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We live in a time when certainty and conviction about what is true is not tolerated. The politically correct attitude is one of uncertainty with nothing absolute. There's a new hermeneutics, a new science of interpretation called the Hermeneutics of Humility, and this is serious to the people who espoused this and their Hermeneutics of Humility say, "I'm too humble to think that I could ever know what the Bible really means and so I can only offer my opinion and I certainly can't say that this is in fact the truth." They pat themselves on the back congratulating themselves for such intellectual openness. Opinions and feelings tend to rule the mood of our time. And the church as always it does fall prey to this sort of post-modern inclusivism that wants to embrace everything everybody thinks as truth for them. And so the church has lost its convictions, its lost its certainties and this is a perfect time for us to turn to the epistle of John because he is the Apostle of certainties and this is a very certain epistle.
I mentioned to you before that 36 times you're going to find some form of the word "know" here. I know, we know, you know...there is an absoluteness in that. There's no vagueness or equivocation. Also, there's another key word that appears in the epistle and I can show it to you in several verses. Chapter 2 verse 28, "And now, little children abide in Him so that when He appears we may have confidence..." The word is "confidence." Chapter 3 verse 21, "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence." Chapter 4 verse 17, "By this love is perfected in us that we may have confidence." Chapter 5 verse 14, "And this is the confidence which we have before Him." This is the word parrhesia in Greek and it just means that. It means boldness. In fact it can mean boldness of speech. But it is the defining Greek word for confidence. John knows whereof he speaks, and so he has confidence. He's absolutely certain about what he writes. He is confident in it and he wants us to share that same confidence. The Bible exalts dogmatism in that sense, confidence, boldness of speech because one knows the truth. This is so contrary to the mood today as to almost seem insensitive, unloving and out of touch. But this is exactly what John in his epistle lifts up and exalts.
More than that, he normalizes it. We should know and we should have confidence. Now the major matters of certainty in this letter could fall into three categories. The first one would be the theological certainty of the gospel...the theological certainty of the gospel. John wants us to know that he is certain about the gospel, that it is firm and that it is true and there are a number of verses scattered throughout this epistle that affirm that. We're going to see the opening three verses affirm the truths of the gospel. We're also going to find in chapter 2 verse 1 there is an affirmation of the gospel that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, verse 2, who is the propitiation for our sins. We're also going to find again that anybody in chapter 2 verse 22 who denies Jesus is the Christ, this is antichrist. Again that's sort of a backward affirmation of the gospel. We're going to find again in chapter 5, "Whoever believes...in verse 1...that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." And again toward the end of the chapter, verse 20, "We know that the Son of God has come and this is the true God and eternal life." So the first category of certainty has to do with the theological certainty of the gospel and John will repeatedly hit that issue.
The second is the moral certainty of the law...the moral certainty of the law. And John wants us to understand that God has given a law and that we are bound to that law and to the obedience of that law. Chapter 2 verse 4, "The one who says I have come to know Him and doesn't keep His commandments is a liar." Theologically we have to be certain about the gospel. Morally we have to be certain about the law of God. And John says I'm not writing, in verse 7 of chapter 2, some new commandment but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning, the old commandment is the Word which you have heard. That is the law of God. Yet on the other hand, I'm writing a new commandment to you. It may be new to you but it's old. Calling you to obedience to that which God has revealed as His law. At the end of chapter 2 and verse 29 he writes, "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him." There again is the moral issue. Practicing righteousness means obeying God's revealed law. And over in chapter 3 verse 9, "The one who is born of God doesn't practice sin because God's seed abides in him, he can't sin he's born of God. By this the children of God, the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who doesn't practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who doesn't love his brother..." and so forth. So there is moral obligation which John recites. Again down in verse 22, "Whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." All the way to the end of chapter 4, "This commandment we have from Him that one who loves God should love his brother also." Chapter 5 verse 2, "By this we know that we love the children of God because we love God and observe His commandments."
So again you have a theological component in this epistle of certainty, and you have a moral component. The theological component is the certainty of the gospel. The moral component is the certainty of the law of God. We are bound to believe the gospel and to obey the law of God. So there is a theological certainty, a moral certainty, and thirdly there's a relational certainty...there's a relational certainty. John wants to affirm to us the relational certainty of love...of love. And that, of course, as we've already noted in some of what I just read you is scattered throughout the entire epistle. I think most notably chapter 4 features this, starting in verse 7, "Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." And then he goes on to talk about this all the way down to the end of the chapter. And then he continues to talk about it into chapter 5 and verse 3, "This is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome." So he ties this love toward God with obedience to the commandments. And then off of that love toward God and obedience comes obedience to the command to love others.
And so you can say that just about everything in this epistle, in fact everything in this epistle, falls under one of those three headings. It is either in the category of theological certainty regarding the gospel, or moral certainly [meant certainty] regarding the law, or relational certainty regarding love.
Now these categories are categories of certainties. They are categories of absolutes. They are categories of unequivocal, unarguable divine truth. But also they are categories of absolutes that become the tests of one's spiritual state. They are categorically the areas in which one is tested as to their spiritual state. And anyone, listen carefully, who fails to pass the test in any of those categories is exposed as a fraud and a liar and a deceiver and an antichrist so that John is going to lay down some absolutes in those three categories, he is going to lay them down as tests by which anyone's life can be measured as to its true spiritual condition. There is, as I said earlier, a graphic illustration of how these tests can be applied in the current scandal of the Roman Catholic Church. If you measure the priests against the theological certainty of the gospel, they fall short, don't they, because they do not believe in salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but theirs is a salvation of works, a justification in which grace cooperates with human works to produce a right relationship to God. They failed the theological test. Secondly, it's pretty clear they're failing the moral test, isn't it? It's pretty clear that they're not obedient to the law of God. It's very clear that no fornicator or adulterer or homosexual shall inherit the Kingdom of God. They fail the theological test. They fail the moral test. And they fail the relational test. Believe me, you don't love someone that you sexually abuse.
You can take these tests and you can measure them against any life...any life. And you're going to find out whether or not a person is truly in the Kingdom of God, whether they're truly saved by the measurement of those tests. Certainly all the Roman Catholic priests would claim to belong to Jesus Christ. They would claim not only to belong to Jesus Christ but they would claim to have reached the highest and noblest and purest and most devout level of consecration to Christ. They would claim literally that they stand between sinners and Christ at a higher level. As priests they are able to mediate between the sinner and Christ because of their exalted position. The truth is theologically they fail the test. Their gospel is perverted by works. Morally they fail the test, their virtue is perverted by the flesh. Relationally they fail the test, their love is perverted by lust. No matter what they say, John tells us they are false teachers, they are deceivers, they are liars, they are antichrists.
So what John is going to give us is categories...categories by which we can measure anybody, not just Roman Catholic priests but anybody. These categories need to be certain in their establishment. If we're going to measure somebody by the gospel, if we're going to measure them by the law of God, if we're going to measure them by love then we have to know that those are in fact established by God. And so John is going to show us through this epistle that indeed these are from God. It is God who has given us the gospel. It is God who has given us His commandments which we are to obey. And it is God who has given us love and the example of love, having first loved us we are to love Him in return, and others as well. So what you have there are the certainties of the Christian faith: theologically, morally and relationally. As we will learn, they are revealed in history, witnessed by the Apostles, and confirmed by the Holy Spirit. You want evidence? There's the evidence, the truths of which we can be certain are basically experienced by the Apostles in history and confirmed by the Holy Spirit in the believer. That takes us then to the first four verses.
And when John begins to write he skips all the amenities, all the introductory material, doesn't identify who he is or who he's writing to, he just launches into this. But his theme here is the Word of Life. You notice the Word of Life mentioned at the end of verse 1, it's about the Word of Life, it's concerning the Word of Life that John writes. The Word of Life, of course, is the person of Jesus Christ and the gospel of Christ, all there is about Christ, His person, His work and the gospel. John then is going to tell us about the Word of Life. This is where he starts. He starts with the theological category of certainty. And as he speaks of the Word of Life, as he addresses the living incarnate Word who is the theme of the written Word, as he addresses the person of Jesus Christ he presents to us some of the features of the certainty of the Word of Life.
First, I'm just going to give you some words that you can kind of hang your thoughts on, the first way that the Word of Life is certain, that the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly the Savior and the gospel is certainly the saving message is indicated by its permanence...its permanence. He starts out in verse 1, "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with out eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life."
The first thing he says is it was from the beginning. Not new, John says, not new. The Word of Life has not and never will change. John says, and you remember now he's an old man, this is the last decade of the first century, he's the last man standing among the Apostles, the last living Apostle, he's near the end of his life and he's saying what I'm going to tell you about the Word of Life is what was from the beginning. The beginning of what? The beginning of the proclamation of the gospel, the beginning of apostolic proclamation of Christ. I'm giving you the same old message that was preached by the eleven, and probably by Mathias, and certainly by Paul, the same old message that really was launched by John the Baptist and then by Jesus, repentance, the Kingdom is at hand, forgiveness is available, reconciliation with God. Nothing changes. This is a direct shot at the heretics with their new truth. He's saying I'm not giving you anything new, avoid anything new, new is wrong. Stay with the apostolic proclamation of Christ. Always the heretics have something new, some new revelation, some new vision, some new insight. And I told you last time that there was developing at that time around the churches an incipient Gnosticism which was an elevated knowledge in which people thought they had transcendent knowledge, access to divine information that the hoi-polloi the common people didn't have and they were trying to come into the church and tell them they had been given secret knowledge, new things from God.
John says...I don't have anything new, what I have is the same old message. When somebody comes along and says there's a new revelation, it's called the book of Mormon, or the Pearl of Great Price, or the Doctrines and the Covenants, run! When somebody comes along and says there's a new revelation from God through Mary Baker Eddy called Science and Health and Key to the Scriptures, turn and go the other direction! When Pastor Russell and Judge Rutherford come along with their studies in the Scripture and tell you they are the true Jehovah's Witnesses who have received down from heaven a document called The Harps of God, turn and leave! Anybody comes to offer you some new revelation, it's not going to be true. This is the first thing John wants to establish that this is the message that's been given from the beginning. It's the permanent timeless and eternal message.
If you look over at Jude which is just a few little books to the right, after 3 John, Jude in verse 3 writing to believers called "beloved in God and kept for Jesus Christ," in verse 1 says, "Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." What you're going to have to do, Jude writes, is you're going to have to fight for the once-for-all, delivered-to-the-saints faith. That's the apostolic faith, that's the New Testament. You have to fight for that. "You have to earnestly contend for that for certain persons, verse 4, have crept in unnoticed who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." There are always going to be people coming in with new information and the new information is that the Apostles were wrong, and Paul was wrong, and Jesus is not God. We must guard this once, hapax, once-for-all, delivered-to-the-saints faith. There never will be another faith given. Mark that. The faith was once-for-all given. Hapax means once for all, never to be repeated. We have been given the once-for-all faith, there never will be another faith. Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever." There's not going to be any change in the gospel. So Hebrews 13:9 says, "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teaching." If it's new, it's wrong.
In writing to the Galatians the Apostle Paul in chapter 1 says, "I am amazed," verse 6, "you're so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." And then he says, "Even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed." He repeats it, "As we said before I'm saying again, if any man is preaching you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed." There's no room for another gospel...none whatsoever. Paul says, "I absolutely marvel, I am thaumazo, do you know, I'm stunned. I'm astounded. I'm astonished that you've transferred your allegiance to another gospel rather than the once-for-all, delivered-to-the-saints faith.
So John starts out in a simple statement, "What was from the beginning," affirming that the Word of Life, the message concerning the Word of Life, Christ and the gospel is the same message preached since the Apostles began, since our Lord began, since John the Baptist began to preach it. It is the hapax, the once-for-all, delivered-to-the-saints faith and there will never be another one delivered. The Word of Life then is permanent...permanent.
Secondly, it is sensible. And I mean that in this sense, it is perceived by the senses. It is perceived by the senses. There were some, of course, who wanted to cast religion into a mystical paradigm, who wanted all religion to sort of exist only in some ethereal imagination, neo-orthodoxy has done that in more modern times in the Hileiga-Shick-Dalickta[????] the super-duper history that somewhere other than the real history we live in. But John wants us to know that our senses can apprehend this Word of Life, that it's not mystical, it's not transcendent, it's not reserved only for the gnostics, the people in the know, the people with super knowledge, elevated knowledge. Always those kinds of people are around us, religious gurus of all sorts who think they have the transcendent knowledge. But John wants us to know that the Word of Life is available to our senses. So he says, "What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life and the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us."
In verse 3 he goes on. "What we have seen and heard we proclaimed to you also." John is saying, "I'm not talking about some transcendental experience, I'm not talking about some mystical thing, I'm not talking about some secret gnosis, I'm telling you this Word of Life I experienced, I heard Him, I saw Him, I looked upon Him, I touched Him." And the gnostics, of course, would come along and they would talk about all these mystical kinds of things and John is saying...Reject all of that in favor of a true manifestation of God in human flesh, the living and breathing Son of God, the Word of Life personified, made manifest." John 1:14, "And the Word became...what?...flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory." The truth was real and incarnate and He was here. God became man, divine life was manifest in human flesh. And John says, "Don't let any heretics sway you from that real incarnation." We have experienced it, he says. It was manifest. The Life, the Word of Life, verse 2 He calls Him the eternal Life who was with the Father and was manifested to us. The eternal one entered time and was manifest.
And there are sort of four steps in John's sensible perception, four ascending features in verse 1 suggesting a deepening degree of personal experience. First, what we have heard...what we have heard. What did they hear? They heard Him speak. You know, we're having the wonderful adventure of going through the gospel of Luke and every Sunday when we come together we hear Jesus speak the words that come out of His mouth, the parables, the stories, the sermons. Well John was there. This old man was there when he was young, he was there with Jesus for the duration of His ministry from the beginning of it to the end of it. He was there post-resurrection for 40 days on occasion meeting with the Lord and hearing Him. We have heard. Perfect tense indicating the reality in past time with present impact. And what he's saying here, "We have heard," the way it's structured in the Greek indicates that the hearing was not confined to one single occasion. He's not saying, "You know, one day, one time I was in a certain place and I heard something come out of Jesus' mouth." No. We have heard...we have heard in a progressive and a complete and continuous sense.
And this tense also has the idea that the past process was a complete one. We were there for the complete hearing. The evidence is all in. I was there, I heard Him. I heard the Sermon on the Mount, I heard the whole thing. I heard the parables, all of them, didn't miss any of them. I heard Him preach in synagogues and in valleys and on hillsides and in thoroughfares. I heard Him teach in houses. I heard it all. I didn't miss any of it. I heard it firsthand. Sixty years ago for John, but it was still a living truth in his heart.
Secondly he said, "We heard," and then he said, "What we have seen with our eyes." The word is horao, refers to the physical act of seeing. It's just reality, nothing mystical about this. He's not saying, "You know, I had a vision, I saw a ...I saw a phantom appearance of the living logos." It's not that kind of double talk like the Docetists. He says, "We have seen with our eyes," not with our minds, not with some transcendental visionary kind of thought. We saw Him with our eyes. Why does he add "with our eyes"? So that everybody knows that he's talking about his physical sight. I saw Him there...again the tense is perfect tense, which suggests a complete seeing with ongoing impact. He saw the whole perfection of the revelation of Christ for himself, he saw it with his own eyes. He was there when Jesus cast demons out of people time and time and time again. He saw it with his own eyes. He was there when Jesus reached out a hand and helped a lame person up and that lame person walked away. He was there when Jesus touched the eyes of the blind and they saw. He was there when He put his hand over the ears of the deaf and they heard. He was there when He touched the funeral procession, touched the casket or the bier of the young man whose mother lived in Nain and he was there when that young man came to life. He was there...he was there. He was there when Jesus called demons out of people and they came flying out of the people and they were delivered. He was there. He was there when Jesus walked on water. He was there when He multiplied the loaves and the fishes. He saw it with his own eyes, this is his own personal experience. And he was there for the full completion of what Jesus did. He experienced it first hand. This is so wonderful, so wonderful.
John says you can be certain about this. You can be certain about Jesus Christ. Not because I had a vision, now you hear people say, "Well, you know, I saw the Lord and He told me this..." I don't...I don't put any confidence in that at all, do you? Why should I? It's not verifiable and it's not repeatable. John, that's different. He was there. All you have to do is go back and read the gospel record, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you'll know that.
Going a little further, not only what we heard and what we've seen with our eyes concerning the Word of Life, but what we beheld...what we beheld. It sounds like maybe he's repeating what he just said, "What we saw with our eyes." No. It means to look long at, to look long at, not just a glance, not just a sort of objective look, but a searching gaze. It's, by the way, used...it's the verb used in John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory." We looked closely at it. We looked deeply at it.
You can imagine that. You know, I mean, there was the reality in the travels of the Lord with His Apostles that they were seeing what was going on with their eyes. They were experiencing all of it. But there was another level in which they were looking more deeply into what it was that was happening. They were seeing and they were hearing not what was apparently superficial, but they were seeing and hearing what was behind. They were looking deeply into the realities of who Christ was, His power to forgive, His power over demons, His power over disease, His power over death. So John says I not only saw the events, saw the man, but I saw the meaning...I saw what was going on. I saw that it was God in human flesh
And then he adds one more. "What we beheld and our hands handled," psellaphason [?] in the Greek, means to grope, to feel after like a blind man. A blind man takes a page of Braille and the smallest little bumps and bends that he feels translate into meaningful words. That's John. Jesus used this word in Luke 24:39 when He said, "Handle Me...handle Me and realize that a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see Me have." And they handled Him. And He told Thomas, "Reach hither and touch My side and see the nail prints and touch them." John says, "This is no apparition, this is no phantom. I had Him in my hands." And we know enough about John to know that John even leaned on His chest, didn't he? He describes himself that way in his own gospel. He had three years to touch Jesus, to handle Him, to be near Him, to...as it were...grope like a blind man, to really understand who He was. This is remarkable.
Now you will notice that John doesn't say, "I have heard," and "I have seen," and "I beheld," and "My hands handled." He says, "We," and "Our," because he's including himself with the Apostles. We all were there. We all heard, saw, looked intently into and handled the Word of Life. I want to hear from this man. He's an expert. He's a firsthand eyewitness. I was there, I saw and I heard and I looked deeply into and I felt all that He was. And then in verse 2, "And the Life was manifested, the Word of Life was manifested." He said, "What's my conclusion...what is my conclusion? It is that this is the Life, the Word of Life." Large "L", upper case, you see it there? Divine Life. Verse 2, "The Life was manifested, we've seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal Life, the very eternal Life which is with the Father and was manifest to us."
You know what my conclusion is? My conclusion is that what I heard and what I saw and what I looked into and what I touched was the eternal life of God manifest in flesh. It was manifest, phaneroo, to make visible what is hidden. God was hidden until Christ and the divine Life became visible, that eternal Life, that Word of Life was none other than that eternal Life who was with the Father and was manifested to us. Fallen creatures could never ascend to heaven to seek that life, so the Son had to descend to earth to bring that life. The Word of Life, and the Eternal Life are the same. The Word was God, the Word was with God. John 1:4 says and "In Him was life...in Him was life." I wish I had time but I'll leave it to you to go through all of the occasions in which Jesus referred to this Life. John 5:26, "Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself," that is to say He has an equal life with the Father, He is equal in essence. And then he says in 5:40 of John, "You are unwilling to come to Me that you may have life." He is life, He brings life, He gives life. John 11:25 and 26 he says, "I am the resurrection and the Life, whoever believes in Me though he were dead yet shall he live." In John 14:6 He says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to Me except by the Father." He is life. That's John's conclusion. In 1 John 5:12, "He who has the Son has the life, he who doesn't have the Son of God doesn't have the life."
So John says...I was there, I heard Him, I saw Him, I looked deeply into Him, I groped after and I discerned and I felt and I touched and I'm telling you, this is divine life in human flesh." This is the testimony of John and a wonderful testimony it is. He is that divine life. He is that very divine life which was with the Father. Literally in the Greek, "Toward the Father." This is that very life that was face-to-face with the Father. This is God. This is the eternal One.
So John is certain. He's certain about the permanence of the Word of Life. He doesn't bring a new message. He's certain about the sensibility of that eternal life, the Word of Life because he personally experienced it and repeats it again and again, even in verse 3, "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you."
And that brings us to a third thought. Certain about the person of Christ, the permanent Word of Life, the sensible Word of Life, and here he talks about the proclaimed Word of Life. My responsibility, he says, is to bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life. As a witness, as a one who saw Him, I am to bear witness, personal witness from the standpoint of experience. You know, if you're going to be a witness in a trial, legitimate witness, not some kind of an expert witness comes in to talk about some technical aspect of the trial, if you're going to be a witness you have to have experienced something that comes to bear upon the court and the case. John says, "I'm going to bear witness. I can come in and give a firsthand testimony of Christ because I bore witness. I have seen and bear witness and I proclaim to you the eternal life which was manifested to us. We saw it, we heard it, we proclaim it."
And that is really the simplest possible process for us to understand how John viewed his ministry. It's the old message which I personally experienced, the old truth, the revelation which I personally experienced which I'm called to proclaim. It is this to which I was witness that I proclaim. The manifestation then becomes a proclamation. The manifestation becomes a proclamation.
And John wants his readers to have the same glorious knowledge that he and the other Apostles had. The people to whom he wrote surely had never seen Jesus. They were living in Asia Minor for one thing, Jesus never went there. There's nothing to indicate that anybody in the churches there had met Jesus Christ. They wouldn't be then witnesses of Christ, they wouldn't have heard and seen and looked upon and handled the Word of Life. But John is there to be the eyewitness to proclaim that truth to them. He is credible because of his life and his character and his apostleship and it is known by everyone that he is the John who was with Jesus. So in a very real sense, Christ manifested Himself to the Apostles to qualify them as firsthand eyewitnesses so that they could pass that on to others in the proclamation of the gospel. And when received by others, it would be again passed on to a next generation.
We can't be Apostles, none of us can be an Apostle, but we have the Apostles' eyewitness account right here. Peter gives us an eyewitness account. Peter says in his epistle he was an eyewitness to the manifest glory of Christ at the transfiguration. All of the books of the New Testament written by Apostles or those who were associated with the Apostles give us the apostolic eyewitness account. The book of Acts says that the Apostles' doctrine was what was the content of the preaching and teaching and study of the church. And so Christ manifested Himself to them, had them as eyewitnesses write down the record. Matthew wrote it down, Mark wrote it down, Luke wrote it down and John wrote it down. And they are the eyewitnesses who have given us their account. It is such a ludicrous and such a terrible thing for people to come along whether they call themselves scholars or whatever and attack the scriptural accounts and attack the honesty and the integrity not only of God the Holy Spirit but of the eyewitnesses, the Apostles. John says it is certain that this is the true message and the true manifestation and the true proclamation.
There's another certainty here that is an interesting certainty, it is the certainty of a true fellowship...of fellowship. And he says this in the end of verse 3, the reason that we proclaim all of this is, "That you also may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ."
There's a progression here. It was the old message which John personally experienced in its fullness which he proclaims for the purpose of including people in the fellowship. It's a hina with a purpose clause, "In order that you also may have fellowship with us." And we talk about fellowship...I don't know what you think about, some people think about...you know, I grew up in a church where they had a place called, "Fellowship Hall." Did you ever have one of those in the church when you were a kid? Yeah, it was down in the basement, it had linoleum on the floor and shuffleboard and metal chairs and we drank red punch and ate stale cookies. You know, that was fellowship, right? But when we talk biblically...when you talk biblically about fellowship, it's something very different. Fellowship is the word koinonia, basically means partnership---partnership. It's not about...it's not about a relational connection, it's about a real partnership. When we talk about fellowship today we use it in a sense of socializing.
That is not what it means. Koinonos meant partner, some joint participation held in common. A fourth century inscription finds it used this way. A doctor in medicine...a doctor of medicine inscribed to his wife who also studied medicine but had died as "With you alone I shared my life." Well the only thing I want to draw from that is the fact that for him the word "shared" meant marriage, it's that kind of partnership. It's more than just socializing, it's being linked together in a common life. It's not just a social exercise, or a social engagement, it is a true partnership.
John is not saying, "You know, I want you to have some social interaction with me. I want you to have social interaction with us, the Apostles," because the people in the churches of Asia Minor wouldn't be able to have social interaction with the Apostles. It's unlikely they would have much social interaction with John who very soon would be in exile. And certainly it wouldn't relate to us as we read it, how am I going to have social interaction with John? He's in heaven. It is not a reference to some mystical companionship either. It is a real partnership.
So the way to understand this is that the preaching of the gospel produces faith and a person who puts their faith in Christ enters into a real partnership with other believers. It is a real sharing of life. First Corinthians 1:9 uses it in this context, "God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." That is partnership. When you were saved you were called into partnership with Christ. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit," 1 Corinthians 6:17. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me." This is the partnership. And this fellowship, verse 3, is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
What happens when you are saved? You are immediately placed into a relationship, an eternal partnership with God and with Christ. The partnership is so intimate that you become the temple of God and you are in some ways indistinguishable from Christ. I live...says Paul...yet not I but Christ lives in me...it is a real partnership. It is a sharing of life. You also, according to 2 Corinthians 13:14, have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. You become the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of God, the place where Christ dwells, the whole trinity takes up residence in your life. You now possess the life of God in your soul, that is your partnership, common participation in eternal life.
So John says....Look, this is where the foundation is, this is the basics. The old gospel message that was preached from the beginning concerning the Word of Life, Jesus Christ, the eternal Life, the One who was with the Father and was manifested to us, that's the message I preach. It's a true message, I was there. I heard, I saw, I studied, I handled that truth. I know whereof I speak. It is that message which I proclaim and I proclaim it in order that those who hear may enter into this fellowship.
We are partakers...we are partakers of the divine nature. That's just an awe-inspiring thought. We are partakers, Peter says, of the glory that is to be revealed. This is our true fellowship. I used to hear people say, "So-and-so's out of fellowship." If you were out of fellowship you just lost your salvation, that can't happen. You may not be enjoying your fellowship because of sin, you may not experience the full joy of that fellowship, but if you're a Christian you're in the fellowship. It is an inviolable, eternal sharing in the life of the trinity. This is the amazing reality of the Christian gospel that God comes down in human flesh, God becomes a man that we might partake of the very life of God. This is the great reality. When you become a Christian the life of God comes into your soul.
What kind of life is it? What kind of life? Spiritual life. You're awaken to God. You come alive. Before you were dead in trespasses and sin, didn't understand God, didn't know God, didn't understand divine truth, all of a sudden spiritual life comes to you. That's the first aspect of that life and that spiritual life awakens you to divine truth, it awakens you to God. You hear the voice of the Son of God, John 5:25, and you come alive.
It is not only spiritual life, it is resurrection life. In John 5 it tells us also in verse 28 that this life some day is going to bring us out of the grave. There will be a resurrection of life. John 10:10 says it is abundant life, spiritual life, resurrection life, eternal life, abundant life. It's the life of God no matter how you express it.
So, John says here's the foundation. This is what I'm certain about. I'm certain about the message that is the same message from the beginning. I'm certain that the Word of Life was manifest because I was there and I heard and saw and I studied and I touched Him. And I'm cer6tain that this is the message that we are to proclaim and I'm certain that in proclaiming it the purpose is that you might enter into this fellowship, that is that you might become a possessor of the life of God. And finally, I'm certain about something else. The Word of Life will provide joy. This is the results, verse 4, "These things we write so that your joy may be made complete."
I'm proclaiming to you something that will bring you consummate joy, consummate joy. Joy is full satisfaction, total fulfillment that can never be lost. The Kingdom of God, said Paul in Romans 14, is joy in the Holy Spirit. No wonder Paul repeatedly says, "Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice." No wonder Jesus said that even though I'm going to leave you in the upper room discourse, I'm going to leave you joy because joy comes in the truth. A certain message, a certain witness to that message proclaims a certain gospel which brings us into a certain fellowship, produces a certain joy. Hold on to the same gospel, the one that I personally experienced. Proclaim it to others that they might enter in to the common eternal life that we enjoy so that they too can have a complete joy.
Let's pray.
Father, as we have just gone through this very basic and foundational part of John's epistle, we...we're covering some ground that's so familiar to us we even heard explanations of it in the waters of baptism by very young believers who understand so wonderfully and so perfectly the great doctrines of salvation, and we thank You for that. But, Lord, there's nothing like hearing it from John, nothing like hearing it from somebody who was there, an eyewitness. The testimony to the veracity of this epistle has been settled millennia ago. The church for the two thousand years since it was written has bowed the knee to its truth. We thank You for this beloved old Apostle, for his firsthand eyewitness account to the certainty of the Word of Life. And may our lives be built on that same certainty that we too may participate in the fellowship of those with eternal life and in the complete joy that You grant. Thank You in Christ's name. Amen.


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MOVIE REVIEW- Losing it: <i>Adventureland</i> is virgin territory
There's a lot of talk in Adventureland about how guys are "wired" to crave meaningless sex. There's no mention of men's need to share their sexual experiences, especially their first, with the world, often through books or movies.
Greg Mottola (The Daytrippers) may not share the first compulsion– at least the protagonist based on him doesn't– but he's a poster boy for the second. Adventureland, his latest as writer-director, is more adult than most youth-oriented sex comedies because James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg, a less gawky Michael Cera) has graduated college with his "Scarlet V (for Virgin)" intact.
The Jonas Brothers didn't sell him a purity ring– it's 1987 and they haven't been born yet. He's just a romantic who doesn't want to do it until he's in love. He's horny, but he wants meaningful sex. (I can remember feeling that way. I was, what, 12?)
The soundtrack of Adventureland, mostly songs of the '70s and '80s ranging from Lou Reed and David Bowie to Whitesnake and Judas Priest to The Replacements and The Cure, is so specific one senses the music came first and the story later. In other words, like the romance it depicts, it began with a mix tape.
James was supposed to go to Europe this summer as a graduation present from his parents (Wendie Malick and Jack Gilpin), but financial setbacks have canceled that plan. In fact, James will have to get a summer job if he still wants to go to grad school at Columbia in the fall.
Having "majored in Comparative Literature and Renaissance Studies," James is "not even qualified for manual labor." The best job he can find in Pittsburgh is operating sleazy carnival games at Adventureland amusement park, run by Bobby (Bill Hader) and his wife Paulette (Kristen Wiig).
James soon breaks the park's first commandment: "No one ever wins a giant-ass panda." He makes a new friend in geeky Joel (Martin Starr) and renews an association with obnoxious Frigo (Matt Bush), who used to be his best friend ("Then I turned four") and is always hitting him in the cojones.
More importantly, James meets two young women at Adventureland. Em (Twilight's Kristen Stewart) seems like the kind of girl he can get serious about, but unknown to him she's having an affair with married Connell (Ryan Reynolds), "the maintenance guy," whose claim to fame is that he supposedly once jammed with Lou Reed.
Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva) comes on like a sexpot, but it turns out she's just drawn that way. "I wouldn't mind going out with a nice guy for a change," she says. Levieva makes you believe she's got a big heart in her big chest, even though she acts like she just wants to have fun.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Adventureland is that Mottola is too forgiving of the people in his past. Connell may behave despicably toward women, but he tries to be a good friend to James.
Eisenberg is well cast as the kind of guy who will forgive everyone who's ever wronged him within 20 years. Girls will want to break him in and guys will want to be his wingman.
Adventureland is frank and definitely R-rated, but it makes no effort to out-raunch other films of its genre. It doesn't out-anything any of them. In the end it's a pretty typical coming-of-age movie, with a later bloomer than most. It's about the summer James/Greg will never forget, but you'll forget it as soon as the next movie like this comes along.#
1 comment
Jesse Eisenberg in his underwear--worth the $8?
I think the movie was written by an alcoholic. I know nothing of Greg Mottola, but I do know the signs. Everybody drinks. All the time. Young and old, parents, children, all their friends, neighbors, guests. A drink rewards a day's work. A drink is solace for emotional pain. A drink is both reward and succor. A drink is the catalyst of an ugly step-parent/child confrontation; putting their heads down and sipping their drinks is the refuge of the bystanders. Drinking is the life of every party. A girl swimming in underwear with her boyfriend leaves because "I want another drink." A date means going to a bar, or drinking at a disco. At a restaurant the question is "How's the wine?" (the girl sniffs the glass, rather than the wine.) A drink is hidden under a car's front seat, smuggled into a carnival ride, poured into a milkshake, sipped, gulped, slurped, sucked, and eventually vomited. Alcohol and dope, this movie says, are the food on which young people subsist.
As I think of it, the happy ending happens over a cup of--tea. I wonder if the writer knew he had done that. That is, portrayed alcohol as part of a sick world, and abstinence from it as the start of a healthy life.
Do not do as one father I saw did, and bring a 13 year old son. You will have to do some explaining about alcohol and drugs. Also, you will have to justify a liberal arts education when smart literary people can only find work at a carnival.

subset: commoncrawl


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After months of delays, RIM is on the cusp of releasing its new smartphone operating system, BlackBerry 10.
Today, the company announced it has finished the software developers kit (SDK) for BB10.
It's an important milestone.
The SDK is what developers use to make apps for phones. If BB10 has any hope of being successful enough to turn RIM around, it'll need the support of third-party developers to make great apps for the new operating system. No matter how good a phone is, it's tough to convince consumers to buy if the app ecosystem isn't there.
RIM will formally unveil the final version of BB10 and at least one new smartphone on Jan. 30, 2013.
Now check out the very first teaser photo of the new BlackBerry phone >


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The dust still has yet to settle, since Apple announced on Monday that it would no longer seek EPEAT certification for 39 of its computer models. Certainly, this news is not great. The ideal situation would be for everything, everywhere, to be entirely green and environmentally friendly.
But Tech Radar reports that the City of San Francisco's Department of Environment has sent letters "to all 50 city agencies, informing them that city funds can no longer be used to purchase Apple products"—and, to me, that seems a bit extreme.
Hear me out. There are plenty of products that we use on a daily basis that a terrible for the environment. We could be more diligent about recycling and make a significant difference. Banning entire sector of a city's government from spending city funds on new MacBooks is sort of a passive environmental statement. How about mandatory work-commute carpools? Or forbidding city funds from being spent on bottled water? Or allowing only those tubeless toiletpaper rolls in city government office bathrooms? Or forbidding all men and women employed by the city from using hair spray. I'm (possibly) exaggerating for effect, here, but still. Are we overreacting, or not?


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Dollar General, Kangaroo Express robbed at gunpoint
Two armed robberies in a four-and-a-half hour span on Wednesday night have Kinston police looking for a suspect or suspects � and Commander Jennifer Canady from the Kinston Department of Public Safety think they�re looking for the same person in both incidents.
At approximately 6:25 p.m., Wednesday, KDPS officers responded to an armed robbery call at the Dollar General Store, 2008 W. Vernon Ave. Eyewitnesses told officers a black male � approximately 5 foot, 6 inches tall, wearing a black or dark blue hoodie, dark jeans and a blue bandanna covering his face and with a handgun in his waistband � jumped the counter and took an undisclosed amount of money from the register.
The suspect left the store on foot, heading east toward West Washington Ave.
A few hours later, at approximately 11:08 p.m., the KDPS responded to another armed robbery call, this time at the Kangaroo Express, 1690 N.C. 258 North; the convenience store is 3.22 miles away from the Dollar General
The description of the suspect was identical to the Dollar General perpetrator. In this case, though, the suspect threatened the clerk with the handgun and demanded money.
Again, the suspect fled on foot, heading towards Banks School Road with an undisclosed amount of cash.
No one was injured in either incident.
Canady said investigators with her department think they�re looking for the same person in both incidents.
�We do believe the incidents are related, with the same suspect,� Canady said. �There could possibly be two subjects.�
Canady said a video will be sent shortly of the suspect. The Free Press will post the video as soon as it becomes available.
The commander asked the public for its help; if you have any information about either robbery or the suspect�s identity, you are asked to call Lenoir County Crime Stoppers at 252-523-4444.


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Evaluating, Selecting, and Using Appropriate Assistive Technology, Part 1
Jan J. Galvin, Jan C. Galvin, Marcia Joslyn Scherer
Aspen Publishers, 1996 - Medical - 394 pages
Assistive technology can be a powerful tool but only if it has been designed with consumer input, selected with full knowledge of what is available, how it works, how it interacts with the environment, and most importantly, selected with full consumer knowledge and cooperation. Too often the technology selected fails the consumer because it was chosen without regard to these parameters. Poorly chosen technology leads to high abandonment rates and wasted third-party-payor money. This book attempts to remedy this situation. It discusses in depth how to select appropriate technology and presents the parameters and steps that must be taken to ensure a good match of person and technology. Also included is the Cooperative Electronic Library on Disability on CD-ROM.
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Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Technology ..., Volume 1
Mehdi Khosrowpour
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Exercise in Rehabilitation Medicine
Walter R. Frontera,David Michael Dawson,David M. Slovik
No preview available - 1999


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Welcome to
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Oklahoma football: Interest from the Big Ten?
The Omaha World-Herald reported this week that the Big Ten has done "homework" on OU, Kansas and Vanderbilt as potential members. You can read that report here.
Homework can mean many a thing. It can mean in clandestine meetings at an Atlanta hotel. It can mean checking the list of American Association of Universities members. It can mean all things in between.
So who knows? It seems clear that the Big Ten was interested in some prestigious ACC members — North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virgina, something along those lines — which led to the ACC's announcement of the schools signing away their grant of rights to the league, a stability enhancement that has helped the Big 12 and in theory would do the same for the ACC.
I would guess that the Big Ten's "homework" is nothing beyond general running of numbers. What kind of market value would the Sooners, Jayhawks and Commodores bring, compared with the economic clout? The Big Ten is into academic snobbery, which is why it would consider a Vandy and might not consider an Oklahoma.
What would be the pros and cons of the Sooners considering a Big Ten move, if OU somehow could get out of its grant-of-rights deal?
Politically, it would be difficult to go anywhere without OSU, though it's less difficult if the Cowboys are in a good position anyway. Which might or might not be the case.
Recruiting would take a major hit. Texas A&M got a big recruiting boost going to the SEC. But that's the SEC, and the Aggies are based in Texas. OU's Texas pipeline would be crippled. No games in Texas would be tough, and yes, that means OU-Texas would be endangered; if the Longhorns cut the cord with the Aggies, you don't think the 'Horns would cut the cord with the Sooners? Heck, UT might call A&M and say, let's resume the series and play in Dallas during the State Fair. Selling kids on the Big Ten is much more difficult than selling kids on the SEC. No way would Bob Stoops support such a move. When Stoops was fired up about the Pac-16 in the early days of conference upheaval, the premise was that at least four Big 12 South schools were going West. That apparently wouldn't be the case with the Big Ten.
But from a campus standpoint, OU academicians would be excited about the Big Ten. The Big Ten has academic prowess, and OU president David Boren long has attempted to — and succeeded in — upgrade the university's academic reputation. OU's academic side was fired up about the Pac-16. It would be even more excited about the Big Ten.
Rivalries would take a hit, although renewal of the Nebraska series would be great. However, Texas is a better tradition than Nebraska was. That would not be a good tradeoff. The Bedlam Series, I assume, would survive. Occasional games against Michigan and Ohio State — no way would they be annual — would be great. So that would be a good tonic for the loss of annual rivalries like Kansas State and Texas Tech.
Traveling fans would be harmed by the move. It's easy to get to seven of OU's nine Big 12 rivals. Only Iowa State (which is doable) and West Virginia (which is not) are not easy drives. That would change in the Big Ten. Nebraska is about eight hours from Norman. Iowa City is about nine hours. Those would be the closest Big Ten schools, unless Kansas came, too.
Minor sports? Depends on which one. Baseball would be hurt badly. Wrestling would be thrilled.
Financially, which is what matters most, I guess, would probably be a boon to OU. Which is why the Sooners would consider it. But I hope they don't. In fact, if I was OU and intent on leaving the Big 12, I would make the Big Ten my third priority. Out West, with other Big 12 schools, would be No. 1. SEC would be next. Then the Big Ten.
Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist. Tramel grew up reading four daily newspapers — The Oklahoman,... Read more ›


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It is an undeniably magical night, and happily, it is just around the corner… New Year''s Eve, the glitz and glamor night of the year! Shoes shined and lips glossed, we'll all wave a fond farewell to 2011 one minute and the very next, greet 2012 head on. We'll celebrate the accomplishments of last year, while we bubble over with hope for what's to come.
I haven't picked out my dress yet, but no matter what I wear, I will definitely be holding my New Year's Needlepoint Clutch. It has such a feeling of whimsical elegance, I know that I'll be gracefully prepared for whatever the night may bring! With a practical form and minimalist style, this clutch is perfectly finished with the gorgeous, simple and rugged Koigu Premium Merino. Subtly hand dyed color and a refined spin emit a surprising and beautiful shimmer. Pops of dark raspberry and moody dark cherry pack a punch and lend a pinch of surprise, just like New Year's Eve!
This year, I plan to dance the night away, clutch in hand, ready for any adventure 2012 might bring. Happy holidays and all the best this coming year!!! –Laura
To make a 6-inch tall x 8-inch wide clutch:
- 1 skein of Koigu's KPM (100% merino), color 0000
- 1 skein of Koigu's KPM (100% merino), color 2390.5
- 1 skein of Koigu's KPM (100% merino), color 2392
- 1 skein of Koigu's KPM Needlepoint Yarn (100% merino), color 1160
- 1 skein of Koigu's KPM Needlepoint Yarn (100% merino), color 1170
- 1/4-yard of Fleur de Paris 13 Mesh Blank Needlepoint Canvas. I used the color Eggshell.
- 1/4-yard of Rowan's Shot Cotton. I used the color Magenta.
- Cotton Thread. 1 spool to match your Shot Cotton. I spool to match your Needlepoint Canvas. I used 1040 and 5860.
- Size 20 Tapestry Needles
From the needlepoint canvas, cut one 16-inch by 9-inch rectangle.
From the Shot Cotton, cut one 15 3/4-inch by 8 3/4-inch rectangle. Put this to the side for now.
Hem the Canvas
Cut a square, approximately 1/2-inch by 1/2-inch or a little smaller, out of each of the four corners of your cut piece of canvas.
Fold one edge of the canvas back 1/2-inch so to align with the cut you made out of the corner. Using the matching cotton thread, hand sew the folded edge to tack it down, taking a stitch every 1/4-inch or so. Be careful to align the mesh. Later, You will be stitching through both of these layers of canvas.
Repeat the previous step for the second, third and then fourth edge of the canvas, always carefully aligning the mesh.
Now that the edges of the canvas have been hemmed, you are ready to needlepoint.
(Fancy) Stitch the Canvas
The pattern I chose for this clutch is known as the Fancy Stitch. If you are unfamiliar with this stich, check out our tutorial, right here!
Please note that two strands of Koigu are used at once for the entirety of this project.
Usually I work my needlepoint canvases from the upper right to the lower left corner. For this project, I wanted to ensure this graphic pattern is centered so I started needlepointing down the center of the canvas and worked from there.
The diamond shaped portion of the Fancy Stitch is stitched primarily in the darkest of the three neutrals, color 2392, with an occasional diamond of contrasting yarn, color 1160 and 1170.
After working the diamond shapes, I worked the diagonal stitches. These are worked in, roughly, 80% color 0000, an off white, and the remainder in the medium neutral, color 2390.
Line the Canvas
Press the edges of the Shot Cotton 1/4-inches to the wrong side of the fabric. Fold and press once more. Your pressed fabric should now measure 7 3/4-inches by 14 3/4-inches.
Place your needlepoint canvas, wrong side up, on your work surface. Place your pressed Shot Cotton, wrong side down, on top of your canvas. Center the fabric on the canvas and pin in place. The fabric should be just a pinch smaller than your canvas.
Hand sew the lining fabric to the needlepoint canvas using a blind stitch and matching thread.
Finish the Opening Edge
With your tapestry needle threaded with two strands of a contrasting yarn, use a whip stitch to finish one of the shorter edges of the canvas. This will be at the 'mouth' or opening of the clutch. A surprise splash of color when you lift the folded over flap.
Fold the Canvas
Lay the lined canvas on your work surface with the Shot Cotton fabric facing up and the recently finished edge at the bottom. Fold the bottom edge of your rectangle up 5-inches. Pin along the left and right sides.
Bind the Edges
Starting at the crux of the fold, use whip stitch to bind the folded canvas. I used the darkest neutral yarn, the same color as most of the diamonds.
Continue along the side of the clutch, continue along the top edge and then down the other side.
You've done it! You're ready to hit the town with your new needlepoint clutch! Happy New Years! –Laura


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Wetpixel Alaska Expedition 2013
2 Weeks On The Vessel Nautilus Swell.
18 July to 1 August 2013.
Join Wetpixel and underwater photographer Jason Bradley on a true dive adventure photographing and diving Alaska's famous Inside Passage.
Trekking between Juneau and Ketchikan Alaska, we will spend two weeks shooting gorgeous and lush reefs, humpback whales, glaciers, sea otters, Stellar sea lions, bald eagles, harbor seals, jellyfish, wolf eels, and much, much more. Around every corner is something new for your lens and photographic portfolio. Don't miss this trip!
Boat: Nautilus Swell
Diving Style: Dives will be conducted off of a large aluminum skiff, where all dive equipment will stay for the entire diving schedule. The majority of dives are done during slack tide and typically last from 45-60 minutes. All dives are strictly timed; for safety, you must be on the surface at the end of pre-determined dive times. Water temperature ranges from the low 40s to the low/mid 50s F.
Other Activities: Topside Alaska is absolutely gorgeous, and kayaks are available for those who want to skip out on diving. We will likely be stopping at small towns on the way, doing short hikes to lakes and hot springs. Also, there is a hot tub on the top deck, and while hot water and diving are normally not suggested, it can be nice to warm up after a day in the cold ocean.
Accommodation: The Nautilus Swell features 2 double-occupancy superior suites and 4 double-occupancy staterooms. We will be taking 11 guests plus Jason for a total of 12 divers. Please see the ship tour on Nautilus Swell's website for full details.
- Superior suites - US$5895.
- Spots, staterooms - US$4995.
Balance is refundable upon cancellation only if we fill your spot with a paid guest.
Trip cost includes live-aboard boat accommodation, scuba diving, tanks, air fills, weights, weight belt, food and non-alcoholic drinks. Not included is airfare, local accommodation, and alcoholic drinks.
Payment schedule (per person):
$1,500 deposit, non-refundable.
$1,500 payment due 18 February, 2013.
Balance due 20 April, 2013.
Contact Person for booking or more information about the trip is Jason Bradley. Please let him know that you are interested in or would like to book the 18 July Wetpixel Alaska trip.
Planned Schedule: Trip dates are 18 July to 1 August 2013. Guests must arrive in Juneau, AK with plenty of time to board the Nautilus Swell at 6pm on 18 July. Guests will disembark out of Ketchikan, AK on 1 August.


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Justin Bieber Promises New Music, New Movie + New Tour for This Year
After a tumultuous start to 2013, Justin Bieber is promising big things for the rest of the year.
Bieber recently announced Australian and Asian legs to his massively successful Believe tour. Additionally, he revealed via Twitter that he's got lots of other huge projects in the works:
Bieber's film will be his second, following the hugely popular 'Never Say Never,' which grossed over $73 million. Perhaps even more exciting for his Beliebers is his promise of new music. 'Believe' and 'Believe Acoustic' both went Platinum and debuted at No. 1.
The new work will be a refreshing change from the drama poor Biebs has dealt with in the past year. He split from Selena Gomez, got snapped smoking pot, was booed at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, may or may not have lost yet another pet monkey and is facing some legal drama with his neighbors.


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With an exploding smart device market (1.3B units will be sold in 2015) and Gartner predicting that by 2015 mobile application development projects for smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1, Nikfar Khaleeli, director of product marketing at AppCentral, has taken the time to set the record straight about seven common myths surrounding mobile app management.
Related Topics : Box.net, Laptops
Five key trends that mobile developers and enterprises adopting a mobile program can benefit from right now. ... More >>
Small businesses need five types of apps -- file-sharing, accounting, document-editing, industry-specific and security -- to succeed. ... More >>
Contextually aware apps are able to deliver tailored experiences in the form of timely, relevant and appropriate information, notifications and/or functionality. ... More >>


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Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc. has won a 15-year tax freeze from the Memphis-Shelby County Industrial Development Board for the manufacturing facility it's developing at Rivergate Industrial Park.
The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes the IDB granted Mitsubishi Tuesday morning is a key piece of an incentive package that will help finance construction of the plant where Mitsubishi will manufacture large power transformers.
Mitsubishi Electric Power Products is under contract to buy the main parcel at Rivergate Industrial Park, with its plan calling for the construction of a 330,000-square-foot transformer manufacturing plant.
A 40,000-square-foot office structure will be built and connected to the production area via a pedestrian bridge. The project also includes building 4,100 feet of railroad track and a railroad bridge.
The state of Tennessee is contributing infrastructure grants totaling about $11 million to help finance the project. Shelby County plans to pony up $1 million for infrastructure expenses, and the city of Memphis also has agreed to relocate a major sewer line to smooth the way for the plant construction.
Mitsubishi Electric Power Products formally unveiled its Memphis plans in a splashy ceremony at The Peabody hotel Monday, with city and county leaders heralding it as another big step forward for the city's economic development efforts.
It represented Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's first major business recruitment announcement for the state under his tenure, which only began one month ago with his swearing-in.
Mitsubishi currently manufactures large power transformers at a factory in Japan and exports them to the U.S. The Japan plant is nearing its maximum capacity, so the company decided to build a new transformer plant in the U.S., where it's spent the last year and a half researching potential sites.
Company officials visited the Memphis area several times. Brian Heery, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, said he was in the city last summer and that Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. personally assured him at that time the city would do whatever was needed to remove obstacles to developing a plant in Memphis.
Mitsubishi Electric Power Products is an indirect subsidiary of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric Corp., one of the world's largest heavy electrical manufacturers.
"This projects an image across America," said Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell about the significance of the announcement.
The annual average wage for Mitsubishi's newly created jobs in Memphis will be a little less than $50,000.
Memphis would be the headquarters for Mitsubishi's heavy electrical equipment production in North America. Construction is planned to start this year, with production beginning in 2013.
Memphis emerged as the top-ranked city by Mitsubishi's review team, which also considered several other cities. Because of the size and weight of the transformers, the company needed enough load-bearing capacity and direct rail access to the facility.
The value of the incentive package presented to Mitsubishi to woo them here was a little more than $41 million. The company, which will become one of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division's largest customers, is making an upfront cash investment of about $195 million.
The company also may decide to build its own on-site electrical substation.


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This action packed and kick ass conference will show you where the community is at and what to expect in the [not so] near future. A -must- for IT [security] people who take their jobs serious.
Not just the presentations but the informal meeting opportunities in & out side bars and rooms make BlackHat Europe so special. It's much smaller and more intimate then Los Vegas etc. This is one important reason speakers like it here so much. Not to mention the opportunity to explore this magical city with is struck by a wave of the best weather in a loooong time.


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Tri Tip (also referred to as Santa Maria steak) is one of my favorite cuts of meat, however many of you are probably wondering what the heck Tri Tip is. If you aren't from California or out west, you are probably unfamiliar with this specific cut. Tri Tip is a triangular cut of meat from the primal cut sirloin.It is tender and delicious. When living in California I usually had it grilled (or as they say, barbecued) and it was always fantastic tasting. There is so much you can do with this fairly inexpensive (at least in CA it wasn't too badly priced) cut of meat.
Below are some images of the primal cuts of the beef and where exactly the Tri Tip is located. So if you have a local butcher, be sure to ask for this cut and give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I haven't seen it really since moving back east which means I have sadly missed out on this delicious cut of meat for the past two and a half years. However last year I won a gift card to Organic Prairie from Easy Eats and it was about to expire late last month. So I headed to the website and saw they had a 1.5 pound organic Tri Tip available , I got all excited and I placed my order and waited patiently for it to arrive. The Tri Tip was around $30.00 (plus shipping), but I had a gift card so it wasn't a big deal. When we can afford to buy this again, I will. It is worth the money (in my opinion), and the people over at Organic Prairie were extremely helpful and friendly, especially Lori (Thank you again for all your help).
Bryan had never had Tri Tip but has heard me talk about it quite a bit. So I thought I would make him a delicious meal that would highlight the flavors and tenderness of the beef. I really enjoy organic beef because you can actually taste the flavor of the beef and not what it has been eating. I decided to marinade it over night, but with ingredients what would enhance the meat and not overshadow it by any means. Seeing as hurricane Sandy was heading our way we had already put our grill in a safe place so I decided to roast it, which I have never done nor had before but I figured it was worth a shot. We invited our neighbor over to join us (we didn't want to be disgusting pigs and eat the 1.5 Tri Tip ourselves!!)
Marinade for Tri Tip
- 1/2 cup Red Wine – Merlot or Pinot Noir work well
- 1 tablespoon red wine or sherry vinegar
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
- 1 tablespoon gluten-free soy sauce (San-J)
- 2 large cloves of garlic minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grey salt
- 3/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 sprig of rosemary – left whole
- 1 sprig of oregano – left whole
- Place all ingredients in a large zip lock bag.
- Mix well.
- Add Tri Tip and marinade over night.
Roasted Tri Tip
- 1.5 pounds of Tri Tip
- Marinade (see above – marinade over night or for at least 4 hours)
- Roasting Thermometer
- Roasting pan/dish with rack
- Preheat oven to 450•
- Remove Tri Tip from marinade and place in a roasting pan/dish with a rack
- Insert thermometer probe in the thickest part of the Tri Tip and set it to medium (135•)
- Place Tri Tip in oven and cook for 30-40 minutes (check thermometer, you do not want to over cook this)
- Remove from oven when the internal temperature reaches 135• and cover loosely with foil for 10 minutes.
- Slice against the grain in thin slices. Serve with garlicky green beans, and mashed sweet potatoes – or your choice of vegetables.
Red Wine Reduction Sauce
- 1 Cup Red Wine – Merlot or Pinot Noir
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary (fresh)
- 1/2 teaspoon minced oregano (fresh)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- Add all ingredients into a small sauce pot.
- Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer until it reduces in half, about 10-15 minutes.
- Strain reduction through a fine mesh sieve and discard solids.
- Serve over sliced Tri Tip
sorry for the pic of the meal – it was taken with my phone…too hungry and it smelt way to good to get the real camera out.


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About our Department
The science of physics is concerned with the fundamentalĀnature of matter and energy, and more routinely withĀthe response of physical systems to external forces. ItĀencompasses all phenomena in the physical world, fromĀelementary particles to the structure and origin of theĀuniverse.ĀPhysics, together with mathematics and chemistry, providesĀa strong foundation for work in engineering and all fieldsĀof the physical sciences (e.g., geological, oceanographic,Āand atmospheric sciences), and contributes to other fieldsĀsuch as medicine and the biological and marine sciences.
The Physics Department works closely with researchĀmembers of the UAF Geophysical Institute including theĀspace physics and aeronomy groups. The department alsoĀhas close ties to the UAF Atmospheric Sciences, ChemistryĀ& Biochemistry and Geology & Geophysics DepartmentsĀand is also the holder of the General Science B.S. degreeĀprogram for CNSM.
The Physics Department has a number of positionsĀfor undergraduate students, which vary in salary andĀresponsibility. These include homework graders, researchĀand project assistants, and for exceptional upper-divisionĀstudents opportunities as teaching assistant in the lower divisionĀintroductory courses. During the summer it isĀpossible to work with one of our many faculty as a studentĀintern.
Physics Journal Club
The Physics Journal Club holds seminars every Friday @ 3:45 PM in the Elvy Building, Globe Room, during the academic years.Ā The seminar topics and speakers vary from week to week.Ā Click here for a current seminar schedule.
Physics Degree Programs
ĀĀĀĀB.S., Physics & B.S. Applied Physics
The undergraduate curriculum provides a solid foundation inĀclassical and modern physics, with an emphasis on its experimentalĀaspects. Students completing this curriculum shouldĀbe prepared for careers in education, industry, and for advancedĀwork in physics, applied physics, and related sciences.
The field of applied physics encompasses those areasĀwhich have developed from fundamental research in physicsĀin the last century, such as space physics, plasma physics,Ācondensed matter physics, biophysics, laser physics.
Ā Ā M.S., Ph.D. Physics Graduate Programs
Graduate work is offered in various areas of physics. FacultyĀand student research programs currently emphasize investigationsĀof auroral, ionospheric, magnetospheric and spaceĀplasma physics, the physics and chemistry of the upperĀand middle atmosphere, radio wave propagation and scattering,Āsolar-terrestrial relations & condensed matter physicsĀ
• Physics: Various areas of physics studies including researchĀstudied at the UAF Geophysical Institute are offered. StudentsĀcan earn an M.S. or Ph.D. degree in physics with researchĀspecialties in a variety of areas.
• Space Physics: Focuses on the physics of upper atmospheres,Āionospheres, magnetospheres and the interplanetaryĀmedium. The program includes foundation andĀspecialty courses such as plasma physics, auroral physics,Āaeronomy and magnetospheric physics. Techniques coursesĀprovide training in areas such as numerical simulationsĀand time-series analysis.
• Computational Physics (M.S. Degree only):ĀComputational physics includes numerical modeling andĀcomputer simulation of physical systems. ComputationalĀphysics requires expertise in advanced computing environments,Āmathematics, and in the specific physics discipline.ĀThis degree is directed toward students with undergraduateĀacademic backgrounds in physics or other closely associatedĀfields such as engineering. It's suited to students seekingĀcareers that require expertise in modeling and simulationĀof physical systems.
General Science Degree Program
ĀBS - General Science
The General Science Program is unusual because of the interdisciplinary nature of the degree, which is administered by the Physics Department. The program is designed to provide the student with an introduction to each of the fundamental disciplines of physical (e.g., physics, chemistry, geology) and biological sciences as well as an opportunity to study one or more of these areas in greater detail.
ĀStudents may choose either two majors or one major and two minors.
The first major must be selected from biology, chemistry, geology, or physics. A student then has the option of selecting a second major from biology, chemistry, geology, physics, or mathematics, or selecting two minors, one of which will be from the natural sciences or mathematics, while the second minor may be selected from other areas listed in the current UAF Catalog.
The degree offers good preparation for entrance into graduate programs in interdisciplinary sciences. Students completing this curriculum are well prepared for careers in education.
(Students interested in a career in teaching should contact the Department of Education (907) 474-7341 for course requirements.)


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Possible Duplicate:
How to install and update Ubuntu to a Pen drive
I am brand new to Linux/Ubuntu; still a devoted Win7 fan who is running Linux from a USB just to play around with it. All I can say is WOW!
But here's what I want to do: I have a freind who has a old Dell laptop, not sure if its running Xp or Vista; but the O/S is all screwed up. Now, what I'd like to do is to pretty much give her a "brand new computer" in the form of Ubuntu run from a stick or CD. This would give her full out-of-box functionality of her laptop while at the same time protecting all of her crrent user files.
My questions: I would assume that using a good large capacity USB wuld be the best way to go for docs, jpgs, mp3, exe's, etc. Would a second USB stick be good for stand-alone files? Exe's would have to be on the drive containing the O/S?
(I would also assume that in this case the best idea might be to get a full backup HDD; even a solid state drive - but then again, backward compatibility for 7 yr old hardware?)
Since my own Linux USB is brand new; can O just simply make a copy of the .iso to another USB for her; or would I have to again download the .iso and its installer directly to her possibly corrupted Windows O/S?
what I am seeing is that all she would have to do is to boot into her BIOS, select which O/S she wants to use; in effect a brand new computer for the cost of a USB...
Also; on my own 64 bit win7 system running Ubuntu on an 8GB stick - it seems I can't download exe's?