is a matter of self-discipline in your running, in your competing. You must compete nomimos, lawfully. Mere effort is not enough. It has to be effort within God's tolerances.
The man who runs with all his might and all his energy and all his strength toward the prize will only receive it if he keeps the rules. This is a very serious race and God has very high standards. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, "I beat my body into submission lest in preaching to others I myself would be disqualified." I don't want to be disqualified. I don't want to break the rules.
The athlete operates on self-discipline, self-control, self-denial. Times come when you want to quit the training and you want to drop out, but you can't. Something drives you. You go through that struggle. You keep going through that struggle. It's just in you.
I was talking to a professor of preaching years ago and he said to me, "I never met a powerful preacher, a successful preacher in my life who wasn't competitive."
I said, "What do you mean by that?"
He said, "I don't mean competitive against other preachers, I mean competitive against his own weakness, his own ignorance, his own sinfulness, his own lack of priorities, his own laziness. If you can't win the battle there, you can't win the race." Somewhere along the line you learn that driving, compelling attitude that takes you right to the goal.
Summing that up, the spiritual leader must be one who is willing to compete with all his strength, must be one who really wants to win, motivated by a future reward not present pleasure, must be one with strong self-discipline, willing to conform to God's standards without letting up. The fourth picture that Paul gives is that of a farmer in verse 6. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Now this is a wonderful picture again of the spiritual leader that Paul wants Timothy to be. He's giving him pictures so he can visualize he is to be as a leader. And he says you're to be a farmer, a hard-working farmer who brings in the crop and who shares in it. Hard-working is from kopiao, it means to work to the point of exhaustion and weariness. You have to understand that being a spiritual leader, being a pastor, one who serves as an elder is hard work, it's hard labor to the point of exhaustion and weariness.
Farmers know about that, so do faithful pastors. Farming essentially is an unglorious hard work. Digging in the dirt a lot, just like pastoring. It's hard work. It's expected to be hard work. And you expect that because it's hard work, look at verse 6, the farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Deiin the Greek indicates this is an absolute necessity. It is absolutely necessary that the farmer get to feed off his own efforts or he's not going to be able to keep being a farmer. The picture here is very, very interesting. The farmer toils to produce food for others but in order to do that he's got to be able to feed himself. And that's...that's the point here.
Before the pastor can work to produce food for others through his study and his teaching, he has to first have his own soul nourished in the doing. Before he can give food to anybody else he has to have some for himself. This to me is the great reward of teaching. The great reward of teaching is that I get to eat myself. My own spiritual life is nourished. According to 1 Timothy 4, a pastor is to be nourished up on the words of the faith and sound doctrine. And when you're nourished up, then you have the energy to plant and harvest for somebody else. When it doesn't happen, the pastor dries up and so will everybody else.
An undernourished farmer can't plow a field, can't tend a crop, can't bring in a harvest. A weak and sickly farmer can't do that. A strong robust well-fed farmer can plow and harvest so others can eat. The most important thing in my life as a pastor is my own personal time with God in His Word. Unless my own soul is fed, yours really can't be. And that is the discipline of study and learning. And that's why I stay in this church. In part there are a number of reasons, that's one reason because I don't want to go somewhere else and be tempted to preach old sermons. I cannot preach old sermons here because we have old people here who have heard them. That just keeps me fresh, which is keeping me in the Word. And as my soul is nourished and fed and made strong by the Word, then I can feed you. There are plenty of people sitting in churches with undernourished and weak pastors, unfed themselves with nothing to bring to their people.
There's something else about the farmer that is unique to farming and that is that he has to be patient for the crop to come in. A painter paints and when he's done painting the painting is done. A builder builds and when the building is done it's done. A car mechanic fixes a car and when it's fixed, it's fixed. But a farmer plants and waits and operates by faith because he's taken all of his money, bought seed and thrown the seed in the ground knowing it's going to die. And he has the faith in the reproductive power of decomposed seed that it's going to come alive in another crop. But he has to wait.
That's something very inimitable to ministry. You don't get instant gratification in the ministry, folks. It takes a long time. You have to patient with disappointments, you have to be patient with failures, you have to be there over the long haul. That's one of the wonderful things about staying in the same place a long time is eventually the crops come in and you get in on the harvest. And what a joy that is. We sow the good seed, sometimes we see no immediate results, sometimes it takes so long, but the farmer is patient and gentle, he's not abusive, doesn't pressure people, he doesn't force them into molds and try to make them something with external pressure. He waits patiently for the Word to do its work.
So, when we look at the farmer, what do we see in this fourth metaphor? The spiritual leader must be willing to work hard, must, first of all, nurture his own soul in the Word and then be patient for the results in the lives of other people. That takes us to number five in this chapter down in verse 15.
And here we come to the workman, or better translated, the craftsman, ergaten(?), the worker, the craftsman. "Be diligent, or literally, do your best to present yourself approved to God as a workman, a craftsman." It's quite an interesting thing in this context to comment before we read any further.
The verses around this verse sort of feature the idea of talking. Back in verse 14 we are reminded to charge people not to wrangle about words which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. And down in verse 16, on the other side of this verse, to avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness.
What is this saying? This is saying we're not just talkers, we're not just people who stand up and talk, we are craftsmen who handle accurately the word of truth to the degree that we don't need to be ashamed of the way we've handled it and we can present it to God and know it will be approved. We're not talkers, we're not verbal quibblers. We're craftsmen if we're obedient to God. God didn't call us just to get up and talk, but rather to be craftsmen who take the word of truth and handle it with great precision so that we don't need to bear any shame for any misrepresentation but rather can present it to God for His approval. Approved is dokimos, you know that word all through the New Testament that means "to stand the test." We take our sermon and to whom do we offer it? To God. I've learned through the years that you're a very gracious and loving and kind congregation, and you're prone constantly to thank me and show appreciation for the message, and I do appreciate that. I cherish that. That encourages my heart. But the fact is God is the one who knows best the character of my heart as I preached, the character of my effort as I prepared and the singularity of my commitment as I preach. God knows that better than anybody knows it. And sometimes when you think I'm really good, He may know I wasn't that good. And sometimes when you think I'm mediocre, He may think it was better than you even understood it to be. But God is the one to be concerned about.
Can I stand the test with Him? I have to be a craftsman and my trade is to handle accurately the Word of truth. I have to have tools to do that. That's why we have seminaries. That's what I am, I'm a craftsman. And I've been given tools. And then I have to have knowledge and understanding and a plan and diligent effort to take those tools and build something that I can offer to God knowing it will please Him.
"Handling accurately" actually translates a verb that means "to cut something straight." It's used of cutting a pattern straight. For example, a tentmaker might have a pattern for his tent, he'd cut the material and then fit it together. It's used of a farmer plowing a straight furrow. It's used of a straight line of bricks laid by a mason. It's used of a straight road built.
In other words, no wavering, no wandering. It's done right. It's cut straight, no deception, no huckstering, no deviation, great precision. How we handle the Word of truth is here indicated to us. We are to handle it accurately, with precision.
So what do we find out then about the craftsman, the workman? He is accountable to God for approval on all his work. That demands that we do our best, that we never be ashamed of anything we have done, we be careful in the handling of God's Word which comes down to less talk and more work. And that probably means less talk during the week and more work. We would like to just be available to everybody for every conversation, but we can't be.
You know, solitude is the friend of the gifted preacher. We spend a lot of time in the crowd but we have to spend a lot of our time alone in the Word.
Well, number six, the next part of Paul's picture of a leader is the image of a vessel, skeuosin the Greek, a pot, a pan, some kind of utensil. It's in verse 20 and 21 that I draw your attention. "Now in a large house," we're talking here about a great house, a house with some wealthy, "there are not only gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, or clay, and some to honor and some to dishonor, therefore if a man cleanses himself from these things he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master prepared for every good work."
Now we want to be a vessel that is useful. If I have my choice between being wood or clay, and being gold or silver, I think I would choose the gold or silver, I want to be useful. Now the picture here is extremely graphic and I don't want to get too graphic with it but say enough so you'll get the picture here.
In a great house you have two kinds of utensils here...the gold and silver vessels would be the ones that were used for eating, that were brought into the dining room on which the food was served, with which it was prepared in this wealthy house. But then there were vessels of wood and earthenware. You will notice that in verse 20 it says the gold and silver were for honorable uses...honorable uses. The wood and earthenware were not just for common uses, he's not talking about just common use, they are for dishonorable uses.
In an ancient house you had honorable things and dishonorable things. You still do in your house. You have that which comes to the table, and then you have that which goes away from the table, the waste in all the various forms that it takes in the house. That's why you have plumbing in your house. But in ancient days they didn't. They had utensils for the waste, the garbage, the filth of the house. They were made of wood and clay.
Now verse 21 says, "If you want to be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work," verse 21, "then you have to be cleansed." He doesn't use a filthy utensil. Cleansed...you say...from what? The end of verse 19, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from...what?...wickedness." Back to verse 16 and 17, worldly empty chatter that leads to ungodliness, talk that spreads like gangrene, like Hymenaeus and Philetus who led people astray because they taught error about the resurrection. Whether it's the filth of false doctrine or the filth of personal iniquity, if you're not cleansed of that stuff you cannot be a vessel fit for the master's use, prepared for every good work.
There are within the framework of the kingdom dishonorable vessels. Paul would certainly be identifying them with his word "castaway"...tested and found useless because they're not pure from false teaching and they're not pure from iniquity.
So Paul is adding some more qualifications for a spiritual leader here. He must be sanctified, pure in his own personal life and set apart from heresy and false teaching, clean, prepared, useful to his master. God is not going to carry the pure gospel in a garbage pail, He'll carry it in a clean clay pot, as 2 Corinthians 4 indicates, but not in a vessel used for dishonorable purposes. That's why Paul beat his body into submission.
And then lastly is the slave. By the way, as a footnote to the point prior, look at verse 22. This is why Paul says to Timothy, "Flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness and a pure heart." That fouls up so many people in the ministry, don't have a pure heart, don't pursue righteousness, don't run from lusts.
Then he comes to the slave, the last one, the slave. After the vessel, the vessel that's pure comes the slave. And this is wonderful because when it's all said and done in spiritual service, in the end we are servants, aren't we? We are bondslaves. And so in verse 24 he says, "And the Lord's bondservant," doulos, "must act like a bondservant. Don't be quarrelsome, don't be contentious and combative and abusive and overbearing and don't be argumentative, just take your task and humbly serve." There's no honor in a quarrelsome servant, "But be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition."
All of that is the spirit of a servant...patient, kind, not argumentative, gentle. Oh we have to correct, but we do it with the gentleness and meekness of Christ. That word "gentleness" there is actually the word "meekness." We're always humble, always meek, we always come with a gentle spirit. We are patient when wronged and we are kind to all, and quarrelsome (I think he means not quarrelsome). And then there's this one qualification, it shows up every time you have a list of qualifications for a pastor. First Timothy 3, Titus 1, 2 Timothy 2, "He must be able to teach." And we come right back to where we started, didaktikos, a skilled teacher, capable of and willing to impart truth with the spirit of a servant.
No contentious, not combative, not overbearing, not lording it over the flock, not abusing them, not taking advantage of them, not manipulating them, not intimidating them, but serving them humbly. Willing to work in submission to the master as a slave and maintaining the spirit of gentleness, kindness, meekness, even when attacked as you faithfully and ably teach the truth. That's what we do.
Well, God wants leaders. And we ask ourselves, "Am I a candidate?" Let me sum up, you ask yourself if you're a candidate.
Am I a diligent student of the biblical message and able to articulate its teaching?
Am I loyal and faithful to that message in my life?
Am I actively involved in the training and equipping of additional teachers?
Have I heard the Lord's call and am willing to join in the battle no matter what the cost?
Am I willing to suffer the hardships involved?
Have I separated from the world and its activities so that I have a singleminded commitment?
Am I totally concerned with gaining Christ's approval and not man's?
Am I strongly self-disciplined, willing and able to conform my life to God's standards without letting up all the way to the end?
Do I desire above all to win His approval?
Am I motivated by future reward rather than present pleasure?
Am I willing to work hard and exhaust in toil, careful first to nurture my own soul and be patient for the results in the lives of my people?
Am I eager to be accountable to God for His approval and inspection on my work?
Do I desire to never be ashamed of anything I offer to Him? Am I careful to handle His Word without error or distortion?
Am I committed to talk little and study much?
Have I been cleansed from evil?
Am I available, ready?
Have I distanced myself from false teaching?
Am I a servant willing to submit my will to my Master's?
Do I possess the right spirit no matter what happens to me?
This is leadership. You say, "Boy, God's standards are high." That's right. And after preaching this sermon twice this morning, I think I'll resign. Who could live up to this? It is our goal, it is our desire, it is our passion, but we all falter. And when we falter we have to go back to chapter 2 verses 7 and 8 where we'll end this morning.
When we falter we go back there. And verse 7, "Consider what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." Paul is saying...Go back and look at these things and get another grip on them." This is something you have to go back to over and over again. Go back and the Lord will give you an understanding of these things. Regrip these great truths. Remember the standard, is what he's saying.
And then verse 8, I love this, "Remember Jesus Christ." What does that mean? What that means is you're not alone. "Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead"...why does he say that? That notes His deity and His power. "Descendant of David," that notes His humanity and His compassion. Remember Jesus Christ who rose from the dead and has the power to make you the man He wants you to be, remember Jesus Christ descendant from David who was man and has the sympathy to understand your failures.
This is leadership and when you falter go back and remember the standard and then remember Jesus who is the power for the keeping of it and who is the sympathetic High Priest for the sympathy in all our failures.
Father, we thank You this morning for Your Word to us. We know that in the very next chapter, and the very next verse Paul said, "Realize this that in the last days difficult times will come." It must have been difficult in Timothy's time to follow this pattern, maybe it's even more difficult now since evil men get worse and worse. But, Lord, we know what the standard is and we have gone back and we ask You to give us understanding in everything. And we remember Jesus Christ, we labor in His strength, not our own. We labor in His resurrection power, not our own. We are strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, not our own. And so thankful that He as a descendant of David came into the world as a man and was in all points tempted like as we are and is a sympathetic high priest who has been touched with the feelings of our infirmities, understands our weakness and our failure and compassionately lifts us up.
O God, how we pray that You'll make all of us who are in spiritual leadership what You want us to be for Your glory and the honor of Your Son whom we love and in whose name we pray. Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text: All level populations are affected by collision rates to and from the superlevels. These rates are calculated by fitting to more complete population kinetic calculations involving hundreds of levels; these fits are valid only up to (electron) densities of 10 cm. Attempts to use densities greater than this will result in the code stopping with a message.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Portfolio Manager:
|Mario J. Gabelli, CFA
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XBRL Files
The Fund may invest in foreign securities. Investing in foreign securities involves risks not ordinarily associated with investment in domestic issues including currency fluctuations, economic and political risks. The Fund may invest in small and mid capitalization securities. The Gabelli Enterprise Mergers and Acquisitions Fund is a non-diversified fund, which means that it can invest in a limited number of issuers.
The Fund may use derivatives. Use of derivatives pose special risks and may not be suitable for certain investors. Derivatives may be riskier than other types of investments because they may respond more to changes in economic conditions than other investments. Effective March 11, 2008, Gabelli Funds LLC became the Investment Adviser for the Fund. Previously, an affiliate (GAMCO Investors, Inc.) was the sub-adviser.
The Fund's share price will fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund's portfolio securities. Stocks are subject to market, economic and business risks that cause their prices to fluctuate. When you sell Fund shares, they may be worth less than what you paid for them. Consequently, you can lose money by investing in the Fund.Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus, which contains more complete information about this and other matters, should be read carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus, please call 800-GABELLI or visit www.gabelli.com.
The Gabelli Mutual Funds are distributed by G.distributors, LLC., a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA.


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Ready to Teach (V-D-8)
Teacher preparation and professional development are important to increase student performance. Internet and other telecommunications-based professional development can provide research-based professional development on an ongoing basis to teachers in a variety of locations to help improve teaching and learning. For example, studies of educational technology effectiveness report that teacher expertise in using technology can substantially increase the learning gains associated with using the technology. While 80 percent of public school teachers reported in 1999 that they had access to training in use of the Internet, evaluations report that much of the current professional development is too short and not well integrated with ongoing instruction.
The Ready-To-Teach program provides grants to a nonprofit telecommunications organization or a partnership of such organizations to carry out national telecommunications-based programming to improve teaching in core curriculum areas. In addition, Digital Educational Programming Grants under this subpart support the development of educational programming that includes student assessment tools to provide feedback on student academic achievement.
How It Works
The Ready-To-Teach program provides grants to eligible entities on a competitive basis. The Digital Educational Programming Grants program requires a match of not less than 100 percent of the amount of the grant for three years. In addition, these grants support development of educational programming that includes student assessment tools to provide feedback on student academic achievement, with built-in teacher-support components to ensure that teachers understand and can use the programming for student instruction. Educational programming and materials are to be created for, or adaptable to, state academic content and achievement standards.
Key Requirements
Grantees will use public broadcasting, the Internet, and school digital networks where available, to deliver video and data in an integrated way. Grantees must train teachers to use materials and learning technologies to achieve challenging state academic content and achievement standards. In addition, grantees must ensure that the project will be conducted in cooperation with appropriate state education agency (SEA), school district, and state or local nonprofit public telecommunications entities. Grantees also must ensure that a significant portion of the benefits available to schools will be available to schools in districts that have a high percentage of children eligible for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies.
How Performance Is Measured
Grantees will prepare and submit to the U.S. Department of Education an annual report that, at a minimum, will describe activities undertaken, including core curriculum areas, the number of teachers using the program in each core curricular area, and the states in which teachers using the program are located.


text: Northwestern University is one of the country's leading private research and teaching universities. It has two campuses located on Lake Michigan: the 240-acre main campus in Evanston, about 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, and a 25-acre campus in Chicago. A third campus is located in Doha, Qatar. Northwestern has approximately 8,000 full-time undergraduate students, 8,000 graduate and professional program students and 2,000 part-time students. A member of the Big Ten conference, its athletic teams are called the Wildcats. Founded in 1851, Northwestern now has 12 schools and colleges: the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences; the School of Communication; the School of Continuing Studies; the School of Education and Social Policy; the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science; the Graduate School; the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications; the School of Law; the J. L. Kellogg School of Management; the Feinberg School of Medicine; the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music; and Northwestern University in Qatar.


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Distance from Delaware Water Gap, PA to New Bloomfield, PA
Driving distance between Delaware Water Gap, PA and New Bloomfield, PA is 143.35 miles (or 230.71 kilometers). If you drove an average car (using about 3.6 gallons of gas per mile), the gas would cost you around $, since you would need about gallons of fuel.
Leaving from Delaware Water Gap, PA you would reach New Bloomfield, PA in about 2 hours 41 mins if you keep an average speed of miles per hour, assuming you don't make any breaks or get stuck in traffic.


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Tags: cold, influenza, flu, zinc lozenges, humidifier, CDC, cold versus flu
Paula's Healthy Living
Tags: cold, flu, h1n1, sunday, exercise, clean eating, humidifier
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My goals for september;
- Win a MTT
- Play 40 MTTs(400+)
- Improve my Mid - Late game play
- watch at least 2 complete tournys per week on pxf
- Perform indepth review of 2 of my hh and 1 public hh on pxf per week
I was 5 handicapped golfer for many years,one thing that i came across alot,was when chatting with other golfers they seemed amazed that i still had 2 golf lessons a month.They would proudly tell me they have never had a lesson in there life and 18 holes later would hand me enough money to pay for one. If i went though a bad patch i had the understanding to find my game while on the course or after on the pratice ground, but they turned up every day with no understanding of what they did good or bad so when there game didnt turn up on the day there was no coming back for them.Put them under pressure and there swing could not hold up to there nerves. My point being that learning and continuing to learn is as important as playing experience.
This is a post from user cheezy on pxf forum, it is one of the many random posts that i read each day. But this one really resonated with me... its a good analogy that illustrates the importance of constant study. It really gave me a jolt and got me focused on what i needed to be doing to improve.


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Welcome disc golfer! You can login or create an account.
Questions? Call us: (785) 258-2494
The DGA Titanic ProLine is a slightly overstable putt and approach disc. It is perfect for down hill putts and is consistent enough for short to medium approach shots. It holds its flight path well on windy days.
More overstable than the Reef, this disc will hold a long hyzer putt line. The Titanic can be used for flex shots when approaching and can hold a steady line.
Features -- Overstable putt and approach disc. Predicable finish. Increased fade. Perfect for down hill putts and approach shots. Holds its flight path well on windy days. Consistent enough for short to medium approach shots.
Speed 2, Glide 2, Turn 0, Fade 2
21.2 cm diameter. Rim Width 1.0 cm. Rim Depth 1.5 cm.
ProLine plastic is tough, grippy and provides incredible performance. Increased marbling and pearling add to its aesthetic appeal. ProLine takes less time to beat in than the SP Line and will obtain its intended flight characteristics faster. It is considered DGA's middle tier plastic blend and is great for players of all skill levels!
About Color and Weight Availability - This model may not be available in all colors. Likewise, each weight range may not be available in all colors. Therefore we ask you to list and prioritize your color preferences and to give us guidance if the color or weight range you want happens to not be available. Feel free to contact us if you need more specific info.


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Reviewed by Dyllon M. (age 10)
I like this book because I like Scooby Doo and I like dogs. And also it is kind of like my life because it is like my friends. They get on my nerves and I have to put up with it. My favorite part was when Scooby and Shaggy find out that the Villain is Scrappy Doo.
I recommend this book because I like Scooby Doo and it doesn't matter how old you are. I'm a 4th grader and I picked this book.


text: (If this was answered before, please excuse this message and point me to where I can read about it) Please help, I am about to lose my sanity. Just finished installing ISPConfig 3 following the steps in this article. http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-centos-6.3-x86_64-apache2-dovecot-ispconfig-3 Not a single error or problem encountered during the install. Now going to https://myipaddress:8080 I see "Internal Server Error" messages. Here is what I can collect from logs and file versions. [/var/log/httpd]# tail -f error_log suexec policy violation: see suexec log for more details [Mon Mar 25 05:16:12 2013] [warn] [client x.x.x.x] (104)Connection reset by peer: mod_fcgid: error reading data from FastCGI server [Mon Mar 25 05:16:12 2013] [error] [client x.x.x.x] Premature end of script headers: index.php [/var/log/httpd]# tail -f suexec.log [2013-03-25 05:17:21]: uid: (32014/ispconfig) gid: (32017/ispconfig) cmd: .php-fcgi-starter [2013-03-25 05:17:21]: command not in docroot (/var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/ispconfig/.php-fcgi-starter) [/var/log/httpd]# suexec -V -D AP_DOC_ROOT="/home" -D AP_GID_MIN=100 -D AP_HTTPD_USER="apache" -D AP_LOG_EXEC="/var/log/httpd/suexec.log" -D AP_SAFE_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin" -D AP_UID_MIN=500 -D AP_USERDIR_SUFFIX="public_html" [email protected] [/var/log/httpd]# httpd -V Server version: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) Server built: May 16 2012 22:32:26 Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:24 Server loaded: APR 1.3.9, APR-Util 1.3.9 Compiled using: APR 1.3.9, APR-Util 1.3.9 Architecture: 64-bit Server MPM: Prefork threaded: no forked: yes (variable process count) Server compiled with.... -D APACHE_MPM_DIR="server/mpm/prefork" -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE -D APR_HAS_MMAP -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled) -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=128 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/etc/httpd" -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/sbin/suexec" -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="run/httpd.pid" -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status" -D DEFAULT_LOCKFILE="logs/accept.lock" -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log" -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="conf/mime.types" -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf" This is CentOS release 6.4 x64 Thank you for your time and assistance.


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Let's open our Bibles to the second chapter of Genesis tonight. Let me read the opening three verses, Genesis 2.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts; and by the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
The creation account thus closes. That initial account that unfolds in chapter 1, more details of that...of elements of that creation, namely the creation of man, are expanded in chapter 2. But the creation itself, the primary account itself ends with those words, a reference to the seventh day.
The seventh day is mentioned three times in those verses I just read to you. It is mentioned because it is important. It is mentioned three times because it is important. The seventh day is unique. It has incomparable significance, indicated also by the fact that this is the first time the word "holy" is used in Scripture. The Hebrew word qedeshtranslated "sanctified," in verse 3, is the word holy. The root meaning of qedesh, holy, in the form of qadash, the root, is thought to mean "to be cut off, or to separate." And holiness, qodesha(?) is elevation, or exaltation, above the usual level.
So the seventh day is a special day. It is a day set apart. It is a day cut off from the other days and elevated. It is a day lifted up. It is a day exalted. The Hebrew use of, I'll get a little technical here for those of you who care, the Hebrew use of the stem called piel(??), which is a title used for some Hebrew stems, indicates causation...that is to say, He made this day holy. The verb form is also what we call declarative in the Hebrew which indicates He then declared it to be holy. He made it specially to be holy and then He declared it to be holy. So it is doubly set apart by His making, or design, and by His declaration. It is then a very, very unique day. None of the other six days is so identified and set apart as holy or sanctified, as exalted and lifted up above the others...a very unique day.
Now there are three reasons why it is unique and those three reasons are indicated by three verbs in this passage...the verb "completed," you see it there in verse 1, you see it again in verse 2; the verb "rested," you see that in verse 2 and again in verse 3; and the verb "blessed." It became a sanctified day, it became a holy day, it became an exalted day, it became an elevated day for the three reasons, that which signified that God completed, God rested and God blessed. Each of those three verbs, by the way, is associated with the seventh day explicitly. Verse 2, "The seventh day God completed." Verse 2 again, "He rested on the seventh day." Verse 3, "He blessed the seventh day." So in each case the verb is tied explicitly to that seventh day which is mentioned three times.
Also, each of those three verbs is associated with the work of God. In verse 2, "God completed His work which He had done." Verse 2 again, "He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." Verse 3, "God blessed the seventh day and because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
So the pattern and the structure here is very simple. This is a sanctified day. This is a holy day. This is a set-apart day. This is a unique day. For the reasons that it marks out God had completed His work, rested from His work and blessed this unique day.
Now let's just take those three for a moment and look at them. The first one is "completed." Verses 1 and 2 indicate the uniqueness of this day is connected to the fact that God completed creation. Verse 1, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts, by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done." It is clear by the language here that the entire work of creation was completed, that's what the Hebrew term means. The entire work of God was completed so that on the seventh day it had been already completed and God rested. That is again to reiterate that creation was finished at the end of day six, finished in six 24-hour days. Since that time, there has been no other creation. No creation after that, it was completed. The heavens were completed, the earth was completed and "all their hosts" simply means everything in the heavens and everything in the earth.
Now a couple of weeks ago I mentioned to you how important it is to consider your options when you consider the completion of creation. Option number one, you'll remember, is materialistic evolution, that is the option that believes there is no such thing as creation and there is no God who is creator. In fact, materialistic evolution believes that the entire universe as it now exists came into existence out of nothing. Somehow there appeared out of nothing something in a primordial slime through billions of years, mutated into the intricate, complex and vast universe of today.
The second option is what's called theistic evolution which believes that God does exist as the original mind and the original power who launched and punctuated with creative acts the process of evolution. The process of evolution going on with some divine assistance.
The third possibility is divine creation which affirms that the eternal God, all wise, all powerful, without the aid of any evolution, made the universe completely as it is now in six days, after which all creation was completed. Nothing new had been created since then in the time/space world. There are no other options.
And we have been learning in our series that the first option can't be true because evolution is impossible. It cannot happen. It is an impossibility, random chance cannot result in anything. Nobody times nothing cannot equal everything. The system of life, DNA, the information encoded in genetic structure in every living cell prevents evolution because DNA only allows a living entity to be what it is and nothing more and when change does occur it is inferior rather than superior because something has gone wrong in that system. Random chance evolution is an utter impossibility.
The second option is also impossible because since evolution is impossible, any kind of evolution is impossible, even theistic evolution.
We're really left with only the third option, that is the universe is created by God and we are confirmed in that belief, it is the only reasonable belief, more than that, it is the testimony of Scripture. How the universe came into existence is clearly told to us in Genesis chapter 1 and 2. There is nothing in any part of the Scripture to indicate that any evolutionary process existed. God created everything as it is now and He did it in six 24-hour days. And the genealogies later on in Genesis indicate to us this likely occurred six to seven thousand years ago, that's all. This is what the Bible says and the Bible is the Word of God, inspired and inerrant. It is unmistakable.
When God began the Bible, He initiated revelation with the historical record of creation. That is because it's foundational to the gospel. It's foundational to all theology and all history. Creation is the foundation of all truth and all true religion because the issue of origins is critical to any understanding of the role God plays in the universe.
So we've been saying all along, the Bible is to be taken seriously in Genesis 1 and 2, just as it is in John 3:16 or anywhere else. If you question the inerrancy and authority of Scripture in Genesis 1 and 2, you're striking a blow against the integrity of the Word of God and you're dishonoring the God who inspired it and that is a serious crime. And we've been saying that Jesus Christ is not really the beginning of the gospel. Christianity does not begin with accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, it begins with accepting God as creator. When the church seriously demands that people recognize God as creator, sustainer, sovereign and consummator of the time/space universe, they will know God is acting in this world where they live and that they are accountable to this God who is creator, sustainer, sovereign and consummator. And when they understand that they are accountable to the creator and the Bible is true when it speaks of creation just as it is true when it speaks of the gospel, they then become aware that they are under God's sovereign authority, they view Scripture completely different. And we've been saying, and science never has found one shred of evidence, that anything has evolved or that the record of Genesis is anything but absolutely true.
So we have come to this point in Genesis where we affirm what it says, that the heavens and the earth were completed in six 24-hour days, about six or seven thousand years ago, most likely. So when you come to day seven in that original week, all creation has ceased. If you believe in evolution, even theistic evolution, you have to believe that things are still evolving and that is in direct contradiction to the clear statement that the heavens and the earth were completed and all their occupants, all their hosts.
Now we remember on day one God created light; in day two He created water and the firmament. On day three He created the dry land; on day four the sun and the moon and the stars; on day five, the fish and the birds; day six, the land animals and man. He did it in each case in a 24-hour day as indicated by the phrase, "There was morning and there was evening," or "There was evening and there was morning." And at the end of the six days the heaven and the earth were completed. Back in verse 31 of chapter 1, "God saw all that He had made. Behold, it was very good." That is God's final stamp of approval on His completed creation. It was finished, it was complete, it was very good which was to say it lacked nothing.
Now that takes us to the second verb here, rested. "By the seventh day" literally could be translated, "And since by the seventh day God had completed His work which He had done, He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." Repeatedly, I told you, three times it tells us that His work was done, His work was done, His work was done...in verse 3 using the words, "He rested from all His work which God had created and made." Three times it is said that God was finished, creating everything that has existence.
Now the verb "rested" is very interesting, shabath(??) in the Hebrew. It is not to imply any kind of weariness. It is not that God was worn out after a tough work week. Isaiah 40:28, you ought to remember this verse, Isaiah 40:28 says, "He faints not, neither is weary." There is when God works whether He's working in creation or whether He's upholding the creation by the Word of His power as we saw in Hebrews 1, or whether He's accomplishing any particular task, there is no dissipation of energy, there is no law of entropy, there is no breaking down of matter, there is no disintegration in the absolute, ineffable, pure, holy power of God. That's why Psalm 121:4 says He doesn't slumber and He doesn't sleep. He needs no replenishing. He needs no refreshing because He never gets weary, He never gets tired.
What does the Hebrew verb mean? Rested is a word that we could misunderstand, that's why I'm taking a minute or two to explain it. The Hebrew word simply means "not to do work." It is a negative connotation, primarily, not to do work. And what it is saying is since He had completed the creation, there was nothing for Him to do with regard to the creation. He ceased to work. He ceased to do the work of creation. That's what it means. And the word is used in those negative ways even the Mosaic Sabbath Law texts, giving us the idea that the indication, first of all, here is that God was done with His work and so He didn't do any further work.
Listen to Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," this is under the Mosaic Law, we'll get to that later, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work." Verse 11, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and didn't work...is literally what it means...did no work on the seventh day." So that the seventh day was rest, not in the sense of replenishing lost energy, but in the sense of not doing any work. That same idea is also in Exodus 23:12.
But there's something more than that. I don't want to just leave it at that. There is also a positive effect in that word. It can be used in a positive way and I want to draw that from Exodus 31 and verse 17. It says, "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth," and again reiterating exactly the same time as Genesis, "six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day...it says literally in the Hebrew...He ceased." He stopped. He stopped creating. He stopped making. "And was refreshed," now that's an addition. That's the positive side of it.
Now you say, "What does it mean He was refreshed? That sounds again like He needed to sort of regain His dissipated energy." Not at all. The idea of that Hebrew word "refreshed" is the idea of satisfaction or delight. It is not to say that the result of God not working was some necessary replenishing of lost energy or strength, not some level of rehabilitation, but the idea of being refreshed or to find delight because of satisfaction. It's really the response of God to what is stated in verse 31 that He saw everything He made, it was very good and as a result of that, He was satisfied. He found joy. He found delight. He found a certain fulfillment, satisfaction of accomplishment. Not unlike a master painter when he finishes his masterpiece and steps back to delight in what he has accomplished, not unlike a sculptor who molds the perfect image of a man and steps back having concluded his work to enjoy the finished product.
It's noteworthy, I think, and you need to follow along with this thought, it's noteworthy that there's no mention of the word Sabbath here, it doesn't occur in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, the creation account. No mention of Sabbath...that word is not here. And furthermore, I want you to file this, there is nothing said about man resting here. It is not appropriate to inaugurate here in Genesis some rest for man, that is to miss the point here. In fact, man isn't even mentioned here in connection with this seventh day rest, only God is mentioned. No rest for man is inaugurated here. No Sabbath for man is inaugurated here. That doesn't come until the Mosaic Law.
And I want to take you further into understanding this. When you read this, there is a startling omission here and sometimes half the fun in interpreting the Bible is finding what isn't there. But if you were to read through the six days and read day seven, what component of the first six days that was there in every single day is not in this discussion of day seven? The little phrase that says...what? "There was morning and there was evening," it's not there...it's not there. It was in every other day...verse 5, verse 8, verse 13, verse 19, verse 23, verse 31. But when you look at the seventh day, you find no such formula and we might expect that "On the seventh day was evening and morning," but it isn't there. And, you know, in any kind of examination of the creation account, you can go into the minutest detail and you find careful, careful accuracy, great care taken by the Spirit of God in inspiring Moses to write down this description, this historic description of creation. It is a very, very careful account, carefully constructed. And when you see something there all the time and is all of a sudden omitted, there must be a reason, there must be a design, this can't be accidental because everything in this account is so well thought out and well planned. What was God endeavoring to say by not saying that? Well I think it should be obvious but let me help you with it a little bit.
What are we talking about when we talk about God's rest? That He was tired mentally, tired physically? No. Simply that He ceased, He ceased creating and then was, as it were, sitting back and just being satisfied with what He had created.
He was enjoying it. He was delighting in it. I mean, it was the light of God to see the work of His hands that had never existed before this time. How refreshing it must have been, how delightful, how well pleased God must have been when He saw the created universe free from sin, free from decay, free from the curse, no death, no decay. When He saw pristine blue skies sparkling with diamond stars, a brilliant blazing sun, when He saw crystal-clear waters without any kind of pollution, when He was a world with no death, when He saw shining white sands and magnificent colorful flowers, stately trees, forming the stage, as it were, for birds and fish, animals cavorting all over His created earth without fear. And how much God must have delighted when He walked through the Garden and fellowshiped with man, with Adam and the wife He made for him, named Eve. What a delight it must have been.
And God must have delighted in the fact that everything that man needed had been provided for him. Everything necessary was there for the happiness of Adam and Eve, this was the seventh day. But the reason it doesn't say evening and morning is because that didn't end in 24 hours, did it? It didn't end. In fact, God's delight wouldn't end until when? Sin came. That one day, that seventh day inaugurated some period of time in which God delighted in a world that sparkled with pure life and a world which enjoyed the presence of God and a man and his wife in open fellowship with their creator. Sin and its resulting curse still unknown. There was no more creation work to do and there was no work of preserving all of this because it wasn't prone to decay. And so we could say that on day seven God entered into a permanent state of rest, at least permanent until sin.
The conditions and characteristics then of that seventh day were designed by God to continue and they would have continued had it not been for the sin of Adam and Eve. It was not God's design that they would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and bring a curse. It wasn't God who prompted them to do that and destroy their paradise. The entrance of sin devastated Eden's perfection. As the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 59:2, "Your sins, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God."
The seventh day, listen, had an evening and a morning because the cycle of days began in creation, but the seventh day 24-hour period only inaugurated that period of time after God's having created in which He delighted. We don't know how long that was because we don't know how long it was until man sinned.
Summarizing God's rest then. It was an ongoing rest. He was delighting in the satisfaction of the goodness of what He had made in all of its pristine perfection. It was characterized by His delight and His satisfaction. He enjoyed perfect fellowship with Adam and Eve. And I remind you again, the seventh day of rest in Genesis had nothing to do with man. God didn't say to Adam and Even...Now you folks, every time a seventh day rolls around, you do this. There's no command for man to rest on the seventh day. There's no command for Adam to do that after the Fall. God doesn't say, "Okay, now that you're fallen you can only work six days and take one off," that is not in Genesis. There is no Sabbath rule given here. There is no Sabbath rule given in the Abrahamic Covenant. You come in to chapter 12 and the following chapters and you have the rehearsal of the Abrahamic Covenant, God's first great covenant with Israel, and there is no discussion of any Sabbath, there's no discussion of any single day. And that, by the way, was a covenant of promise, a covenant of blessing.
So when you look at the seventh day here, what you're seeing is a day related to God. He ceased from His work and He delighted in what He had made.
The third verb that I would draw to your attention connected with the seventh day and with the cessation of God's work is in verse 3 and it says, "God blessed that day," or "God hallowed the day." In other words, God identified it with some...some unique holy character. Now the question is immediately asked...what does that mean? What does it mean He...He hallowed it?
Well, let me tell you what I believe that means. I believe God set it aside as a memorial. That's right. I believe He set it aside as a memorial, as a remembrance. All of creation occurred in one six-day period, not billions and billions and billions of years. All of creation occurred in six days. And then on a seventh day God took that day and said...I'm going to bless this day, I'm going to pull this day apart, I'm going to lift it up, I'm going to elevate it and set it apart as a reminder that in six days I created the universe. It didn't evolve. It isn't evolving. It is not randomly creating itself. God said the creation was done and I set apart the seventh day to be a day in which you will acknowledge the creation was done.
I really believe that what God was inaugurating as far as we're concerned when it says He blessed it, what God was inaugurating as far as we're concerned is the blessing of the seventh day was to establish that day as a reminder of God as creator. I don't think it has anything to do with Mosaic Sabbath Law. You can't find that here, you can't read that in here legitimately.
You know, I've done a lot of reading on the subject of time and all of that and there is no rational reason, no philosophical reason, no mathematical reason, no scientific reason for weeks. Why in the world do we occupy our lives in weeks? Why seven days? Nobody in their right mind would purposely divide 365 days into sevens, it doesn't work...it doesn't work. That's why some months have 30 days, some months have 31 days and February has alternate days, depending on whether it's Leap Year. Why all that? Because you can't divide 365 by seven. Well why didn't we do it some other way? There's no real reason for that. Why do we have these weeks? Why is everything counted in weeks? Weeks don't even fit well into months, do they? Four weeks don't make a month. Five weeks don't make a month. Nobody would purposely do this. No committee would do this. Why in the world do we operate in sevens?
I'll tell you. There's only one reason and that's because God established that order because of creation. And every week of our lives we go through a cycle that is intended by God to remind us that He created the world in six days and rested. Every time a seventh day passes we should be acknowledging God as our creator. That's a memorial to a completed creation.
To reject God as creator and to reject a six-day creation is to unbless the seventh day. Therefore it's to deny God His true identity as creator, it's to rob Him of glory due His name. Any kind of evolution, any kind totally confounds the blessing of the seventh day, doesn't it? Of course it does. If we're evolving out of billions of years, there is no seventh day.
But on the other hand, if we believe what the Bible says, then every seventh day that passes is a memorial and a reminder that God created the entire universe in six days and was finished. And for that glorious accomplishment He deserves our praise.
So what does that have to do with me? Well, I think you ought to remember that. I think Saturday should be identified in our minds with completion of creation. You know, somewhere in the background of our western civilization somebody knew that because when they began to develop work patterns, they gave us Saturday and Sunday off. Saturday is the seventh day and, I mean, typically the ideal scenario, I know when I was growing up, it was very common on Saturday, we as a family had a picnic, or we got in the car and drove out to the creek and went fishing and we got together. It was always seemingly outside, it was...it was a day maybe somebody down the road knew needed to be enjoyed in the creation of God. It was a day when we remembered that He had created everything and we could enjoy His creation. We didn't work that seventh day, that was a day to enjoy the creation, that was a day to delight. That was a day to set the labor aside and just delight in what God had done.
I used to look forward to Saturdays more than Sundays as a kid because they used to put me in this little Lord Fauntleroy suit with...with knee-length stockings and knickers and make me sit the whole day, even after church until church at night. You couldn't do anything but eat. You could have...gluttony was the one sin that dominated Sundays. (Laughter) And that was on Sunday. But Saturday we went down to the park. We ran into the woods. We chased down to the creek and maybe somebody down the line knew that that was the day that we should enjoy the creation of God. When I look at the blessing of the Sabbath in Genesis, I don't see any Mosaic prescription here. I don't see anything about the Mosaic Law here. I don't see anything designed for man to do except to remember that God did it all in six days and He was finished. And what He did was very good to the degree that He completely delighted in it.
That memorializes that day for me. I hope it does for you. I mean, we can...we can live our lives, I think, appropriately like that. Saturday gives testimony to God as creator. Sunday gives testimony to God as Redeemer because of the resurrection, right? On the seventh day God rested because He had finished creation. On the first day Christ arose because He had finished redemption. Maybe somebody knew that when they gave us Saturday and Sunday. One day for the creator, another day for the Savior.
Saturday is a perpetual witness that God finished creation and is the glorious God of creation. Sunday is a perpetual witness that God finished redemption and is the God of salvation. Sadly in our society most people don't care about either of them. But I do and I know you do. I guess in some ways men are like monkeys because monkeys don't worship God either and monkeys don't care about His creation and monkeys don't care about His redemption. But we do. Evolutionists are anti-God, they're anti-Bible and they do what Romans 1 says is so deadly, they refuse to honor God, they refuse to give Him glory and so they bring on themselves, Romans 1 says, a reprobate mind and...and they engage in unspeakable forms of foolishness, sexual perversion, homosexuality and they delight in their wretchedness rather than delighting in the God of creation and the God of salvation. That's evolutionists.
But for us, for those of us who believe in the one true and living God, we believe in creation and no week goes by without a memorial and no week goes by without a witness, no week goes by without a testimony. No week goes by with a holy day, that's where we get the word holiday. No week of our lives ever goes by without one day that points to God as creator. Every seventh day is that.
Do some practical things on the seventh day. Go out and rejoice in the beauty of God's creation. Go play with your grandchildren and the wonder of human life. No week goes by without a reminder that God is creator. And isn't it wonderful, no week goes by without a witness, a testimony and a memorial to salvation, right? That's today, isn't it? The first day of the week was the day in which Jesus rose from the dead for our justification.
I think that's what's on the heart of God as He blesses the seventh day. And I think we need to leave it at that. Can't tell you how many books I've read in the last few weeks that say here God established a universal pattern for man. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that at all. Man isn't even discussed here. God didn't instruct Adam to do anything on the seventh day. It isn't even limited to a day. God engaged in some permanent condition of delight over the completion of His creation until sin came. And I think that all we need to take is what the text says and see this day as simply God's design for human life. And isn't it amazing that the whole world operates on seven-day weeks? I remember in America when they tried to change everything over to...from inches, you remember, to meters and all of that and nobody would buy into it finally because the housewives didn't want to get rid of all their utensils. That was really what stymied the whole thing. Husbands would be made ill because all the recipes would be wrong if they started cooking with liters and all those things. So we're stuck with our own system as over against the whole world who has a different system.
But in the case of calendars, the whole civilized world operates on weeks and there's no reason for that except that's the way God designed it so that everyone every so often in the routine of life would face the fact that a great creator created it all in six days and every seventh day He gave us that reminder that His creation was done. Isn't it sad that people won't give Him the glory He's due? The honor He's due?
Now all of that opens up the subsequent teaching on the Sabbath law on the Mosaic economy. How is that connected to this? Well, I'm not going to tell you tonight. I just leave Genesis where it is and next time we meet I'm going to take you into the Sabbath law of the Mosaic economy and show you if and how that connects and if at all it establishes any precedent for what we do now on the Lord's day. That's going to be a fascinating study. But you've been very patient and we'll leave it at that for tonight. Let's pray.
Father, it's...it's such a joy to just see the Word of God come to life. We bless You, we honor...we thank You for...for doing it in a week. We thank You for doing it in six days and then giving us a day to remember that. We thank You that You have told us that You are to be honored and worshiped as the creator. You are to be remembered. Every seventh day is like a living time memorial affirming the wonder of six-day creation. We glorify You as our creator. We adore You as our Redeemer. We realize, God, that it is beyond our comprehension that You could create in six days. Your power and Your wisdom is way beyond us. It is equally beyond our understanding that You would redeem us. But, Lord, You filled us with such richness for we know You and we love You and thus we can remember You as the creator each week and remember You each week as the Redeemer as well. May we never forget, never forget. And may we glorify You for all that You've done. By virtue of the work of Jesus Christ we offer You our prayers and our lives in Christ's name. Amen.
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Drug information provided by: IBM Micromedex
Levocetirizine is an antihistamine used to relieve the symptoms of hay fever and hives of the skin. It works by preventing the effects of a substance called histamine, which is produced by the body. Histamine can cause itching, sneezing, runny nose, and watery eyes. It can close up the bronchial tubes (air passages of the lungs) and make breathing difficult. Histamine can also cause some persons to have hives, with severe itching of the skin.
This medicine is available only with your doctor's prescription.
This product is available in the following dosage forms:
In deciding to use a medicine, the risks of taking the medicine must be weighed against the good it will do. This is a decision you and your doctor will make. For this medicine, the following should be considered:
Tell your doctor if you have ever had any unusual or allergic reaction to this medicine or any other medicines. Also tell your health care professional if you have any other types of allergies, such as to foods, dyes, preservatives, or animals. For non-prescription products, read the label or package ingredients carefully.
Appropriate studies performed to date have not demonstrated pediatric-specific problems that would limit the usefulness of levocetirizine in children. Safety and efficacy have not been established in infants younger than 6 months of age.
Use in children 6 months to 11 years of age with kidney disease is not recommended.
Appropriate studies performed to date have not demonstrated geriatric-specific problems that would limit the usefulness of levocetirizine in the elderly. However, elderly patients are more likely to have age-related liver, kidney, or heart problems, which may require caution and an adjustment in the dose for patients receiving levocetirizine.
There are no adequate studies in women for determining infant risk when using this medication during breastfeeding. Weigh the potential benefits against the potential risks before taking this medication while breastfeeding.
Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to change the dose, or other precautions may be necessary. Tell your healthcare professional if you are taking any other prescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter [OTC]) medicine.
Certain medicines should not be used at or around the time of eating food or eating certain types of food since interactions may occur. Using alcohol or tobacco with certain medicines may also cause interactions to occur. Discuss with your healthcare professional the use of your medicine with food, alcohol, or tobacco.
The presence of other medical problems may affect the use of this medicine. Make sure you tell your doctor if you have any other medical problems, especially:
Take this medicine exactly as directed by your doctor. Do not take more of it, do not take it more often, and do not take it for a longer time than your doctor ordered. To do so may increase the chance of side effects.
You may take this medicine with or without food.
Measure the oral solution with a marked measuring spoon, oral syringe, or medicine cup.
The dose of this medicine will be different for different patients. Follow your doctor's orders or the directions on the label. The following information includes only the average doses of this medicine. If your dose is different, do not change it unless your doctor tells you to do so.
The amount of medicine that you take depends on the strength of the medicine. Also, the number of doses you take each day, the time allowed between doses, and the length of time you take the medicine depend on the medical problem for which you are using the medicine.
If you miss a dose of this medicine, take it as soon as possible. However, if it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not double doses.
Store the medicine in a closed container at room temperature, away from heat, moisture, and direct light. Keep from freezing.
Keep out of the reach of children.
Do not keep outdated medicine or medicine no longer needed.
Ask your healthcare professional how you should dispose of any medicine you do not use.
If your symptoms do not improve within a few days or if they become worse, check with your doctor.
This medicine may cause some people to become dizzy, drowsy, or less alert than they are normally. Make sure you know how you react to this medicine before you drive, use machines, or do anything else that could be dangerous if you are dizzy or not alert.
This medicine will add to the effects of alcohol and other CNS depressants (medicines that make you drowsy or less alert). Some examples of CNS depressants are antihistamines or medicine for hay fever, other allergies or colds, sedatives, tranquilizers, or sleeping medicine, prescription pain medicine or narcotics, medicine for seizures, muscle relaxants, or anesthetics, including some dental anesthetics. Check with your doctor or dentist before taking any of the above while you are taking this medicine.
Do not take other medicines unless they have been discussed with your doctor. This includes prescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter [OTC]) medicines and herbal or vitamin supplements.
Along with its needed effects, a medicine may cause some unwanted effects. Although not all of these side effects may occur, if they do occur they may need medical attention.
Check with your doctor immediately if any of the following side effects occur:
Some side effects may occur that usually do not need medical attention. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. Also, your health care professional may be able to tell you about ways to prevent or reduce some of these side effects. Check with your health care professional if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome or if you have any questions about them:
Other side effects not listed may also occur in some patients. If you notice any other effects, check with your healthcare professional.
Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.
Portions of this document last updated: Feb. 01, 2019
Original article: https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/levocetirizine-oral-route/description/drg-20071083
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text:
Land-based casinos and online casino revenues and site releases are growing faster then ever. Even after the dust has settled following the recent American law prohibiting deposits to online gambling companies, large organisations such as Party Gaming, Ladbrokes and VIP Casino club are all increasing their efforts to attract a wider European or global audience.
Gambling itself is a compulsive and addictive activity, with numerous regulatory societies attempting to outlaw and even ban online gambling around the globe. Regulatory environments themselves differ from country to country. While the US has sought keenly to identify ways of banning online gambling, the UK has lead the way to ensuring that online gambling remains a choice for many, but does not become a threat to others.
Its recent release of a new Gambling Act has sought to protect children and problem areas from abusive gambling, while attempting to levy a tax duty on all income from gambling both offline and online. The Act will make it illegal to entice children to gamble and there will be compulsory age checks for online gambling websites.
Its new Gambling Act will provision for the construction of Super Casinos in selected areas across the country, though this has been scaled down from an initial 40 super casinos to around 8, following complaints from the public and opposition parties. The Gambling Act will allow casinos to operate 24 hours, with unlimited jackpots, and gambling will be allowed on Sundays and Bank Holidays. As far as online websites are concerned, when the Act comes into force at the end of September 2007, companies will be able to apply for a license to operate online gambling website from a UK base ยูฟ่าเบท 168.
Countries differ in terms of how they levy a tax on gambling. For example, some will tax each bet individually while countries like the UK, tax only the gross profits that gambling organisations make. Territories like Malta and Gibraltar offer competitive tax regimes as well as the benefits of an off-shore financial centre.
Australia has a large gambling population, where statistic show that 80% of its population gambles. Super casinos are also allowed in Australia, with Sydney's Star City reputedly the size of 7 football fields. A recent study also showed that Australians spend more money each week on gambling than they do on alcohol or clothes. State government proceeds from gambling have increased to around $3.8bn per annum, since 1998.


text:
Badaga Community
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Touching Story - This made me to cry
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Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 108
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:10 am
I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier giving a
little boy some money back.
The boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old.
The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy
this doll.
Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ''Granny, are
you sure I don't have enough money?''
The old lady replied: ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy
this doll, my dear.''
Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to
look around.. She left quickly. The little boy was still holding the
doll in his hand.
Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this
doll to.
'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for
She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.'
I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all,
and not to worry.
But he replied to me sadly. 'No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where
she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it
to my sister when she goes there.'
His eyes were so sad while saying this. 'My Sister has gone to be with
Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought
that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.''
My heart nearly stopped.
The little boy looked up at me and said: 'I told daddy to tell mommy not
to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.'
Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He
then told me 'I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't
forget me.'
'I love my mommy and I wish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says
that she has to go to be with my little sister.' Then he looked again at
the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.
I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check
again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?''
'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money to his
with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the
doll and even some spare money.
The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'
Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went to
sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that
mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!''
'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy,
but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy
the doll and a white rose. My mommy loves white roses.'
A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket. I
finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started. I
couldn't get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local
news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck,
who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little
girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The
family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining
machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the
coma. Was this the family of the little boy?
Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news
paper that the young woman had passed away.. I couldn't stop myself as I
bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the
body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last
wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a
beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and
the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling
that my life had been changed for ever.
The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still,
to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk
driver had taken all this away from him.
Please DO NOT DRINK & DRIVE.
Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 5
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 9:18 pm
wonderful touching story..!!
Frequent poster
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 108
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 9:08 am
thank u pradeep
Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 2
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:06 am
it's really touching
With warm regards,
Frequent poster
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 108
Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:46 am
Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 11
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:26 am
Joined: 02 Oct 2009
Posts: 17
Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 3:30 am
It was nice touching story...And it useful tooooooooo for guys(especially)!!!!!!!!!!!11
Thanks $ Regards
Karthick Chandran
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