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Coming tonight to the 3rd Chapter of Hebrews, we shall consider verses 1 through 6 in our study. Hebrews Chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. Now while you're turning to that, I'd like you to be able to turn and listen for a moment, because I want to give you a brief review so that you can put yourself back into the perspective of the book of Hebrews. So we said to you in our introductory messages, we do not know who is the author of the book of Hebrews. Some say it to be the apostle Paul. Our personal conviction is that it does not indicate Paul in authorship. That only God knows who the author is. But behind that author, whoever he may be, we know is the Holy Spirit. And so simply refer, as we study the book of Hebrews, to the author of this book, being the Holy Spirit.
Now the book of Hebrews was written to a community of Jews who had been evangelized by the first apostles and prophets. And as a result of this community being evangelized somewhere outside of the Jerusalem area, as a result of them being evangelized by the apostles and prophets, some of them had believed. And a little congregation of believing Jews had arisen in that community. Now there were not only those who were converted who really gave themselves to Jesus Christ of those Jews, but there were some who were intellectually convinced, but who had never made the step of faith. They believed, but they never committed themselves to that faith.
There was in addition to those two groups another group who had not been convinced who had heard the gospel, but made absolutely no response at all. It is then to these three groups that the letter of Hebrews is written. Now we've said again and again that if you don't understand this, then you have a terrible time interpreting the book.
For the various passages are directed to those various readers. There are certain passages then, first of all, directed to Hebrew believers. True Christians who have received Christ. They have come out of Judaism, at least in the sense of faith. They have been born again. They have become followers of Jesus Christ and as a result of that, they have been unsynagogued, ostracized, thrown out of the Jewish culture and persecuted relentlessly.
Because of this persecution, their faith was very weak and they tended to hold on to the rituals of Judaism. So they were true believers, but hanging on to some of the rituals, some of the trappings of Judaism. And this indicated to us in many passages in this particular letter. We won't even take the time to go over them. We'll expedite it a little bit, but there are many in Chapter 10 and other places as well, where they had moved into faith and Christ, but were hanging on to ritual from the old covenant.
And Paul must have had something like that in mind when he wrote to the Galatians and said "standfast in the liberty where with Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage," which was the law of the Judaistic old covenant. And so in the new covenant there was freedom to be in Christ and to experience all that He had, but they had not begun to experience that. They were still trapped by their legalism. They were in the classic sense of Romans 14, a whole lot of weaker brothers.
So the Holy Spirit writes the letter then to strengthen their faith and to show them they can drop the rituals. They can drop the forms of Judaism and they can take totally Christ as absolutely sufficient. They need nothing from the old, they have the new. The secondly, the group of Hebrew non-Christians who are intellectually convinced several passages in the book deal with them. And they are warned that since they know so much they better act upon it, lest they fall away and never be renewed again to repentance. Those who know the truth and willfully reject the truth are severely warned, particularly in Chapter 10. "That they shall have much sorer punishment who willfully trodden under foot the Son of God." Count it as blood an unworthy thing or an unholy thing.
Then the third group are the Hebrew non-Christians. They are unconvinced period. They don't believe it all and to them the gospel is presented several times in the book of Hebrews. So then there are three in view and in each context you must know to whom He writes or you will find yourself terribly confused about the character of Christianity.
In every text in the book of Hebrews, no matter who is addressed, the theme is always the absolute supremacy of Christ. If He's talking to believers who are still hanging on to Judaism, He says you don't need it, Christ is sufficient. If He's talking to unbelievers who are convinced, He is saying come on put your faith in Him, rest in Christ. He's sufficient. If He's talking to unconvinced, unbelieving Jews He is saying the same thing. Christ is superior, He is supreme, He is sufficient. And so the message of Christ is the same, though the form may be the distinction in determining to whom He speaks.
So the theme we could say in a nutshell of the book of Hebrews is the perfect Christ, supreme, superior, sufficient. We need nothing in addition to Jesus Christ. This then, becomes the pattern of the book and what the letter of Hebrews is designed to do. Now if, in fact, the Holy Spirit is to show that Christ is better than anybody else, and if He is to show that the new covenant provided by Christ is better than the old economy, the Old Testament Judaistic patterns, if the new is better than the old then the Holy Spirit must prove that the character of the new, that is Jesus Christ the key character, is better than all of those connected with the old, must He not?
If this is a better covenant, it must have a better mediator. And so He begins to do that in the first part of Chapter 1, He says that Jesus Christ is better than everybody and everything. In Chapter 2 then, He says that Jesus Christ is better than angels. In Chapter 3, He says Jesus is better than Moses. In Chapter 4, Jesus is better than Joshua. And then Jesus is better than Aaron. Then Jesus is better than the old covenant. And Jesus is better than the Old Testament sacrifices, etc., etc. The whole point is to show that Jesus is superior, supreme, and sufficient, you need nothing else. That's the key.
And the theme is so beautifully stated right here in the first verse of Chapter 3 which we're going to look at. Because it says right in the middle of the verse consider the apostle and the high priest of our profession Jesus. The best manuscripts leave out the word Christ. Consider Jesus. That's the theme of Hebrews in two words. Consider Jesus. That's what it's all about. It is strategic for all men, in all ages to consider Jesus. And particularly consider Jesus here in Chapter 3 as He compares to Moses. As He compares to Moses.
Now we have already seen that Jesus is better than the prophets, Chapter 1. We already have seen that Jesus is better than the angels, Chapter 2. And now we shall see that Jesus is better than the one who brought the first covenant, Moses, the greatest of all.
Now we're going to look at the first six verses because they are the doctrine on which the exhortation of verse 7 and following is built. And we have to understand the premise or we won't understand the exhortation. Now in order to understand this passage, we've got to back up a little bit and find out what the Jews thought about Moses. If Jesus is better than Moses, we must know a little bit about what Moses was. Why is so important to prove Jesus better than Moses? The answer is because the Jews so highly esteemed Moses. He was esteemed above any other Jew who ever lived. He had a place that was utterly and absolutely unique in the mind of a Jew. He was the man to whom God spoke mouth to mouth.
He was a man who saw the glory of God. Do you remember back in Exodus 33 and 34? He was the man who had the glory of God transferred directly to his face. He came down out of that mountain, the Bible says he knew not the skin of His face shown. He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt. He was God's man. But beyond that, the greatest thing in the mind of a Jew was the law. And Moses was the one who gave the law. And Moses and the law were synonymous. And you see the Jew and the law were the two things that went together. Paul says in Romans Chapter 2, that "the Jew makes his boast in the law." You see.
The Old Testament commandments and rituals were the Jews' priority. And Moses had brought not only the Ten Commandments, but He had penned the enter Pentateuch which lays out all the Levitical laws and all the laws that governed everything they did. And so Moses was the great law giver. And let's face it, the law was number one on the Jewish hit parade every week, of every year. That was the most important thing in their life.
And some Jews even believed that Moses was greater than angels. And it's true that to the prophets God spoke in visions, but to Moses, He spoke mouth to mouth. He spoke to him in a burning bush. He spoke to him out of heaven. He spoke to him on Sinai and wrote the commandments with the finger of fire. God spoke directly to Moses and transferred His glory to him. And Moses stood far above any other man who ever lived in the mind of the Jewish people.
And certainly his history was remarkable. A hand of God preserved Him as a baby, and the hand of God dug his grave at the finish. And between these two points of his life, there is nothing but miracle after miracle after miracle. And during the most memorable times of Israel's history, it was Moses through whom God worked. It was Moses who led the children of Israel out of Egypt. It was Moses who led them through the wilderness. It was Moses who instructed them from the mouth of God. It was Moses, Moses, Moses.
The whole Levitical system, the whole Levitical economy was initiated through Moses. It was Moses who gave the plans for the tabernacle. The ark of the covenant and everything that went with it. And so to the Jew Moses is the great Mosha, there is none like him. And as great as Moses was, my friends, the Holy Spirit in this section calls on us to gaze on Jesus who is far greater than Moses. And that's the consideration right here for His Jewish readers.
Do you think Moses is great? Consider Jesus. Now in order for the Holy Spirit to present evidence to support the superiority, the supremacy, and the sufficiency of Christ, He selects a threefold presentation. And this will be our outline. He says that Jesus is superior in His office, superior in His work, and superior in His person. Superior in His office, He is the apostle and high priest, superior in His work, He is the builder of the house, superior in His person, He is the Son. And we'll see how these unfold.
First of all, the Holy Spirit says Jesus is superior to Moses in His office. Verse 1, "Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our profession or confession, Jesus." Consider Jesus. And that's what I'd like you to do tonight, whether you're a Christian or not. I'd like you to consider Jesus. And certainly this is the meaning of all our preaching and all of our teaching.
All right, let's look at verse 1 and then I'll break it down. First word, wherefore. What does this mean? It takes us which direction? Back. Wherefore means in this verse he's building on something that has come to pass before this. Wherefore on the basis of what I have just said, it points back, on the basis of what I have just said consider Jesus. What have you just said? You've just said that we see Jesus, verse 9, made lower than the angels. You've said that He's the salvation captain. You've said that He's a sanctifier. You said that He calls us brother. You've said that He destroyed Satan and death. You've said that He could deliver us out of bondage. You said this. You said this. You said this. On the basis of what you've said about Him, you ought to consider Him, right? Because of what I've said about Jesus, wherefore holy brethren consider Him. Consider Him.
He has just told them what kind of an apostle He is. He has just told them what kind of a high priest He is. He's a faithful high priest in verse 17. He's a faithful apostle or sent one as He comes from God to accomplish salvation. Now you've seen what kind of an apostle He is, a sent one from God. You've seen what kind of a high priest He is, consider Jesus.
What an apostle. What a high priest, powerful, sympathetic, merciful, faithful, saving, reconciling, helping. All of that's in verses 14 to 18. On the basis of who He is, consider Him. Consider Him. He's a perfect high priest. There is nothing missing at all. And you see here, He's urging the Hebrews to focus on the absolute sufficiency of Jesus.
Drop the rest of the stuff. You don't need it. You've got a new high priest and a new sent one from God. Drop all the trappings, focus on Jesus. He's all you need. Oh what an important message this is. And here He is speaking directly to the believing Christian Jews who were looking at Jesus out of one eye, but glancing back all the time. And He is saying consider Jesus. You don't need to look anywhere else.
Now most of us haven't come out of Judaism. How many of you here tonight have come out of Judaism. Put your hand up. How many of you are Jewish believers. Have any hands? Several, maybe five, six, seven. I don't know. God bless you, twice blessed. But must of us can't relate to coming out of Judaism and we don't understand the temptation to hang on to the old things. I was sharing with one our staff members about this yesterday. And he said, you know, John, I have a real problem. He said, I have a guy whose a new Christian, but he's a Jewish believer and he won't quit going to the synagogue. And he doesn't seek the fellowship of believers here. He seeks the synagogue for fellowship.
This still happens today. It's very difficult to make that break. But we...although we don't relate to Judaism, I think we do find ourselves very often lured into believing that our works and our religious trappings are what it's all about, you know. That God expects more than just our faith and our love. He expects us to do certain little things to please Him. And while we accept God's free grace, complete in Christ, we kind of hang on to an artificial kind of legalism, rather than live the positive Christ-controlled, spirit energized life.
So the statements of Christ's sufficiency certainly shatter all legalistic efforts whether Judaistic or any other kind. All right, "Wherefore holy brethren," and that's the next thing we want to look at, holy brethren. A fantastic statement, holy brethren. Now we studied the word brethren this morning and how that as believers we are brothers with Christ, because we're identified with Him. But I want you to pick out a thought here. Many people in studying the book of Hebrews have said that He has to be writing to Christians all the time because He uses the word brethren.
Just because He uses the word brethren doesn't mean He's talking to Christians at all. In Acts 2:29, in Acts 13:38, the Jews are referred to brethren. They are referred to as brethren, but when He says holy brethren, then we know whom He's speaking about. And here He's speaking to believers. This is not a reference to Jews in total, but to believers. Believers in the sense of those who are true brothers in Chapter 2, verse 11, who are sanctified in Christ for which cause He's not ashamed to call them brothers.
So then this passage is written to Christians, to holy Jews, holy brothers in Christ. Now they're holy not because of their practice, but because of their position. They are the real thing. They are soul brothers, sanctified, set apart, and made holy in Christ. Let me illustrate that from Hebrews 10, verse 10. "By which will we are sanctified," that means made holy, "we are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
When you received Christ, you were made holy. Verse 14, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are made holy." Verse 17, "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." Why? Because there's no more sin positionally. So we're holy. We're set apart, pure positionally. All Christians are holy in the sense of position before God. Now we've covered that many, many messages.
All right, so this section then is written to holy brothers who know and love Jesus Christ, the true church believers. Just to add emphasis to that, He calls them also partakers of the heavenly calling. Now we know this must be believers there don't we? Partakers of the heavenly calling. If you read carefully through the book of Hebrews, you find out that just about everything about us is heavenly. We have a heavenly home, we have a heavenly Jerusalem, we have a heavenly calling and so forth and so on. We're living in the heavenlys Paul says in Ephesians.
And you see here He is...oh this is terrific statement, He is making a distinction between the superiority of Christianity to Judaism. Judaism, my friends, was an earthly calling with an earthly inheritance, wasn't it? Circumcision the eighth day and you'll inherit the land if you're good. Christianity is a spiritual and heavenly calling with a spiritual and heavenly inheritance, superior.
And Paul says in Philippians Chapter 3, really two verses there, I think verse 14 first of all. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our home is heaven. Our place is in heaven. And we live right now in the heavenlys spiritually. Ephesians 1, "God has blessed us with all spiritual blessing," where, "in the heavenlys in Christ Jesus."
And so we see then that as true believers we are brothers of Jesus by position, we are holy by position, we are partakers of a heavenly kind of existence where only strangers and pilgrims here, right? We dangle our feet in the world, but we don't really belong here. Now it's an interesting thing that this is a powerful point to say to these Jews, why don't you drop the earthly end of man? You're citizens in the heavenlys, now why don't you let go of the earthly things?
I mean, why would anybody want to hang on to the earthly ritual when they have the heavenly reality. And we talked about this several weeks ago and we said that's why we don't believe there should be any ritual in the church. That's why we don't have people walking around simulating things up here and going through all kinds of holy mogus and lighting candles and doing strange things and walking around and waiving things and going through all kinds of forms. We don't need the ritual because the reality is here. Do you see?
If we want to worship Jesus Christ, Jesus said, "You worship the Father in spirit and in," what, "in truth." Not in ritual. There is no place in Christianity for ritual, because the reality is here. That's the whole point. And so He is saying you who are partakers of a heavenly calling, what are you doing hanging on to the earthly trappings, you see? You don't need those. It's pointless. So believers then are sharers in the righteousness nature of Christ in His heavenly calling, because the live in a heavenly kind of existence, they ought to address themselves to that heavenly existence, not to an earthly.
And so He says to these Christians, consider Jesus. Now the word consider is fantastic. The word does not mean it's flighty. The word does not mean take a glance. The word means set yourself to gaze intently on Jesus. You say, well, what's He saying this to Christians for? We already know Christ. Listen, no one needs that message any more than I do, do you know that? God can say to me MacArthur consider Jesus, because I'm a long way from really discover all of His glories, all of His beauties, all that He is. So He says to these believers, just gaze on Jesus will you? Just keep gazing on Him and don't keep looking around and all these rituals and all these problems and all these persecutions, just consider Jesus. You don't need anything else. He's sufficient for everything. Now there may have been a greater Christian than Paul, but if there is I've never met him. Didn't live in my lifetime and run across my path. And Paul said this, "My great prayer," I love it, "is oh that I may know Him." Did he say that? You say Paul, you know Him. Paul would say no, I haven't plumed the depth of His person. That's what he means.
Listen, Christian I say to you what the Spirit says, consider Jesus. I mean, when the stuff gets rough and the problems come and everything goes bad, and you start thinking about certain things that are tempting you and so forth and so on, put your gaze on Jesus and keep it there intently until all that He is begins to be unfolded before your eyes.
And that's just the reason that so many Christians are weak and worried as they don't really know the depths of the riches of Jesus Christ, do you know that? They don't know. Jesus made a classic statement, He said, "Learn of me." He didn't say learn about me. He said what? "Learn of me." Let me ask you this, do you really enjoy your Christian life? Do you just eat it up? Do you get up every morning and say Lord, I just can't wait to get out of this place and see what you're going to do. I mean, do you just love your Christian life? I mean, is it so exciting you can hardly stand it?
It ought to be. Do you enjoy Jesus Christ? Do you just go through the day Lord, your fellowship and your presence is thrilling. Do you just sometimes want to stand up and shout? God will enjoy them like that? Many Christians don't enjoy Jesus, not at all. They're miserable, unhappy, don't know anything about joy. The only thing the Lord's good for is to cry on. And the reason is they don't know Him experientially. They don't know Him richly. They need to learn Jesus, you see. Just like, you know, now when I was in college, I used to sneak down and pay fifty cents and go into the back door of the Philharmonic in Los Angeles, crawl up in the balcony, take two or three books with me and sit up there and listen to a whole concert all by myself while I did some homework. And I mean, I listened to Bartoch and Mussorgsky and pictures in an exhibition and I...weird stuff, you know, and all that kind of classical thing and I loved it. I like the guy that beat the timpani most of all. But I like all of it.
And I'd sit in the back and I enjoyed it and I began to gain an appreciation for the masters. And you know, you could take a guy to hear some of that music and the typical person today would say oh are you kidding that stuff is a drag. Or you could take somebody to an art gallery and show them the masters and he'd say well, I don't like that. I don't enjoy that stuff. And I would say to him then, my friend, you stay there and you listen until you do enjoy it, because that's the masters performing for you.
You need to learn to love the masters. You need to learn to love good music. You need to learn to love good art. You need to recognize beauty and recognize real genius and recognize real virtue, not the cheap stuff that's all over the place so handy. And so I say to you the same thing. If you don't enjoy Jesus, then you better stay with Him until you learn to. Until your Christian life is one thrill after another. Until every waking moment of every day is joy upon joy upon joy.
Consider Him, fix your attention on Him. Timothy was having problems. He was young. He was getting an ulcer. Paul said, "take a little wine for your stomach's sake." And he was getting bounced around by the Ephesian heirests. People were criticizing him and he got discouraged. And he was really hurt. And in 2 Timothy Chapter 2, he said well...Paul says to him, Timothy you've got to get it on. Got to get it on. Got to be like a good soldier, hardworking farmer, well-trained athlete, but most of all 2 Timothy 2:8, "remember Jesus Christ." "Remember Jesus Christ, born of the seed of David, risen from the dead."
When you've really got problems he doesn't say do this, do this, do this, He just says do what? "Remember Jesus Christ." Gaze on Him. Learn of Him. In Hebrews Chapter 12 and we'll get to this a long time from now, it says in verse 1, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every wait, and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus." Did you get that?
If you're going to run the Christian race, where are you going to look? Jesus. You know, I used to run the hundred yard dash in 220 in college and one thing we learned very soon if they didn't know it was you can't run when you watch your feet. Have you ever tried to do that? You can't do it. I mean, you'll run into a wall. You can't do it. When you've got to stay in a lane, it's amazing how your body works, you set your sights just like when you drive on something way down there and you run right at that target and when we used to run the sprints, we used to set our eyes on the tape. And we kept the eyes on the finish. That was not only motivation, but that's what kept your sense of direction.
And when you're running in the race as a believer, get your eyes off your feet. Get your eyes off yourself. You're going to run into wall after wall after wall. You'll be like the bruised and bleeding Pharisees that we talked about, you know, who got that name because they thought it was a sin to look at woman. They kept closing their eyes when they saw them and they ran into all the buildings. There's no sense in that. You set your eyes on the tape. You look unto Jesus, the author, and the what? The finisher of our faith and you look at Him, and then you run.
So many Christians run with their head down, it's no wonder they run into everything. And so what is the Holy Spirit saying? Consider Jesus. I mean, He's all you need, right? Just look at Him. Let everything else drop. Just focus on Him. He's everything, like the little chorus said, "He is all you need." All right, then He gives Him His two titles and this is where we're going to see His office. He calls Him the apostle and high priest of our profession.
First of all, He calls Him the apostle. Now may I add at this point that this is the first way that Jesus is better than Moses for Jesus was both apostle and high priest, Moses was not. At best, Moses was an apostle. Who was the high priest? Aaron. So in this sense, Jesus is superior in His office for He is both, Moses was only one. He is the sent one sent from God. Apostolas means sent from God. In the Greek, it would refer to an ambassador. And Jesus is the supreme ambassador of God sent to earth.
Now what are the characteristics of an apostolas or an ambassador? Well, number one, He has all the right and all the power and all the authority of the king in the country who sends Him and so did Jesus. He came clothed with the power of God. He came with all of God's grace, all of God's love, all of God's mercy, all of God's justice, and all of God's power.
Secondly, an ambassador has to speak with the voice of the one who sent Him. And so Jesus came and said, "I speak not that which I decide to speak. I speak only what I hear the Father say." So Jesus was the perfect sent one from God. He came with all of God's power and with God's voice He spoke. But beyond that, He was also the high priest of our profession.
Now we're not going to spend time on the high priest concept, because that unfolds in the whole later section of Hebrews. Suffice it to say that the word priest in the Latin is the word Pontifex, which broken into two words means bridge builder. And Jesus was the one who built the bridge from God to man. He was the one who connected God and man. And so Jesus is not only the sent one from God, with all God's power and speaking with God's voice, but He is the one who takes man and God and brings them together. He's the bridge builder. And He's also the bridge.
Then it says that He is the apostle and high priest of our profession. That is He's the one we confess. And don't you see the point of the verse. Listen to this, if you profess Christ, if you confess that He is your Lord, then you certainly ought to gaze on Him, right? That's what He said. You Jews, you have received Christ, you've confessed Him as apostle and your new high priest, you've received all that He has. Now gaze on Him intently.
What sense having confessed Him as Lord not to gaze on Him as such? Boy that's practical stuff. How many of us as Christians have confessed Jesus Christ as Savior Lord and still run through our whole lives without looking at Him and looking at ourselves? And so in His office, He's greater than Moses. You don't need any of the other things, let them drop.
Secondly, He's superior in His works, verses 2 to 4. And here is a simple comparison of the work of Jesus with that of Moses to show who is superior. Now I want you to keep in mind that it's hard for us who are Gentiles to understand the affection with which the Jews regard Moses, the man of God. And He was a great man. He was a dear man of God. A man who stood head and shoulders above all other men. And everything connected with God in the Jews' mind is connected with Moses.
And so this subject is dealt with very delicately by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't fire out in verse 2, "Jesus is greater than Moses." He doesn't just say that. More delicately does He handle it. And the Spirit's wisdom is marvelous. Before taking up Jesus' superiority to Moses He points up the resemblance between the two. Before He talks about the difference, He talks about the similarities, see. And that's very, very tactful.
Notice in verse 2, "Jesus," the end of verse 1, "Jesus who was faithful to Him that appointed Him." Did you know that Jesus was faithful to God? Did you know that? Did you know that Jesus did just that which the Father appointed Him to do? Oh my yes. In John 6:38, what does it say? "For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will who hath sent me that of all that He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."
In other words, I just do what the Father's will is and I don't every violate it, nor do I lose it. John 7:18, "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him." In other words, you can tell I'm a true Messiah because I don't seek my own glory, I seek the glory of the one who sent me. Always about His Father's business. In John Chapter 8, verse 29 the same thing. "And He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone for I do always those things that please Him." John 17:4, "I have finished the work which thou," what, "gavest me to do. Now glorify me with the glory that I had with thee before the world began." Jesus always did the Father's will. He was faithful. Oh faithful is such a wonderful word. The chief qualification is faithful. Jesus said, "I must work the works of Him that sent me." That's faithfulness. How faithful are you? That faithful?
Jesus was faithful to Him that appointed Him. God said, you're going to go and here's your work and Jesus did it. And then oh so tactfully does the Holy Spirit say, verse 2, "As also Moses was faithful in all his house." You see there's no distinction. There's a comparison. The Holy Spirit very delicately compares them together and says they're both faithful. And that's an indirect quote from Numbers 12:7. In Numbers 12:7 it says, "My servant Moses is faithful in all mine house." Moses was faithful. He carried faithfully God's plan. He came out in Egypt into the wilderness. God refined him. It took 40 years to make something out of himself 40 years for God to wreck him and 40 years God could use him.
But 40 years in the wilderness, God broke him, made him the man he wanted to be and then he took the children of Israel out of the land, he was faithful. He believed God. He got to the Red Sea, and I've often thought to myself, I got to the Red Sea and somebody said wave a stick and it'll part, I would have said catch that again. But he did. I mean, he believed God. He was faithful and led the children of Israel through. And then he was faithful to the time in the wilderness. Oh there were times when he was unfaithful. There were several times, even in Egypt when he slew the Egyptian. Even in the wilderness when he smolt the rock instead of speaking to the rock. But Moses for the most part was faithful. And so here the Holy Spirit emphasizes similarity so as not to isolate the Jewish person. Now you'll notice that it says he was faithful in all his house. What house are you talking about? Well, this means household, oicos, and Moses is seen as a faithful steward in God's household. You say what is God's household? Well, you go to the Old Testament and you read about the house of David and the house of Israel. Who then is God's household? Believers. The Old Testament believers, Israel. And any proselytes who may have been involved. Old Testament believers, Moses was faithful in God's household. He was a steward. Now it says in 1 Corinthians, "Moreover brethren it is required in stewards that a man be found," what, "faithful." Now a steward is somebody who doesn't own the house, he manages it for the owner. God owns the house of Israel, Moses was in charge of management. He was in charge of dispensing the facts and the things that God committed to his trust to the people of Israel. And was Moses was faithful. Oh as I say, there were times when his slowness in responding to God's call and his disbelief at the point of God's using him, restricted him. There were times when he was unwilling to be obedient and yet for the most part, he was faithful in discharging his calling and care for God's household.
But it says in verse 2 that Christ also was faithful to His house. Who is Christ's household? I'll read it to you. It's in Ephesians, Chapter 2, verse 19. "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God." The household of God. Who is this? It's a church. We're the new household. And Jesus is the one who cares for us.
In 1 Peter 1...pardon me, 2:4, it says, "To whom coming is unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house." So as the believers of the Old Testament are called the house of Moses, the believers of the New Testament are called the house of Christ. And as Moses was faithful to an earthly household, Jesus was faithful to a heavenly household. As Moses was faithful to the house God gave him, Jesus was also faithful to the house that God gave Him. And Jesus could say at the end of His life, "Father I have finished the work which you gave me to do. I've told the house all that you instructed me to tell them." He was faithful.
And so the Holy Spirit delicately then begins by comparing Moses with Jesus on the basis of their faithfulness to a God-given task. Now at this point, I can't resist a spiritual application, because I think the Spirit of God would have us to do that. We are all stewards in God's house in a lesser sense than Jesus, in the fact that we all have, for example, spiritual gifts do we not? And we have these as a sacred trust. They're not yours. Your spiritual gifts aren't yours, they're God's. He's given them to you to pass out.
And if you're unfaithful in ministering your spiritual gift, you're an unfaithful steward. Some of you have been given responsibility to witness. All of you, in fact. But some of you specifically to the people in your community that God has placed right around you and you've been an unfaithful steward of the trust that God's committed. Others of you have been given a position of teaching or instructing and you've been unfaithful to study diligently and faithfully and sacrificially and consequently you're an unfaithful steward.
My friends, the Christian life is a sacred trust given to you by God and it demands your faithfulness. I'll tell you something, would it just be a thrill...I thought about this in my own life, I would think the greatest thrill that could ever happen in my life would be to have my life come to an end and then at the end of my life have somebody say "as Jesus was faithful to the Father so was John MacArthur." That sounds ridiculous. That sounds idiotic. You say MacArthur, you may be a nice guy, but you're not in that class. And yet did you hear it of Moses in that verse? "As Jesus was faithful, so was Moses."
My friends, I don't think we've begun to discover what it is that God can do through us if we're willing to be faithful. Did you get that? So Moses and Jesus were faithful, but here comes the difference in verse 3. "For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses." Why? Why Jesus more glory? "Inasmuch as He who hath built the house hath more honor than the house." Isn't that good? Moses was faithful, but he's a piece of the house. Jesus made the house. That's the difference.
Jesus created Israel. "All things were made by Him." Hebrews 1 or John 1, "And without Him was not anything made that was made." Moses is only a member of the whole spiritual household which Jesus Himself built. Jesus created Israel, Jesus created the church. You say boy in order to do that, He'd have to be God. That's verse 4. "For every house is built by some man, but He that built all things is," what, "is God." And who built all things? Jesus. So who is Jesus? He's God. He's God.
Every house is built by some man. I mean, somebody, a human instrument is used. For example, you're here today. You're a part of God's house. Somebody shared Christ with you, did they not? Somebody did that. Somebody introduced you to Jesus. Somebody introduced maybe several of you to Jesus Christ and they're responsible in a human sense for part of the house, but who really created the house? God did. It was God through them, wasn't it?
And so the distinction is just that clear. Moses is just part of the house. Jesus made the house. So you see to hang on to the forms of Judaism doesn't make any sense, because the greater than Moses is here. All right, then we see first of all His office is superior and His work is superior.
Thirdly, the superiority of His person. His person is superior verses 5 and 6. And here's the climax. And before we look at it, let me just give you the distinction. In this passage, you're going to see that Moses is by person a servant. Jesus is by person a Son. Did you get that? And there's a lot of difference friends between a servant and a son is there not?
And it reminds me of John 8, because in John 8, I think it's in John 8:35. Yes, "And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever." In other words, there are certain ranking for the son. Servants come and go, sons are sons for life. And so there's a difference. Look at verse 5, "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house," what, as what, "as a servant." As a servant, he conducted himself as a servant. And this is kind of a dignified word thereupon. It also is used of angels. And the Septuagint used of prophets, this is a ranking word. He was a faithful, obedient, ministering, caring servant and he was a good steward of God.
In Exodus 40, eight times, in Exodus Chapter 40, eight times it refers to Moses obedience to all that God commanded him. That's pretty good. In Exodus 35 to 40, 22 times it refers to Moses faithfulness to obey all that God commanded him. Can you say that about your life? Could God say of you 22 times "He obeyed all that I commanded him." Moses was...he was up there.
As exalted as he was, Jesus was more exalted. And do you notice that He never compares Jesus with the failures of Moses? Isn't that good? Jesus doesn't need to be compared to anybody's failures. He can be compared with anybody successes and still come out infinitely greater. So He's always compared with the best of men to show His greatness. Were he to be compared with the worst of men, that would prove nothing.
But Moses was faithful. Why? Oh this is good, verse 5. Here's the reason, "For a testimony of those things which are to be spoken after." See Moses wasn't the end of the line. That's what Judaism doesn't understand. Moses was only faithful as a testimony to those things which were yet to be said. And don't you see that Judaism without Christ, Judaism without the New Testament is not the whole story. That's the point. It's the shadow without the substance. And so Moses was a servant, but only as a shadow for what was coming. Hebrews 10:1, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make those who come to it perfect." The law can't do it. It was a shadow of the perfect that was to come. If you reject the perfect, the shadow doesn't mean anything.
And so the whole old economy, the whole old covenant was just a shadow. That's all it was, just a shadow. And I can illustrate that to you, just quickly. Don't turn to it, but let me just show you John 5:46, "For had ye believed Moses, Jesus said, you would have believed me for he wrote of me." Jesus said Moses wrote all about me. So you to accept Moses and not Jesus isn't really to accept Moses.
Then also recorded for us in Luke 24:27, "And beginning," this is Jesus on the road to Emmaus, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." He took Moses and said now watch what Moses says about me. In Acts Chapter 3, verse 22, "For Moses truly said unto the Father, the prophet shall the Lord Your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear and all things whatever He shall say unto you." And Peter went on to say "and Jesus Christ is that prophet."
He is that prophet. So you see Moses pointed to Jesus. In fact, in Acts 28:20...let's see Acts 28:23, yes, "And when they had appointed Him a day, there came many to Him into His lodging to whom He expounded and testified the kingdom of God persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening." That means there was a whole lot of stuff there about Jesus in Moses writings.
And so it is that the word of God tells us in Hebrews 3:5 that Moses was only a servant who pointed to something which would come after that. He was a steward of another's house. But verse 6, "But Christ," "not a servant," but what, "a Son" over what, "His own house, whose house are we." Do you like that? You know who Christ's house is? You say this is the Lord's house. No, we've been through that many times. This building is not the Lord's house. "Whose house are," what, "we?" We are the Lord's house. We are built together, Ephesians 2:22 for an habitation of the Spirit. We are the Lord's house.
Now Moses was a servant in somebody else's house Jesus is a Son over His own house. Now do you see that in His person He is greater than Moses. A servant compared to a Son. A servant is in somebody else's house. A son lives in his own house. And so at that we leave Moses, but it's an honorable burial for Moses isn't it? And the epitaph has been written by God. Moses a faithful servant of the Lord in all my house.
And Moses is gone in verse 5, and our gaze is left on Jesus. Jesus the creator of the house and the Son whose house it is. And then He says, "whose house are we?" You say are we human beings really the house of God? That's right. That's exactly what it says. For example, in 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, "But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God." We are the house, just that clear.
Not the building, but the believers. Now this is a thrilling compensation for their loss of standing among the house of Israel to know they're a part of God's eternal spiritual house. Now the Lord knows that we need a guarantee about that, so He closes out this verse with a guarantee that we're the spiritual house. How do we know this? How can we be sure that we're really His house?
Verse 6, "If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Now some people have had such problems with that. They you're saved if you hang on all the way to the end. And you can live your whole Christian life, whoa, whoa, whoa, and when death comes oh I made it through.
You're really saved if you can hang on. My friends that's not what it's talking about. You couldn't save yourself. You couldn't keep yourself saved. What is it saying? It's saying this, "whose house are you if you hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Do you know what that means? That means continuance is the proof of reality. How many times have we seen this? How many times? You can always tell who are really the house of God, because they stay there. Do you hear? The one who falls out never belonged in the first place. Now this is repeated in Hebrews, because this was the problem. Some were convinced and were on the edge of commitment and kept falling away. See?
And He's saying for those that come right up to the door and never put their faith in Christ and they fall away, they give evidence that they never did really receive Christ, that's the whole problem. True saints persevere. Listen, they came in John Chapter 8 and Jesus looked at them and He said, oh isn't it wonderful many of you believe. And He said to them this, "if you continue in my word then are you my disciples alethose," for real. For real disciples stay. People always say to me, John, what happens to the guy who I used to know as a Christian to this and now he repudiates God, he's out. Simple, simple as it can be. "If you continue in my word, then are you my disciple for real."
If you don't continue in my word, then you're not my disciple for real at all. You see? It's a profession and not a possession. Now He's saying to them be for real. If you really commit yourself to Christ and that's evidential by the pattern of your life which remains in fellowship with Christ that's the point, but if under the pressure of persecution you get right up to the edge and you never make that commitment and it's a superficial confidence and it's a superficial rejoicing then it proves you never were His house to begin with.
Now you say well, are you sure you can substantiate that view scripturally? Yes, in John 6:39, "this is the Father's will who hath sent me that of all that He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Jesus never lost anybody yet. He's not going to mess up His record on you. John 15:1-2, "I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch of me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away. Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit." Verse 4, "Abide in me and I in you." And He says, "A branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me." And what He's saying in that passage as we study is be for real. Be a real branch.
Those that are true branches are the ones that stay, the ones that abide. James Chapter 1, verse 22, simply says this, "Be doers of the word, not hearers only deceiving your own selves for any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. He beholds himself goes his way and forgets what manner of man he was. But who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed." You see. Whosoever looks into the law of liberty and continues in it. That's the proof of a true Christian.
And the same thing is indicated in Colossians. It's all over there. I'm just giving you a few that come to my mind. Colossians 1:22, "In the body of His flesh through death, He presents you holy and unblameable and unproveable in His sight if you continue in the faith." That's the proof that it's real. And then that great text in 2 John verse 9, "Who so trangresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son."
You see somebody attach themselves to Christ, but they don' abide, they don't remain, they never were real. They never did have the Son of God. It was profession and not possession. And in 1 John 2:19 it says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us." Listen to this, "For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us."
When somebody departs a faith they proclaim, be assured beyond doubt it's proof that they never knew Christ to begin with. In Hebrews Chapter 10, verse 38, "Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him, but we are not of them who draw back, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." You see the one who draws back never is saved. The true believer remains. Remains. And so He is simply saying this in Hebrews, He is simply saying you're His house if by continuance you prove you were real to begin with.
Listen to this word, "examine yourselves whether you are in the faith." Did you hear that? "Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith." Prove yourselves. "Know ye not yourselves how Jesus Christ is in you unless you are discredited." In other words, if you fall away, He never was in you. That's the point. So the Holy Spirit then presents to us the fact that Christ is a Son and Moses is only a servant and that we are a part of His own house if we're true believers as evidenced by our continuance in the faith.
And we've just reviewed what has taken weeks to cover in the middle of John on that point. We close. What's He saying to us? Saying two things? Number one, be for real, examine yourselves. Are you really in the faith? How about some of you tonight? You're here, you've got all the trappings, you look like you're part of the whole scene. Is it really true, are you for real? "Many shall say unto me in that day Lord, Lord have we not cast out demons, done many wonderful works in thy name. And I will say unto them depart from me," what, "I never knew you." Be for real my friend. Be one of those who continues with confidence and His rejoicing continues firm to the end. His hope never wanes. And secondly I say to you who are Christians already consider Jesus. Christians learn to live your whole life with your sights on Him. He is all you need. Paul said it well when he said this, listen to it, "Ye are complete in Him." Did you get that? You need nothing else.
Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for what we've learned tonight. We just pray that the Spirit would tie these things to our hearts, seal them. Father, may nobody go out of this place who hasn't committed themselves to Christ, who isn't a disciple for real. Father, may no Christian go out here who hasn't put on his gaze and fixed it on Christ. That we might not look to ourselves, but to the blessed Christ whose riches are deep enough to suffice for every need. Thank You for what we've learned. Thank You for Jesus. Thank You for all these precious lives gathered here in this place. Meet us right now Lord at the point of decision.
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:
Copyright 2006-2007 by Godmar Back and Annette Bailey (email@example.com), Virginia Tech.
License: This software is released under the LGPL license, See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.txt.
$Id: majax.html,v 1.22 2007/05/22 16:08:01 gback Exp gback $
Two files: this file, majax.html and the file majax.js must be uploaded to your Millennium installation's /screens directory. Subsequently, the functionality it provides can be used on any page that is served from within the same domain. In particular, MAJAX can be used from within the Millennium results pages, or the pages created by WebBridge, or any other static or dynamic web page served by a server in your domain.
MAJAX should automatically determine the correct domain based on where the file is located. For instance, if located in addison.vt.edu/screens, MAJAX would allow access from all pages in the *.vt.edu domain. Using the automatic domain detection, this copy of MAJAX would allow access from all pages from within the domain. (The domain on the previous line shown in green should show your domain after you copied majax.html to your /screens directory.) MAJAX cannot be used by any webpage outside this domain, because of the same-origin restriction inherent in the JavaScript security model.
Some people may wonder why we are using AJAX and this hidden iframe, rather than dynamic Replace the your.millennium.domain with the hostname of your Millennium installation.
That's it! Now you can use make use of MAJAX on your webpage.
ISBN: 0743226712 When this page is loaded, MAJAX will insert a note that shows the holdings for the book with ISBN 0743226712. The output may look like this:
MAJAX supports the following options for these attributes.
would show all holdings information in bold red.
You can also provide additional classes for the MAJAX  tag's class attribute. For instance,  ... would also apply the style rules associated with class "showitalic" to the holdings information. In this way, you may apply different styles to different span elements.
MAJAX can only be used after it has finished loading. You can associate a handler that is called when MAJAX finishes loading by calling
majaxRunBeforeSpanProcessing(handler);from anywhere in the document. Note that the  element's onload handler cannot be used. (The reason is that this handler is used to start loading the inner majax frame; MAJAX is only available after this inner frame has finished loading.)
Calling majaxProcessSpans() will process new span elements. It ensures that each span element is only processed once.
majaxSearchByISBN(isbn, majaxRequest); majaxSearchByTitle(title, majaxRequest); debugwhereby
|A string that contains a representation suitable for export into EndNote.
|If an error occurred during the creation of the 'endnote' property, the 'endnote' property is not set and this property is set instead.
|contains the parsed MARC record. See below.
|array of strings
|Entries in the array correspond to the holdings status of the available copies of an item, e.g. "DUE xx-xx-xxxx", or "AVAILABLE", etc.
|A URL to the catalog record describing this item.
|The original HTML of the so-called BIBSCREEN extracted from the MARC display. This is usually a section with a table that describes the holdings. Provided for debugging mainly.
|The original MARC record as extracted from the MARC display. Provided for debugging.
|When called, this function creates a hidable PRE element in which the EndNote reference is displayed. The element can be inserted anywhere on the page. See below for more information.
|When called, this function creates an string of HTML that display a formatted reference according to Harvard-style (Author-Date). The string can be inserted anywhere on the page, for instance by assigning it to an innerHTML property of a known SPAN element. See below for more information.
A typical example of success/failure callbacks might look like this:
function successCallback(majaxresult) { // see below for documentation for majaxMakeHarvardReference() var h = document.getElementById("harvardref"); h.innerHTML = majaxresult.majaxMakeHarvardReference(); } function failureCallback(status) { // handle failure case here } ... majax.majaxSearchByISBN(isbn, { onsuccess : function (result) { successCallback(result); }, onfailure: function (status) { failureCallback(status); } });
function majaxMakeEndnoteDisplay(doc, labelHTML, showText, hideText, preclass)

 showText/hideText labelHTML

 This is where the EndNote display would go

Below is shown what the result of this call may look like in the target webpage. Press the "Show" link to see.
Note 1: you must specify the target 'document' as an argument to this call. Simply passing 'document' should work in most cases.
Note 2: any HTML that can be assigned via innerHTML to the created SPAN document can be used as labelHTML.
Note 3: this function is a method of the MAJAX results object. Therefore, a typical calling sequence, which would be included inside a "success" callback function, might be this:
/* * This example assumes that the target document contains HTML like this: * <FORM name="laurel215_form"> * </FORM> * we want to add the EndNote display at the end of the area enclosed * by the FORM element, i.e., as its last child. */ var f = document.forms["laurel215_form"]; // 'f' represents the location on the target page where the div should be inserted var endnotediv = majaxresult.majaxMakeEndnoteDisplay(document, "Endnote", "Show", "Hide"); // now place created div as the last child of the target element f.appendChild(endnotediv);
function majaxMakeHarvardReference()
Levitt, Steven D., Dubner, Stephen J., 2005, Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything / 1st ed., New York, William Morrow, xii, 242 p. ;
A typical use would look like this:
/* * This example assumes that the target document contains HTML like this: *  * we want to insert the reference where the (otherwise invisible) * SPAN element is located */ var h = document.getElementById("harvardref"); h.innerHTML = majaxresult.majaxMakeHarvardReference();The code above would typically be included inside a "success" callback function.
Currently, majaxMakeHarvardReference() includes the following fields, if present: 100$a, all 700$a fields, 260$c, 245$a, 245$b, 250$a, 260$a, 260$b, 300$a.
For each MARC field found, there is a property datafieldNNN that is an array that corresponds to the NNN data fields found in the record. For instance, marc.datafield650[0] points to the first 650 field found in the MARC record, marc.datafield650[1] points to the second 650 field found in the MARC record, and so on. marc.datafield650.length gives the number of 650 fields. The alias marc.f650 is created as a shortcut for marc.datafield650[0]. Similarly, marc.f100 is an alias for marc.datafield100[0], which points to the first---and presumably only--- 100 data field in the MARC record. Note that both marc.f100 and the marc.datafield100 array are undefined if there is no 100 data field in the MARC record.
Each MARC field instance is a JavaScript object with the following properties. The properties ind1 and ind2 refer to the indicators associated with the MARC record. The property subfields is an object that points to an array of subfields. It is indexed by the subfield code, e.g., 'a', 'b', etc. For instance, marc.f776.subfields['w'] is an array of $w subfields within the first 776 data field. The actual fields are marc.f776.subfields['w'][0], marc.f776.subfields['w'][1] and so on. A shortcut is provided for the first subfield of a given subfield code. For instance, marc.f020.a is short for marc.f020.subfields['a'][0], which is shorthand for marc.datafield020[0].subfields['a'][0], which is the first $a subfield within the first 020 data field --- typically the ISBN. Consequently, the following JavaScript code can be used to check for the existence of a 020$a field in the MARC record:
if (marc.f020 && marc.f020.a) alert('record contains ISBN: ' + marc.f020.a);Note that you have to check for marc.f020 before checking for marc.f020.a since if the MARC record did not contain a 020 data field, then attempting to access marc.f020.a will trigger an exception, aborting the current function. (A try/catch statement could be used to catch the exception and continue.)
Implementation Notes: Control fields (001--008) and data fields are treated alike for simplicity.
Subfields without an implicit subfield code are assumed to use subfield code $a (is this correct?).
The indicators are preserved as they appear in the record; in particular an empty indicator is a space.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In 1983, a Jesuit Father rediscovered an 11th century monastery in the Syrian desert. Twenty years on, it is a place where monks and nuns live together and where Muslim visitors sometimes even pray with Christians. By Christina Förch
It stands isolated, in the middle of the Syrian desert. The name of the monastery is Deir Mar Musa el-Habashi. In the sixth century, it is said, an Ethiopian hermit lived in a cave there. He was not just any Ethiopian – he was Saint Moses of Abyssinia, son of a king. He refused the crown, preferring to strive toward the Kingdom of God, and died as a martyr.
After his death monks built a small church, founding a monastery in his name. For the past two hundred years it stood vacant, fallen into disrepair, until 1983, when the monastery was rediscovered by the Italian Jesuit Father Paolo dell'Oglio. He spent ten days there in meditation, finally deciding to restore the monastery and found a new religious community.
In 2003, the renovation of the church was finally completed, bringing to light frescoes from the 11th and 12th centuries. Long before completion the little jewel in the middle of the desert began to attract pilgrims – and it proved so popular that the little monastic community decided to add several more buildings in a simple, archaic style to house visitors and pilgrims.
Today eight monks and nuns live in Mar Musa, all of them around thirty years old. It may be the only monastic community in the world where men and women pray and work together, while living separately.
A new building houses the nuns' quarters and the wing for female visitors. The men's quarters have been expanded as well. The monastery dwellers lead a very simple life – having chosen poverty voluntarily, they dress in dark cotton habits.
They tend the garden, keep goats and bees. But the monastery also has computers and an Internet connection – for Mar Musa exists in the virtual realm of the Internet.
Recognizing Islam as an equally valid religion
This monastery has many unusual aspects. "We've always had a somewhat difficult relationship with the Vatican," says Brother Frederique from France, who has lived in the monastery for a year now. The major problem was not that it is a mixed monastery. Rather, it is problematic that the nuns and monks recognize Islam as an equally valid religion.
In Syria Muslims and Christians have been living together peacefully for centuries. And the inhabitants of Mar Musa hope to continue strengthening and deepening this dialogue.
"Many Syrian visitors come on the weekends – for them the monastery is a place to go on a normal outing," says the monk. All visitors are welcome. After the strenuous climb they can rest in a Bedouin tent, drink a glass of water or share a simple meal with the monks.
Hospitality and communication are priorities – in part because monks in the Middle East have always cultivated the tradition of accommodating visitors.
Muslim visitors praying with Christians
"Receiving visitors is like welcoming Jesus Christ," feels Brother Frederique. This has nothing to do with proselytizing, however. Muslims often admire the frescoes, and sometimes even pray together with the Christians.
"Our shared spirituality is based on the simplicity of our life, on peace and the recognition of Islam and Christianity as religions of God." The different religions are part of the "mystery that is humanity".
The monks maintain contact with Islamic scholars, priests and intellectuals and hold joint seminars on religious, social and political issues. Mar Musa is also committed to the concerns of Syrian Christians, who are leaving the country in ever-increasing numbers. "We've come to see that Syria's plurality is threatened by the fact that minorities are emigrating," the monk explains.
The language of liturgy is Arabic
The monastery follows Syrian rites, and the language of the liturgy is Arabic, although the nuns and monks come from Italy, Switzerland, France and Syria. They invite Syrian Christians to the monastery on a regular basis.
But of course this alone is not enough to keep Christians from leaving the country. That is why Mar Musa is also committed to local social projects. For example, the monastery helped renovate old houses to provide homes for young families – or to enable émigrés to return.
Upcoming projects focus on ecology, with the goal of preserving creation for the good of humanity. For example, an ecologically-friendly goat farm in the desert is meant to provide young families with a source of income.
In a country with a population which is growing as fast as Syria's, it is especially important to preserve one's natural resources.
Ultimately, however, Mar Musa is an oasis of tranquility, meditation and self-discovery far removed from the region's political, social, economic and ecological problems. And that, too, is the main goal of the monastery inhabitants.
"The desert has a spirituality of its very own," feels Brother Frederique. And, he says, it is always a very special thing to encounter the spirit of God – or Allah – in the desert.
Christina Förch
© Qantara.de 2004
Translated from the German by Isabel Cole
Religious Conflict in Turkey
A Cold Wind Sweeping the Tur Abdin
In south-eastern Turkey a neighbourhood dispute over a few hectares of stony ground has escalated into a religious war between the Mor Gabriel Monastery and the surrounding Arab and Kurdish villages. Susannne Güsten has the details
Turkey's Aramaean Minority
More Than Just Mor Gabriel
Driven out by economic hardship and discrimination at local and state level in the 1960s and by forced evacuations in the 1990s, Southeastern Turkey's Aramaeans are starting to return home, only to find that their ancestral lands no longer belong to them. Ayse Karabat reports
The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul
Limited Religious Freedom in Turkey
The situation for the Ecumenical Patriarch in Turkey, the spiritual leader of all Orthodox Christians, is difficult. The very existence of the Patriarchate is threatened by a law on private schools that was recently passed by the parliament in Ankara. Cyrill Stieger reports


text:
Jeremiah Johnson
Hometown: Bethel, Conn .
Major: Justice Administration
WCSU Degree: Master of Science in Justice Administration
Activities: "Balancing the demands of graduate school and work was always difficult; I never had the benefit of participating in campus activities. My first priority has always been my wife, Nadia, and our two children."
Honors and Awards: 3.81 GPA
Jeremiah Johnson graduated from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa., with a degree in sociology in 2000. For the past six years, he's been employed as a police officer in Darien, Conn. When Johnson decided to pursue graduate studies, he intially enrolled at Pace University in New York.
"Initially I was a student at Pace Law School," Johnson says, "but found that I was disinterested in much of the curriculum, which focused on civil, not criminal, law. My foray into graduate study at WCSU began in the fall of 2004. Most semesters, I was enrolled in two to three courses."
Johnson says it was WestConn's Justice and Law Administration program that drew him to the university. "I was already working full time in law enforcement and did not want to pursue a master's program that would focus only on criminology. I wanted a course of study that would be applicable throughout my police career and beyond. WestConn's JLA program is an outstanding hybrid of criminal justice and public administration."
Johnson also is impressed with WestConn's professors. "The full-time JLA faculty is superb. Assistant Professor of Justice and Law Administration Dr. George Kain has consistently been a source of encouragement and counsel. I feel particularly privileged to have studied under JLA Professor Dr. Casey Jordan, who habituated my intellect to an academic approach of criminal justice."
Asked what he will remember most about his WestConn experience, Johnson says, "Having the opportunity to network and study alongside a number of exceptional criminal justice practitioners."
After graduation, Johnson will undertake the doctoral program in criminal justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. "I will be a full-time doctoral student while I continue my career with the Darien Police Department."
Johnson's advice to new students entering WCSU is: "I would advise incoming graduate students that the demands and expectations of the graduate program are markedly amplified from what they might have experienced at the undergraduate level. There is a learning curve to which grad students must quickly adapt."


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Hi all,
We're giving away 10 pairs of tickets to B.o.B's New York City Album Release Event, hosted by Target, on Tuesday, May 1. Yes. B.o.B is performing ... live. On the day of the release of his album "Strange Clouds." All you have to do is email email@example.com your full name, age, mailing address, Twitter handle, age and if you live in or around New York City. All entrants must be 21 years of age and will be carded at the door. The location of the event will be revealed to the winners by April 29.
Good luck.


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Nondiscrimination Policies
Gender - The California State University does not discriminate on the basis of gender in the educational programs or activities it conducts. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended, and the administrative regulations adopted thereunder prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities operated by California State University, Bakersfield. Such programs and activities include admission of students and employment. Inquiries concerning the application of Title IX to programs and activities of California State University, Bakersfield may be referred to the Counseling Center (HC, 661-654-3366) or Personnel Services (ADM 108, 661-654-2266), the campus officers assigned the administrative responsibility of reviewing such matters, or to the Regional Director of the Office for Civil Rights, Region IX, 50 United Nations Plaza, Room 239, San Francisco, California 94102.
Disability - The California State University does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, its programs and activities. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the regulations adopted thereunder and the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit such discrimination. The coordinator of Disabled Services has been designated to coordinate the efforts of California State University, Bakersfield to comply with these Acts and their implementing regulations. Inquiries concerning compliance may be addressed to the coordinator at the Services for Students with Disabilities Office 661-654-3360; TDD 661-654-6288.
Race, Color, National Origin, or Disability - The California State University complies with the requirements of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the regulations adopted thereunder. No person shall, on the grounds of race, color, national origin, or disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program of The California State University.
Sexual Orientation - By CSU Board of Trustees policy, the California State University does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
Sexual Harassment - Sexual harassment is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, as well as under CSU Executive Order 345. California State University, Bakersfield is committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which faculty, staff, and students work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and unconstrained academic interchange. In the university environment, all faculty, staff, and students are entitled to be treated on the basis of their qualifications, competence, and accomplishments without regard to gender. Individuals are entitled to benefit from university programs and activities without being discriminated against on the basis of their sex. Sexual harassment violates university policy, seriously threatens the academic environment, and is illegal. The policy on campus is to eliminate sexual harassment and to provide prompt and equitable relief to the extent possible.
Sexual harassment includes such behavior as sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature directed toward an employee, student, or applicant when one or more of the following circumstances are present:
- Submission to or toleration of the conduct is an explicit or implicit term or condition of appointment, employment, admission, or academic evaluation;
- Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for a personnel decision or an academic evaluation affecting an individual;
- The conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an employee's work performance, or creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive or otherwise adverse working environment;
- The conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with a student's academic performance, creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive or otherwise adverse learning environment, or adversely affecting any student.
Sexual harassment will not be tolerated by the university and may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination or dismissal. Administrative personnel are available to answer questions or handle complaints by students, employees, student applicants or employee applicants. The names and office locations of sexual harassment counselors and respective administrative personnel are available in the Counseling Center and the Office of Personnel Services. Any employee who believes that this policy has been violated should promptly report the facts of the incident(s) and the person(s) involved.
Formal complaints alleging sexual harassment should be made to the Dean of Extended University (661-654-2441). Such complaints will be investigated without delay in accordance with university procedures and appropriate action taken.
Campus Policy on Disruptive and Violent Behavior - California State University, Bakersfield is committed to creating and maintaining a safe working, learning, and social environment for all students, employees and visitors which is free from violence, threats, intimidation, hostile acts, and disruptive behavior.
Civility, understanding, and mutual respect toward all persons are intrinsic to the existence of a safe and healthy campus. Threats or acts of violence, or hostile, intimidating, or disruptive behavior not only impact the individuals concerned, but also the mission of the University. The University prohibits acts or threats of violence, and any person who commits such acts is subject to disciplinary action, and/or civil or criminal prosecution.
The University has zero tolerance for potentially violent or violent acts against any member of the campus environment, or against any property.
For the purpose of this policy, violence, threats of violence, and other inappropriate behaviors include, but are not limited to:
- any act that is physically or emotionally assaultive; OR
- any threat, behavior or action which is interpreted by a reasonable person to carry the potential of:
- harm or endangering the safety of others;
- resulting in an act of aggression, or
- destroying or damaging property
Established student, personnel, and public safety procedures will serve as the mechanisms for resolving such situations.
Individuals who severely disrupt classrooms, offices or common spaces may be removed from the campus. Deans may deny class enrollment to a student whose behavior compromises the learning environment.
Student Academic Grievance - A student has the right to grieve an academic sanction imposed by a faculty. The grievances can concern only the assigned final course grade.
The grievance must be pursued according to the University's Student Complaint and Grievance procedures. Copies are available in the School deans' offices, the Vice President of Student Services' Office, and most other academic administration office.
Group grievances are not permitted. The University presumes the correctness of final course grades. It is the responsibility of a student appealing an assigned grade to demonstrate otherwise.
Student Compliant and Grievance Procedure - A student also has the right to grieve other University actions. Nonacademic grievances may be brought against the actions or decisions of faculty, administrators, or staff for failure to adhere to written campus policies or for procedures or actions that constitute arbitrary, capricious, or unequal application of those procedures. A student wishing to file a grievance should consult the Student Complaint and Grievance Procedure.
Information regarding student grievances may be obtained by contact the office of the Extended University at 661-654-2441.
Student Discipline
Inappropriate conduct by students or by applicants for admission is subject to discipline as provided in Sections 41301 through 41304 of Title 5, California Code of Regulations. Relevant sections of Title 5 follow.
41301. Expulsion, Suspension and Probation of Students - Following procedures consonant with due process established pursuant to Section 41304, any student of a campus may be expelled, suspended, placed on probation or given a lesser sanction for one or more of the following causes which must be campus related:
- (a) Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a campus.
- (b) Forgery, alteration or misuse of campus documents, records, or identification or knowingly furnishing false information to a campus.
- (c) Misrepresentation of oneself or of an organization to be an agent of a campus.
- (d) Obstruction or disruption, on or off campus property, of the campus educational process, administrative process, or other campus function.
- (e) Physical abuse on or off campus property of the person or property of any member of the campus community or of members of his or her family or the threat of such physical abuse.
- (f) Theft of, or non-accidental damage to, campus property, or property in the possession of, or owned by, a member of the campus community.
- (g) Unauthorized entry into, unauthorized use of, or misuse of campus property.
- (h) On campus property, the sale or knowing possession of dangerous drugs, restricted dangerous drugs, or narcotics as those terms are used in California statutes, except when lawfully prescribed pursuant to medical or dental care, or when lawfully permitted for the purpose of research, instruction or analysis.
- (i) Knowing possession or use of explosives, dangerous chemicals or deadly weapons on campus property or at a campus function without prior authorization of the campus president.
- (j) Engaging in lewd, indecent, or obscene behavior on campus property or at a campus function.
- (k) Abusive behavior directed toward, or hazing of, a member of the campus community.
- (l) Violation of any order of a campus President, notice of which had been given prior to such violation and during the academic term in which the violation occurs, either by publication in the campus newspaper, or by posting on an official bulletin board designated for this purpose, and which order is not inconsistent with any of the other provisions of this Section.
- (m) Soliciting or assisting another to do any act which would subject a student to expulsion, suspension or probation pursuant to this Section.
- (n) For purposes of this Article, the following terms are defined:
- (1) The term "member of the campus community" is defined as meaning California State University Trustees, academic, nonacademic and administrative personnel, students, and other persons while such other persons are on campus property or at a campus function.
- (2) The term "campus property" includes:
- (A) Real or personal property in the possession of, or under the control of, the Board of Trustees of the California State University, and
- (B) All campus feeding, retail, or residence facilities whether operated by a campus or by a campus auxiliary organization.
- (3) The term "deadly weapons" includes any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a blackjack, sling shot, billy, sandclub, sandbag, metal knuckles, any dirk, dagger, switchblade knife, pistol, revolver, or any other firearm, any knife having a blade longer than five inches, any razor with an unguarded blade, and any metal pipe or bar used or intended to be used as a club.
- (4) The term "behavior" includes conduct and expression.
- (5) The term "hazing" means any method of initiation into a student organization or any pastime or amusement engaged in with regard to such an organization which causes, or is likely to cause, bodily danger, or physical or emotional harm, to any member of the campus community; but the term "hazing" does not include customary athletic events or other similar contests or competitions.
- (o) This Section is not adopted pursuant to Education Code Section 89031.
- (p) Notwithstanding any amendment or repeal pursuant to the resolution by which any provision of this Article is amended, all acts and omissions occurring prior to that effective date shall be subject to the provisions of this Article as in effect immediately prior to such effective date.
41303. Conduct by Applicants for Admission -Not withstanding any provision in this Chapter 1 to the contrary, admission or readmission may be qualified or denied to any person who, while not enrolled as a student, commits acts which, were he enrolled as a student, would be the basis for disciplinary proceedings pursuant to Sections 41301 or 41302. Admission or readmission may be qualified or denied to any person who, while a student, commits acts which are subject to disciplinary action pursuant to Section 41301 or Section 41302. Qualified admission or denial of admission in such cases shall be determined under procedures adopted pursuant to Section 41304.
41304. Student Disciplinary Procedures for the California State University - The Chancellor shall prescribe, and may from time to time revise, a code of student disciplinary procedures for the California State University. Subject to other applicable law, this code shall provide for determinations of fact and sanctions to be applied for conduct which is a ground of discipline under Sections 41301 or 41302, and for qualified admission or denial of admission under Section 41303; the authority of the campus President in such matters; conduct related determinations on financial aid eligibility and termination; alternative kinds of proceedings, including proceedings conducted by a Hearing Officer; time limitations; notice; conduct of hearings, including provisions governing evidence, a record, and review; and such other related matters as may be appropriate. The Chancellor shall report to the Board the actions taken under this section.
Student Opinionnaire on Courses and Instruction (SOCI) - Students in each regular class offered at the University are asked to fill out questionnaires which report their assessment of the course content and the instruction in that class. These Student Opinionnaires on Courses and Instruction (SOCI) are used both by individual faculty members and the university administration in a continuing effort to insure that the instructional program at CSUB is as effective as possible.
Extended University Refund Policy


text: I've got a used XPR6550 here. Comes with:- Radio - Good Condition, Some wear marks and scratches, LCD in good condition, transmits/receives no issues (tested), functionally flawless- Battery - Impress, Extended Life - 2200mAh, holds charge 2 days continuous use, 77% service life, recently reconditioned- Charger - Impress, brand new in box, genuine MotorolaEverything is in great condition. Simply don't need this one anymore. I can program a reasonable number of channels for you. I can also hack it to accept UHF HAM frequencies (440MHz range for example).Does Analog/Digital UHF 450-512MHz, 1000 channels, Radio ID Decode/Contact List, and more. Full features/specs can be found here: XPR 6550 Portable Two-Way Radio - Motorola Solutions USAAs it turns out, the radio is still covered under warranty until 08/2015!Since this is in such good condition, and these go for $1000 or more new, I'm asking $500 shipped, but would entertain offers as well.Thanks,Brandt


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Music program for veterans helps them compose and record song about their military experiences
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MONTCLAIR, N.J. – Many military veterans say having music to listen to helps them deal with the stress of deployment.
A new program hopes that music can play the same role in helping them readjust to civilian life.
A pilot project called Voices of Valor is being offered this year through the veteran affairs program at Montclair State University.
It's open to veterans of any age, and participants don't need prior musical experience.
Participants are guided by professional musicians and psychology mentors through a process of synthesizing their military experiences into song. They write a tune as a group, record it in a professional sound studio and then hold a CD release party.
Some participants say the program is more effective than traditional "talk therapy."


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I've been hesitant, until now, to install Punix on a real calculator, but I have finally done so. Here is a photo of my first test on a real TI-92+:
I was pleasantly surprised that it booted and functioned very much as it does in TiEmu. The grayscale is very slightly flickery, but it's tolerable. However, there are a few differences or glitches:
- Address error exceptions do not work. This exception works flawlessly in the emulator. All other exceptions work fine (eg, illegal instruction, division by zero, etc), so I have to figure out what's wrong with this one exception.
- LCD does not shut off with ctrl- or alt-ON. A single dark blue or black row of pixels stays on the screen, every time in a different row. The screen also fades back in weird when I turn the calc back on. I probably just didn't write to the LCD register(s) properly.
- Last, and perhaps the most worrisome difference, the clock speed is way off. A short timing indicates the calculator is about 33% too slow. The interrupt that should fire once per second (int 3) fires about 2 times in a 3-second period. The supposed 256-Hz (int 1) and programmable timer (int 5) also run proportionally slower, ie about 170 Hz and 5461 Hz (this should be 8192 Hz for audio). My batteries are fresh, and I'm fairly sure that I have a HW2 92+; Punix crashed badly in HW1 mode in TiEmu, so it'd probably crash on my real 92+ if it were HW1. Grayscale also wouldn't work correctly either.
This is a good start, but now I have a good sense of what needs to be fixed.
Update 2012-03-09: I have fixed all issues but the address error exception. Turns out I incorrectly wrote to the screen's hardware registers to shut it off, and the register that controls the OSC2 rate was set incorrectly. Grayscale is also less flickery as a result of fixing the rate, and audio output sounds just as good as it does in TiEmu (that is, like garbage :)).


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There is one Jesus.
Every difference between Christians is a difference that human beings have created. Because there is one Jesus and He is the same Jesus for all of us.
We live in an era with rising violent persecution of Christians in much of the world. That is coupled with a militant secularism that appears to be setting up the framework for legal discrimination and marginalization of Christians in most of the rest of the world.
Christians must stand together against these threats.
It gladdened my heart when I saw the photos of Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros, laughing, talking and praying together.
According to a CNA article, Pope Tawadros had this to say:
"We must prepare our people for this very real and needed unity that we know and live, we must work quickly and seriously," said Pope Tawadros II in May 10 remarks provided to CNA by his office.
His visit to the Vatican is significant because he leades Egypt's largest Christian Church with ten million members, as well as historic, since the May 9-13 trip is the first to Rome in 40 years.
"The rising of Islamic parties in countries like Egypt and Syria means Christians are now feeling they are second or third class citizens," said Father Rafic Greiche, director of the press office for the Catholic Church in Egypt.
"We Egyptian Christians want our brothers of all world churches to help us, to pray for us and to be real brothers in our Lord Jesus Christ," he told CNA on May 10 in Rome. (Read the rest here.)
I agree with this sentiment. Christians must help Christians.
Here, from Vatican Radio is Pope Francis' statement:
Your Holiness,
Dear Brothers in Christ,
For me it is a great joy and a truly graced moment to be able to receive all of you here, at the tomb of Saint Peter, as we recall that historic meeting forty years ago between our predecessors, Pope Paul VI and the late Pope Shenouda III, in an embrace of peace and fraternity, after centuries of mutual distrust. So it is with deep affection that I welcome Your Holiness and the distinguished members of your delegation, and I thank you for your words. Through you, I extend my cordial greetings in the Lord to the bishops, the clergy, the monks and the whole Coptic Orthodox Church.
Today's visit strengthens the bonds of friendship and brotherhood that already exist between the See of Peter and the See of Mark, heir to an inestimable heritage of martyrs, theologians, holy monks and faithful disciples of Christ, who have borne witness to the Gospel from generation to generation, often in situations of great adversity.
Forty years ago the Common Declaration of our predecessors represented a milestone on the ecumenical journey, and from it emerged a Commission for Theological Dialogue between our Churches, which has yielded good results and has prepared the ground for a broader dialogue between the Catholic Church and the entire family of Oriental Orthodox Churches, a dialogue that continues to bear fruit to this day. In that solemn Declaration, our Churches acknowledged that, in line with the apostolic traditions, they profess "one faith in the One Triune God" and "the divinity of the Only-begotten Son of God … perfect God with respect to his divinity, perfect man with respect to his humanity". They acknowledged that divine life is given to us and nourished through the seven sacraments and they recognized a mutual bond in their common devotion to the Mother of God.
We are glad to be able to confirm today what our illustrious predecessors solemnly declared, we are glad to recognize that we are united by one Baptism, of which our common prayer is a special expression, and we long for the day when, in fulfilment of the Lord's desire, we will be able to communicate from the one chalice.Of course we are well aware that the path ahead may still prove to be long, but we do not want to forget the considerable distance already travelled, which has taken tangible form in radiant moments of communion, among which I am pleased to recall the meeting in February 2000 in Cairo between Pope Shenouda III and Blessed John Paul II, who went as a pilgrim, during the Great Jubilee, to the places of origin of our faith. I am convinced that – under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – our persevering prayer, our dialogue and the will to build communion day by day in mutual love will allow us to take important further steps towards full unity.
Your Holiness, I am aware of the many marks of attention and fraternal charity that you have shown, since the early days of your ministry, to the Catholic Coptic Church, to its Pastor, Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak and to his predecessor, Cardinal Antonios Naguib. The institution of a "National Council of Christian Churches", which you strongly desired, represents an important sign of the will of all believers in Christ to develop relations in daily life that are increasingly fraternal and to put themselves at the service of the whole of Egyptian society, of which they form an integral part. Let me assure you that your efforts to build communion among believers in Christ, and your lively interest in the future of your country and the role of the Christian communities within Egyptian society find a deep echo in the heart of the Successor of Peter and of the entire Catholic community.
"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together" (1 Cor 12:26). This is a law of the Christian life, and in this sense we can say that there is also an ecumenism of suffering: just as the blood of the martyrs was a seed of strength and fertility for the Church, so too the sharing of daily sufferings can become an effective instrument of unity. And this also applies, in a certain sense, to the broader context of society and relations between Christians and non-Christians: from shared suffering can blossom forth forgiveness and reconciliation, with God's help.
Your Holiness, in assuring you of my prayers that the whole flock entrusted to your pastoral care may be ever faithful to the Lord's call, I invoke the protection of both Saint Peter and Saint Mark: may they who during their lifetime worked together in practical ways for the spread of the Gospel, intercede for us and accompany the journey of our Churches.
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/10/pope_francis_welcomes_egypts_coptic_orthodox_pope_tawadros/en1-690886
of the Vatican Radio website


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Photo courtesy: Kevin Burns Photography
Photo Gallery
Video Highlights
Ivy League Tournament Scenarios
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Kevin Vaughan
tallied three goals and Dean Gibbons scored
twice and added an assist, as the Harvard men's lacrosse team
topped No. 6 Princeton by a score of 11-8 Saturday afternoon.
Before 2,827 fans on Senior Day at Harvard Stadium, the Crimson
used a 4-2 run in the second quarter to grab a 6-4 lead, which
Harvard never relinquished in its first victory over the Tigers
since 1990, a span of 19 straight games.
With the win, the Crimson remains alive for a spot in the Ivy League tournament, as Harvard improves to 6-5 overall and 2-3 in the Ancient Eight. Princeton drops to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the Ivy League.
Harvard carried a 2-1 lead into the second quarter, as Vaughan
and Gibbons each found the back of the net in the opening
stanza. In the second, the Crimson went on a three-goal run,
moving ahead 5-2, with 4:40 to play in the half. Jason Duboe started
the run with a score at 6:26, followed by a tally by Andrew Pataki only
30 seconds later. Peter Schwartz
capped the run with an unassisted goal at 4:40. After
back-to-back goals by the Tigers, Terry White closed
the second quarter with a goal after receiving a pass from Travis Burr with 16
seconds remaining.
The Crimson, which led, 6-4, at the break, held a 25-20 lead in shots and a 16-10 advantage in ground balls through two quarters of action.
In the second half, Jeff Cohen opened the scoring with a tally at 14:41 of the third quarter, while Dean Gibbons netted Harvard's lone man-up goal of the game at the 10:26 mark. With the Crimson owning an 8-5 advantage entering the final quarter, Princeton cut the lead to two as Scott MacKenzie fired a shot by Harvard goalkeeper Harry Krieger at 12:35.
At the 7:47 and 3:44 marks, Vaughan notched consecutive goals, giving the Crimson a four-goal cushion, 10-6. In the final minute of regulation, Evan Roth put the game out of reach, as he made it an 11-7 contest with only 35 seconds to go.
Princeton outshot Harvard, 25-12, in the second half to hold a 45-37 advantage for the game. The Crimson enjoyed a 31-25 edge in ground balls, while going 16-of-18 on clear attempts. Alex White collected a team-best eight ground balls and won 12-of-21 faceoffs. Krieger finished the game with 13 saves.
The Crimson closes out the regular season in a crucial matchup
at No. 11 Yale Saturday, May 1 at 1 p.m. Harvard needs to
grab a win over its archrival to be in position to qualify for the
Ivy League tournament.