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Lee Strobel: Making the Case for Christmas
While still an atheist and crime reporter for The Chicago Tribune, Christian apologist and best-selling author Lee Strobel says a story he covered decades ago about a "poverty-wracked" family and how they showed him the true meaning of Christmas through their actions still resonates with him. Strobel gave The Christian Post an exclusive on his "Making the Case for Christmas" story.
More than 14 years ago, Strobel authored The Case for Christ, a book about how as an atheist he first set out to disprove the existence of Jesus only to find irrefutable evidence for the Son of God. He then became a Christian. His Christian wife, Leslie, had been praying for his salvation all the while.
In writing about the Delgados – 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters Lydia and Jenny – Strobel tells about having a yearning "to know Jesus" during his experience.
"To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything – more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus – because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters."
He writes about how the Delgados "sacrificially reached out to their neighbors with a tangible expression of Christ's love."
Strobel's exclusive for CP below:
Making the Case for Christmas
By Lee Strobel
Against the backdrop of a Christmas season encrusted with self-centeredness and materialism, churches have a tremendous opportunity to crack open the hearts of people in their community through humble acts of generosity and sacrifice that truly reflect the attitudes of Jesus.
These countercultural expressions of giving and caring can capture the attention of even the most cynical skeptics, as I personally found out when I was an atheist and working as a reporter at The Chicago Tribune.
Decades later, I still remember the simple but profound Christmas lesson I received from a poverty-wracked family living on the hardscrabble West Side of Chicago.
The Tribune newsroom was eerily quiet on the day before Christmas. As I sat at my desk with little to do, my mind kept wandering back to a family I had encountered a month earlier while I was working on a series of articles about Chicago's neediest people.
The Delgados – 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters Lydia and Jenny – had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were now living in a tiny two-room apartment. As I walked in, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls – only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually devoid of possessions.
In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.
But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced he had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.
I wrote an article about the Delgados, and then I quickly moved on to more exciting assignments. But as I sat at my desk on Christmas Eve, I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation: here was a family that had nothing but faith and yet seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially but lacked faith – and inside I felt as empty and barren as their apartment.
I walked over to the city desk to sign out a car. It was a slow news day, with nothing of consequence going on. My boss could call me if something were to happen. In the meantime, I decided to drive over to West Homer Street and see how the Delgados were doing.
When Jenny opened the door, I couldn't believe my eyes. Tribune readers had responded to my article by showering the Delgados with a treasure trove of gifts – roomfuls of furniture, appliances, and rugs; a lavish Christmas tree with piles of wrapped presents underneath; carton upon bulging carton of food; and a dazzling selection of clothing, including dozens of warm winter coats, scarves, and gloves. On top of that, they donated thousands of dollars in cash.
But as surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: "Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do."
That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me.
"This is wonderful; this is very good," she said, gesturing toward the largess. "We did nothing to deserve this – it's a gift from God. But," she added, "it is not His greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus."
To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything – more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus – because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters.
They had peace despite poverty, while I had anxiety despite plenty; they knew the joy of generosity, while I only knew the loneliness of ambition; they looked heavenward for hope, while I only looked out for myself; they experienced the wonder of the spiritual while I was shackled to the shallowness of the material – and something made me long for what they had. Or, more accurately, for the One they knew.
I was pondering this as I drove back toward Tribune Tower a short time later. Suddenly, though, my thoughts were interrupted by the crackle of the car's two-way radio. It was my boss, sending me out on another assignment. Jarred back to reality, I let the emotions I felt in the Delgado apartment dissipate. And that, I figured at the time, was probably a good thing.
As I would caution myself whenever the Delgados would come to mind from time to time over the ensuing years, I'm not the sort of person who's driven by feelings. As a journalist, I was far more interested in facts, evidence, data, and concrete reality. Virgins don't get pregnant; there is no God who became a baby; and Christmas is little more than an annual orgy of consumption driven by the greed of corporate America.
Or so I thought.
My subsequent investigation into the historical evidence for Christianity did end up persuading me that the baby in the manger really was the unique Son of God. I tell the story of the Delgados, and the facts that convinced me Christianity is true, in my book The Case for Christmas. Yet as the Delgados demonstrated, Christmas is more than a compilation of information.
That's why when churches tell me that they're giving away free copies of my book to visitors this Christmas season, or encouraging their congregation to give the book to friends and family members, I remind them to make this more than an isolated gift.
If the book is accompanied by a spirit of authentic caring and humble serving, it becomes a much more powerful apologetic for the faith. If the book is shared amidst compassionate words of genuine love and concern, the evidence it contains is amplified in its impact.
The Delgados amazed me by the way they sacrificially reached out to their neighbors with a tangible expression of Christ's love. What an opportunity for all of us to follow their cue this Christmas season – and to watch as God cracks open the hearts of even the most hard-hearted cynics.
Strobel is a New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty books and has been interviewed on numerous national TV programs, including ABC, Fox, PBS, and CNN. Described in the Washington Post as "one of the evangelical community's most popular apologists," Strobel shared the Christian Book of the Year award in 2005 for a curriculum he co-authored with Garry Poole about the movie "The Passion of the Christ." He also won Gold Medallions for his books The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator, all of which have been made into documentaries distributed by Lionsgate. On the Web: LeeStrobel.com


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DICK MAYHUE: We thought we would extract some more good information from John by way of Q&A and thought I might today prime the pump with some things I want to draw out of him by a set of predetermined questions. And we're going to start off with a few prepared questions. All of this, you'll remember, started in our plane trip to San Francisco and we sat across the aisle from each other and you were reading John Piper's new book, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy and just...we just began to talk about preaching. And out of it came a whole series of questions and a whole bundle of ideas that have turned in to what we're doing. Just one other preliminary thought and that is that if you go to the book on Rediscovering Expository Preaching, you'll discover in chapter 19...a chapter with 26 questions already have been posed to John and answered, so we're not going to duplicate that. All of those have been answered there. While we were on the plane, you wrote out a little thing on a little piece of paper, you probably remember this, giving it to me, and you talked about the Master's Seminary's purpose of training men to display the glory of God by the exposition of God's Word. You might want to elaborate just a little bit, that's a little different take on preaching.
JOHN: Well, I think the ultimate goal of everything is to glorify God. I think we've affirmed that from the standpoint of Scripture, that in all things God would be glorified, that whatever you do whether you eat or drink, 1 Corinthians 10 says, you do it all to the glory of God. The ultimate end of everything is the glory of God. That, of course, is...is made evident when you get a glimpse of heaven and every being in heaven is occupied with glorifying God so that preaching is just another way to glorify God. And the way it does it is by the exposition of Scripture. God is glorified when He is made manifest, when He is revealed and He is revealed through the pages of Scripture. So the purest and truest expression of preaching is ultimately then to the glory of God. And when we are faithfully expositing the Word of God, we are, by doing that, bringing glory to the God of Scripture who is revealed there.
DICK: That would be a real indictment of man-centered preaching.
JOHN: Totally.
DICK: The preaching that glorifies the preacher and glorifies the audience.
JOHN: Yeah, I think you have to come to the conviction that the whole purpose of your life and the whole purpose of everything you do and particularly the purpose of preaching is to glorify God, regardless of what happens to people in the process. I mean, in the end, that is in the power of God and in the purposes of God and in the counsel of God to do what He will do in the lives of people doesn't dispossess them of responsibility, but in the end it's God's...it's God's power and plan that unfolds. And the goal of preaching is not manipulation. I mean, that's why I've said through the years, even when we preach we have to stop short of manipulating people's will, short of singing 48 verses of "Just as I am," or whatever else may manipulate people, I think we...we come to the point where in our preaching the purpose is to glorify God and when people understand who God is, that becomes a proper motivation for the right response.
DICK: In today's literature on preaching and discussions, you get preachers together and they start talking, one of the politically correct words they use is, "I'm an expositor, I do exposition." And I don't want to migrate fears...or there are hundreds upon thousands upon ten thousands of preachers who claim to be an expositor and are anything but... So here would be a very, very significant question in your minds...what are the key features, kind of the sine-qua-non that would distinguish a real expositor from one who claims to be and, in fact, really is not... are there two or three elements that would really make an expositor stand out?
JOHN: Well I think, first of all, to...to be legitimately an expositor, you have to explain the text. And that rarely occurs in preaching. And when I say "explain the text," you have to explain precisely what God meant when He inspired that text. I think maybe you can understand that, that's simple enough. That is not taking a text of Scripture, finding an outline and bouncing your way through a homiletic...homiletical format. That is not explaining the text. Explaining the text means giving to the people precisely the message that God intended when He revealed that Scripture. That's going to take you beyond superficiality because frankly, there isn't anything superficial about the mind of God. And there isn't anything cute or clever about the mind of God. Everything about the mind of God is profound. Everything about the mind of God is systematic. Everything about the mind of God is clear. Everything about the mind of God is cohesive. Everything about the mind of God is orderly. And that is how the text should be explained and a true expositor is involved in explaining the intention of God in the revelation of that text which means you have to reconstruct the context, not only the book context but the historical, geographical, even the...I suppose you could say...the cultural context which might include religion and philosophy and history and all of that that makes communication communication at a given point of time. So that's what true exposition does. There are a lot of people who bounce around the Bible and there are people who find an outline and do some homiletics in a passage of Scripture, but that doesn't necessarily explain the intent of God in the text.
DICK: And so many would call it contextual preaching which is one element. Others would call it exegetical preaching which means they've grappled. I think Calvin described it defined it in two terms, just two words that are easy to remember, and it starts with explication and application, that was kind of his basic....
JOHN: Well I think whatever the terms are, and, you know, terms come and go and get redefined, even the term exposition by virtue of your question, you're indicating to me, has been redefined from what we would understand it to be. So we keep losing terms to those people who want to redefine terms to accommodate their...their less than commitment...less than strong commitment to what they really mean. So I would say whatever the term is you use, if you're going to do Bible exposition, you're going to explain the original intention of God who inspired the author with that text. And again, when you do that, inevitably you're going to put God's glory on display because God's glory is woven into the fabric of every text.
DICK: Let me move from the concept to the practice and within the framework of you always desiring to be an expositor and driving to be an expositor from the time you started here in 1969 till today, how has your preaching changed within the framework of that common definition of exposition?
JOHN: Well I you know, I don't think that style-wise it's changed a lot, two things, probably, have changed. One is, I know more now than I used to know.
DICK: That's important...
JOHN: And I'll know more next week than I know this week. And I'll know more next month than I know this month because I continue to study and I continue to read. So there's a progress in information that makes my preaching progressively deeper and wider and higher and longer, in that sense. (Laughter) And I've saved longer for the last. But that's inevitable. And I don't mean I preach longer a given sermon, it just takes me longer to get through a given text.
DICK: So that would explain why when you came you'd go through a book of the Bible in a matter of months.
JOHN: Well not necessarily. The reason I did that early on was because I came in to a church and I'm sure most of you don't know this, this church was founded by a Methodist, a historic Wesleyan, Arminian Methodist pastor by the name of Don Householder. He came out of the Trinity Methodist Church in Los Angeles, founded this church. And...and the next pastor was Dr. Richard Elvy, and they were both good men, honorable men, faithful men. Dr.Elvey would have been a step kind of removed from Dr. Householder but Dr. Elvey's ministry, he was very short because he, as his predecessor both died of a heart attack. So they...Dr. Householder didn't have...well he had about a twelve-year ministry, and Dr. Elvey, a very brief ministry here. So I felt it was necessary to come in and sort of teach some theology. The doc...the church had a doctrinal statement that was about that long, literally. And the motto of the church was that old thing in essentials unity and non-essentials charity and most everything was a non-essential. So there was a tremendous amount of charity when it came to doctrine. And I felt that I could take the long road, you know, going through a book, but probably would serve my ministry here better if I laid a pretty firm foundation. So immediately I did a rapid-fire series on the book of Romans and I actually did go through the sixteen chapters of Romans in about half a year and...but I did that on purpose because I felt like I needed to really capture the argument of the book on a big scale and I didn't think people would maintain that argument very well if I got too bogged down because they didn't have any frame of reference for that. And so that's why I did that.
At the same time I did that, I did preach through the gospel of John just in those same early years and I preached in the gospel of John for about three and a half years. So it...it really was by design that I went rapidly through Romans in order that I might move them to a firmer base theologically. But back to the original question.
The two things that have changed, as I said, what has changed is that I know more now just because of all these years of studying and reading. And secondly, that has prolonged my going through a book because what I now perceive as a deeper and truer understanding of the text is informed by all these years. So there is a sense in which I gave them, you know, maybe in the early years, I gave them all that I knew that was there, but I really didn't know everything that was there.
DICK: Yeah, your treatment of Ephesians that you went through earlier and then later would be a good thing to look at to see the difference.
JOHN: Right. And I can honestly say, too, Dick, that I think I went through Romans three times and each time it took me longer. The first time was by design to be brief. The second time I thought I was getting at it. The third time it took me longer because...not that I interpreted the text any differently, but that I could see the depth and the richness of what was there. And I think that's part of progress. You know, 1 Timothy 4 Paul says to young Timothy, "Let your progress be known to all men." And I think the people in the church certainly should see that progress. It should be evident as your ministry goes on. Now, I think maybe caught up in the early years of ministry, somebody might say, "Well you didn't spend time in study." I did, I spent as much time then in preparation, probably more time than I do now. It's just that as time goes on, the well gets a lot deeper. And your...your learning Scripture from other books that you're preaching that inform the passages you're working with at the present time too, so that enriches you.
DICK: You've been doing this now for about 32 years here and long after most guys would have resorted back to the first two-thousand messages I preached, and just kind of warm them up and put them out. What is it that keeps you...or who is it that keeps your feet to the fire of exposition? What fires your jets on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that's made you faithful to that for a lifetime?
JOHN: Well, I just feel it's...it's the greatest thing that I can do with my life. I mean, I can do something else, but it wouldn't have anything near the value of what this does. This is what I've been called to do, this is my passion. This is what I love. I don't know that the preaching is particularly the first love. The discovery is really the first love. I mean, I am tremendously energized even now in the preparation. And it isn't that I love the work, it isn't that I love to fuss around with Greek verbs. In itself that's work. But I love what it yields. I love what it yields. I love the discovery of the truth because I'm so caught up in the wonder of the mind of God. To me what makes preparation exhilarating is this is the mind of God, this is getting to know God. This is understanding the Lord that I love and serve. That is what challenges me. It isn't that I need a sermon. Frankly, I could get up on a Sunday with no preparation and probably keep people interested for a while. I've done it. (Laughter) I don't know how long I could do it, but...
DICK: Not recommended.
JOHN: Well I wouldn't want to do it years ago, but I mean now, you know, I can pull it out of the air from past study. But what drives me is this amazing, exhilarating discovery of nuances in the mind of God, tremendous depth and...and profundity that I find revealed in the pages of Scripture. That's the thrill to me. And, of course, once I capture that, then there's a certain amount of energy and passion with which I want to communicate that with others. But I would say it is that...it is that. And I think that's built on my view of Scripture and my view of what preaching is intended to do. I have a very high view of Scripture and I daresay I don't know how a person could be a sustained expositor if they didn't have that. I mean, even if you have the view of Scripture say of Mark Knoll or people like the guy at Cambridge who has written a book on justification, Alister McGrath. These guys who equivocate on ...on a firm view of inerrant Scripture, I don't know how they could really be a lifelong expositor because you...you have to have that high view of the text so that you literally bring your soul into utter submission to every text and you believe that in that text God is going to manifest Himself in supernatural truth. Now that is what drives me...
DICK: So you're driven by your theology.
JOHN: Driven by my view of Scripture and I'm driven by the fact that I believe in every passage of Scripture God is on display and His mind is on display. In fact, I...I think I tried to say this when I was talking about this. The greatest defense of the Scripture is the Scripture itself because the genius of it manifests the mind of God. It can't be human. The very depth of it is so overwhelmingly divine, and so it speaks for itself. I think that's what drives me is that sense of the truth of Scripture and the revelation of God in it. And that's back to the original statement that I made, I believe a true expositor...that's what we want to train here...is trained to reveal the glory of God through the exposition of Scripture. I just want to put God on display...the wonder of God, the wonder of God in Christ, the wonder of the Spirit of God and the mighty work that the trinity does.
DICK: One of the things that I observed when I first met you in 1980 was you're an avid reader. And, of course, everyone expects you're going to read to study for a message. But the one thing I discovered quickly is you read beyond your prep. You used to study here at the church.
JOHN: Right.
DICK: Four days a week for your messages. Today you're studying at home. But I can remember you always talked about a stack of books and journals you had next to your little recliner at home and each night you'd sit down and read some. Maybe you could explain a little bit of what that habit has done to benefit your preaching and the kind of books and journals you're interested in in reading.
JOHN: Sure. First of all, I had to get rid of the recliner, as I got older.
DICK: Okay. For the young guys that's okay.
JOHN: Yeah. For a young guy he can have a recliner. As you get older and...you've got to stay upright. (Laughter) First of all, your bifocals don't work when you're lying....Secondly, you're gone, you know. Well I can only tell you, I...over the weekend I reread Dr. Thomas' book on Biblical...Choosing a Version of Scripture because I just need to refresh my mind on the lower criticism area on the manuscript things. I just... I just really needed to kind of update myself on that. I found it very helpful. I'm in the process of reading the biography of David Brainerd written by Jonathan Edwards, it's a rather long, 600 page edition of that biography, but that's a classic missionary biography that really, I don't know if people know this, but it was Jonathan Edwards really editing of David Brainerd's missionary journals. You know, Brainerd died in 1747 and he didn't even get launched into missionary service until 1742, his life only lasted five years. He had tuberculosis when he started and spent most of those very rigorous times coughing up blood and died five years later, but it was his biography that affected really literally all the missionaries in the... that came out of that era that you would know anything about, everybody from Henry Martin, William Carey, you just name them, they all had read Jonathan Edwards' stuff on David Brainerd. And so, I'm reading that because I just...there are some rich, rich things in the life of Brainerd in terms of his personal humility. He was the most self-effacing person, had no confidence in himself and his biography had a tremendous impact.
I just read the other day because it was sent to me and because he's a friend, Erwin Lutzer's book, Ten Lies About God which I found just kind of, things I was familiar with, but Lutzer has a good way of saying things. And he's very right, in the front of the book he shows that if you don't have the right view of God, everything is skewed. And that's back to the whole idea that people who don't sit in Bible exposition never really get the right view of God. And if you sit in man-centered preaching, you may be pretty good on the superficial view of man and you're really woefully limited on the view of God.
I also read another book that...this last weekend...that was sent to me by Steve Lawson called Made In His Image and it's a little paperback about a couple hundred pages in which he shows the tragic results of seeker-friendly kind of preaching. And essentially it's the same thing, it cheats people out of understanding God. And since you basically, literally cannot live the Christian life to the place that God wants you to live it, unless you're lost in wonder, love and praise, unless you're consumed with who God is, this cheats the church as well. So I didn't choose to read those books because I was thinking about that, I read them because they were...they were sent my way. So just anything that I think is going to sharpen my focus, I tend to read books on theology and biographical books written by people who have a handle on theology.
A great book that you men need to read is Pearce Carey's biography of William Carey. That's great reading, redone by Peter Masters from Metropolitan Tabernacle. That is an outstanding biography. It's really a very great help to me in understanding why God uses certain people. And if you look at these people, what you find in common is this incredible tireless self-discipline. And, of course, in the case of Jonathan Edwards, you ask, "How can Jonathan Edwards be doing what he's doing, writing what he's writing, preaching constantly in his church, and at the same time writing a massive biography on David Brainerd?" Just the tirelessness of these people, Calvin and Luther and their prolific lives and producing things. I told the missionaries over in Italy and I told the Italians, I said God's going to turn history on great preaching and He's going to turn it on people who have a far-reaching impact. And it isn't going to come out of one sermon, it's going to come out of a body of work. You know, there are people over in Italy like there are everywhere in the world, missionaries sitting around in seminars, ad infinitum, ad nauseum trying to come up with strategies and what God is looking for is some relentless prolific preacher and teacher whose body of work literally impacts a whole civilization. And that comes out of...you can't do that long haul unless you're in the Word because you... otherwise you're going to wind up...you know, I talked to a guy recently who left the pastorate and I said, "What are you going to do?" He said, "Well I've discovered this little truth about marriage and I'm going to spend the rest of my life going around sharing that truth." And frankly, you know, I said, "Well welcome to the...welcome to a useful...a uselessness. I mean, you've gone...you've just entered into a wasted life. You can run around...run around the rest of your life telling people that same little thing? You know, don't you realize what's there?" I mean, here I am after all these years and I haven't begun to exhaust...I mean, I'm just barely getting to the end of the New Testament and there's the whole Old Testament. I mean, look at Genesis, I can't even...I can't even get through that thing at any kind of pace that would ever even hopefully imagine I could cover the Old Testament. I mean, if I die in the second half of Genesis, this would be good. (Laughter)
DICK: Moving on to a more positive thought...in the middle of Genesis. I think most people would think a pastor sits down on Monday and starts to figure out what he's going to preach about on Sunday and that's his weekly plight. You seem to have started some time before that, at least in your mind thinking, where you're headed and what you're going to do, so that the question would be just in this sense, how many weeks ahead do you really start to think about a message before you actually deliver it? What's the dynamic in the study that allows for that?
JOHN: Well I think one of the things that you must do when you start a book is read the whole book because you don't want a muffin interpretation in chapter one and get hit between the eyes in chapter 4 when it gets straightened out because there's something in the book that implies that your original understanding is wrong. And, you know, that's very...a very real issue. So when I start a book, I will read that book so that I, you know, know the whole flow of the book and then I will read many introductions because I find and I get commentaries that typically. I know when I write my commentaries, I don't do a lot with introduction, but I don't even write the introduction to a commentary until I've completed the book and then I go back and put the introduction together because I can't explain an overview of the book until I've exposited the book, unless I want to run a pretty high risk of what I think is there. So I think commentators do that as well. That's pretty much the traditional way. You write a commentary, then you go back and you put the introduction together because now you understand what's in the book.
And so typically when I start a book, I read through a lot of introductions so that I get an overview and that I get the issues and the problems and the things. In the Study Bible, for example, the material that's in the introduction is the product of the study of the book. It's not preliminary to it. So that...that gives me a sense of the flow of the book. And then once I get in to the book, I know where the book is going. I mean, I'm reading ahead of what I'm preaching. But in actual work, I don't do the actual work until the week I preach it. So when I come to begin that study typically maybe Monday, but surely on Tuesday I really start to grapple with things. I already know what's in the text because typically I've done some preparation. I mean, like I'll prepare sometimes five verses, only preach one...so I'm already ahead for the next week. Like this week I'm going to go back to Genesis chapter 4 but I...I...where did I get to? Verse 4 or 5, and I've already prepared through verse 16. So this week I just have to do some refining. So I'm ahead of myself. But typically I don't actually do the work until that Tuesday when I launch everything...but I know where I'm going.
DICK: But you know what work you're going to do when you get there.
JOHN: I just don't know how long it will take me to get through that until I get into it.
DICK: Another practical question that I think is important. Your preaching is known to be concise, it's clear, the synthesis is there. People are saying, "Now I see it," having heard your explanation. Most preachers would love to be that clear. The question is, what process, what reflective process, what process of analysis do you go through on a regular basis to clarify and crystalize in your mind the central truths of a particular passage you're going to preach that really makes you stand out from most preachers?
JOHN: I...I have no idea. I don't know why...
DICK: This is the Babe Ruth technique.
JOHN: No, I have absolutely no idea. I mean, maybe you should tell them...why I don't know, you're objective, you're sitting out there listening. I don't know why it's clear. I mean, I don't know why when I study a passage it comes out clear other than to say I...and I'm saying this in all honesty...I really believe that I'm just trying to understand it for myself and I just...I'm just really not some great intellect. I mean, I'm just a normal person and I think that's why when I understand it, other normal people understand it. I really believe that. I'm...I just think I have to work at it to understand it. And once I've understood it, anybody can understand it. You know, because I think it's...I think I just have the sort of normal mind and I can approach things in a pretty typical way. I don't know why that is. I don't know why what is clear to me is clear to other people, other than to say I...maybe the Lord just wired me to be the preacher to every man, you know.
DICK: I think that's part of it. I think that's part of it. But as I've observed John in various settings in the present, you have an insatiable curiosity, you have a curiosity level and drive that goes way beyond the average human being. So if you can get a curiosity pill to up your level, would be a long way. Secondly, there's the drive of the athlete that you were that comes into your study, which is part of your personality that says "I'm not going to quit till I've got this thing wired." But thirdly, there's a reflective process I think in your study. You tend to move fast in what you do which gives you a little more time to sit back and just reflect and think, and even, I think, in your explanations about prayer that you're preaching, but it's a constant attitude of prayer, and asking the Lord to show you the meaning, that you've carved out time to reflect and think and clarify and get rid of the dross.
The other thing that you do and you mention it but I'm not sure it was emphasized is typically when a guy gets the first draft of his message, he thinks the job's done and he's ready to go and go play golf or do whatever. But once you get your first draft, you're going to refine it two, three or four more times before you...
JOHN: Yeah...If I had been preaching my first draft all these years, I would have been out of the ministry long ago. I mean, that's just a starting point.
DICK: I think that multiple processing of that helps a great deal. I think the other part is you're committed walking into the pulpit with a manuscript that's not pure prose, it's not a manuscript ready to go to press as a chapter, but what you've studied...you might want to comment on why you think that's so beneficial on the long run and maybe a habit men ought to develop from day one.
JOHN: There's a couple of things. What contributes to this reflective process is...read...I read myself clear. Okay? I read until it's clear. Read the Scripture until it's clear, read whatever commentary, whatever theology...I just keep reading and reading and reading until it's clear in my mind. And then I...in the manuscript...I write until I think it's logical. I really...I believe God is infinite logic, I think God is infinitely logical. He is the ultimate in reasonableness so that you have to come to the fact that this is not bits and pieces of spiritual stuff sort of hung at random out there, but that there is an absolute infinite, logical, reasonable genius, the likes of which can only exist in the mind of God, and that this thing should come out so reasonable, so clear because that's true...the mind of God, His mind is so perfectly ordered. And so I read and I study until it is clear in my mind, crystal clear. And then I write until I have been able to take that clarity and put it down.
So the rough draft for me is lots of bits and pieces that are forming that clarity in my mind. But if someone were to pick up that rough draft and I've stored them away, you know, just kept some of them, not all of them, somebody in the future might pick those up and wonder, you know, how the message ever came out clear. But if you were to pick up my final draft, you would see that it went from the bits and pieces of that struggle for clarity into writing it out clearly. And I'm not necessarily looking for words and I'm not trying to be prosaic, and look in a dictionary and find synonyms and long words and fancy words and clever words, I'm not trying to come to you in clever words of man's wisdom. What I want is to write that out crystal clear in terms of its sequential flow and I find that reading myself clear and then writing myself clear is an important process. And between those two things is that...is that reflectiveness, is sitting back and saying, "Now how do I...how do I work this into clarity?" And truthfully I, you know this because we do this, I can talk myself clear, I can talk out something and in that process clarify it in my mind, better than I can sit back and do it. And I can write it and clarify it better than if I just sit back cause I can't always recapture it. But if I write it...that's why I prepare with a pen. I...because I think through my writing.
DICK: Yeah.
JOHN: I clarify it.
DICK: I think it's significant to the outcome of what it is you're going to do. Let me...this might put you on the spot, it might not...but you're ready to launch in to Luke 5 when you get back to Luke...
JOHN: I've got to finish 4...yeah.
DICK: Take Luke 5:1 to 11 which is Jesus and Peter and Peter falls at his feet and says, "Depart from me," and so on and so forth. How would you approach that text? As you've come through Luke 1, 2, 3 and 4 and you're ready to do 5, just your basic approach to that.
JOHN: Well, in all honesty I haven't really gotten there yet because I have to finish 4. And I've been thinking about the...there are some things at the end of chapter 4 with regard to healing which are very, very important, and they are the first healings in the gospel of Luke. So I know that is coming and before I get in to Peter in chapter 5, "Depart from me for I'm a sinful man," and that's a great section, before I get to that I'm...I'm in the process right now of thinking through...how am I going to present to the people this matter of healing? I can't just say well here's a healing because to the reader this is the first healing ever did. If you're only reading the gospel of Luke, this is new. So just what I did with the demon passage, I have to expand on what I think is important to understand with regard to how Jesus dealt with demons and expand that whole thing and deal with it in contrast to what we're seeing today in quote/unquote deliverance ministries. So I'm going to have to...I'm going to have to get your book on When the Healing Doesn't Come and go through some of your cataloging and listing and read some other things and go back to some of my notes and some of the material I've written in the past, and frame up a context for the people to understand this healing in the broader picture of the gospel accounts and healings as it's revealed in the New Testament and throughout biblical history. So I'm really at the point now where I'm pulling back some of that material and trying to catalog that in my mind because not next Sunday, but maybe the Sunday after I'll get into that. So I'm sort of pre-thinking that. The passage in 5 is a rather simple narrative passage to deal with that illustrates a great point. And I kind of know where I'm going with that, it's only a matter of framing it up.
DICK: Let's talk about, a little bit, about moving from the...from the study part and the exegesis and filling your dump truck full of all kinds of info and ideas and theology and so forth. After you've done all that hard work that primarily is what our curriculum is all about, the exegesis classes, the theology classes, hermeneutics and so on, how do you pull it all together? I mean, you've got this mass of material, you're like every other preacher, he's not going to preach at all, he'd kill his audience if he tried to, how do you decide what you're going to put in and what you're going to leave out? What tact you're going to take? How you going to build interest in it? Still be true to the text?
JOHN: The first thing I do is create an outline, and that doesn't come till the very end. And I know once I've got an outline, then I've got some kind of a process that I can take people through. That is, to me, a practical thing. That's an application thing, in a sense, cause now I'm moving away from just the understanding of the text into manageable material. And before people can apply it, they have to be able to manage it mentally. So I create the outline. And then where I think there needs to be an illustration, a biblical illustration or whatever kind of illustration, I'll stick that in. Now I've got material that I think is ready to preach.
I don't exactly know even then how it's going to come out. And that's the adventure of it. And that's why typically I can't always preach a sermon. Like I prepared for Sunday, one sermon for the morning, one at night, I couldn't preach through either one. And that's because in the dynamic of preaching I do some of my best thinking, at least to me. It may not be the case to the people listening. But my mind...my mind is never more...never more alert and never better at processing information than when I'm preaching because it really is a desperate...you're running in a desperately acute level and my mind functions well at that point and so I'm saying things I didn't necessarily think of. They're in the flow of the process. They're in the progress of logic and it's pulling things that I never wrote in my notes, but I studied, there's a dynamic there. There's an adventure there that I never want to be a slave to what I've prepared. I...that's the work of the Holy Spirit. That's, you know, that's just that wonderful dynamic that happens in preaching. And since I don't believe that there's any necessary spiritual benefit in the homiletics, I'm not a slave to that. I do think the benefit comes in the truth and the clarification of the truth is the issue, whether you make it through the outline or not. So I just take what I have there. I know the well is much deeper. I've made some choices in what I've put down, but I sometimes leave something out that I can't get rid of when I start preaching. It comes back and I think it's necessary to achieve what I need to achieve at that moment. And I think a lot of that is I have to believe is prompted by how the Spirit of God is pulling that truth together and how my mind is assembling that information at the time I'm preaching.
DICK: Yeah, one of the things you men might want to do is go to the back of rediscovering expository preaching and there's a facsimile of a preaching manuscript from a message in 1 Timothy 6, "The Man of God," and get a copy of the tape. We suggested this to the preaching guys, get a copy of the tape from Grace to You and sit down and listen to the tape with the preaching manuscript in front of you and discover what he didn't preach that's in the manuscript and what he did that's not there just in terms of the dynamic, which I think putting it in manuscript form opens up a freedom to do that kind of thing, than if you walked in with a little 3x5 card or try to preach without notes at all, your mind is so cluttered.
JOHN: Well and I'm not that smart. You know, Spurgeon had a 3x5 card with like three lines on it and it's ridiculous to think of what he said coming out of his head, but it did. You know, he spent a couple of hours preparing a sermon, all week reading, and a couple of hours coming down with three little lines on a card.
DICK: Photographic memory helps.
JOHN: Yeah, and I don't have that. Plus, I also in the future, if you're going to exposit the Scripture, I want to write it out because, you know, if I write down two or three words about something, you know, I come back later, three years, I look back at those notes, what does that mean? It doesn't mean anything to me because I can't remember everything I said. So the more full that manuscript is, the more I'm able to retrieve that same information at a future time and if I'm interpreted it properly the first time, then I can put that away and use it again. Now in my life, preaching now when I do cross-referencing, I go back to my notes if I haven't written a commentary on it. If I have a commentary, I can always look at that. But I'll go back to my notes and see how I handled that. Sometimes I'll go to my notes before I go to a commentary because the notes are more condensed.
DICK: The question is often asked...I remember Keith Willhite who now teaches at Dallas, did his PhD dissertation at Purdue and it was a comparison of you and Chuck Swindoll and your style of preaching, both had been in your church about the same amount of time. You preached on Daniel at about the same time. The book of Galatians. And his conclusion was you were a texturally oriented preacher and Chuck was an audience-oriented preacher. So the question is...I know you don't totally ignore the audience...from your perspective, how important is audience-orientation, and maybe we define that by application? One of the students put it this way, do you preach in order to invoke a specific response from your hearers? And if so, how does this affect your preparation and delivery?
JOHN: More important than me ignoring the audience, is the audience ignoring me? So I want to be sure they don't ignore me. In all honesty, I don't really know...I don't really know that I take the audience into consideration at all in my preparation. By that I mean, I don't think to myself, now will they get this or do I need to simplify it? I learned through the years that if I get it, they tend to get it. I don't say, "Well such-and-such might be there and so-and-so might be there, so maybe I ought to say this or that, or not say this or not say that?" That never enters my mind.
DICK: So you're going to leave that over to the Spirit of God to apply it.
JOHN: Well my assumption is this is the Word of God for His people and my responsibility is to deliver it and God knows what His people need. And God has made it clear to them and the Spirit of God will take the Word and apply it to their lives. One of the reasons I don't say...Now, okay, now after this sermon here are five things I want you to do...is because those might not be the five things the Holy Spirit wants them to do. I don't need to do that. I don't need to tell you, "Okay, now we've talked about this, now here's what I want you to do. Go do this...go do this...go do this." What I want to do is change your thinking, I want to change the way you think about God, the way you think about Christ, the way you think about the Word of God, the way you think about your life, the way you think about everything. And as you think, you are, right? So I'm really just trying...I'm trying to change people's minds. I'm trying to fill people's minds with the truth and the truth then controls the way they behave. I don't need to come to them and say, "Now, do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that," I mean, there's a place for that in general. But you don't even find that in the epistles, any kind of specificity. You find general commands in the epistles of Paul as he writes to the churches to avoid immorality, or this or that, or that of the other thing. He doesn't...he doesn't become specific about things and all the instruction about marriage, you know, he doesn't say put a frozen teddy-bear in a love note in the freezer so your wife will go get the lasagna and get the frozen teddy bear and she'll come, you know, she'll remember you love her. I mean, you know that kind of stuff. That was in a book, by the way. But so...I don't...I'm only trying to....I'm only trying to bring the Word of God to bear on how people think...how they think about God, how they think about their lives, how they think about the truth and I think that has its own impact. So I...this is an interesting thing you ask me, because I...I preach here, I go to Italy, I go to Ukraine, I go to wherever I go, to Brazil, I go anywhere and everywhere, Grace to You goes anywhere and everywhere without regard to what's going on in the audience, we essentially get exactly the same response. And I have...I have not purposely tried to ignore the society around us, but the Word of God is itself sharper than any two-edged sword, right? It cuts and it cuts in a very penetrating way.
DICK: So two generic responses...you're always preaching for understanding and obedience without particular regard for a language group or couple...
JOHN: Yeah, that's a good way to say, preaching for understanding and obedience and the Word of God changes how people think and how they think then controls how they act. And then that manifests itself in the areas of life.
DICK: Let me ask..I think we've got time for one more question. When you came here in 1969 the people didn't have the appetite for the Word that they have today 32 years later or even 5 years after you were here. Any tips on how to...if I can put it this way...grow an appetite in a congregation that's not used to expository preaching without sort of jamming it down their throat and killing them in the first 6 months you're there and looking for a new pulpit because you've got a dead congregation?
JOHN: I would say do two things. Preach exposition that exalts Jesus Christ. Nobody will argue with that. So preach a gospel, preach Hebrews. Preach Colossians. Preach particularly the gospels because the text is narrative largely, it has drama, it has pathos, it has interests. That's...rather than going in there and say, doing a series on the church or a series on...you know, trying to change the church. Preach Christ, exalt Christ.
And secondly, preach material that is going to have a dramatic effect on their own spiritual lives. And if they see the power of the Word of God to change their lives, they'll be open to the power of the Word of God to change their church. So that's essentially what I try to do. I came and I preached the gospel of John, and that's just powerful material and Christ was being exalted all the time. You who have come here, you know I've been going through Luke. There isn't anybody, whether they're used to exposition or not, who is not compelled by...by Luke's gospel. It's just powerful stuff. And it's dramatic. And I think that's...that's, you know, exalting Christ is critical. It should be being done all the time anyway.
And then I think emphasizing the things that change people's lives before you go in and try to restructure the church. And I did that by getting into Ephesians and in Ephesians we were just talking about how we were, you know, once dead in trespasses and sin and how the Lord had changed our lives. And now we need to walk worthy. And we got in to all of that and we saw the Lord begin to change some lives. And then they were eager to have Him change their...the church. And it was after that I went in to the book of Acts and showed how the church ministered. And then I went in to 1 Corinthians to show what the church needed to be. And we got more refined in that area. So I would say exalt Jesus Christ, lift up Christ, lift up God. Preach the Psalms.
I went clear through, people don't know this here in the early years, I went clear through Psalm 76 after going through the Old Testament on Wednesday nights. And in those early years we filled this place on Wednesday just like we did on Sundays. So I used Wednesday to go through the kind of over-viewing the books of the Old Testament and then taking one Psalm. I did that through Psalm...I think...76 before starting to do different things on Wednesdays.
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subset: commoncrawl


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CONCORD — A fledgling New Hampshire program that gives businesses a tax credit for donating to scholarship organizations that send students to private or public schools is under assault on two fronts.
CONCORD — A fledgling New Hampshire program that gives businesses a tax credit for donating to scholarship organizations that send students to private or public schools is under assault on two fronts.
Three civil liberties groups sued this month to block the program as unconstitutional because students could attend religious schools, and now legislators are considering repealing it.
And the House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing Thursday on the bill to repeal the tax credit law, passed last summer by Republicans over a Democratic governor's veto. Under the law, the first scholarships cannot be used until the 2013-2014 school year.
The total amount of tax credits that could be issued the first year is $3.4 million, with $5.1 million the second year.
The law provides for increases in tax credits in subsequent years. The business donations would go to organizations created to provide scholarships of up to $2,500 to eligible students. The scholarship amount would be adjusted for inflation.
Students attending private schools, public schools outside the student's home district and students schooled at home would qualify for scholarships. Income limits are set on who qualifies to receive a scholarship.
Districts losing state aid above a certain threshold would receive additional money to partially offset the loss of funding when students leave their schools.
So far, only about $120,000 has been pledged toward scholarships for next school year, according to the Department of Revenue.
To date, the Network for Educational Opportunity is the only organization approved to award scholarships, and Executive Director Kate Baker said Tuesday she already has 260 applicants.
Baker said she has commitments from companies to contribute $500,000 to the program. Her goal is to raise $1 million and to have 1,000 applicants by June.
"People are looking for options for their families," she said.
Baker said 60 percent of the applications she has received are from poorer families whose children qualify for subsidized meals at school. The scholarship won't pay the entire tuition at some private schools but could make a difference in the family being able to send their children to the school, she said.
"I'm finding that families make incredible sacrifices for their children's education," she said.
Baker is confident the law will be upheld and eventually will win bipartisan support from lawmakers.
But House Education Chairwoman Mary Gile, a Concord Democrat and the repeal bill's prime sponsor, insists the program will hurt public schools by siphoning off money that could be used to improve them.
"Our primary responsibility as legislators is to ensure New Hampshire's children, our children, have access to the best system of public education we can provide," she said.
She said that if 100 Concord students were awarded scholarships and left the public school system, the city could lose several-hundred-thousand dollars in state aid, she said.
"What people don't realize is, if money is reduced, the fixed costs remain," she said. "The fiscal impact of this law is significant."
A hearing is scheduled on the lawsuit for April 26, said Barbara Keshen, staff attorney at the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union. She said the court has ordered that scholarship organizations be made aware they might not be able to distribute money to students, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.
"Any business that contributes under the law ... may have to pay their taxes in full to the state," she added.


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I am currently developing a project which is mission-critical. The actual domain name is registered with 1 & 1 and I plan on purchasing DynDNS Custom DNS service (which has 5 different geographical locations for DNS) and then another secondary DNS service to make sure my DNS is as failover safe as possible. Does it matter that the registration is with 1 & 1 - are they a weak link in the chain? All I really use them for is to say that DynDNS is my primary DNS nameserver and then my secondary DNS is my other nameserver.
I can transfer the registration to DynDNS - Im just not sure if it really matters or not.


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Psycadelik Thoughtz
Tighter Slim Fit T-Shirt
Beautiful Girl Gold Plated Necklace
Rivers Cuomo, Paul Iacono and B.o.B on the set of the "Magic" video shoot. It's coming! Get ready!!!
?We'll run away together~ We'll spend some time foever~??
??We'll never feel bad ANYMORE~~??HIP ? HIP ?
unn~PERFECT SITUATIoooooooN? hahaha........
im ready to see this video! I LOVE B.o.B!!!!!
I can't wait to see the video!


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GG Worst Unseen Dress: Connie Britton
It didn't even occur to me. Isn't that awful? It wasn't until Jessica Lange won for American Horror Story that I even thought to look for Connie Britton. I realized she'd probably be there and the show's a big deal and I sort of saw her out of the corner of my eye –
In a way, I wish I hadn't brought it up.
Look at what she wore! To the Golden Globe Awards! What is that? What was she thinking? It's sloppy, it's short, it's a print that evokes a housedress, as much as a glam night out…?
It has a scalloped hem, for the love of God!
Here's one theory: Britton's nobody's mom. You know? She plays moms, she gets cast that way, but that's not who she is in her personal life, at all. Maybe she got tired of looking mature? Maybe this is what she thought would make her the talk of the afterparties?
There's another part of this that makes me sad. Not even six months after we were weeping and rending our garments when Kyle Chandler won the Emmy for the most honest portrayal of a marriage, a romance, a partnership with Connie Britton – she's an afterthought.
Nobody thinks she's what revolutionized AHS. Nobody wanted to know who she was wearing. Is there a part of her that was a little bitter about it? Is there a part of her who thought she was going to give the establishment the finger?
Or that being on a worst-dressed list was better than no list at all?
Wenn, Frazer Harrison/Mark Davis/Getty


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|Oracle FAQ
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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> +++Need an urgent info+++
Dear Friends,
Good day. Hope doing well , sorry for OFF topic.
My Friend has got an offer with Oracle India at Hyderabad (as a support engineer in Indian support centre , Hyderabad, India ).
I need your suggestions , inputs and valuable thoughts for making a decision. What will be the work environment , benifits and so on......(probs and cons ).
Please share your thoughts, have 2 make an important decision in life.
Thanks a lot.
Oracle DBA.
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Wednesday night is superhero night on the CW, apparently. In addition to the return of "Arrow," there's the premiere of the network's latest show about good-looking young people with special powers, "The Tomorrow People."
The series is a remake of the beloved British children's science fiction series that originally aired from 1973 to 1979 with reboots in England in 1992 and 2001. This is the first American version of the series, about people "breaking out" with newfound superpowers.
"Vampire Diaries" co-creator Julie Plec and "Arrow" executive producer Greg Berlanti teamed with writer Phil Klemmer for the series, which happens to star "Arrow" star Stephen Amell's cousin, Robbie. (It's one big family at the CW, apparently.)
Klemmer took a few minutes to discuss the show and his views on superpowers.
Were you familiar with "The Tomorrow People's" long history when you first got involved?
I was not. I was really raised like an Amish child, so I missed a lot of pop culture until I left the home. So yeah, I just discovered it on YouTube. But Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec had been babysat by television when they were kids and both had fallen in love with the show. I got it secondhand and came to it as an adult.
Did you watch all the existing episodes?
I did sit down and watch it. It's not a normal adaptation where you just translate it because there is so much time – 40 years – has elapsed. And the original was intended for a much younger audience. And their version of sci-fi has an element of kitsch to it that I knew we wouldn't be able to maintain. So for me it was important to try to make a contemporary audience feel the way kids felt in the '70s, but age it up. The world has become a darker and more complicated place. I wanted to imbue the series with contemporary issues. The first toehold I got was, imagine a kid "breaking out." And your kid discovering he has paranormal powers, how that could be confused with mental illness or some sort of emotional or psychiatric trauma. A lot of people in adolescence feel like they might belong on some sort of spectrum. For me, to tell a story for adolescents and people who were once adolescents, that experience of feeling like you don't belong or feel weak, there's some silver lining that you actually belong to this other group. These things that you thought made you a freak, actually make you powerful.
This series has some similarities to the X-Men. How do you handle that similarity?
It was pretty easy for me because I wasn't raised on that. I wasn't weened on comic books. So for me, I was a naïve artist when it came to doing a story about young people with superpowers. For me, "Tomorrow People" has been a coming-of-age story first. When we talk about stories it's never about coming up with the sci-fi set piece and then overlaying the character story. It's always the opposite. The way we use powers is, it's an action show and it's very exciting, but it's all an allegory for adolescence. I think that's something that "X-Men" or another movie has been able to do because we get to spend so much time with our characters. We're like a superhero movie where you get to live in the first act for an entire season. For me, that's the best part. You get the powers, but you haven't mastered the powers. Because once a superhero gets too super, they get boring to me. The thing that television gets to do is slow down someone's journey and make it incremental. There are times when you're moving backward and you feel Stephen's frustration. And we open up this brave new world to him in the pilot, but it's scary and it's dark and it's overwhelming. And we get to live there for a long time. It will be a lot of years before he emerges as a fully formed hero. For me, that's more interesting than someone like Superman. I can't relate to Superman. I can relate to a troubled teenager.
Do you have a philosphy as far as when to use the powers in your story and when not to use the powers?
For me, the one thing I felt hadn't been done was digging deep into the evolutionary biology. I think there's so much freaky legitimate science out there that I think it's a hair's breadth away from being believable that people can communicate telepathically. And so everything that's done on our show, I at least wanted to give it the patina of reality. Anytime someone uses their powers, whether it's telekinesis or teleportation or telepathy, it always has the element of physicality to it. So distance matters, how far you teleport matters, the weight of the object you move matters. When you teleport, you emerge tired, as if you ran there. Also because Stephen's a teenager, he has these new powers, but they come out in weird ways. He's not able to control them. That's what imbues him with humanity.


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height and spring rates through a moveable spring perch or perches.
Coilovers are to your car's advantage by reducing unsprung mass,
increasing suspension travel, and allowing the car to be corner
Use spaces to separate tags. Use single quotes (') for phrases.


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I am using the Content Organiser to send uploaded files from a subsite DropOff folder to the root website.
The documents to be uploaded have a custom content type and who's parent is the Document Content Type.
My first issue is that when I browse and submit the file to be uploaded, the following dialog (where you fill in the other fields) has a height which is too small and a scrollbar appears with only two fields displayed in the visible area.
Is there a fix for this (I checked that no custom css was overriding sharepoint css)?
Secondly, there is a dropdown box (Content Type), whose default value is "Document" and I have to always select "MyCustomContentType" from the list and then fill in the fields.
Is there anyway to remove the "Document" option or default to "MyCustomContentType"?
Third - is there any way to remove/hide the toolbar? The option to "Check-In" the document is going to confuse users.
Screenshot below:


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My sister is reading a book called "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and she absolutely loves it. I'm not going to go crazy with the tutorial description because a member already submitted a lesson on this very popular book character named Greg Heffly. Supposedly the story is wicked funny, and there is actually a collection of Wimpy Kid books out on the market today. He is a plain looking pencil drawn character that appears to only have a few pieces of hair on his head. He walks around all day with a tee shirt, shorts, ankle socks, sneakers, and a backpack. I personally have not read the book, but my sister keeps telling me that the story line is funny enough for people of all ages to read. This lesson goes out to my sis, and I think you will like learning "how to draw Wimpy Kid, step by step". She is going to use this tutorial to write a book report on the character Greg Heffly, so I can't wait to see how that comes out. Gotta go again gang, but I will be back either today, or early tomorrow. Peace out people, and happy "wimpy" drawing!
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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Welcome to the e-CF
The European Norm (EN) 16234-1 European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) provides a reference of 40 competences as applied at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workplace, using a common language for competences, skills, knowledge and proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe.
Since 2016, the e-CF is an official European standard published as the EN 16234-1.
*** e-CF USER NETWORKING CONFERENCE ON 14 November 2019 in ROME ***
The e-CF fits for application by ICT service, user and supply organisations, multinationals and SME's, for ICT managers, HR departments and individuals, educational institutions including higher education and private certification providers, social partners, market analysts, policy makers and other organisations in public and private sectors.
e-CF in practice
How the e-CF can help you
The European e-Competence Framework provides a common language to describe the competences including skills and knowledge requirements of ICT professionals, professions and organisations at five proficiency levels, and is designed to meet the needs of individuals, businesses and other organisations in public and private sectors.
Internationally efficient ICT human resources development
The e-CF gives clear definitions and sound orientation to support decision-making in relation to the selection and recruitment of candidates, as well as the qualification, training and assessment of ICT professionals. It enables the identification of skills and competences that may be required to successfully perform duties and fulfill responsibilities related to the ICT workplace. The widespread adoption of the e-CF by companies and organisations throughout Europe has started to increase the transparency, mobility and efficiency of ICT sector related human resources.
Framework creation context and political support
The e-CF was developed through a process of collaboration between experts and stakeholders from many different countries under the umbrella of the CEN ICT Skills Workshop and is now maintained by the CEN Technical Committee (TC) 428 "ICT Professionalism and digital competences".
From a CEN workshop agreement to a European standard
Following consultation of CEN member states, the e-CF became a European standard and was published in 2016 officially as the European Norm (EN) 16234. Identical in its structure and content to the e-CF 3.0 CWA, the new EN format provides great opportunities for further dissemination and continued adoption of the framework Europe-wide.
The e-CF is a component of the European union's strategy for e-Skills in the 21st Century supported by the European Commission and The Council of Ministers. The Framework supports key policy objectives of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and benefits an ever growing user community from the EU and across the world.


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Ever seen a ghost? What about a town full of Swedish ghosts in the Rio Grande Valley?
After seeing a photo my neighbor posted online today, I uncovered a tradition and even deeper history of the Swedish influence on Texas. My neighbor is a native Texan whose great-grandfather emigrated to the United States from Sweden. Today, December 13, happens to be the Swedish Catholic holiday of St. Lucia Day. There are tradional foods such as Lussekatter, seen here, which are pastries made with saffron to sybolize the light of St. Lucia. She also referred me to an article written by her uncle, a former professor at UTPA about a town established by Swedes in the early 20th century near Lyford, Texas near the Rio Grande. Learn more about Stockholm, Texas which is now nothing more than a "historical marker and a dust-blown cemetary" in Dr. Vassberg's 2000 article. If you want to learn even more about the Swedes in Texas, visit this page on the Texas State Historic Association's site.


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This presentation illustrates key stages of a normal vaginal delivery.
Please keep in mind that every birth is unique, and your labor and delivery may be different.
Your body makes some amazing changes in the days and hours leading up to your baby's birth.
A day or two before labor begins, the mucus plug that sealed off your uterus detaches from the cervix and passes through your vagina. This discharge is sometimes called "bloody show" because it's tinged with blood.
Before labor begins or in the early stages of labor, your amniotic sac may rupture and you may feel fluid trickle or gush out of your vagina. If your "bag of waters" doesn't break on its own, your doctor may rupture it manually.
Explore your pain-relief options before you go into labor. Some women aim for a drug-free delivery and rely on various breathing techniques, massage, visualization, hypnosis, and other strategies to ease the pain of labor. Others prefer pain medication or regional anesthesia (such as an epidural, which numbs the lower half of your body).
Contractions happen when your uterine muscles involuntarily tighten and relax. When true labor begins, you feel contractions at regular intervals. As labor progresses, these contractions get longer, stronger, and closer together. During active labor, you may feel intense pain or pressure in your back or abdomen during each contraction. You may also feel the urge to push or bear down, though your doctor will ask you to wait until your cervix is completely dilated.
Contractions help your cervix dilate -- or open -- so your baby can pass through the birth canal. You're fully dilated when your cervical opening measures 10 centimeters. As the cervix opens, it also thins (effaces) in preparation for delivery.
When your cervix is fully dilated, your doctor gives you the OK to push. Propelled by your effort and the force of your contractions, the baby makes his way through the birth canal. The fontanels -- soft spots -- on his head allow it to mold to the shape of this narrow passage. Your baby's head "crowns" when the widest part of it is at the vaginal opening.
As soon as your baby's head emerges, the doctor suctions amniotic fluid, blood, and mucus from his nose and mouth. More contractions and pushing help deliver the baby's shoulders and body.
Unless your partner has requested the honor, the doctor clamps and cuts the umbilical cord and examines your newborn.
It's not over yet: After your baby is born, more contractions help you deliver the placenta, or "afterbirth."
We are physicians, hospitals and communities working together to help you live better.


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|Target and
|Target and
just download it..thanks for sharing d stories..yay will enjoy it later :)love Target pic sooo much..he's soooo ngensem :p
OMC !!!! You guys and your mom are so generous !!!!
Thank You Soooo Much !!!!
Happy hugs to you and Happy Halloween !!!!!!
Yyayayayay!! Just dowloaded it - thank you thank you thank you!!!
Take care
ooohhh... thank you ellen :)
happy halloween and a merry christmas to you!
just read it..like like like..nearly come to tears when i read on Boris reunited with his family..plus, must have d Katz Tales:Living Under the Velvet Paw for my next birthday..
Thank you so much. What a wonderful thing. Have a Happy Halloween.
pawhugs, Max, Bugsy, and Knuckles
I always love looking at all those sweet faces
thanks for the books
Wow, that's very cool, thank you! We've just downloaded it!
Thanks so much!!!
That is pretty exciting, thanks!!!
Oh wow - so generous! Thank you.
Thank you SO much! It is SO cool!
What a great share! We will look forward to reading it (although the Woman is putting it off, something about having work to do..)
That was very sweet of you to do!
What a wonderful gift=thank you so much!...Happy Halloween sweet friends and have a fun week ahead!...xoxo...Calle, Halle, Sukki
What FUN! I will download it for the Horde as soon as I get home...Thank you!
We will download it right now. Thank you!
Happy Halloween!
Thank you! I just downloaded it - I can't wait to check it out!
what a nice Meowoween prezzie! I hope you kitties get extra chiken & tuna meats today!
What a nice present! Thank you so much! :)
Thank you so much for the early Christmas present !!
My mom helped me to save it so she can read it for me :)
Happy Halloween !
wow! how cool! thanks so much!
This is a double present as now I have something for Mom to read to me for my birthday. I am purry happy for this PDF.
Thank you so very much, Meow!! Cant wait for mom to read it to us.
Gidget and Piper
Wow! We thank you very much! So nice of you. Our mom said to tell you thanks for visiting our blog and reading about President Hayes home.
Buster, Rudy, Sam and Cindy
Thanks, mom will love reading this, I'm sure! Sounds like a terrific tale!
Wishing you a Happy Halloween!
Au, Target & Guido,
Pawesome job guys. Y'all and your mom are so generous. A nice early Christmas present. We are going to download it pronto. purrr....meow!
oh my!! thank you so much. That is so generous! muacks!
~ Charlene ~
Thanks for the good reads. I know I'm going to enjoy this.
Have a good one, and be safe.
Wow, that is so nice of you to do. We are going to go download it right now. It sounds like some good stories. Hope all of you have a super day.
I am about to download the stories and will read them as soon as I have some free time. It was so nice of you to do this. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary
thanks a bunch. you guys are the best. best regards to ur mummy. kiss...kiss. btw baby buntal sends hsi regards to u guys
thanks so much for your generosity. hugs & kisses.
Oh thank you! I wonder if techno Mum can put it on her Kindle then read it to me? Of course, I've no idea what a Kindle is Hehe! Deccy x
We've tried to download a couple of times but had no luck ~ we haven't given up yet though. We'll let you know if we manage it.
Thank you anyway. xx
YAY! It just worked ~ dad did it for us. xx
Downloading! Thanks for the gift, looking forward to reading the adventures!
A readable cat treat!
Oh! Me came to thanks yous for your purrs and kind thoughts for us and our Daddy while he was in the hospital and me gets here and yous has stories for me!!! We is all doing the happy dance at our house cuz our Daddy is home!
Thanks yous! and Thanks Yous!
We will have to read as well! Thanks so much.
so generous, Ellen! I look forward to reading it!
Ellen, thank you so much for sharing these wonderful stories. Everything seems hectic at home after coming back from the trip to Angkor Wat. I'll be back soon in the Internet. Thanks again for giving me such a nice giveaway information.


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Fashion Drawing with Camp Fashionista
Learn to draw a fashion figure on the runway! Experiment with different mediums, and practice proper shading techniques so you're ready to draw your runway in perspective and design your own unique logo. Admire your friends' work and show off your own in a group round-up!
January 26th, 2019 ~ 9:00am to 1:00pm
For girl grades 4-5 ~ min 5/max 20
Fee: $55 per girl
*Please Note: Juniors will earn their Drawing Badge. Includes materials; Drawing Badge and fun patch.
Location: Camp Fashionista
Questions? Contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Events run rain or shine unless inclement weather would adversely affect a program. In those cases, participants will be notified of cancellation or
rescheduling. If GSNorCal cancels the event for any reason or cannot place participants in the event of their choice, GSNorCal will issue a refund for 100%
of the registration fee.
Cancellation and refund requests must be made in writing by emailing Member Services. No refunds will be issued for registration fees of less than $10 per individual. Thirty (30) days
written notice is required to receive 50% of registration fees of $10 or more per individual. There are no refunds if less than 30 days written notice is
given except for medical reasons. Refunds for medical reasons will only be processed if notification is made before the event and is followed within one
week by a written refund request accompanied by a note from a physician. No refunds will be issued for no-shows. The $25.00 Girl Scout membership fee and $15 council service fee are
© 2010 Girl Scouts of Northern California. All rights reserved. | Contact the Webmaster
Girl Scouts of Northern California Home Page | Event Registration Provided by Doubleknot Inc.


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At Econofoods our Meat department staff can season, stuff and marinate special cuts of beef, pork, poultry and more. And we'll package it just the way you like it.
In a hurry or need a new idea for dinner? Call or stop in at your preferred Econofoods location and we're sure to have something that will whet your appetite and please your palate.
Making purchases for your freezer? Let us know so we can wrap your meats specifically for freezer storage.
Econofoods proudly serves communities across the Heartland. You'll get fresh local produce and quality meat – PLUS a convenient pharmacy, a deli and a bakery and more. You can shop Econofoods in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Learn more about our proud tradition >>
©1997-2018 Econofoods is a SpartanNash Company, All Rights Reserved.
Use the search option below to locate a store near you.
107 Parent Street, Somerset, WI 54025


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Since 1908, we have focused solely on making laundry easier and more rewarding
We measure every aspect of what we do to make laundry better for everyone
We provide our customers with unsurpassed value and bring them laundry peace-of-mind
We lead our sector globally in R&D investment as we invent the future of laundry
We're a tightly networked global company opening a world of opportunity in laundry
Our people do laundry better than anyone and can help you confidently achieve laundry success
A spotlight on services, solutions and products hard at work in the background
We're committed to the highest standards in how we conduct ourselves and our business
Our laundry solution customers range from million-room hotel chains to boutique B&Bs
Specialist laundry solutions to promote health and hygiene in hospitals and care homes
Better laundry in under an hour for coin laundry customers. Better business for laundrette owners
Laundry solutions for apartment blocks, condos, dormitories and other multi-housing facilities
Military, fire, marine and other services requiring dependable, high volume laundry solutions
Quality laundry that makes a lasting impression for restaurants and food production
Wet cleaning solutions for fine fabric cleaning, and revitalizing delicate and luxury garments
Legendary Speed Queen commercial-quality washers and dryers deliver 25-years use in the home
If outsourced laundry is your business, then you'll find working with us makes you more productive
Premium fabric processing and care solutions for production lines and industrial applications
Comprehensive, cost-effective laundry solutions for facilities management
Expert laundry advice for architects, developers, builders, laundry managers and entrepreneurs
Everything you need to design or refurbish the most effective laundry facility to meet your objectives
Our 2,500+ member team, and distributor network, offer award-winning customer support in 140+ countries
In some regions, we offer quick-service laundry-focused financing and credit solutions
Contact us to learn who can quickly help you with parts, warranty, tech support and more
The proven performer in laundry
America's star commercial laundry performer that outshines and outlasts the competition. Available for home laundry too.
Maximum performance in laundry
The global heavyweight in high-volume commercial laundry. Serious about laundry, UniMac takes care of the toughest challenge.
Your smart laundry partner
With Huebsch you can build a performance laundromat that will please everyone who relies on it. Huebsch takes the stress out of running a business.
Get ahead in laundry
The European champion with the leading softmount solution, Primus innovates with purpose to deliver outstanding laundry results with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss.
Outside North America, IPSO is by your side bringing you great laundry results. IPSO offers everything essential to develop and maintain a high-performing laundry.
Our five brands offer laundry solutions in almost every market, for almost every need.
Everyone needs clean laundry. Providing people clean, modern laundry facilities offers many potential rewards
Whether you're replacing equipment or starting fresh, it's important to identify the right party to work with
Knowledge and insights from experts who understand every aspect of the laundry business
Here, we celebrate the achievements of people all over the world, who have built successful laundries
Laundries are like hotels — you get what you pay for. Our first-class commercial laundry solutions ensure fabrics look and feel better, and last longer.
Best of all, our custom hotel laundry solutions are as diverse as the hospitality industry. Whether a million-room chain operator or a boutique B&B, we have the answer to your needs:
with softer linen, fluffier towels, crisper sheets and perfect uniforms, curtains, mats... everything one demands!
knowing you've chosen a premium solution supported by the global leader.
with optimum capacity and throughput for your property. Networked traceability, monitoring and reporting.
with reduced labor and utility needs. Our focus on fabric care means your assets last longer.
with precision computer-controlled energy and water savings, plus less downtime. Our durable equipment delivers years of leading performance.
with replacement parts dispatched the same day in most markets and, and expert support and advice when you need it.
Please complete and send the form and we'll find someone to help.
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Planetary gear set of carrier, planet, and sun wheels with adjustable gear ratio and friction losses
Simscape / Driveline / Gears / Planetary Subcomponents
The Sun-Planet gear block represents a set of carrier, planet, and sun gear wheels. The planet is connected to and rotates with respect to the carrier. The planet and sun corotate with a fixed gear ratio that you specify and in the same direction with respect to the carrier. A sun-planet and a ring-planet gear are basic elements of a planetary gear set. For model details, see Sun-Planet Gear Model.
You can model the effects of heat flow and temperature change through an optional thermal conserving port. By default, the thermal port is hidden. To expose the thermal port, right-click the block in your model and, from the context menu, select Simscape > Block choices. Select a variant that includes a thermal port. Specify the associated thermal parameters for the component.
Sun-Planet imposes one kinematic and one geometric constraint on the three connected axes:
rCωC = rSωS + rPωP , rC = rP + rS .
The planet-sun gear ratio gPS = rP/rS = NP/NS. N is the number of teeth on each gear. In terms of this ratio, the key kinematic constraint is:
ωS = –gPSωP + (1 + gPS)ωC .
The three degrees of freedom reduce to two independent degrees of freedom. The gear pair is (1,2) = (S,P).
The planet-sun gear ratio gPS must be strictly greater than one.
The torque transfer is:
gPSτS + τP – τloss = 0 ,
with τloss = 0 in the ideal case.
In the nonideal case, . See Model Gears with Losses.
Gear inertia is assumed negligible.
Gears are treated as rigid components.
Coulomb friction slows down simulation. See Adjust Model Fidelity.
|Rotational conserving port representing the planet carrier
|Rotational conserving port representing the planet gear
|Rotational conserving port representing the sun gear
|Thermal conserving port for thermal modeling
Ratio gRS of the ring gear
wheel radius to the sun gear wheel radius. This gear ratio must be
strictly greater than 1. The default value is
Parameters for meshing losses vary with the block variant chosen—one with a thermal port for thermal modeling and one without it.
Viscous friction coefficient
μS for the sun-carrier
gear motion. The default is
From the drop-down list, choose units. The default is
newton-meters/(radians/second) (
Thermal energy required to change the component temperature
by a single degree. The greater the thermal mass, the more resistant
the component is to temperature change. The default value is
Component temperature at the start of simulation. The initial
temperature alters the component efficiency according to an efficiency
vector that you specify, affecting the starting meshing or friction
losses. The default value is
For optimal simulation performance, use the Meshing Losses > Friction model parameter default setting,
No meshing losses - Suitable
for HIL simulation.


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Rep. Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the Congress, has now joined his leader, House Speaker John Boehner, in calling for President Barack Obama's health reform law to be put on the table in the debate over how to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Until now , the two issues were pretty clear: Increased tax revenue from the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans in return for cutting entitlement programs.
Adding Obamacare to the mix is a classic negotiating tactic. When you are losing the negotiation, put another chip on the table.
Messrs. Cantor and Boehner are taking this route despite evidence from sources like the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that suggests Obamacare will actually reduce the deficit.
But If that is what the GOP leadership wants to do, then the Democrat leadership should follow suit and add a chip of their own.
Here is a suggestion for that chip. The U.S. is fast on its way to becoming the top oil and gas producer in the world. It is agreed by all that we should do all we can to be independent of foreign oil. So the Democrats could propose placing a high tariff on all exported oil and gas.
How do you think the Republican representatives and governors of oil producing states like Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and Pennsylvania would respond to that proposal? Not go so well, I suspect.
Democrats should say to the GOP: "Tell you what — you pull Obamacare off the table and we will pull this oil export proposal off the table. Happy now?"
Mel Mintz, Pikesville


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PORTSMOUTH — The Seacoast Repertory Theatre is proud to open its 26th season on the seacoast with Hair. This powerful rock musical is a social commentary of our times, providing insight into the philosophy of the flower children of the 1960s.
Directed by Portsmouth native Bryan Knowlton, Hair puts rock music and the culture that went with it on stage in a powerful story that bridges generations and viewpoints.
What looks like incredible chaos is actually organized chaos.
Phenomenal musical numbers include Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, I Believe in Love, Hair, I Got Life, What a Piece of Work Is Man and Hippie Life.
Knowlton landed his first role at the age of 12 as an understudy in's Hansel and Gretel and credits the Rep for his love of theater. He left New Hampshire in 2000 to study concert dance in Philadelphia. The next year he moved to New York City and has been there ever since.
He performed in the 1st National Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's "Oliver!" for two years; then starred as Paul in A Chorus Line on Broadway for two years.
Knowlton has had a very long history with A Chorus Line, including 1st National, Hawaii, Pittsburgh CLO, Marriott Chicago, and most recently at The Olney Theater where he received a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Leading Actor in Musical.
In 2008 he (and the ACL cast) appeared in the 100th episode of Dancing with The Stars. Knowlton also directed The Rep's 2013 season opener 'A Chorus Line' and choreographed Hair in 2001.
Hair runs from Friday, March 28 through Saturday, April 19. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
To purchase tickets call the box office at (603) 433-4472 or visit the box office at 125 Bow St.
Tickets also may be purchased online at www.seacoastrep.org.


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'We're All Ears' counseling receives TTCF grant
TRUCKEE, Calif. – Sierra Agape Center's "We're All Ears" program has received a $5,000 grant from the Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation to fund its peer counseling and support service to the community. They are pleased and grateful for the support which enables them to offer training and ongoing education for volunteers.
Sierra Agape Center's "We're All Ears," is a Listening Partners program based in the work of Mary Field Belenky. Her recent work in communities where oppression, silencing and marginalization have disempowered people for generations is chronicled in her book, "A Tradition that has No Name."
Sierra Agape's "We're All Ears" program is a free service for anyone seeking a non-judgmental listening ear. This program meets a growing need in the region for those who need supportive mentorship, counseling, linkage with other resources, and advocacy or support when attending medical appointments or court appearances. Listening Partners are volunteers who receive 30 hours of training in the art of listening, community resource linkage and advocacy and crisis intervention.
How to access We're All Ears
We're All Ears services are now available on a walk-in basis at The Food Resource Center at 11011 E St. in Truckee on Thursdays from noon until 3 p.m. Appointments are also available by calling 530-414-5832. Listening Partners are available to meet with clients either at this location or out in the community.
Are peer counselors under professional supervision?
We provide volunteers with weekly clinical supervision with a licensed MFT and will offer ongoing continuing education opportunities for volunteers.
What is the need for such a program?
Sierra Agape Center is aware of the growing need in the region for counseling, supportive mentorship and resource linkage and that the cost of insurance and private therapy is prohibitive for many. Only two agencies provide service at reduced rates, Sierra Mental Wellness in Tahoe City, which offers a sliding fee and Sierra Agape Center in Truckee which offers service on a donation basis. Many families and individuals are living on the edge, a situation they find terrifying and humiliating many respond by isolating and/or abusing substances.
Peer counseling programs like We're All Ears Listening Partners are vital adjuncts for county mental health professionals whose clients need interim support, and are becoming increasingly important for law enforcement who often encounter individuals in need of compassionate intervention and linkage with resources. Peer counseling is the future of mental well-being and a model program has been developed in this area.
For more information visit http://www.sierraagape.org.
About Sierra Agape Center
Sierra Agape Center was founded by Kimball C. Pier, LMFT in May of 2010 in response to a growing need for a welcoming place to find healing or navigate through the challenges of life. Their mission is to continually create accessible opportunities and services in response to the needs of the community in a way that does not define the problems of life as mental illness, but considers each person's potential and insight with a focus on the relationship between mind, body, soul and spirit. They offer holistic therapeutic services based in the Buddhist Paramita or tradition of Dana (pronounced dah-nah), which means to cultivate generosity. They believe services offered to clients on a donation basis empowers clients to decide what they can afford and how valuable they feel the service is to them.
In providing holistic therapeutic services and consultation in the Buddhist tradition of dana, Sierra Agape Center's vision is to contribute to changing the face of health care and wellness services so that services are accessible to anyone in need. Psychology has been practiced as a branch of Western or allopathic medicine for since its beginnings, however, much of what is defined as "illness" or "disease," can be approached with a much broader scope and re-defined in more holistic, and non-medicalized terms. Sierra Agape's approach to problems with life and relationships includes exploring all domains of a person's spiritual and physical life and then working with clients to enliven the body, soul and spirit with creative approaches including yoga and meditation. They believe people deserve to receive care in a non-threatening, non-judgmental and loving manner.


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