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The 2018 Toyota Corolla Review
2018 Toyota Corolla Overview : The 2018 Toyota Corolla Review
Reviews the 2018 Toyota Corolla where consumers can find detailed information on specs, fuel economy, transmission and safety. But if you've ever experienced an 2018 Toyota Corolla and with more than 13 million sold in the United States over its 41-plus-year history, chances are you have—you probably understand what we've been talking about all this time. Beyond its vaunted reputation for quality, and even beyond being consistently fun to drive, what has impressed us most about the Accord is how well it has always fulfilled its core mission: to be an affordable, spacious, and comfortable conveyance for people and stuff.
With versatile crossovers like 2018 Toyota Corolla now prevailing as the practical and rational choice, once-modest mid-size sedans can no longer afford to be wallflowers not even excellent ones like the 2018 Toyota Corolla.The previous 2018 Toyota Corolla upright greenhouse has given way to a fastback-like roofline, which combines with a pronounced crease just below the beltline to give the car a sinewy, athletic stance.
In typical fashion, the view out front is aided by a low cowl; rearward visibility, however, is somewhat compromised by the sharply raked rear window that narrows the driver's field of view compared with that afforded by the previous 2018 Toyota Corolla more traditional three-box shape. While we're most excited about the manuals, which are available only on Sport models, the majority of 2018 Toyota Corolla surely will be sold with automatic transmissions specifically.
The 2018 Toyota Corolla is a mature sports sedan, tranquil and composed when you want it to be but ready and willing to play when asked.
Here is main knowledge on 2018 toyota corolla. We have the excellent method for 2018 toyota corolla. Check it out for yourself! You can get The 2018 Toyota Corolla Review guide and see the latest 2018 Toyota Corolla Overview in here.
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Regional Management: Asia-Pacific
Samuel Lee
President, Equinix Asia-Pacific
Samuel Lee joined Equinix in 2000 and now serves as President of Equinix Asia-Pacific, overseeing the management, strategy and growth of the company's Asia Pacific operations. Previously, he served as the Managing Director of Equinix Hong Kong, where he successfully led the Equinix Hong Kong team in building a strong position for Equinix in the financial services industry in Hong Kong.
Mr. Lee brings a wealth of experience in telecom and Internet services as well as expertise in startup operations. Prior to joining Equinix, Mr. Lee served as Managing Director of Pacific Gateway Exchange (PGE), a provider of wholesale and retail long distance, Internet, and bandwidth services. He founded Telekom Consulting Ltd., a consulting firm offering strategic assistance to network providers in the deregulated telecommunications market in Hong Kong and Asia. He also held management positions at Teleglobe International, Intel, and Sprint.
Mr. Lee holds a B.A. from City University of Hong Kong.
Diarmid Massey
Senior Vice President of Sales, Equinix Asia-Pacific
Diarmid Massey joined Equinix in 2014 as the Vice President of Sales for Asia-Pacific, where he oversees the sales strategy, execution and further growth of the region. Previously, he was Head of Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific for Vodafone Carrier Services (VCS) where he was responsible for the integration of Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) and the Vodafone regional businesses.
Prior to his role at Vodafone, Mr. Massey was in charge of Cable and Wireless Worldwide's global wholesale and global carrier business units. During his five-year tenure, Mr. Massey enhanced the network integration of the business through vendor & partner acquisition, growing it to $1B in revenue. With management roles across best of breed companies in the technology segment, Mr. Massey's 30 years of experience spans sales and leadership experience across Asia-Pacific, and globally.
He is a recognized thought leader and keynote speaker.
Jeremy Deutsch
Managing Director, Equinix Australia
With over 14 years' experience in the ICT industry, Deutsch is responsible for the overall performance and expansion of Equinix's business and operations in Australia.
Deutsch was promoted from Sales Director in May 2014. In that role he was responsible for executive customer relationship development, leading the sales team to deliver customer wins and revenue growth. He also managed collaboration between teams and across regions to deliver Platform Equinix to customers.
Prior to Equinix, Deutsch was General Manager Products at Unwired, managing product strategy, alliance partnerships and user experience delivery.
Before that, Deutsch was a Solutions Architect and Product Manager at Pihana Pacific which was acquired by Equinix in 2002. Deutsch was responsible for supporting all aspects of the Pihana sales process and managing the product life cycle for existing and new products.
Deutsch holds a Bachelor of Economics and Information Systems from the University of New South Wales.
Kei Furuta
Managing Director, Equinix North Asia
Kei Furuta joined Equinix with a wealth of international consulting and management experience in Internet and Telecommunications industry, particularly with a specialization in marketing and developing global services, investment in high-tech ventures, and advisory for many industry service providers. As the managing director for Equinix North Asia, Mr. Furuta is responsible for the overall performance of Equinix's operation in North Asia.
Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Furuta held various executive positions in industry leading data center operators, an internet consulting firm and a mobile service provider. He also served as regional head at AboveNet and Sprint where he managed the operation in Japan and Korea. Mr. Furuta was also a founder of an engineering and consulting firm for energy-saving and environmental technologies.
Mr. Furuta started the first 15 years of his career at Marubeni Corporation, one of the leading Japanese trading houses where he held various management positions in global technology and telecom business development.
Mr. Furuta holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Waseda University, Tokyo.
Sainti Li
Managing Director, Equinix China
As the Managing Director for Equinix China, Sainti Li is responsible for the overall performance of China's business and operations, and demonstrating how Chinese companies can leverage their data center services in China for global expansion.
Li has more than 30 years of technical support, sales and marketing, product management, business development and general management experience in the information and communications technology industry. During this time, he worked for global companies such as IDT Telecom, AT&T, IBM, Fujitsu-ICL and Siemens Nixdorf.
Most recently Li was the director of Australia retail sales, where he was responsible for international voice calling products for the consumer segment and launched a new consumer product and distribution platform called Boss Revolution.
Prior to IDT, he spent over 15 years at AT&T Asia-Pacific and IBM China-Hong Kong, focused on global network and selling data center outsourcing services to global multinational companies.
Li holds a higher certificate in Electronics Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a certificate in Computers and Telecommunications from City & Guilds of London Institute. He is also a certified Novell Netware Engineer
Alex Tam
Managing Director, Equinix Hong Kong
With over 20 years experience in the ICT industry, Tam is responsible for the overall performance of the business and operations in Hong Kong.
Most recently Tam was General Manager of Data Centers at British Telecom (BT), where he was responsible for establishing the company's Hong Kong data center operation and developing the data center and IT outsourcing services strategy. He also aligned the Asia Pacific data center plan with the global business strategy.
Prior to BT, he was the Chief Executive Officer of iAdvantage Ltd, managing the data centre business in Hong Kong and China. At iAdvantage, Tam was in charge of strategic planning, business development, sales and marketing, technical operations and customer support. In addition he led the Internet infrastructure services of the SUNeVision Group, the mother company of iAdvantage.
Before that Tam held management positions at Hutchison Telecommunications and Hongkong Telecom, where he was responsible for the technical development and operations of the telecommunications, Internet and electronic commerce services.
Tam holds a M.Sc. degree in Global Business from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a B.Sc. degree in Engineering from The University of Hong Kong.

subset: commoncrawl


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Treating Back Pain in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex
Thousands of people, like you, consult the clinic each year from throughout Sussex. Our aim is to provide the best possible advice and chiropractic care to help you achieve the best possible health.
The clinic's chiropractors are spinal healthcare professionals who focus on the diagnosis and treatment of mechanical disorders of the joints and their effects on the nervous system. They are renowned for successfully treating back pain, chronic neck pain, migraines, and many common muscle and joint problems.
Our Hove based clinic has been treating families in the Brighton, Hove, and Sussex areas for more than 25 years, offering chiropractic care for all ages by our highly trained Doctors of Chiropractic. Back 2 Balance is one of the longest established, local clinics and pride ourselves on our friendly and professional atmosphere within beautiful surroundings and excellent quality of care.
In addition, Back 2 Balance chiropractors offer client's additional therapies such as medical acupuncture, massage, and exercise programmes in their treatment plans.
In recognition of our excellent clinic high standards, good practice and patient care and development, we were awarded the PPQM Award 2008 – 2010 by the Royal College of Chiropractors UK; the first Brighton & Hove Clinic to achieve such a prestigious Award locally. We won it for the second time (2011-2013). This year, we were again proud to receive the award for the continuing period running (2015-2017).
Free Health Talks
Come and visit our clinic and see why our highly trained Doctors of Chiropractic and helpful, friendly Clinic Assistants were given the PPQM Award (three times) – book in and hear about Chiropractic together with general health and wellbeing at one of our 'Free Health Talks' an audio visual presentation, given regularly, delivered by the Chiropractors.
Dates of our next talks are visible on our 'Health Class' page; please click here. Simply call 01273 206868 to reserve your place today.
Professional Registration
The clinic's Chiropractic Doctors are all registered with the General Chiropractic Council having qualified after 4-5 years of training. Chiropractors are now in the same position as medical doctors and dentists; they must be statutorily registered. They attend regular training courses and seminars throughout the year for patient and professional development.


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About the Author
Michael C. Daconta (email@example.com) is the Vice President of Advanced Technology at InCadence Strategic Solutions and the former Metadata Program Manager for the Homeland Security Department. His new book is entitled, The Great Cloud Migration: Your Roadmap to Cloud Computing, Big Data and Linked Data.
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PaaS is much more than big data platforms. At Acquia we have a large and growing PaaS offering; the platform in our case is Drupal-based web sites; we provide the platform (the LAMP stack and ancillary services) which is optimized for hosting Drupal based web sites. Our PaaS offering is built on Amazon's IaaS platform. PaaS offerings built on IaaS is an cloud model which will grow imo.
thought provoking but disagree -- http://bit.ly/GRh15A It is possible and necessary to innovate while refining definitions.
I mostly agree. While your assertion regarding Saas is often correct, Saas really only refers to something where the implementation is abstracted from the consumer - you don't know if the "service" is based on Iaas, Paas, or is just a plain old vanilla web-based implementation with a traditional architecture. It could be any of the above. Iaas's foundation is virtualization, but its the streamlined provisioning and management of the physical resources that separate it from generic virtualization. Without the streamlined management capabilities, it could not serve as the foundation for Paas, which provides the OS-like management and platform capabilities you refer to.
Great point Michael. And great to see the industry finally realizing that Big Data is not just about volume, but also velocity and variety...albeit 11 years after I originated the "3Vs" in a Gartner publication. For future reference, here's the piece: http://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/deja-vvvue-others-claiming-gartners-volume-velocity-variety-construct-for-big-data/
--Doug Laney, VP Research, Gartner, @doug_laney
I see this playing out similar to the evolution of the good old Internet and Web. There used to be debates over what was static and what was a dynamic web page. There were arguments over Java and Javascript.
The same is happening and will happen in cloud. There will be those who try to or will have to stick to rigid descriptions (sometimes out of necessity, e.g. government buyers can't just say we are using something that is not sort of etched in stone) of cloud computing, and others who will go with the flow.
Eventually, definitions will matter less, use cases the most. What do you think?
Imran Anwar
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2:00 pm
Curious George Swings Into Spring It's springtime! And a little monkey has a big case of spring fever. But serious lobby dogs like Hundley have no time for frolicking, especially when there's a spring cleaning prize to be won. Hundley's dreams are dashed when a burst pipe forces him to evacuate the building and join George in the country. D
3:00 pm
The Electric Company "A Whole New Francine" Francine decides to be a nicer person, but is it just a ploy to get invited into The Electric Company?. D
3:30 pm
WordGirl "Earth Day Girl/A Hero, A Thief, A Store and Its Owner" Earth Day Girl - When the Birthday Girl learns that the Earth is having a special celebration (on her birthday!) she decides to teach the Earth a lesson. Will WordGirl find a way to stop the Birthday Girl and save Earth Day? Vocabulary Words: Recycle, Excess. A Hero, A Thief, A Store and Its Owner - A police officer arrives at the Jewelry Store only to find Reginald, Chuck, Captain Huggy Face, and WordGirl encased in condiment cocoons. D
4:00 pm
Wild Kratts "Rainforest Stew" When Chris and Martin go in search of an obscure rainforest creature to add to their Life Lists, the Wild Kratts becomes embroiled in the complex relationships of a tropical rainforest. D
4:30 pm
Cyberchase "Inside Hacker" It's the CyberSquad's most ingenious plan ever - and most dangerous! If they can insert a new memory chip into Hacker's H-Drive, they can turn him from evil to good. Once he's been shrunk and is inside Hacker, Matt's mission goes like clockwork until a force field is activated and envelops the H-Drive. All seems lost until Digit remembers a robot that Dr Marbles made that can break through any force field. D
5:00 pm
Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman "Season Four Is Canceled" The first episode of Season 4 is an all-animated adventure! Ruff has just received some terrible news. he's been FIRED by the new Australian owner of the TV network, Harriet Hackensack (who just happens to hate dogs!) So Ruff embarks on an epic journey (in a cooking oil-powered aquatic doghouse shaped like a chicken) to get his job back! Along the way he enlists the help of his family and friends, including Uncle MacRuffmantosh, his brother Scruff, Grandma Ruffman, the dread ghost pirate Black Muzzle, nephew Glen, and, of course, his trusty Studio G sidekicks, Blossom and Chet. But can he complete his mission in time?. D
5:30 pm
Nightly Business Report Tonight on Nightly Business Report - Earnings and the economy. Sales of existing homes fall in March. Is a shortage of inventory creating a speed bump on the economy's road to recovery? And we'll talk to Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman about his company's weak earnings and what the numbers say about the health of the global economy. D
5:56 pm
NewsHour Promo NULL
6:00 pm
PBS NewsHour NULL
7:00 pm
Antiques Roadshow "Rapid City, Hour One" ANTIQUES ROADSHOW visits one of South Dakota's greatest treasures, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, to look at presidential prints. Some notable finds in Rapid City include a suite of furniture by Thomas Molesworth from the famous "Ranch A," and signed military documents of Elvis Presley, valued at $4,000-$5,500. D
8:00 pm
Market Warriors "Antiquing In Liberty, Nc" This week on MARKET WARRIORS, the pickers travel to Liberty, North Carolina, to the Liberty Antique Festival where twice a year, more than 400 dealers pack a farm with antiques and collectibles. The challenge to find a 20th-century American item puts one of the pickers up against the clock. One picker's decision not to budge from a bottom line price point is a game changer. D
9:00 pm
Globe Trekker "Around The World - Panamericana: Incas & Inquisitions" Trekker Brianna Barnes journeys to Peru, home of the legendary Incas, where she begins her trek in Cajamarca, where thousands of Incan soldiers were slaughtered by Pizarro's conquistadors. After visiting one of the world's largest gold mines, Brianna makes her way to Lima, once home to the Spanish Inquisition in South America. In Cusco, she learns about the golden Inca Empire before ending her journey on the volcano El Misti.G
10:00 pm
Independent Lens "The Island President" President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is a man with a bigger problem than any other world leader has ever faced - the literal survival of his island country and everyone in it. After bringing democracy to the Maldives, he must now ensure that his tiny country doesn't disappear under rising sea levels. That means capturing the attention of global superpowers, forging alliances, and persuading the skeptical.G
11:30 pm
Charlie Rose NULL


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Colorful Candy
Donna R. Moratelli 12/11/2001 1:12:42 PMCongratulations June, This is fabulous #2371
Beverly Joanne Hoover 3/17/2002 5:44:23 PMJune Marie,
June Marie Sobrito 3/18/2002 1:05:55 PMHi-Thanks for your kind comments. As far as I can remember I've always loved taking photos...it's the past year and 1/2 since I've owned digital cameras, that my skills have increased and it has become more a serious hobby for me.
Dan j. Hillis 3/19/2004 7:01:55 PMlooks very refreshing, nice shot! #435060
RC Fritz 8/9/2006 2:26:06 PMVery creative, June, Congrats!! #3144654
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Well, we'll open our Bibles now to the nineteenth chapter of Revelation and look again at the marriage of the Lamb...the marriage of the Lamb. What a great privilege it is to dig into the Word of God on the Lord's day. What a joy.
The greatest social event in the ancient biblical world was a wedding. In fact, it's probably the greatest social event in most of the world as it always has been. And it is that wedding imagery which Scripture uses to describe the joyous celebration that will occur when Jesus Christ is joined finally and fully to His beloved people.
The terminology is pretty clear. Let's start at verse 7 and read a few verses and just set the context for the message tonight. Verse 7 of Revelation 19, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, write, `Blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.'" And we'll stop at that point.
There is that magnificent marriage imagery which is designed to demonstrate the greatness of the celebration when the Lord is joined to His beloved people. In this imagery, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the groom and His beloved church is the bride. That will be a glorious day. That will be a wonderful day, a day like no other day when we are joined together with our Lord in the fullness of that eternal glory which He has planned for us.
Now I told you last time that repeatedly in the pages of the New Testament the Lord is depicted as a bridegroom. We saw it in Matthew 9:15. We saw even in Matthew 22:1 to 13 and 25:1 to 10 that in the parables there the king's son and the bridegroom is representative of the Lord. We saw John the Baptist referring to the Lord Jesus Christ as the bridegroom in John 3:29 and 30. And then we also noted that the Lord Jesus appears as a bridegroom in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2 and as a husband in Ephesians 5:23 down through 32.
There's no doubt then that at this wedding the One who is presented as the groom is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. That's very obvious because it is clearly in verse 7 stated, "This is the marriage of the Lamb." And then again in verse 9. The Lamb, as I noted for you, being used as a reference of Christ 30 times at least in the book of Revelation.
The question then comes...who is the bride? We noted the answer in 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians chapter 5 again is that the bride is first and foremost the church. So here in chapter 19 we have the Lord Jesus Christ being joined together in the consummation of the great marriage between Himself and His beloved church.
Now remember that chapter 19 begins with a series of heavenly hallelujahs. You find in verse 1, "Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God." You find again verse 3, "Hallelujah," verse 4, "Hallelujah," and then again in verse 6, "Hallelujah." And this time the "hallelujah" has to do with the marriage, the marriage of the Lamb and His bride has come.
I told you last time and I just briefly remind you that weddings in ancient biblical culture were divided into three components. There was a betrothal and a presentation and then a final ceremony. That might somewhat parallel the idea of an engagement and then some kind of a coming out or engagement party and then ultimately a wedding ceremony in our own culture.
Betrothal was done between two parents. It was a contract that they drew up between themselves, pledging their children to one another in marriage. And I noted for you that very often it was made before the children were ever born because it was more important for those days and those people to select a family than it was an individual. And so we can see the betrothal in the ancient marriage as being somewhat of an illustration of the Lord choosing His own bride before the foundation of the world. Before we were ever born He had already made a covenant with God the Father to take us as His bride.
The second part of a wedding was the presentation. That was the time when the betrothed bride was brought out into the public and presented to all of the publics that were related to her bridegroom and to the families of both parties. And we might suggest to you that that presentation would be for the church the Rapture, when the church is raptured, that is gathered up from the earth, joined with Christians who have already died who have received their glorified bodies and the raptured now triumphant church is taken into heaven and presented in its fullness to all of the heavenly hosts of angels and Old Testament saints as well.
Then when the Lord Jesus comes back at the end of the time of Tribulation to set up His Kingdom, the glorified resurrected exalted church comes back and is now presented to those on earth. And there is the glorious manifestation of the children of God made known, not only to heavenly beings but to those who are still alive on the earth who go into the Kingdom. So the presentation of the bride can take place from the Rapture to the return of Christ in the establishment of His Kingdom. First they're presented in heaven, then they're presented on earth.
And then the culminating thing is the final supper and the ceremony and the consummation of the marriage. We find that final marriage supper, I think, really played out in the millennial kingdom. It's when glorified saints and saints still alive on earth all come together, all recognizing the glorious bride of Christ, all joining in on the festivities and the celebration. And that's the final supper. You say, "It's a long one, isn't it? It lasts a thousand years." Yes, but a thousand years is as a day with the Lord. And the marriage is consummated into the new heavens and the new earth when the bridegroom takes the bride into her eternal home where she will dwell with Him forever.
That's the beautiful picture that is behind this text. Betrothal in eternity past. Presentation begins with the Rapture. The church is presented in heaven. The second coming presented on earth. The final supper through the Kingdom leading to the consummation and the bride goes into her eternal home in the new heaven and the new earth. This complete and final union then, this ceremony between Jesus Christ and His church is about to be accomplished here. The final great supper taking place in the Kingdom. And so we read in verse 7, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come." It's about to happen. It's on the edge, on the brink of occurring.
Then this statement we noted last time, "His bride has made herself ready." His bride has made herself ready. She is ready now. No sin, no impurity, she is a flawless, spotless, blameless virgin without blemish. She has been presented in a glorified condition before the throne. We might even suggest that there's another part of her being made ready. When the church is raptured do you know the first thing that happens after the church is taken up into glory? Well, you should know that, the Apostle Paul told us exactly what it is. It says that when the Lord Jesus comes and He takes us to be with Himself, listen to what's going to happen. "We must all appear before...what?...the judgment seat of Christ," 2 Corinthians 5:10. We're going to receive rewards for what we have one. The useless things will be burned up and all that will be left to judge will be those priceless valuable things. And the Lord will then reward His people.
Perhaps that reward constitutes part of the readying of the bride. As the wood, hay and stubble is burned up, according to 1 Corinthians 3, and the gold, silver and precious stones remained, the bride then becomes bedecked, as it were, in majestic beauty. Thus she is made ready be being purged. She is made ready by being rewarded. She is made ready by being cleansed of all iniquity. She is made ready by being made more beautiful because of her eternal reward. The bride has been glorified. The bride has been rewarded. The bride has made herself ready.
Now let's pick it up where we left off in verse 8, and here we see another feature of her readiness, other than the one I mentioned in the Bema Seat, rather the first one. "It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." And there, of course, is the purification. She puts on what was given to her by God. She puts on the garments of cleanliness. She puts on righteous acts.
Now listen, when we were saved we were clothed in righteousness. What kind of righteousness? Really the righteousness of Christ, right?, imputed to us. But now the glorified church has a righteousness all its own. It is not just a garment of righteousness put over her to cover her sin, it is righteous acts that characterize this bride. She is righteous not just on the outside, not just with a covering, but she is righteous through and through.
That is depicted in the fine linen, bright and clean. Now this is a...this is a marvelous concept here. It has the idea of holiness, purity, spotlessness. Such garments appear earlier in the book of Revelation. Go back to chapter 15 verse 6, this will help you a little bit. Here we meet the seven angels who come with the seven final judgments. And it says, "The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple...notice this...clothed in linen, clean and bright." There again we see this kind of garment on the angels. This kind of garment that marks out those who are not just covered with a holiness not their own but who are holy in themselves, these are the holy garments worn in that particular vision by heavenly angels.
Fine linen was the most expensive and the loveliest of cloth. The word "bright," lampron, means glistening, shining, radiant. "Clean," katharon, means just that. In fact, the same word appears in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, verses 18 and 21 and is translated "pure...pure." It also could have the idea because in verses 18 and 21 it says, "Pure gold like pure glass." Pure gold like transparent glass. So what...what is on the bride here is this expensive, magnificent, beautiful, fine linen radiant, shining, pure, transparent...it is a transparent kind of brilliance. It's a kind of glory, isn't it? It's a kind of Shekinah. And here we see the church made righteous, the church fully righteous.
By the way, would you look down at verse 14. "And the armies which are in heaven," that are the armies which are in Christ when He returns when He comes out of heaven on a white horse, "The armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses." In this vision we see Christ returning and as He returns, all the saints are with Him.
You say, "Is this talking about glorified saints?" Yes. "But don't angels wear those garments? Couldn't it be speaking about them as well?" Yes. But I think you see here primarily the picture of the saints. And he is building on the description back in verse 8 when he describes them the same way in verse 14. The bride then, all glorious and all radiant, returns with her bridegroom for her presentation on earth. She is glorious, radiant, magnificent, pure, and bright, the chaste virgin ready for the final ceremony. And her purity is the righteous acts of the saints. She will no longer have only an imputed righteousness and a partial righteousness, but an imparted perfection. At the Bema judgment, at the judgment seat of Christ, all the detracted from her glory, all the detracted from her beauty was burned up and only her magnificent beauty remains and her purity. And this is the glorious church made perfect. This is the glory that was promised in 1 John 3 when it said we will be like Him. The glory promised in Romans 8 when it said it doesn't yet appear what we'll be like but the glorious manifestation of the children of God will make it known.
Now all this marriage imagery is to center our attention on the final all-glorious union of Jesus Christ with His beloved church. And this is that for which we wait. This is what we live for. This is the great climax of our lives.
I was thinking to myself today, I'm sure our attendance will be low tonight, but it's so difficult for me to understand how anybody could be indifferent to the greatest event in all of redemptive history. The very reason why God chose you before the world began in the first place was to bring this event to pass. What kind of a spiritual commentary is it on us that we're indifferent to this? It's highly unlikely that if we were living in dire circumstances, if we were living in oppression, if we were living under some kind of tyranny, if we were grasping for every morsel of food and every hope for another breath that we wouldn't be ecstatic to hear of this kind of joy in the future, really. We have become satiated, glutted and satisfied with the world's fare and those things which are far beyond that, believe it or not, have little interest to us. That's sad. Can we say with the Apostle Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I've kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all those who have...what?...loved His appearing."
Do we love His appearing? Is that where our affection is? Or have we affection for many other passing things? And what about Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, "Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory." What would we say about a bride who had waited years and years and years and years for the coming of the bridegroom and was indifferent to it? Rather than having a heart ecstatic with hope.
This is the consummation of God's plan. This is the pinnacle. This is it. This is what we live for. This is what we die for. The day we wait for when we are joined with our beloved bridegroom.
Now the celebration then begins, of course, for us at the Rapture of the church, at the judgment seat when we are purified and rewarded. Then we come back to earth, then the glorious Kingdom goes on. But go over to chapter 21 for a moment, just to take you all the way to the consummation of God's plan. The whole thing really never is consummated until John says, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth." That means the Kingdom is over. The millennial earth is gone. The universe as we know it is gone. The restored, renewed earth is gone. And now there is a new heaven and a new earth. The old one has been destroyed. The elements have melted with fervent heat as Peter said. "And now there is a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away. There is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, `Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and He shall dwell among them and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be among them.'" That's the consummation. That's when all the bride is taken to the new heaven and the new earth to dwell forever with the bridegroom.
Go down to verse 9. "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the last plagues came and spoke with me saying, `Come here, I'll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God."
You say, "Well is the bride the church or is the bride the city?" The answer is yes. The bride is the church that occupies the city. It becomes the bridal city. But listen carefully to what I say to you. The bride is distinctively the church, but it is more than the church. At the end of the time of the Tribulation Daniel says that the Old Testament saints are going to be resurrected. They will be gathered together with the New Testament church. During the Tribulation, Tribulation saints will be gathered together into heaven, into glory. They too will be a part of that redeemed humanity that occupies the Kingdom, that glorified humanity. During the time of the millennial Kingdom, people on earth will believe, will be born again, will come to the knowledge of God. Many of them will be translated, transformed into that glorious band of glorified saints. All of those saints collected not only from the church but resurrected bodies from the Old Testament era, resurrected Tribulation saints, redeemed Kingdom saints are all going to make up the final form of the bride and occupy that glorious bridal city, the new Jerusalem.
So the picture expands. And I'll say more about that in a moment.
Let's look at verse 9 then. Verse 9, "And he said to me, `Write, blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.'" This is very important. This is beatitude number four. A beatitude is something that begins with blessed. This is beatitude number four. You remember the first beatitude in the book of Revelation? The first promise of blessing? "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things written in it for the time is near." The last beatitude comes in chapter 22 and verse 14, "Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gates into the city." This is beatitude number four. It is a book of blessing. It is a book of benedictions. This one says, "Blessed, or happy, joyous, satisfied, fulfilled," any of those words will suffice, "are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb."
Now stop right there. Who is that? Not the bride. Did you ever know a bride who got an invitation? You don't send an invitation to the bride, she doesn't need one, she sends invitations. Or the bridegroom sends invitations. Nobody sends an invitation to the bride, she's not an invited guest, she's the bride. Brides aren't invited to the wedding, so who is this? Who is this group who are those invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? Who are the guests?
Go with me back to Matthew. Matthew chapter 8...Matthew chapter 8 verse 5, "When Jesus entered Capernaum a Centurion came to Him entreating Him, or pleading with Him, and saying, `Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home suffering great pain.' And He said to him, `I will come and heal him.' But the Centurion answered and said, `Lord, I'm not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.'" Hmm, great faith. "For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me and I say to this one go and he goes, and another come and he comes and to my slave do this and he does it." He's saying, "I understand Your power, I understand Your authority."
"Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following Him, `Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness in the place...in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"
Now I just want to draw you to one thought here. Jesus identifies faith and says the Kingdom will be made up of the faithful. They'll come from east and west all over the world and they will recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven. And while I believe that that reclining and that Kingdom can be the spiritual Kingdom, I think also it has messianic reality attached to it. I think Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are going to be in the Kingdom, right? They're going to be glorified and they're going to come back for the Kingdom. They're going to be there. They're part of the invited guests. They're not the church, a part of redeemed Israel. There will be many others who are Jews, truly saved, proselytes to Judaism, Luke 13:28 says, "When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God," I believe Old Testament saints are going to be a part of that, all the prophets, all the faithful, all the priests, all the believers redeemed by grace through faith, Enoch and Noah, all of them are going to be raised, according to Daniel chapter 3, they're going to be raised, I believe at the coming of Jesus Christ to set up His Kingdom. All of the Hebrews 11 heroes that we referred to this morning, they're all going to be there in the Kingdom. They're going to be the invited guests. The greatest Old Testament prophet who ever lived, John the Baptist, he'll be there. He died, too, before the cross and before the resurrection.
John serves as a good model for us. He was never a part of the visible church of Jesus Christ. He belonged to and he died before the Holy Spirit inaugurated a new dispensation. That is why the great John the Baptist says in the third chapter of his gospel, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly." John the Baptist calls himself really the friend of the bridegroom, an invited guest. He's not part of the church. He's a guest. He's a friend who stands and rejoices in the favor of God on the couple that are being married. Matthew 11:11 speaking of John the Baptist, our Lord said, "Verily I say to you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Jesus said he's the greatest man that ever lived and yet he said he that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
The bride is something very special. The least of us who have been saved, the humble of us...the humblest of us who belong to the bride of Christ are something very special. Those Old Testament saints are not the bride, they are guests invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, special guests.
Now somebody is going to say, "Wait a minute here. Since..it's all of grace anyway, why should we be treated special?" I don't know...I don't know the answer to that except to say we shouldn't. "Why should the church be the bride and Israel just the guests?" Well ask another question. Why should Israel have been the covenant people in the first place and everybody else left out? I don't know. God designed it and He can do whatever He wants, He's God. But would you please remember this, we're only talking about imagery here. That's all. We're talking about imagery rather than reality in this sense, that the picture of a marriage is just a picture and the imagery of the bride is just a symbol of intimate union. And the point is simply that the Lord is going to take the church to Himself pure and holy and rewarded. And He's going to put on the greatest celebration the world has ever known. But Old Testament saints are going to be there, too. And they'll be in on the celebration just with everybody else. All the proselyte Gentiles, all the Jews who believed before the cross though technically they're not the bride anymore than we are Israel. And we each have unique roles in the Kingdom, Israel will rule in the Kingdom. The Apostles will sit on twelve thrones over the twelve tribes of Israel. The Jews will be exalted so that they will be bringing Gentiles to the seeing of the Messiah. In fact, the prophet said ten Gentiles will be hanging on the garment of every Jew. It's their Kingdom, it's the throne of David.,
And in the picture that is given in the Old Testament of the Kingdom, it looks like it belongs to Israel exclusively and in the picture that is given to the church in the New Testament, it looks like it's ours. And that's the way God would have it. It's just imagery. The reality is, we'll all be there and we'll all be enjoying the celebration. And yet there's a distinction and always has been between the church and Israel.
We have to include those who were saved in the Tribulation, Jews and Gentiles. All Israel will be saved, according to Romans 11, and of course an innumerable number of Gentiles according to Revelation 7 that can't be numbered. They have all died, they've all gone to glory. They'll all come back with the bride to earth. They'll all be here for the celebration of the Kingdom. They'll all go into the new heaven and the new earth. They'll all occupy the bridal city when it descends into the new heaven and the new earth, and therefore they'll all ultimately be encompassed in the same intimacy with the living God.
All the guests at a wedding enjoy the celebration. You've been to a wedding. You just go into the celebration after the wedding, however it's set up, and everybody is there, a variety of people, an assortment of people from different families and different locales and everybody lands with the same purpose and that is to celebrate. And people are looking around and saying, "Who's that...and who's she...and who's he...where did he come from...and I don't think we've met him, he's not in our church,
is he...I've never seen them before." But the celebration draws people from everywhere and so will this. And in the end they'll all be brought together in that eternal bridal city of the new Jerusalem.
Now certainly Israel looked forward to this feast. Let me take you to the Old Testament for a minute. Look at Isaiah chapter 25, I read you something from it this morning and as I was looking over Isaiah 25 I noticed that this really does look right at the time of the Kingdom and even the Marriage Supper. Look at this in verse 6, Isaiah 25:6, "And the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine. On this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time. The Lord God will wipe tears from all faces, remove the reproach of His people from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken and it will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain."
I believe you have a Kingdom glory and a Kingdom feast there. That is the anticipated joy of the people of Israel. Verse 1 of chapter 26, "In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. He sets up walls and ramparts for security. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the one that remains faithful, the steadfast of Mine Thou will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in Thee. Trust in the Lord forever for in God the Lord we have an everlasting rock. For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city, He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground. He casts it to dust, Babylon and everything with it. The foot will trample it, the feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless." There's the crushing of the end of man's day. And then magnificently in verse 7, "The way of the righteous is smooth."
Down in verse 19, "Your dead will live, their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust awake and shout for joy for your dew is as the dew of the dawn and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits." What's that? That's a...what?...that's a resurrection, it's the resurrection of Old Testament saints to be taken to the banquet, to be taken to the Kingdom celebration. The Old Testament believers will be there along with the New Testament church, the Tribulation saints will be there as well. We'll all join in that celebration.
Listen to what Jesus said, quite an interesting comment in the light of this. Luke 22:15, He was reclining at the table with His apostles and He said to them, "I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." I'm not going to be able to do this with you again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom. The Kingdom will be the next time we'll do this. Matthew 26:29, "I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's Kingdom."
What's He doing? He's promising to some pre-cross, pre-resurrection, pre-church believers that they're going to be in the Kingdom at the festival, at the feast, reclining at the table with Him.
So, let's go back to Revelation 19. When it says, "Blessed are those invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb," we would conclude then that this is something other than the bride. This includes Israel, this includes Gentile believers in the Old Testament, this includes Tribulation saints, both Jew and Gentile, everybody outside the church. The hope of a happy marriage for the church is the same as the hope of a kingdom for Israel.
You know, it's a..it's a sad thing when you think back into Israel's history, just briefly. Israel once was designated as the wife of Jehovah, weren't they? The nation Israel? Isaiah 54 verses 5 and 6, in that particular passage Israel is identified as Jehovah's wife. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 8, Isaiah chapter 50 verse 1, both of those passages talk about God being related to Israel as a husband to a wife.
It is dramatically illustrated, this relationship, in the prophet Hosea. Hosea was a remarkable man. He was told by God to be a living illustration. And so he was told by God to go marry a harlot named Gomer...which he did. I've always thought anybody who would marry a girl named Gomer was probably asking for trouble. But he married this harlot named Gomer because he was supposed to be a living illustration of what it was like being married to Israel. And he demonstrated by his relationship to her and the grief of it, how God felt about Israel.
But wonderfully, Hosea also came to a point in his life where in spite of all of her harlotries, all of her debauchery, she finally left him, prostituted herself to the degree that she was...he found her naked on a slave block being auctioned and he paid the price and bought her back. It's an incredible...and he treated her as a virgin and took her as his beloved wife. And God is saying in the end, through the book of Hosea, in the end I'm going to buy you back. In the end you...you're going to come back, I'm going to take you to myself. I'm going to make you My very own. I'm going to buy you, as it were, off the block in the slave market. And God will redeem Israel.
Listen to what He says at the end of the book of Hosea. Say...he says in verse 4, "I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will sprout. His beauty will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain and they will blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon." I'll bring him back. I'll bring back the nation Israel. I'll bring this unfaithful wife. I'll take her again as My own.
And so, I believe in the Kingdom you have the bride and the bridegroom, the church...the Lord and His church. But you also, if you want to steal Old Testament imagery and throw it into the future, you have the Lord recovering Israel and folding Israel into the bridal people.
The church is different than Israel. The church is never a harlot like Israel. But the Lord will restore His people Israel. What tremendous grace. What tremendous grace.
So the church functions then as the bride during the presentation in heaven, presentation on earth, the church is enlarged to encompass the glorified saints of the past, reaches the earth and then encompasses all those who are saved during the time of the Millennium. That period of time is the Marriage Supper. The final event is when the new heaven and the new earth are created. The marriage is consummated, all the redeemed are folded into the bride. They all become residents in the bridal city, the new Jerusalem. He descends and becomes the capital city of the new heaven and the new earth.
It's wonderful to see the grace of God in the case of Israel. And lest you think that the new Jerusalem as a bridal city is only...is only remotely related to Israel, lest you think that this bride, this bridal city coming down out of heaven is only slightly related to Israel, listen to the description of it. "It had a great and a high wall with twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels, and the names were written on them which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones and on them were the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb."
It's not only incidentally related to Israel, it's very graphically and dominantly related to Israel. We are the bride of Christ but in that final city where we dwell, that bridal city, a restored wife, Israel, will be brought back, folded into the bride and all God's people will be gathered into the glory of that eternal consummation.
So, Israel forfeited rights but will be guests and ultimately to be included in the bridal people. Whatever distinctions are made in Scripture, all believers of all ages eventually will enjoy the fullness of the celebration and the glories of eternity. Lots of rabbinic literature has in it invitations of the rabbis to the messianic age which is a blissful time of feasting, none other really than the glorious Kingdom. So they'll be there at the Supper, at the feast, at the festival when God's gathering of His people takes place.
One writer puts it this way, "Whatever distinctions may exist between the saints of the pre-Abrahamic period, the saints in Israel before Christ, the saints among the Gentiles from Abraham to Christ, the saints of the Tribulation and the saints in the church from Christ to the Rapture, such distinctions are secondary to the great primary truth that all will be there by virtue of the saving work of Christ and their personal trust in the true creator God and in His provision of salvation."
There is only one God and that one triune God will be in personal fellowship forever with all the redeemed saints of all the ages. He will dwell with them in the holy city forever. The blessedness of the great union and the feast accompanying it is so great and so important that it is emphasized again to John that these sayings are true. We find that in the very next verse, let's look at it...the very next statement rather in verse 9, "And he said to me these are the true words of God."
Why does he say that? Because it seems so amazing, so almost impossible that God was going to do this in the end, gather all these people together. Remember now, John is on the isle of Patmos. I'll never forget as long as I live, being there last summer. Some of you were with me. All had gone so badly, so tragically in his own life from a human standpoint. The church was being slaughtered and crushed. And yet while it seemed as if God was being defeated, this tremendous message comes that God in the end is going to gather all His saints from the beginning of His redemptive plan to the very end of it. And these are the true words of God.
Who said that? Who said that? Well the angel, the angel said it. The angel who's been talking to John through this. These are the true words of God. He said to me, just like he said to me, "Write, blessed are those invited to the Marriage Supper." If you follow the "hes" you'll go all the way back to verse 1, the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying...and you keep going back to chapter 18 and you keep going back to chapter 17 and you come to verse 1. "And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me." It was an angel. Angelic affirmation...the angel is saying believe what I've said, these are the true words of God, this is going to happen. And John believed. He believed that angel.
And then he did a most amazing thing in verse 10. "I fell at his feet to worship him." Ha...that's not a good thing to do. But he succumbed to the temptation in this vision. He was overwhelmed. I mean, he was just astounded. He was staggered. He was blown away at the words of truth from the holy angel that God was going to collect all His redeemed from all the ages and there would be a Kingdom, there really would be a Kingdom. There would be a marriage. There would be a supper. All that the Jews and all who followed their ministry of the Word had hoped for would come to pass. And when he heard it, he was in awe. He was overwhelmed. He yielded to the temptation of the moment and he just fell down, it says, at the feet of this angel to worship him.
You know, this isn't the only time he did this. Revelation 22 verse 8, "I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things." Now, you know, John is a very responsive guy. In both cases he just kind of collapses in a heap and he said to me, "Do not do that, I'm a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." Get up, John. He was so overwhelmed that he just collapsed in worship.
Well now go back to the text that we're reading in chapter 19 and that's precisely what we read here. "And he said to me...same thing...Do not do that. I'm a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus, worship God." Get up, John. John yielded to the temptation to worship angels. That's wrong. That's evil, in appropriate.
Colossians 2:18, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize," that is defrauding you of your eternal reward, "by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels." If you worship angels, you're going to forfeit your reward. God's going to chasten you by taking away your reward. We are not to worship angels.
Now when I say that I know what people are going to say. Somebody is going to run over there to Numbers 22, "The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord...verse 31...standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand and he bowed all the way to the ground." You say, "Well now wait a minute, there's old Balaam and he's bowed down to that angel." That's not worship, my friend, that's fear. That angel has what in his hand? A sword. That's healthy respect. It doesn't say anything about worship.
Somebody else is going to say, "Well what about Joshua chapter 5 because in Joshua chapter 5 verse 13, he lifted up his eyes, Joshua did, by Jericho and behold a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, `Are you for us or for our adversaries?' And he said, `No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, `What has my Lord to say to his servant?'" That is not worship. Again that is...what?...fear, that is respect. "And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, `Take your sandals off, you're standing in a holy place.'"
Well what about Judges chapter 13, don't we have an incident there in Judges chapter 13 and verse 20? "Manoah," the father of Samson, "came about," verse 20, "when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. Now the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah or his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord." You say, "Manoah bowed down, fell on his face to the ground before the angel of the Lord?" Yes, but the angel of the Lord was none other than whom? Well verse 22, "Manoah said to his wife, `We'll surely die, we have seen God.'" We've seen God.
No, there was no worship of angels by those individuals on those occasions in the Old Testament, there was healthy respect. And there was worship when the angel of the Lord was none other than God made visible. God, no doubt, in a pre-incarnate appearance.
In Acts chapter 10 verse 25, "It came about that Peter entered. Cornelius met him, fell at his feet and worshiped him." Here's Cornelius trying to worship Peter. Peter raised him up saying, "Stand up, I am just a man."
I wish some of those gurus would take a clue from Peter. Acts 14, "The multitude saw what Paul had done..verse 11...raised their voice saying in the Lycaonian language, `The gods have become like men and come down to us.' And they started calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker." They were so upset verse 14 says they tore their robes and rushed into the crowd and said, "Men, why are you doing these things, we are also men of the same nature as you?"
There's no place for that. No place for worshiping any other than God, and not a man. No matter how noble a man, if it's Paul or Peter, no place for that. Only God is to be worshiped.
You say, "What about Daniel chapter 2?" That one comes to mind, I didn't think of it earlier. Verse 46, "King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel and gave orders to present to him an offering in fragrant incense." Was Nebuchadnezzar worshiping Daniel? No. Because listen to what he said in the next verse. "The king said to Daniel, `Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries." He was bowing down before Daniel but his worship was directed at God.
And so we go back now to the text of Revelation 19 and we can support around the Bible that it is always inappropriate to worship angels. The Roman Catholic Church talks a lot about the veneration of angels, they try to define veneration in some rather innocuous terms but it readily slips over into worship. There's no room for worshiping angels. In response to John's inappropriate worship, the angel gives him a strong rebuke. And the angel said to me...verse 10, "Do not do that." Which being interpreted means, "Stop. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren," same thing the angel said over in chapter 22 verses 8 and 9. I'm just a sundoulos, I'm just like you, I'm a servant. In fact, like you I'm a servant...that's fellow servant, but my service is to serve you. So don't worship me because I'm just like you, a fellow servant of God. And even more than that, I'm below you because I've been sent to serve you.
Particularly what does he mean, "I'm a fellow servant of yours and your brethren"? Those who preach, prophets, apostles, preachers. Hebrews 1:14 says, and what a tremendous, tremendous promise it is that angels, couldn't say it any clearer, are ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. They're servants of believers, particularly apostles and prophets and preachers and teachers.
And then follow this, as we wrap it up. "I'm a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus." What's that? The testimony about Jesus. What is that? The gospel. I'm just a fellow servant of God whose service is to aid the preachers of the gospel. Boy, that's encouraging to me. He serves the Lord just like John only he serves the Lord by serving John. Don't worship me. Worship God.
And that, by the way, beloved, is the theme of all redemptive history. Worship God. What are we going to do when we're all gathered into the bridal city and the bridal city descends? We're probably going to be held captive in that bridal city while the new heaven and the new earth are being recreated. And then we'll descend into that new heaven and the new earth. And then what are we going to do forever and ever and ever and ever? Worship God. We are saved to worship God. In fact, John 4, the Father seeks true worshipers, that's why He redeemed us to make us worshipers. That purpose stretches from Genesis to Revelation.
And then one last word from the angel and what a word it is. He says, "I'm a fellow servant of yours, I'm sent by God to serve those who preach the gospel, you worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Boy, that's a great statement.
What does it mean? The spirit of prophecy, or the heart of prophecy, prophecy means preaching, proclaiming, speaking forth. Literally it means to stand before and speak. The very heart and the very soul, the very spirit, the very breath of all preaching is the testimony of Jesus. And the angel says, "I am sent to help preachers and apostles and prophets and testimony and witness to Jesus because that is the soul of all preaching."
If the preacher isn't preaching the gospel, he's not going to have angelic support. He's not going to have heavenly affirmation. What a promise it is that all preachers who are loyal to the gospel and preach Jesus, all preachers who are faithful to the testimony about Jesus which is the saving gospel are going to be enabled by the angels to fulfill their calling because the testimony of Jesus is at the very heart of preaching. And God wants to make sure that that message gets across and He sends His angels to help. Tremendous truth.
So, the hosts of heaven say their hallelujahs...hallelujah because salvation and glory and power have come. Hallelujah because smoke of man's world rises forever and ever. Hallelujah because God, verse 4, sovereignly sits on the throne and rules everything. Hallelujah, verse 6, the Lord our God reigns. Hallelujah, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb has come.
That's such glorious news John is overwhelmed. We should be. Don't worship the one who brought the news...the one who brought the news is one who's only a fellow servant, who helps preachers preach the gospel because that's the heart of all proclamation. Great truth.
Don't be left out of this event. Don't be left out. Don't be like the man who tried to crash the wedding in Matthew 22 but didn't have the garment. Don't be like the five virgins who really wanted to be a part but they didn't have the oil. The great event is coming, don't be left out. The garment is the garment of righteousness. The oil is preparedness, readiness which can only be granted through faith in Jesus Christ.
Father, we thank You for our wonderful evening in Your Word. We have touched, as it were, so lightly on these truths. So much more could be said, should be said and perhaps in God's wonderful grace will be said to our hearts and minds in days ahead to give us even a richer and more fulfilling understanding of this tremendous, tremendous coming event. We thank You, Lord, for what You have prepared for them that love You. We thank You that eye has not seen and ear has not heard, neither could it enter in to the heart of man the things that You've prepared for those that love You. We can't even imagine what this day is going to be like. But we long for it. Cause us, like Paul, to love Your appearing more than we love anything else and then to live in the light of it, having such a hope, says John, purifies us. Thank You, Father, for again opening Your truth. Thank You for the help of the preacher by Your Spirit and perhaps even occasionally by Your angels. And may we be faithful to worship You now and through all eternity in a way that pleases You, in Christ's name. Amen.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's tosses off some sensationally funny stuff before descending into a rat-a-tat rhythm of random insult and ritual vulgarity.
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What's shocking this time is how tame Sacha Baron Cohen's newest wild man is, for all the kerfuffle the comedian can stir up on the promotional trail.
After laughing at crudely funny scenes in The Dictator, there's a cringing sensation of guilt.
Cohen employs a comic range that ricochets between wicked political barbs and the lowest anatomical farce, to often funny and occasionally hilarious effect.
See all The Dictator reviews at Metacritic.com
Iffy for 16+
More envelope-pushing humor from Borat comedian.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy The Dictator is extremely crass, politically incorrect, ridiculous, silly -- and quite funny. If you have a thick skin, you can't help but laugh at Cohen, who this time doesn't mine the humor found in punking unsuspecting people but instead gets guffaws by playing an extremely over-the-top dictator with campy relish. Expect tons of swearing (including "f--k" and derivations thereof, as well as many derogatory/racist terms) and sexual jokes/references, as well as topless women and a brief flash of full-frontal male nudity. As always, Baron Cohen doesn't shy away from stereotype-based humor that's likely to offend; instead, he embraces it.
Messages: Believe it or not, there is a bit of a life lesson amid The Dictator's crude content, rampant stereotyping, and all-around wackiness -- basically, that you shouldn't write anyone off entirely, because in rare cases, there may be hope for even the people who seem the most extreme.
Role models: Zoey is kind and passionate about human rights and the environment. She's a curious love interest for a dictator, that's for sure, but she certainly has that proverbial heart of gold. Aladeen himself, on the other hand, is offensive, sexist, selfish, violent, and arrogant -- though he's also clearly intended to be a larger-than-life parody. And there's a ton of stereotyping/humor designed to mock specific groups; it's all intended for laughs, but it's guaranteed to offend some viewers.
Violence: Cartoonish violence with lots of talk (and gestures) about killing people, but no gore. Some scenes involve assassinations and include references to genocide. Aladeen brandishes weapons, and there's a scene in which instruments of torture are discussed at length for their effectiveness. Aladeen is ruthless and quick to order the death of those who have failed him, but not all of his orders are carried out.
Sex: Aladeen is randy, and so is The Dictator. One scene shows brief full-frontal male nudity; women are also shown topless, and scenes depict masturbation. Lots of references to/suggestions of one-night stands and various sex acts. An early scene shows Aladeen having sex with a famous actress in a prostitution-like exchange; she's very skimpily dressed.
Language: Language includes frequent use of words including "s--t," "p---y," "f--k," "c--k," "d--k," and "a--hole," as well as tons of derogatory/racist terms.
Consumerism: Lamborghini, Exxon, BP, Rolex, Polaroid, and a few other brands/labels are name-dropped or shown.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: People drink champagne and other cocktails and liquor at parties. Some smoking shown.
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It's movie time...First of all, I found this incredible video of a robot solving a Rubik's cube. This method certainly beats taking off the stickers..or taking the cube apart to solve it. :)
At my company we videotape our robot systems performing customized applications. Here are my favorites:
> Check out this dual system of Panasonic PerformArc 350: robots:Welding. There is a certain grace to this workcell.
> This ABB IRB 340 Flexpicker robot reminds me of a spider.
> This gripper video is mesmerizing.
> Finally, this robot is a neat stacker. Robots are making inroads when it comes to palletizing.


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Internationally acclaimed pianist Peter Donohoe returns to Malvern to perform the opening concert of the Yamaha International Piano recital programme at Malvern Theatres on September 18th.
Widely regarded as one of the world's finest concert pianists, Peter Donohoe is a favourite of previous Malvern Festivals and is said to be delighted to be returning to the area to open the first of four concerts in this new Yamaha International Piano Series.
Peter's programme is an exciting prospect for any discerning music lover and includes six of Bach's preludes and fugues, Beethoven's late piano sonata Op.110, and Donohoe's own towering interpretation of Liszt's monumental B minor Sonata.
Malvern Theatres marketing director Fred Moroni comments, "We're delighted that Peter has agreed to open the series for us - it'll be a real treat for classical music fans. We're very grateful to Yamaha for their support and look forward to a partnership that will bring the very best pianists here for years to come."
This inaugural concert will also provide a rare opportunity for the audience to hear Oliver Messiaen's Cantejodyaya in this, the 100th anniversary year of the composer's birth.
The series of recitals is a first for both Yamaha and Malvern and also includes three more concerts featuring John Lill (October 30th ), Noriko Ogawa (February 27th 2009) and Nikolai Demidenko (April 3rd 2009).
Yamaha's Mike Ketley comments, "We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering Malvern Theatres in this new Piano concert programme. Yamaha pianos are becoming an increasingly popular feature on the world's concert platforms and this series allows us to present some of the world's finest pianists in an idyllic setting whilst reinforcing the quality and musicality of our concert instruments."
For more information, full programme details and ticket prices please visit http://www.malvern-theatres.co.uk or call the box office on 01684 892277.


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Caridi makes seven stops, Kupres and Hillier combine for five points
College Park, Md. -- In its first NCAA Tournament game, the No. 10/9 Stony Brook women's lacrosse team played sparkling defense and put Towson away late for for an 8-6 win Friday night at the Maryland Lacrosse and Field Hockey Complex.
Frankie Caridi made seven stops, while Amber Kupres netted a hat trick and Janine Hillier tallied two goals and one assist as Stony Brook won its 12th-straight game and improved to 17-2 on the season.
Demmianne Cook added two goals, three draw controls and five ground balls, and Claire Petersen dished out three helpers.
Kelsea Donnelly stopped eight shots for Towson (10-9).
Coach's Reaction
"I'm tremendously happy for our program. It's a big deal to win a game in the NCAAs, it's a big deal to be in the NCAAs. I'm proud of our kids and the way they played in the second half. Towson is a great team and very well coached. To get a win in the NCAA Tournament is a big deal, and we are excited about the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country."
--Head Coach Joe Spallina
Turning Point
The two squads engaged in a defensive battle in the first half, yielding just two goals apiece.
In the second stanza, Cook netted an unassisted goal less than four minutes into the frame to give Stony Brook the lead, 3-2. Kupres followed with a goal on a feed from Hillier as the Seawolves went up 4-2 with 23:29 to play.
Jackie LaMonica closed the gap to one with a tally from Ashleigh Rohrback, but Hillier and Michelle Rubino scored the next two, both unassisted, to put Stony Brook up three, 6-3, at 15:38.
Towson hung around as Sarah Maloof got a shot by Caridi with 13:56 remaining. Two minutes later, Hillier pushed the lead back to three on a free position shot.
Petersen found Kupres on the doorstep at 8:13, and the sophomore midfielder scored to give the Seawolves a four-goal advantage, 8-4.
Ashley Waldron scored the final two goals of the game for Towson, but the Seawolves defense remained solid to ice the team's first-ever NCAA win.
By the Numbers
- Stony Brook's speedy midfielders Kupres, Rubino and Cook helped the Seawolves go 16-for-17 on the clear.
- SBU held a 22-15 advantage on ground balls. Caridi and Cook picked up five apiece.
- The Seawolves outshot the Tigers, 21-18.
- The is the fewest goals Stony Brook has scored in a win, besting its previous mark of nine against Albany on March 30.
News and Notes
- Cook now has 88 goals on the season and 156 during her remarkable career. Her longtime teammate, Petersen, pushed her career assist total to 104 and season assist number to 45, the second-most all-time in SBU single-season history.
- Hillier has 49 goals this season, which moves her into third all-time on Stony Brook's single-season ledger. She tallied 47 last season.
- This is the 15th time this season the Seawolves have held an opponent to single-digits in scoring.
- Stony Brook is the third America East team to win an NCAA Tournament game. Albany was the last team to capture a win (2011), while Boston University has picked up two victories.
- The four goals the two teams tallied in the first half is the fourth-fewest in a half during a first or second round game in NCAA history. Dartmouth and Princeton combined for four goals in the first half in the 2004 Quarterfinals, and UMass and Yale posted four total scores in the 2nd half of a 1984 first-round contest.
Up Next
Stony Brook will face top-seeded, No. 1/1 Maryland Sunday at noon in College Park, Md. The Seawolves fell to Maryland in a close, 8-3, decision March 17th. They have not lost since.


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The big, old, white house with the boards on the windows and the trash in the yard remains a landmark.
The Hudson place. Neighbors still call it that even though the Hudsons haven't lived there since the murders.
"Did you know them?" I asked the man who stood on the sidewalk Tuesday morning gazing at the littered empty lot next door. Before he could answer, a loud pop cracked the air. We both twitched.
"What was that?" he said. His eyes darted toward the alley.
Another pop. It sounded like a gunshot. He relaxed.
"Firecracker," he said.
Yeah, he knew the Hudsons. But when he added that he'd been asked to testify about Jennifer's brother in the trial that began earlier this month, I quickly told him I didn't want to compromise a witness. He gave me his name anyway, without my asking, then walked off, only to call out a minute later from a nearby porch.
He walked back to the Hudson place. Another loud pop.
"I hope I'm not going to look up and see my name in the newspaper."
He flashed a hard look that seemed to add: Don't mess with this.
The streets in this part of Englewood have Ivy League names. Princeton. Harvard. Jennifer Hudson's family lived on Yale.
That's where her mother and brother were shot to death in October 2008, a few days before her 7-year-old nephew was found dead in an SUV on the West Side. Prosecutors say her sister's jealous ex-husband, William Balfour, did it.
The testimony that began Monday is happening in a different piece of Chicago. A few miles north, in the safety of a courthouse, reporters from all over hang on the comings, goings and stylings of Jennifer Hudson, the famous member of the family.
Here in Jennifer's old neighborhood, where discarded plastic bottles and junk-food bags are almost as thick as the weeds, where it's hard to tell the frequent firecrackers from the common gunshots, there is no safety or high style.
On Tuesday, down at the corner of Yale and 71st Street, a red car pulled up to the curb. Two men peered inside and walked away carrying small plastic bags, past Linda's Daycare, where the sign out front promised "hot meals," "foreign language" and "computer," along with a "safe" and "bright" environment. All the blinds were drawn.
The men disappeared into a gangway. One reappeared a while later.
"Don't nobody mess with that house," he said, looking over at the Hudson place.
Right after the murders, he said, thieves stole whatever they could from inside, but that was before the boards went up and the "No Trespassing" signs took on moral force.
"That house like sacred ground," he said.
I asked the man if he knew anything about Jennifer's brother, Jason.
Three and a half years ago, when I visited the Hudson place, when the teddy bears and balloons outside were still as fresh as the grief, some of Jason's friends had come by to mourn him. They recalled him as a master griller, and as a tough basketball player, before he got shot and had to walk with a cane.
They said he mostly kept out of trouble, which in this neighborhood can mean little more than staying out of prison and staying alive. Now William Balfour's attorneys are suggesting that his big-time drug dealing led to the murders.
The man just shook his head, shaking away the questions.
"You probably never been in this lifestyle," he said, amiably enough. "There certain things people just don't talk about."
Across the street, cater-cornered from the Hudson place, Kamarion Omari, 17, was sitting on his mom's car, skipping school.
"I was up all night, thinking about life," he said. "About my brother and what I wants to see in life, what I'm going to do with myself."
Two months ago, his brother was shot to death, at the age of 14, in their apartment by one of his autistic teenage brothers, in what police say appears to have been an accident.
Jennifer Hudson came by afterward, he said.
"She gave my mama some gifts."
The TV trucks came for his brother's death, too, just like they'd come on Monday to film the Hudson place for a story on the trial.
Now he was sitting in the sun, thinking about how he might get off this block, out of this lifestyle, like Jennifer Hudson did.
"Standing out here'll get you killed or in jail," he said. "I ain't with that."
Jennifer Hudson is one of the lucky ones. She escaped a fate that to many people in many Chicago neighborhoods feels inescapable. But even she couldn't avoid the harm.


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PARK CITY, Utah — The million-dollar question at the Sundance Film Festival, home of low-budget stories shot on begged and borrowed cash, is this: What would you do if you had $1 billion to make your movie?
The Associated Press put the question to filmmakers and stars at Sundance, Robert Redford's independent-cinema showcase that opened Jan. 19 and runs through Sunday.
The query was inspired by the Sundance premiere "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie," in which directors and stars Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim play filmmakers who squander the biggest movie budget ever and decide to rehabilitate a derelict shopping mall to pay back their menacing creditors.
Here's what some of the Sundance crowd had to say about the notion of a billion-dollar movie:
— Sean Penn, star of director Paolo Sorrentino's road-trip tale "This Must Be the Place":
"This is the first time I've ever been asked to conceive of that. Yeah, I could. Is somebody offering? ...
"I don't know. If I made a film for a billion dollars in Haiti, there'd be a billion dollars' worth of jobs that it would create and training that would create an expressive medium. But let's be very clear that we are reaching."
— Rory Kennedy, director of "Ethel," a documentary about her mom, Ethel Kennedy, widow of U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy:
"A billion dollars is a little excessive. Although in today's marketplace, the truth is that you need a lot of money to make a film, and then you need a lot of money to get the film out into the world. Particularly for documentaries that are up against so many of the big films and kind of the mass-media marketplace. It's really hard to break through. So if I had that money to use on making a movie, I might spread it out to kind of lift all the documentaries up a little bit and help market them all, because I'm such a fan of documentaries."
— Rodrigo Cortes, director of the paranormal thriller "Red Lights," starring Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and Cillian Murphy:
"A film that didn't need it, it would be a terrible idea. I mean, the right budget is what you need in order to obey the needs of your film. It's not about having a lot or just a bunch of dollars. When I did 'Buried,' I felt rich, because I had everything I needed in order to make the film moving and fascinating. That's what happened in this case, and if I had a billion-dollar movie, I better have the right story to tell with that. Sometimes, when you oversize things, you're doing the wrong thing. You spoil everything."
— Edward James Olmos, executive producer and co-star of the hip-hop drama "Filly Brown":
"I would make 1,000 million-dollar movies. That's what I would do. That's 1,000 stories."
— Rapper Ice-T, director of the documentary "Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap":
"I'd probably make a cheap $50,000 movie, and while everybody was waiting on the movie to be completed, I'd be someplace in Brazil getting my face lifted. ... You can't give me that much money and then think I'd need success. At that point, that was the win. If somehow, someone managed to hand me a billion dollars, I'd be on 'America's Most Wanted.' They'd be looking for my ass."
— Lauren Greenfield, director of "The Queen of Versailles," a documentary about David and Jackie Siegel, whose attempt to build the biggest home in America went sour when the recession hit:
"This film was an independent film. It was done by hook or by crook. Every trip was like, should we go, should we not go? It was a real sweat-equity kind of movie, and I feel it looks like a million bucks on the screen. ... But I'm not sure that more money necessarily makes a better product. I've certainly made commercials that are bigger budgets, that don't kind of take the dollar as far. And so, in a way, it's the same lesson as the movie.
— Neil Young, star, and Jonathan Demme, director of the concert film "Neil Young Journeys," which played at the rival Slamdance Film Festival:
Young: "You could make a movie about where the billion dollars went. A billion dollars is not enough, actually. We need more. That would be too low of a budget to really do a good job on that one. You need the Apple fortune. You need $76 billion to do that movie. That's how we feel about it. Jonathan and I could do that movie for $76 billion. The Apple fortune. We could make our movie about how to spend the Apple fortune to make the world better."
— Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, writers, directors and stars of "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie":
Heidecker: "Wow. I think we'd give most of it to charity. That's probably the right thing to do. Because there's nothing you could do with a billion that you can't do with a million."
Wareheim, speaking after Heidecker whispers instructions to give an altruistic answer: "If Tim and I got a billion dollars, we'd donate 99 percent to charity."
Wareheim, speaking after Heidecker is asked to cover his ears: "I would take that money and move down to Cabo, drink some Gran tequila, get on a jet ski, get a bunch of women, a whole harem, and have a blast of a life."
AP Entertainment Writers Ryan Pearson and Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.