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If you'll take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we'll look at verse 10 as a starting point. We have just begun - for our visitor's sake we'll say this – we've just begun a study in 1 Corinthians the last couple of weeks having finished the book of Acts after 104 messages and no telling how long we're going to be in 1 Corinthians. That doesn't really matter anyway. It's all God's truth. We're having a great time. But this will be message number 3 and we're at verse 10.
We'll take verses 10 through 17 as a unit and this section could easily be titled "Splits and Quarrels in the Church". And that makes it a very practical passage, because that's just about what all of us can relate to. I wouldn't do it, because I couldn't stand the pain. But, if I were to ask all of you who ever been in a church where there was a split or a quarrel, probably 75 percent of you'd raise your hands. That's just part of what tragically occurs in the church. And it occurred from the very beginning in the church. It's really no different today. It just seems to be magnified because of the abundance of different local assemblies that exist, but it's a common problem and it's one that needs to be dealt with.
And apparently the apostle Paul felt that it was the primary problem in Corinth, because that's how he begins his exhortations. The first 9 verses of Chapter 1, he states the identity of the Corinthians in Christ. It's positional truth. He identifies them as those that are saints, those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, those who have been granted all of the benefits of sainthood and he thanks God in Chapter 1, 1 to 9 not for what the Corinthians have done, but for what God has done in them. And having stated their position, he begins then in Chapter 1, verse 10 to beseech them to behave in accordance with their position. "That's who you are, now I beseech you."
And from 10 all the way to the end of the book it's exhortation to alter their behavior. There really is nothing to thank them for. They haven't done anything thank worthy. It is only something to thank God for and he has done that and now he begins to try to change their behavior. And the first thing that he deals with is this whole idea of unity in the church. Now let me back up a little bit and just try to get a running start on the concept.
I think we all would agree, who understand the Scripture, that people are basically self-centered and that's part of depravity – selfish - dominated by their own egos, their own fancies, their own goals, their own ideals. All of us - I mean even those of us who are sanctified in Christ and set apart to justification still have problems with sin. And at the very heart of sin is the capital I, ego. And so when you get to the church, you have a lot of sinners in the church. They happened to be justified sinners, but they're sinners as yet and so you have conflict because you have people with desires and goals and purposes and ideals that are generated by their own ego.
In James, for example, I think we get as apt an explanation of this as anywhere in Scripture in Chapter 4, verse 1. "From where come wars and fightings among you?" Why do you quarrel and ultimately, why is there war? "Come they not even of your lusts that war in your members." It is because that within you there are strong desires and those strong desires run in opposition to the strong desires of other people. You lust or you have a strong desire for and you don't have. So you kill. And then you desire to have and you can't obtain, so you fight and make war. And he goes on to say what you really ought to do is ask God who will give it to you if you ask properly.
But the point that James is making is that the reason there is war and the reason there is quarreling and the reason there is fighting is because all of us have selfish, independent desires. Quarrels are a part of life. We grow up understanding them. We're competitive. We're even taught to be competitive. Little children fight from the very beginning of their lives. You take a baby's bottle away, you get two little babies together and they're fighting over the bottle. The kids fight over the toys. They go to school and they fight over the games and the playground. They go to high school and they fight over the girls or the boys or the football. They go to college and they fight over the campus policies. They grow up and they fight over their business dealings. Then they become politicians and fight over policies of a government. Married people fight over whatever. And governments fight over land and economics. And that's war.
And James says it's because you have strong desires. And those strong desires are generated by yourself. You see, man because he is depraved, is selfish and egoistic. And that problem finds its way into the church and so we have fights in the church. Tragically, though they are forbidden by God, though they are totally out of character for transformed people, though they are in absolute opposition to everything our Lord prayed for and intended for His church, still they exist. And Satan eats it up, because it fosters his attempt to break down and destroy and degrade the testimony of the church.
And I couldn't even begin to recite to you all of the stories of conflict and trouble and fights and feuds that I hear constantly from other sources in other churches. Selfishness is a problem in the body of Christ, because sin is a problem. And of course, the fractured kind of fellowship not only wipes out the joy of the believer, but it sucks the foundation from out from under the testimony of the church. God is dishonored. Christ is disgraced. Christians are discredited. And it isn't anything new. You're going to go all the way back to the beginning and you're going to find it there, because the church has always been made up sinners and Satan's always been active in it.
And so the problem as we come to Chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians is this problem, disharmony and division in the church. There were splits. That's the word division in verse 10. And you'll notice in verse 11 the word contention. That is the word in the Greek that means quarrels. There were splits and quarrels in the church. And Paul begins his 16 chapters of exhortation by starting with this issue. And you know, that gives me some idea of how important this is to God, because from 1:10 to the ninth verse of the sixteenth Chapter, he just talks about the errors in the church. And some of them are really gross. For example, in the first section from 1:10 to 4:21, it's errors regarding division. From 5:1 to 6:20 errors regarding immorality. From 7:1 to the end of the chapter errors regarding marriage. From Chapter 8 to the first verse of Chapter 11, errors regarding Christian liberty. From Chapter 11, verse 2 to the end of the chapter, errors regarding the Lord's Table. Chapter 12-14, errors regarding spiritual gifts. Chapter 15, errors regarding the resurrection. Chapter 16, errors regarding money. Now of all of those errors: immorality, marriage, Christian liberty, the Lord's Table, spiritual gifts, resurrection, and money, the one that he puts at the very beginning - and those seem like bad enough areas to goof up in - the number one area is the area of unity in the church. That's the concern, because therein lies the credibility of our testimony and therein lies the joy of our ministry together.
Paul begins with this. Our Lord prayed to the Father in John 17 that the church would be one. He told the disciples to love one another that the world might know who they were. And a loving caring community of believers has a tremendous and profound impact on the world. In fact, it tells us in Acts Chapter 2, that when those people had singleness of heart and one mind and met together daily and shared in common love they had favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
So Corinth's first need was harmony, unity in the church, and I see that as our first need in the modern church today and the first need here. Paul then begins this Epistle, really, in its exhortation aspect by calling for unity in the church and the end of all splits and all quarrels. And I'm not going to be able in the time we have this morning to cover everything. I wish we had time for a question and answer period, but if there's anything that's unanswered in what I say in any particular dimension that you can't quite resolve in your mind, you pursue the study further in the word of God. You've got the same textbook I have and the same resident truth teacher. So if you really want the answer to the question, pursue it further than I'm able to this morning. And then if you get some answers that I didn't give, come and share them with me because maybe I didn't figure them out either.
All right, there are four basic emphases in the passage from 10 to 17. We'll use them as hooks to hang your thoughts on. The plea, the parties, the principle and the priority. All right, point number is the plea and Paul begins with a plea to the Corinthians. Verse 10, "Now I beseech you," the word now is a transition. It's just getting him from the previous thought to this one and "I beseech you." Beseech is really a word that comes from parakaleō, which is the word that is the verb form of paraklētos, which is paraclete, translated comforter in the gospel of John. It means to come along side and help. It's translated advocate other places. And what he's doing here is coming alongside them. It's not a coming down with a club. He's saying, "Now, I come along side to encourage you brethren along this line."
And in Philemon there's a very interesting passage, verse 8 and 9 in that little one chapter letter of Philemon where Paul says, "I could really come down on you hard, Philemon. I could lower the old legalistic club and you know, sort of beat in your spiritual brains with this thing, but rather than that I am going to beseech you." And that was always the character of Paul, because law demands and love and grace beseeches. And so here he comes along and he even uses the word brethren, which in itself is a sermon because it moderates the harshness of the rebuke and it also reminds them that if they are brothers, they certainly ought to act in a brotherly fashion.
So he begins with a very coercive, a very comforting, a very exhortative kind of thing. "Now I beseech you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing. That there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Now there is the appeal that he begins in the passage and I want to just pull out one thought. It's amazing, of course, how some people study the Bible in disconnection. They pull a verse out of its context and use it almost as a pretext. Well, that is really in violation. Everything ties together. So to be fair with verse 10, we've got to read verse 9. "God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." God sovereignly calls us to identify in the fellowship of Jesus Christ. The word fellowship talks about common life and that becomes the premise on which Paul makes his exhortation to unity. If we were called by God into one fellowship with Christ, then we ought to be one, right? In practice. That's the point. All right, what is he saying then? He's saying first of all, that "I am beseeching you on the basis of" - watch this - "the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Really important. "By our Lord Jesus Christ," the great and primary reason, people, for behavior in the church. For anything that is called on the Christian to do, it is the fact that this is what the Lord Jesus Christ desires.
Whenever you see the term "name" in relation to the Lord or to God, it means all that He is and all that He wills. When it says to pray in the name of Christ in John, it simply means pray consistent with who Christ is and what He wills. And so as we've said to you before when I pray in the name of Jesus, it doesn't mean I ask whatever I want and say, "In Jesus' name. Amen," and that guarantees it. It means that I say, "This I pray, because this I believe is what Christ would want, because this is consistent with His will as I understand it."
And here he's saying, "Brethren, I'm asking you this for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of who He is and what He wills." Listen, your behavior as a church, your behavior as a believer has its most direct relationship not to me and not to the elders and not the church as such, but to Jesus Christ Himself. Or your life reflects more on Him than on anybody else. And you can go around and bellyache all you want about the church and it really won't reflect on your church. It'll reflect on Christ. Some of us talk about the church in front of unbelievers and we run down the certain things that we may not like and we do it in front of unbelievers and we think that that has reference to the church, when in fact, in their minds that has reference to the Christ whom we really claim to love and adore. For the sake of Christ, speak the same things. It reflects on Him. Everything you do in your life gets back to Him. That's the reason for everything. You know, I'll give you an illustration of it.
In Acts Chapter 20 where Paul calls from Ephesus to Miletus, the Ephesian elders, and he bids them that farewell and he says to them, "Look," - he says - "feed the flock of God over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, giving you the oversight. The flock which He has purchased with His own blood." In other words, he says to those guys, "Look, if you ever lose your perspective, remember those people are precious. They were purchased with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ." That's how high they are in His estimation. That's their value. Now, you take care of commensurate with how He values them.
Now your Christian life reflects on Jesus Christ. You take care of it in that relationship. And your church, people, - this church, this local assembly right here reflects on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul calls for unity because he knows it reflects on Him. Now let me hasten to add this. The emphasis in this passage is on a local assembly. When I'm talking about unity here and when Paul is talking about it, he is not referring to unity in a mystical sense. The broad unity of the church. He is not talking about denominational unity. He is not talking about that we ought to be one with the Baptist Church over here or the Presbyterian Church over here or whatever else. He is simply saying that within the framework of a local assembly there should be unity.
This is what he's getting at. There are other passages that deal with a broader base of unity such as the book of Ephesians. But here we are looking at a local assembly in Corinth and he is demanding of them a unity. And the message is directly related to those of us who are a part of this local assembly. Now, let's look and see how he begins the plea. That you all speak the same thing. Now my friends, that is a fantastic thing. You know, when I started to look at that and I thought there's no way that you're going to get everybody in the church to talk the same way. But, you know, just because we don't cut it doesn't mean the standard gets lower does it? Have you ever found God accommodating His standards to us? Well, I know you mess up, but don't worry. No, no, it's - that violates everything about His character.
God said in Matthew 5:48 through our Lord Jesus Christ, "Be ye perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect." And left the standard there and never changed it. And Paul never changes at the end of the Corinthian letter, 2 Corinthians 13:11, he says to the Corinthians, "Be perfect." Sure, sure, sure. You say, "We can't." That doesn't matter. It doesn't change the standard any. God's standard for His church is that you speak the same thing. You say, "But we don't do that." Then you don't make the standard. We all are to speak the same thing. All right, what are we talking about?
Well, there's a lot to say about this and we're only going to be able to cover some of it, so you're going to have to think on your own a little bit. Basically, we are to agree in vocalizing. We are to speak the same things. There's nothing more devastating to the church than somebody to say, "Well, I don't know what they say or what they teach, but I'm convinced of this. Well, I don't know what the church has decided to do, but I disagree. I think this is so-and-so-" And you get a little group of people going and it just splits off of little faction.
We've got to say the same things. We've got to agree on the same things. You say, "Well, what does this agreement involve?" Number one, it involves doctrinal agreement. Within the framework of any local assembly, there must be doctrinal unity. There must be. You say, "But isn't this - isn't it good to have – oh, one guy teaching one view and one guy teaching another view and another guy teaching another view?" It's good if you want confusion. Because, you see, when you've got the experts who don't agree, what do you think the rest of the people are going to do?
You know, there are seminaries like that and you have people come out of the seminaries and you say to them, "What do you believe?" And they say, "We'll, I'm not too sure, but I know all the options." Well, a lot of good that does. What you do when you have all different things being taught is all you do is confuse the people who are not in the position to really know. And friends, you hate to admit it, but if there are two disagreeing viewpoints, one or both are wrong because God doesn't disagree with Himself.
So Paul calls for doctrinal unity. You say, "Where?" Philippians 3:16 will be the first place to look. "Nevertheless, as to that which we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing." In other words, walk means behavior, rule means the standard. What was the standard? The standard was the apostolic doctrine which he himself had related to them. He says to the Philippians, "Look, you know the doctrine that you've been taught, now all of you need to behave yourselves consistently with that truth."
And usually what happens in a church where there isn't this is that there's nobody really who teaches much doctrine anyway. Of course, in the church there is to be doctrine and it is to be doctrine that is agreed upon. Now we find also in Romans 16:17 a verse that I think is perhaps more directly related to this issue. It says this, "Now I beseech you, brethren" - there's Paul beseeching again - "mark them who cause divisions and offenses" – listen - "contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them." They're not really serving the Lord Jesus, they're serving themselves.
When somebody comes up with a different doctrine within the church, he is not serving Christ, but himself. Now let me say this, people. There are some basic cardinal, substantial, foundational doctrines in the church that must be agreed upon by everybody in that church. You must speak the same thing doctrinally. Now when it comes down to whether you want to be sublapsarian or infralapsarian or supralapsarian or a Labrador Retriever, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. And whether you want to have the order of the decree inverted or whatever, diverted or whatever, that isn't an issue. Or whether you've got a little shade of distinction on a certain verse that could possibly have two or three interpretations because we don't have enough information to know which one was the one in the historical context. That isn't the issue.
But there are some basic cardinal truths that we must agree on. And I'd even go further than that to say that when there are some things that may be viewpoints that are agreed upon by the elders and that are taught in agreement by the elders, they should be agreed on as well or there will be confusion in the church. And people will line up with certain teachers. Do you see what happens? The elders agree on a certain thing. A guy comes along and teaches something opposite even though it isn't heresy, it's a differing viewpoint. Pretty soon he creates a group of followers. Maybe he's got another differing viewpoint and pretty soon you've got a little group over here that can only go to this guy. And a little group over here that are going over with this guy.
And then what you get is I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas and so forth. You have to speak the same thing. There must be agreement doctrinally. Let me add another thing. I think there must agreement in the decision making process of the leadership. I believe there must be agreement in the decision making process of the leadership. Not just doctrine and that is important. In fact, the last week, we sent out a questionnaire to every one of our teachers in the adult area and that questionnaire is a lot of different pages. And I think there's 56 doctrinal questions. And we want to know from every teacher what they believe on every one of those doctrinal issues. Now, we believe we know, but we want to be sure, because we want to be right according to the word of God. And it says that we're to all speak the same thing, especially as teachers. And so we're concerned that all of our teachers state right in writing for us and for our elders to read and understand that we all agree to teach the basic cardinal trues of the word of God. And I'm excited about that kind of a commitment. We want that kind of agreement.
There are some churches where they don't care what the guy teaches as long as the class is big. We care. We are more concerned with the truth than anything else. But more than just that, I think that there is a responsibility for the church to agree with a policy or the activity of its leaders. There's a presupposition here. Number one, if you're not in a church where you have Godly leadership, everything goes bananas. And people say to me, "Well, what if you're in a liberal church?" Well, if you're in a liberal church, you ought not to be in a liberal church. Well, you say - somebody would say, "Well, what if you're in a church where they don't believe in the Bible?" Well, what are doing there? If you're in a church that don't believe in the Bible, you're not going to church. No sense in hearing heresy all the time. I told you that I went to - out to Claremont Seminary. I had a year to finish a doctorate and the guy says, "Your problem is you have too much Bible for a degree in Bible." He says, "You need philosophy." He gave me 200 books of philosophy to read. Half of them were in English. The other half were in French and German. And I said to him - I said, "Thank you. I know the truth. I'm not going to spend the next three years learning error."
If you know the truth, error becomes obvious. You see, if you're going to have a Biblical pattern, then you've got to have the Biblical pattern all the way. It doesn't function in a church that isn't following it. If you don't have a Godly plurality of men leading the church who represent Christ, Christ is the head of the church, He rules through Spirit filled Godly men. If you don't have those kind of men, then nothing else works. But, if you have that, then what happens is those men rule in the place of Christ as He rules through them and the congregation is called upon to agree with them in what they say. There is not to be a group of people saying, "Well, I know they decided this, but I'm against it and we're going to do this." Or, "This is my view." And then you get a little group having your view. That's in violation of the Spirit of 1 Corinthians 10 and also the direct statement of it. "You're to speak the same things."
You say, "Well, where does it say we have to agree?" Well, it says it. 1 Thessalonians 5:12 - there is not much Scripture in terms of volume in The New Testament regarding the congregation's role. Most of it's regarding the leadership, because if the leadership's right, then the congregation knows what to do. And we're not perfect by any means. I know you think that, but it isn't true. 1 Thessalonians 5:14, 5 - well, let's look at 12 first. You know, leadership is - we stumble and we fumble along endeavoring to be obedient to Christ and as I told you last Sunday night, you know, we're more amazed at what God's doing than you are as we see His Spirit work. But there is a responsibility of the congregation as well as the leaders. "We beseech you, brethren" - 1 Thessalonians 5:12 - "to know them who labor among you and are over you in the Lord." There are some people over you in the Lord. That means they have the right to make decisions that regard you. They are over you in the Lord. "And admonish you. You should esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."
In other words, these rulers have the right to lead you and make decisions for you in the Lord and you are to love them and you are to respect them and the end of verse 13 says, "and you are to be" - what? - "at peace among yourselves." In other words, you peacefully agree. You don't stir up things. You don't stir up disagreement and you say, "But, some people might." Okay, verse 14, "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are" – what? - "unruly." Now, here are the elders trying to rule. You're going to have some people who are unruly. That is, they will not submit to rule. They have no right to do that and you who are submitting are to go to them and do what? Warn them. Warn them.
And there's another passage that comes to mind. Hebrews 13:17. Another thing that is stated to the congregation. Uses an interesting word here. The first word of verse 17 is what? Obey. "Obey them that have the rule over you" - that is your elders - "and submit yourselves." You say, "Why?" Because, "They watch for your souls as they that must give an account." Our accountability is to God for you and if you will submit then we can do it with joy and not with grief. For if it's with grief, then that's unprofitable for you. If you grieve your leadership, if they get discouraged and distressed and distraught, they cannot minister to you effectively and you're the loser. It's unprofitable.
So, the Scripture simply asks the congregation to obey just as it asks a child to obey his parents. Not to decide whether the parents are right or wrong, but to obey. To submit there must be unity. There must be unity in the church. There are to be no variations. Now you say, "All right, I get it. We are to speak the same thing. I'll do it. I won't say a word any more. But I'm not changing my mind. I'll be a hypocrite." Well, we don't want a hypocrite, but the rest of the verse deals with that. It's really terrific. Look at it. "That you all speak the same thing." You know that wouldn't work if it was ending there. If the period came there, we'd be in real trouble. If we all just spoke the same - we had people going around with, you know, boiling inside. Ready to belch out all this stuff they're holding inside that they're not going to say.
So he says this. This is terrific. "That there be no divisions among you." Hmm. That's interesting. The word divisions – schimata - means that literally in its physical meaning - there are two meanings - physical and a metaphorical meaning. A physical meaning - it means to tear a garment. It's used that way in Matthew 9:16. To rip a garment. Jesus used it in reference to the attitude of a crowd after He presented a truth when He split the multitude. Some of them would be for Him and some of them would be against Him. The secondary meaning though, the metaphorical meaning - the secondary meaning is a difference of opinion. A split opinion. He says, "Let there be no divisions." Let there be no split opinions. He's obviously not talking about garments, but opinions.
Now listen people, not only are there not to be any vocal differences, there are not only to be that, but not only that, not even any differences of opinion. You say, "You mean we're all supposed to be like a bunch of rubber ducks that all quack the same way?" No, we're all different and unique, but we're all to have the same opinions. You say, "How could you ever have the same opinions?" Listen, friends. God only has one opinion on a two-sided issue, right? You're to get in harmony with that. You say, "But how do you know the leadership's leading you the right way?" Oh you have to trust the leadership. You have to trust them.
We have a principle in our leadership here. Twenty-four of our elders meet together for the decisions that we have to make in this church and we make all decisions on the basis of a unanimous agreement. It's not 21 to 3. It's not a small minority or majority. It's unanimous. Every single decision that is ever made in regard to the policy of this church in any way shape or form is made with absolute unanimity no matter how long it takes us to agree. Why? Because we know the Spirit has one will and it's up to us to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit until we get in line with His will.
So you can be confident of the fact that when it finally comes, it's through the time of struggle and the time of prayer that has brought us to that common knowledge, that common understanding. People say, "Well, you know, we wanted this in the church and we wanted that. Why didn't the elders do that?" We didn't do that because we really believe without question in our hearts that this was the will of the Spirit of God. Twenty-four men, 24 men agreeing completely that this is what God wants.
But don't you see, if you're going to have unity at the congregational level, you're going to have to have that kind of leadership. I thank God for that. And then people can say, "I submit to that because I trust that that's the mind of the Spirit even though I can't always see it. And I reserve my opinion to follow that opinion." We are to have the same opinions. Those are present tense verbs too. You are all to continually speak the same thing and all to continually allow no differences of opinion to come between you.
Listen, the Lord never wants a church split and he's prevented it by building into the church the headship of Christ which is one, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is one, the plurality of Godly leaders who are all directed by the same Holy Spirit and a submissive congregation. And if all of those things are what they ought to be, you can't have disunity. Whenever there's discord and disunity in the church, there is carnality. And we'll get to that in a minute.
Now he goes further than that even. And he says at the end of verse 10, "But you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment." The word perfectly joined together, katartizo. It's used in other classical Greek, extra biblical Greek and as well as in The New Testament to speak of mending nets, the mending of bones, dislocated limbs, joining something together that was torn apart, sowing a garment. It means get back together. Grow together again. You are to have the same mind. That's internal. The same judgments. That's the determination that comes from the same mind. So whether it's precept or principle or thought or attitude or opinion or deed or feeling or action, it is all to be the same.
This kind of unity is tremendous. You know, one of the great impacts, people - listen to this - one of the great impacts that the cults have on the world is their unbelievable unity. They all, who are in those, totally agree with each other. And people just really can hardly handle the fact that so many people have exactly the same viewpoint. And they have no disharmony at that point. Yes, it's a big order, I agree. But it's God's will and it goes way back to Psalm 133:1 where he said, "How blessed it is when brethren learn to dwell together in unity."
In Romans chapter 15 at the end of the great section on Christian liberty in Romans, Paul says in verse 5, "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus." In other words, Christ is one. Christ has one mind. Christ has one will. Christ has the same love for everybody. Christ feels the same about everyone else, so should you. Verse 6, "That you may with one mind" - that's internal - "and one mouth" - that's external - "glorify God." He says, "I want that Roman church to think with one mind and to talk with one mouth."
This is tremendously important. Not for our sake. Not for the sake of the ego of the leaders. Not for the sake of the ego of the elders, but for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He wants unity in His church. Now you go to Ephesians and what do you read? Where he says in Ephesians 4, he says, "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Did you know you can't create unity in the church? He already created it. All you can do is destroy it. The unity of the church is already done by the Holy Spirit. All we can do is mess it up or maintain it. He says, "Maintain. Keep that unity." Why? Because there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
He goes on to talk about, "One God and Father of us all, who is in all and through all." It's all one. How could we have discord? Look at Philippians 1:27 and a couple of other verses here. "Only let your conduct be as becometh the gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or be absent I may hear of your affairs" - now listen - "that you stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving" - what's the next word? - "together for the faith of the gospel." You see, he's calling on them for unity.
Now go down to Chapter 2, verse 2. "Fulfill ye my joy," -and I can tell you this is the joy of any man of God - "that you be likeminded." That is having a mind like everybody else, having the same love. That means you love everybody else the same. Being of one accord of one mind. You say, "Boy how do you ever get that kind of unity?" The next verse tells you. "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory." Don't fight over anything. Don't ever quibble. Don't ever squabble. Don't ever quarrel. If you have an issue, take it to somebody who needs to hear it and lovingly present it. Don't fight. No strife and no vain glory.
Usually the thing that is the catalyst for factions in the church is that somebody wants to exalt himself. That's usually the thing. Vanity and self-glory. "But rather in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves." And you go to verse 5 and it says, "Have the mind of Christ who humbled Himself." There's only one way to have unity, people and that's to humble yourself. And humility means you think more of everybody else than you do of you. Then there's unity.
And you know it's possible. You say, "Is it really possible to have that?" Yeah, I really think in this church, more so maybe than any church I've ever seen in my life. We have that kind of unity and I praise God for it. I'm not blind to the fact that there is disagreement from time to time and I'm sure that's true. It ought not to be if it's vocal and if it's belligerent and if it's unsubmissive. We ought to submit to one another. It isn't to say that we'll make every decision. You have nothing to say. Maybe we need to submit to your viewpoint, because maybe you're right and you need to share that with us and that's good and we'll do that if that's God's leading.
But it's going to be the mind of humility that makes it happen and it does happen. It can happen. It happened in Acts 4. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit in verse 31, "spake the word with boldness." In verse 32, it says, "And they that believe were of one heart and one soul." And they had everything in common. It can happen. All right, the plea. And what is the plea based on? Back to 1 Corinthians 1:11. The plea is based on the parties. He knew there were some parties, there were some factions there. And this is very simple. You say, "Where'd he get the information?" Verse 11. Here's where he really dumps it on them. "For it has been declared unto me of you my brethren, by them of Chloe" - Chloe was apparently some prominent person in the Corinthian church who had come to see Paul in Ephesus or had sent a relative or some servants. "Somebody from Chloe has told me that there are quarrels among you." Contentions, erides, quarrels, wranglings, hassles. They were splitting into factions, but not just silent factions. They were going at it. Fighting each other.
You notice that they were divided into four groups and they each had their shibboleth, they're own little slogan. Verse 12, "I say every one of you saying I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ." They had grouped into identification with various teachers. This is wrong. They were boasting around the excellency, the gifts, the ministries, the attainments of the men whom they identified with. You see, the first pastor of the Corinthian Church was whom? Paul. He founded the church, 18 months he was there. And when he left, he sent back somebody to be the second pastor. Who was it? Apollos. So probably there were some people who identified with Paul initially. Some people who identified with Apollos and then there were probably some Jews who came over who had been brought to the knowledge of Christ through the ministry of Peter and they said, "We're of Cephas." Or, "We're of Peter." And then there were the others who just wanted to identify with Christ and I suppose if I was carnal and I was in Corinth I would have liked to have been with the Christ group because it's a lot more pious.
But they had split into factions. It isn't necessary, people. It doesn't have to happen. You can have a Paul and Apollos and a Peter and Christ and not have to split into groups. The splitting into groups had nothing to do with Paul, Apollos and Peter. All you have to do is go to 1 Corinthians 3 and he says this to them. Your problem is this, "Are you not yet carnal? Is there not division and strife among you? Are you not saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos?" The reason they said that was not because those men were different but because they were what? Carnal. Carnality is that which produces faction rather than spirituality. We've had that in our church. I remember in the past and some of us can look back on at a time when there was some people who felt that the elders had made a misjudgment and they were protesting and they were carrying on a protest. And all that ever needed to be done was to point out the fact that they were carnal, because carnality breeds factions. And the elders simply shared the Scripture and read the Scriptures on carnality and it melted away the problem. And that's how it ought to be. It is not Paul's fault. It is not Apollos's fault. It is not Cephas's fault or it's Christ's fault and it isn't His fault. It's the fault of carnality. Identifying with humans.
Paul was the founder and some maybe were identifying with Paul and then Apollos. They were saying, "Well, Paul may have been all right, but Apollos was polished and eloquent." And he was. And some were saying, "Yes, but Peter was one of the original twelve and he was from Jerusalem and he knows Judaism." And some of the Jewish people identified with him and then some others came along and said, "Heh-heh. We're of Christ." You know. And in a sense they were right and he never mentions the Christ party again. He just goes on talking about Paul and later on Apollos.
The Christ party had the right idea. They should have belonged to Christ, but they had turned the belonging to Christ into a faction in group and they got in the fight. And maybe, you know, they were saying, "We don't need human teachers. We just follow Christ." There are people who have said that. "I don't go to church anywhere. I just open my Bible and let Christ speak to me." You see? But they had these parties. These groups. Because they were carnal.
Those are the parties that Paul has to deal with. You know what happens, and this is something to point out, this can happen in a church and it's usually what causes splits - people make splits, but you usually have somebody directing it. This is the reason I believe there has to unanimity in doctrine. Let's say a person over here begins to teach doctrine contrary to what everybody else is teaching. Well, pretty soon some people begin to identify with him. "Yeah, oh that's good. Oh I like that. Hmmm. Terrific." And then you've got a little group over here. See? And this - maybe the disagreement isn't on the deity of Jesus Christ or the inspiration of Scripture or the sovereignty of God or whatever or whatever. Maybe the disagreement is on a particular interpretive thing, but it is in disagreement with something that everyone else agrees to teach. Well, pretty soon, you've got these people latching on and you've created a little separate entity over here.
Or maybe there's somebody who says, "Well, you know, they do decide this, but I think it ought to be this way and if they knew what they were doing this would be-" Yeah, well sure, you're right. And the guy's a leader and pretty soon you've got a little group over here. See? So, they can identify around people. But just remember, that kind of identification is an expression of carnality if it means that you disconnect from the fellowship in opinion or in attitude. It's important to note these things.
Now Paul goes from the plea to the parties to the principle in verse 13. The principle is really simple, people. There is a really simple principle here that Paul wants to point out. "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" Do you see what he's saying? He's saying, "Look, disunity in the church violates a basic principle. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, "He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." Ephesians 4:4-6, "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Spirit, one body, one God." Is Christ divided? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
In 1 Corinthians, later on in the book in Chapter 12, he gets into this in real detail. Chapter 12, verse 12, "As the body is one hath many members, as the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ." Christ is not divided. Christ is one. If we are all one in Christ, then we are all one with each other. There can be no division in the body of Christ that is not in violation of our very basic nature. Paul says, "Look, you can't have these groups. You're in violation of a basic principle. Is Christ divided?"
Jesus prayed in John 17:20 and 22. He said to the Father, "Father, I pray that they may be one as You and I are one." Christ is not divided. When you split, you reflect on Christ. The church is one because Christ is one and Christ is one because God is one. Deuteronomy 6:4, "The Lord our God is one Lord." He died to make us one. You read Ephesians 2, it says that, "He broke down the middle wall of partition to make of two, one new man." 1 Corinthians 12:25, I think it is, Paul says, "That there should be no schism in the body." One. The principle is in violation, people. If church is one, Christ is one. God is one. The Spirit is one. The body is one. No factions. Was Paul crucified for you? If you're going to identify around men, on what basis are you going to do that? "Was I crucified for you?" And notice he uses himself and not Apollos or Peter or people would have said, "Yeah, he's trying to knock the other parties, but not his own." So he uses his own. "Was I crucified for you? Are you going to stand up and say I was a sinner until Paul died for me?" Oh that's blasphemes. Your union isn't with me, it's with Him. And He is one.
Were you purchased by Paul's blood? Were you redeemed by Paul? Ludicrous. Are you going to stand up and say we are Paul's? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Did you stand up at your baptism and say I confess Paul is Lord? Now listen to this. You want to make this really practical? Just imagine you got a faction in the church. You know what Paul would say to you? Let's say your faction is being led by a man, Joe. Paul would say, "Are you going to stand up and say I've confessed Joe as my Lord?" Boy, that's bad isn't it?
Or let's say in the case of Euodia and Syntyche in the church at Philippi, you were to stand up and say, "I was purchased by the blood of Syntyche. I was baptized and confessed Euodia is Lord." You say, "It's terrible to think of that." That's exactly what Paul is saying. Do you see how stupid it is? Who is the head of this church? Grace Community Church. Who's the head of it? Christ is the head of it. So to whom is your allegiance? To Christ. How does Christ minister through His church? Through Godly leaders and submissive congregations.
When you disconnect you're in all violation of the unity that is Christ. You see the principle does not allow for this unless you're going to violate the principle. All right, that's pretty practical. Let's go to the last point. The plea, the parties and the principle, then Paul brings up the priority in verses 14-17. He says, "Listen, I know my priorities. I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius." Crispus was the first ruler of the synagogue and Gaius was another fellow. Apparently Paul stayed in his house for a while according to Romans 16. But Paul says, "I'm so thankful. I didn't baptize anybody but Crispus and Gaius." You say, "Well, didn't they get baptized?" Sure, but they had other people doing it.
Very often that was the case. You remember that Peter at Cornelius' house didn't do the baptizing actually. He commanded that they be baptized. You remember our Lord Jesus? In the gospel of John it records that the Lord didn't do the baptizing, but He had others do the baptizing. And there was a reason for this. The reason was it would be so easy for people to go around bragging about who they were identified with because of who baptized them. I mean, it's nice to be baptized by a wonderful beloved pastor, but you weren't baptized in his name. You weren't baptized in the name of John MacArthur just because I baptized you. But you can imagine people would say, "Well, Christ baptized me." "Well, Paul only baptized me. Heh-heh." That wasn't the point. Or, "Peter baptized me and he got water in my nose. Heh-heh." But you see, that isn't the issue. It isn't the issue. Paul says, "I didn't baptize anybody but Crispus and Gaius, because lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name, lest somebody would say that I was baptizing some people to make them followers of me. I didn't do it."
Don't you see how wise he was? He purposely let somebody else do it so they would not identify with him. And he wouldn't build a party around himself. They can't accuse him of that. And then I like this. This is terrific, because it's a great insight into inspiration. Verse 16. "Oh," he says, "I also baptized the household of Stephanas. I almost forgot him. And let's see, besides that I can't think of anybody else." You say, "Well, now wait a minute. Aren't the Bible writers supposed to know everything?" This is a beautiful insight into inspiration. Listen to me, people. Biblical inspiration ensures, hang on to this, ensures the infallibility of the author not his omniscience. You see the difference? When Paul wrote the word of God, he never made any mistakes, but he didn't know everything. He was free from error, but he wasn't omniscient. But he says, "I baptized Crispus, Gaius, Stephanas and his household and let's see, I can't think of anybody else." And that's what the Holy Spirit wanted him to say.
And he says, "I'm so glad I didn't, because somebody would have accused me of making a party after myself." Listen, that isn't the priority. Verse 17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize." You read my commission in Acts 26:16 to 18. He didn't say to baptize. That wasn't the major point. Sure, in the Matthew 28 it says, "go and preaching, teaching and baptizing," but the priority of the commission wasn't go and baptize people. It was go and preach the gospel. Acts 26:16, "I've made you a minister and a witness of these things delivering you from the people from the Gentiles unto whom I now send you to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me." And he says, "And I wasn't disobedient to the heavenly vision." He told them to preach. Baptism followed along, but the priority was preaching.
He says, "Look, He sent me to preach the gospel to make all men one, not to baptize to create a faction." The only reason he says this is to strongly point out the priority to build the church, not to make followers of men. His priority was to preach the gospel and this throws him into the next section where he gets into the preaching of the cross. That was his priority. People, we're in the church to work, to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and His will. To preach the truth, not to create parties. If all of us have the right priority to honor Him and to preach His truth and we walk in the Spirit and not carnality, we'll see a blessed unity here that'll magnify our Lord and that'll draw to Him those people that are coming to Christ. And this is a priority. And it's our prayer that it may be true of this church that we are one in Him in what we say, what we think that He may be honored. Let's pray.
Thank You, Lord, for our time this morning. Good time to just reflect on this important and very practical area. Father, I want to thank You first of all for the wisdom of Godly men that have been placed to lead this church and I want to thank You for the joy of just being able to follow their leading. To see how the Spirit works so beautifully. I want to thank You for a submissive and sweet congregation. And yet, Father, how thankful I am too that this word is sent to us to remind us of that which we should do for Your sake, for Jesus' sake who loved us and bought us with His own blood. Oh Father, gives us a sweet spirit of humility and love to one another. That we may be one that the world may know that the Father sent the Son. We pray in the Son's name, because we know this is what He would want in His church. Amen.
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Kids Preferred Launches "Yarn Zombies" at Comic-Con to Scare up Tween and Teenage Fun
SAN DIEGO, July 17, 2013 -- Bringing zombies to real life and entertainment to the teen and tween market, Kids Preferred is launching a new brand this week at Comic-Con called "Yarn Zombies" (www.yarnzombies.com) – cute zombie collectibles and fashion accessories with special powers and features. Visit booth No. 4120 at Comic-Con in San Diego to view the first licensed Yarn Zombies collectibles known as JUJUz™, all with unique "mojo-protecting" special powers.
"If you think of Monty Python meets the Walking Dead meets Heroes, then you have the essence of the thrilling new Yarn Zombies collection," said Laura Perks, co-founder of Kids Preferred. "We are delighted to offer a great collection for a more grown-up market and to give teens and tweens something that offers excitement, assurance and a lot of fun."

subset: commoncrawl


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Pope Francis urges Congress to embrace immigrants
WASHINGTON - (AP) — Standing before a rapt Congress, Pope Francis issued a ringing call to action on behalf of immigrants Thursday, urging lawmakers to embrace "the stranger in our midst" as he became the first pontiff in history to address a joint meeting at the U.S. Capitol.
Referencing the migration crisis in Europe as well as the United States' own struggle with immigration from Latin America, Francis summoned lawmakers "to respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal."
"We must not be taken aback by their numbers but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best as we can to their situation," Francis urged.
He was welcomed enthusiastically to a House chamber packed with Supreme Court justices, Cabinet officials, and lawmakers of both parties, uniting the bickering factions as all stood to cheer his arrival. The sergeant at arms intoned "Mr. Speaker, the pope of the Holy See," and Francis made his way up the center aisle in his white robes, moving slowly as lawmakers applauded, some inclining their heads in bows.
PHOTOS: Pope Francis' Visit to US Capitol http://www.fox5dc.com/galleries/23987507-gallery
After the speech, he appeared on a Capitol balcony and briefly addressed a cheering crowd of thousands below on the lawn and the Mall beyond. "Buenos dias," he called out, and the crowd thundered its response.
Francis asked the crowd to pray for him, as he always does. Speaking in Spanish, he added a line to acknowledge that not everyone there was a believer. "If among you there are some who don't believe or who cannot pray, I ask that you send good wishes my way," he said, to tumultuous applause.
"God bless America!" he concluded, as he had in the House chamber.
From the Capitol where he challenged Washington's elites Francis traveled to comfort some of the city's neediest. He spoke to homeless people at St. Patrick Parish and pressed into a crowd at Catholic Charities, where people surrounded him and took selfies after he offered a blessing before their lunch.
He called on the faithful to solve homelessness, declaring: "Let me be clear: There can be no social or moral justification, no justification whatsoever, for lack of housing."
After Washington the pope was heading to New York for more prayer services and a speech to the United Nations. He left the Vatican residence late in the day and stepped into his small Fiat for the trip to Andrews Air Force Base, pausing for a final round of greetings with clamoring children crowded outside.
The pope's hectic three-day visit to Washington was the first stop on a three-city U.S. tour that winds up in Philadelphia.
On Wednesday he was cheered by jubilant crowds as he visited the White House — where he and President Barack Obama embraced each other's warnings on climate change — paraded through Washington streets in his "popemobile," addressed U.S. bishops, noting the clergy sex abuse scandal, and celebrated a Mass of Canonization for Junipero Serra, the Spanish friar who founded major California missions.
Introducing himself at the Capitol as "a son of this great continent," the Argentine pope, reading his remarks slowly in English, spoke from the same dais where presidents deliver their State of the Union speeches. Behind him sat Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, the first and second in line to the presidency, both Catholics. Outside, tens of thousands watched on giant screens, and many more were watching on TV around the world.
Lawmakers of all political backgrounds and religious affiliations eagerly welcomed the pope, pledging to pause from the bickering and dysfunction that normally divide them and hear him out. Yet Francis spoke to a Congress that has deadlocked on immigration legislation, at a time when there are more than 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, and where some lawmakers have balked at Obama administration plans to accept more of the migrants from Syria and elsewhere who are now flooding Europe.
Indeed, Francis arrived at a moment of particular turmoil for Congress, with a partial government shutdown looming next week unless lawmakers can resolve a dispute over funding for Planned Parenthood related to the group's practices providing fetal tissue for research.
Francis steered clear of such controversies, alluding only in passing to the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion when he noted, to applause, "our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development."
He advocated abolition of the death penalty, something that enjoys support from a number of lawmakers of both parties at the federal level, and spoke out against fundamentalism of all kinds, while urging care in combating it.
"A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms," Francis said.
On immigration, Francis urged lawmakers — and the United States as a whole — not to be afraid of migrants but to welcome them as fellow human beings, not things that can be discarded just because they are troublesome.
Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, recalled that America itself was founded by immigrants, that many lawmakers are descended from foreigners and that that new generations must not "turn their back on our neighbors."
Given an ovation when he spoke of the Golden Rule, he said, "Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated."
He reiterated his stance on climate change, "the environmental deterioration caused by human activity."
Yet in calling for action on the climate and to combat poverty, Francis took care to insist he was not anti-business, as some conservatives have suggested. He quoted a Catholic teaching document calling business "a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world."
Many lawmakers had vowed to preserve decorum throughout the speech and members of both parties listened intently, yet they did not completely contain their reactions. The mention of climate change drew standing cheers from Democrats while Republicans stood to applaud the reference to abortion. One Democratic House member let out a whoop of delight at the pope's call to abolish the death penalty.
Republicans in particular also loudly applauded as Francis asserted the importance of family life and bemoaned that "fundamental relationships are being called into question as is the very basis of marriage and the family." The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage, recently legalized by the Supreme Court.
Francis also criticized the arms trade, significant before Congress because the United States is the world's largest exporter of weapons.
On Thursday, security was tight outside the Capitol, with streets blocked off and a heavy police presence that rivaled an Inauguration or State of the Union address by the U.S. president. The scene on the West Lawn was festive but orderly.
Francis, 78, enjoys approval ratings the envy of any U.S. politician as he's remade the image of the Catholic Church toward openness and compassion, yet without changing fundamental church doctrine. Addressing a chamber full of elected officials, he may have been the most adept politician in the room.
Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Matthew Daly, Alan Fram, Stephen Ohlemacher, Andrew Taylor, Mary Clare Jalonick, Ben Nuckols and Jessica Gresko contributed.


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Walmart Boosts Its Base Pay Rate but Closes Dozens of Sam's Clubs
The company says it's too early to know how many jobs will be lost. Earlier, it cited the Trump-GOP tax change in announcing the higher hourly wages and bonuses.NEW YORK — Walmart confirmed Thursday that it is closing dozens of Sam's Club warehouse stores across the country — a move that seems sure to cost jobs — on the same day it announced that it was boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers [to $11 an hour] and handing out one-time bonuses to others.
The world's largest private employer said it was closing 63 Sam's Clubs over the next week, with some shut already. A company official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the decision publicly said about 10 are being repurposed into e-commerce distribution centers. He said it was too early to say how many people would lose their jobs since some will be placed at other Walmart locations or be rehired to the e-commerce sites.
On Twitter, Sam's Club responded to people's queries by saying, "After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, we've decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy."
Walmart had earlier cited tax legislation that will save it money in announcing the higher hourly wages, one-time bonuses and expanded parental benefits that will affect more than a million hourly workers in the U.S.
Rising wages reflect a generally tight labor market. The conversion of stores to e-commerce sites also illustrates how companies are trying to leverage their store locations to better compete against Amazon as shopping moves online.
Online retailers typically pay warehouse employees who pack and ship orders more than store jobs pay. Job postings at an Amazon warehouse in Ohio, for example, offer a starting pay of $14.50 an hour.
"This is about the evolution of retail," said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute. "The rise of e-commerce is leading to higher wages."
Large employers also have been under pressure to boost benefits for workers because unemployment rates are at historic lows, allowing job seekers to be pickier.
But low unemployment has meant that retailers have had trouble attracting and keeping talented workers, experts said. Walmart employees previously started at $9 an hour, with a bump up to $10 after completing a training program. Target had raised its minimum hourly wage to $11 in October, and said it would raise wages to $15 by the end of 2020.
"They raised the minimum wage because they have to," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said. "The labor market is tight and getting tighter."
Many small and independent retailers struggle to find workers even when they try to pay well and offer benefits.
Laurie Rose, owners of Olde Naples Chocolate usually has six workers during the winter months, the busy season in the resort city of Naples, Florida. But right now, she has just three. The store pays $12 an hour and offers a 401(k) account after a staffer has worked for a year, but Rose realizes that may not be enough for many potential workers. Rose would like to pay more, but she'd have to raise her prices and fears that would turn away customers.
While many department store chains such as Macy's and Sears are struggling, retailers as a whole are still trying to hire. The retail industry is seeking to fill 711,000 open jobs, the highest on records dating back to 2001, according to government data. The longer those jobs go unfilled, the greater pressure on employers to offer higher wages.
Walmart, which reported annual revenue of nearly $486 billion in the previous fiscal year, said the wage increases will cost it an additional $300 million in the next fiscal year. The bonuses will cost it about $400 million in this fiscal year, which ends on Jan. 31.
"The wage increases will make a big difference to Walmart's lowest-paid associates, but do not yet match Target's commitment to raise pay to $15 an hour," said the Organization United for Respect at Walmart.
It joins dozens of other companies including American Airlines, AT&T and Bank of America that have announced $1,000 worker payouts following the passage of the Republican tax plan that slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The companies say the bonuses they've announced are a way to share some of their bounty with their workers, though in some cases it's a very small percentage of their gains, and are less valuable to employees than permanent pay raises.
"Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday. President Donald Trump cheered the announcement with a tweet, saying, "Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT!"
Walmart has invested $2.7 billion in higher wages and training for workers to lower turnover and make the shopping experience more appealing. It has done well and strengthened its hand in online retail as many other retailers have struggled.
The company said the wage increase benefits all hourly U.S. workers at its stores, including Sam's Club. Hourly employees at its websites, distribution centers and its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, will benefit from the wage increase. The one-time bonus between $200 and $1,000 will be given to Walmart employees who won't receive a pay raise. The bonus is based on length of service, with workers with at least 20 years qualifying for $1,000. In all, Walmart employs 2.3 million people around the world, 1.5 million of which are in the U.S.
Parental leave has been another area in which retailers including Target and Ikea have been trying to offer better benefits. Walmart on Thursday promised full-time hourly U.S. employees 10 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave. Before, full-time hourly workers received 50 percent of their pay for leave. Salaried employees, who already had 10 weeks paid maternity leave, will receive more paid parental leave.
Maternal and paternal benefits can keep younger workers at the company longer, said Craig Rowley, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry Hay Group, a human resources consulting firm.
For the first time, Walmart also promised to help with adoptions, offering full-time hourly and salaried workers $5,000 per child that can be used for expenses such as adoption agency fees, translation fees and legal or court costs.
AP Business writers Michelle Chapman in Newark, New Jersey, Joyce Rosenberg in New York and Chris Rugaber in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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October 27th, 2013
I went out this morning for my daily run/walk. I say "run/walk." I used to say "run." Now I say "run/walk." It's really "walk." I am still in denial about the whole knee pain situation.
Anyway, I digress.
I went out this morning for my daily run/walk. Most days I listen to books via Audible on my iPhone while I run/walk because a good book with a compelling storyline and a talented reader who keeps me hanging on every word makes me want to keep run/walking so I don't have to go inside and work/work. It's a fabulous way to procrastinate/procrastinate and still feel a wee bit virtuous. I'm reading and exercising! In fact, I am pretty much on track to finish 100 Kindle, traditional and audiobooks this year as part of my Goodreads goal.
This morning I had to fumble a bit before getting Audible up and running. (Thank you iOS 7 for making me add a password.) While I was mashing virtual buttons on the minuscule screen without benefit of my reading glasses, I ran/walked several yards, not looking at the first thing except that tiny screen.
Suddenly it hit me. Smoke. Specifically, wood smoke from someone's fireplace.
Now, I'm not big into fireplaces with smoke because of sensitive sinuses and a strong tendency to get painful sinus infections when exposed to smoke of any sort. But small doses of outside smoke from someone else's fireplace a half mile away is rather nice. It says, "Fall!" It says, "Time to reflect and slow down." It says, "Drink some hot chocolate and take a nap!"
It's a smell with dozens of associations from childhood and from the happiest (and a few sad) times of my life. That smell was accompanied by the nature music of my feet brushing aside the fallen leaves as I walked up the driveway.
"Slow down!" I said to myself. (But don't stop running/walking!)
I put away the iPhone and looked at the mosaic of colors—red, yellow, brown, green and every color of fall, punctuated by the occasional, fearless rose, salvia and celosia.
If I could bottle up that fantastical combination of smell, sound, fresh air, color—and the rush of the run/walk—I would be richer than Oprah.
Alas, no one has figured out how to capture the magic of Mother Nature, although artists, photographers, musicians and perfumers still try.
But I am still rich. I am rich because I can appreciate the gifts Mother Nature hands out for free to anyone willing to pause in their run/walk through life and appreciate it.
Posted In: Gardening, Gardening Life
Tags: fall, lemon grass, pineapple sage, salvia


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CLISP implements two ways of representing object pointers. (An object pointer, C type object, contains a pointer to the memory location of the object, or - for immediate object - all bits of the object itself.) Both of them have some things in common:
s, FIXNUM
s, SHORT-FLOAT
s, etc) and
heap allocated objects.CHANGE-CLASS
is called. To avoid scanning all the heap for
references when this happens, the class information is stored in the
heap allocated object, not in the object pointer.The HEAPCODES
object representation has a minimum of type
bits in the object pointer, namely, 2 bits. They allow to distinguish
immediate objects (which have some more type bits), CONS
es (which
have no type bits in the heap, since they occupy just two words in the
heap, with no header), other heap objects (many, from SIMPLE-VECTOR
to FFI:FOREIGN-POINTER
s), and Subrs. Most object types are
distinguished by looking a the rectype
in the header of the heap object.
The TYPECODES
object representation has about two dozen of types
encoded in 6 or 7 bits in the object pointer.
Typically these are the upper 8 bits of a word (on a 32-bit machine) or
the upper 16 bits or 32 bits of a word (on a 64-bit machine).
The particular values of the typecodes allow many common operations to
be performed with a single bit test (e.g. CONSP
and MINUSP
for a
are bit tests) or range check.
However, the rectype
field still exists for
many types, because there are many built-in types which do not need a
particularly fast type test.
Which object representation is chosen is decided at build time
depending on the available preprocessor definitions. You can define
or HEAPCODES
to force one or the other.
One might expect that TYPECODES
is faster than HEAPCODES
because it does not need to make as many memory accesses. This effect
is, however, hardly measurable in practice (certainly not more than 5%
faster). Apparently because, first, the situations where the type of an
object is requested but then the object is not looked into are rare.
It is much more common to look into an object, regardless of its type.
Second, due to the existence of data caches in the CPU, accessing a heap
location twice, once for the type test and then immediately afterwards
for the data, is not significantly slower than just accessing the
is problematic on 32-bit machines, when you want to
use more than 16 MB of memory, because the type bits (at bit 31..24)
interfere with the bits of a heap address. For this reason,
is the default on 32-bit platforms.
is problematic on platforms whose object alignment
is less than 4. This affects only the mc680x0 CPU; however, here the
alignment can usually be guaranteed through some gcc options.
These notes document CLISP version 2.49 | Last modified: 2010-07-07 |


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Fine Art Print by NZ Artist Rachel Olsen, 445x246 mm
Hot Water Beach Caravan
Each print is hand signed and numbered, and comes with its own certificate of authenticity. The print size listed for each image is the actual printed image size, there is an extra 20mm border (approx) all around to allow for framing.
Printed to the highest standard using an Epson Stylus Pro printer and pigment inks on museum quality archival acid free 310gsm paper.


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September 23/24 from 2-4PM
We are proud to announce that this Sep 23rd & 24th, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM we will be hosting an Open House at 3980 Regent Street in the Steveston Village neighborhood, Richmond. This is an opportunity to visit this excellent House for sale in beautiful Steveston Village.
Please come with any questions you may have. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour of this Steveston Village House for sale.
As always please do not hesitate to give me a call at 604.644.1044 if I can answer any questions before the open house, or if you would like to book a private showing.
Alisa Sakamoto


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Head over to Purevolume right now to check out the world premiere of the new video from Showbread. The band's new album, "The Fear Of God," is in stores and online everywhere now! Check out the ex...
RAW ROCK is here to overtake you. With Showbread leading the frenzy, there's no doubt it will succeed.
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for BigTrial.net
In a "victim's impact" statement read in court on June 12, 2013, "Billy Doe" told Judge Ellen Ceisler, "It finally feels good to make my family proud of me."
Well congratulations, Billy. They must have really been proud last week when you were outed coast-to-coast as a lying, scheming fraud with a Pinocchio nose on the cover of Newsweek!
On the internet, reaction to Newsweek's scoop spilled across a half-dozen Google pages. Catholic bloggers teed of on the former altar boy. Conservative commentators Breitbart and Hot Air noted the Rolling Stone connection, that the same reporter who bought Billy's serial rape story in that discredited magazine also fell for "Jackie's" bogus story about gang rape at a UVA frat house.
Susan Matthews, publisher at catholics4change.com, wondered, "Why is the church paying the [$]5 million?" Oh, that was another bombshell in the Newsweek story; that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had basically caved in to fraud and paid Billy an estimated $5 million to settle his civil suit for his alleged pain and suffering. Good question, Susan. It's one that every Catholic should be asking their archbishop before they put another dollar in the collection basket.
Over at Philly mag, the self-appointed arbiter of taste and truth in our city, the Billy Doe story set off a tizzy. "Who to believe?" shrieked a sub-head in the story.
Well, let's see. On one side, the argument that Billy Doe is quite possibly a fraud, Newsweek quoted a forensic psychiatrist who examined Billy for nearly three hours. He also sifted through Billy's medical records from 28 different doctors, hospitals and drug clinics, as well as Billy's school records, along with his testimony in the criminal and civil cases.
And what did Dr. Stephen Mechanick conclude? That none of Billy's myriad injuries, both physical and psychic, were corroborated by any of the records. All of the evidence contradicted Billy.
The Newsweek story also quoted the civil deposition of retired Detective Joseph Walsh, who led the Philadelphia district attorney's investigation into Billy's allegations. Walsh testified that he questioned Billy on nine different factual discrepancies with his stories. And what was Billy's response? According to Walsh, Billy either sat there and said nothing, or claimed he was high on drugs, or told a new story.
On the other side of the argument, that Billy was telling the truth, we have Billy's lawyer, who claimed that "the science is clear" that victims of abuse typically turn to drugs and alcohol and crime. Really? Who knew that victimology was a science? Philly mag also recruited David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, to weigh in with his impartial take.
Clohessy attempted to explain away all the factual contradictions and astounding changes in Billy's stories by saying that "traumatized individuals, especially those violated as kids by adults who claim to represent God, rarely recall all the facts and timelines perfectly."
Nice rhetorical flourish, Dave. Keep pouring on the gasoline.
So on one side of the controversy, Newsweek examined all of the facts relevant to the Billy Doe case, relying on testimony from a couple of expert witnesses in the case -- Dr. Mechanick the forensic psychiatrist and Detective Walsh, who led the D.A.'s investigation into Billy's allegations.
On the other side we have some generalities pedaled by a couple of partisans that may or may not be true about legitimate sex abuse victims, generalities that have no application in a case of fraud.
Only a magazine that missed the big story for the past four years would try to pass off those two opposing arguments as equivalents. Oh but wait, isn't Philadelphia magazine the same rag that used to print Sabrina Rubin Erdely's fantasies as truthful stories before she went on to write more ambitious fiction for Rolling Stone?
Isn't Philly mag the same magazine that printed the story about the gay Mummer that turned out to be a fraud? The same magazine that trusted an idiotic sports talk radio show host known as "the Cuz" to write a story about a former Marine sniper who amazingly lived next door, a guy who supposedly killed scores of people and was haunted by the memories? And then they ran the hoax without any fact-checking? It's no wonder at Philly mag, where they can't separate fact from fiction, that they were confused by the Newsweek story.
Wow, did the doc tee off on Billy/Danny.
Eight days after they received Dr. Mechanick's report, Billy's lawyers folded their civil case on the eve of jury selection. It's easy to see why when you read the report.
In the Philly mag article, Billy's lawyer also claimed that his client had passed a polygraph, a claim he previously made in the Legal Intelligencer.
We'll skip over the fact that there's a voluntary confidentiality stipulation in the case that's supposed to prevent lawyers from making such pronouncements to reporters. The facts are these: When Billy Doe was deposed in the civil case, he was asked whether he had ever been polygraphed.
His answer was no.
We know that the district attorney never polygraphed Billy. We also know that in Pennsylvania, polygraphs are not admissible in civil and criminal proceedings. So why Billy's lawyers would polygraph him after he testified in two criminal cases and his civil case doesn't make much sense.
There's also the possibility that either Billy or his lawyer aren't telling the truth. Now that would be a shocker!
But let's get to the bottom of this. When I printed that the late Father Charles Engelhardt passed a polygraph test, I had the results in hand.
Let's review. On July 31, 2012, William L. Fleisher, a former FBI agent, Philadelphia cop and forensic psychophysiologist used by the district attorney and the U.S. Attorney's office, wrote a report about his polygraph test on Father Engelhardt. In the report, Fleisher said he discussing the allegations with Engelhardt before posing three key questions:


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The use of "TDS" (total dissolved solids) meters for analyzing the purity of fresh water has become widespread in recent years. Many aquarists use them to determine if tap water purification systems such as reverse osmosis (RO) or reverse osmosis/deionization (RO/DI) are working properly, or if deionizing resins need to be replaced.
The use of such devices, however, is not without complications. Contrary to what the name might imply, for example, these devices do not measure all dissolved solids. There are also many different units of measure used with TDS meters. While all are referred to as ppm (parts per million), they are still different, just as degrees Celsius are different than degrees Fahrenheit.
This article describes how these meters work, what they detect and do not detect, and what the units mean. It also gives some tips on how to best use them.
How a TDS Meter Works
TDS meters are, in reality, conductivity meters. They work by applying a voltage between two or more electrodes. Positively charged ions (e.g., sodium, Na+; calcium, Ca++; magnesium, Mg++; hydrogen ion, H+; etc.) will move toward the negatively charged electrode, and negatively charged ions (e.g., chloride, Cl-; sulfate, SO4--; bicarbonate, HCO3-; etc.) will move toward the positively charged electrode (Figure 1). Because these ions are charged and moving, they constitute an electrical current. The meter then monitors how much current is passing between the electrodes as a gauge of how many ions are in solution. A detailed article from a high-end meter manufacturer on the theory of conductivity measurement can be found here.
What Does a TDS Meter Actually Detect?
Since TDS meters are often used to test water "purity," it is important to understand what they do not detect. As conductivity meters in disguise, TDS meters will only detect mobile charged ions. They will not detect any neutral (uncharged) compounds. Such compounds include sugar, alcohol, many organics (including many pesticides and their residues), and unionized forms of silica, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. These meters also do not detect macroscopic particulates, as those are too large to move in the electric fields applied. So if you see "rusty" looking water from iron oxide particulates, that won't be measured. Neither will anything else that makes the water look cloudy. Bacteria and viruses also won't be detected.
Consequently, the term "total dissolved solids" is really quite a misnomer. "Total charged ions" is likely a much better term for what it measures. Fortunately, a measurement of total charged ions is good enough for many aquarium purposes.
In addition to how many ions are present, the measured conductivity of a solution is also a function of what ions are actually present. Table 1 shows the relative conductivity that is provided when equal numbers of different ions are present in water. There are differences between the conductivity of the different ions, and this fact becomes important in the discussion of the units that are used for conductivity in subsequent sections.
Ions with higher charges tend to have higher conductivity because they not only carry more charge but they respond more strongly to an electric field. Good examples of this are sulfate (SO4--) and calcium (Ca++), which have higher conductivities than sodium (Na+) or chloride (Cl-). Another effect is that larger ions tend to have more "drag" as they move through the water, and thus have lower conductivity. In such comparisons one needs to take into account the tightly bound water molecules that get dragged along as well, so one cannot simply look at molecular weights or ionic radii. This drag due to the size of the hydrated ion is, for example, why lithium (Li+) is so much less conductive than sodium, which in turn is less conductive than potassium (K+).
Table 1. Relative conductivity of various ions.
"Can I Just Use a Multimeter to Measure Conductivity?"
No. Several factors make it impossible to accurately measure conductivity with a standard multimeter. The size and shape of the electrodes are significant, but more important is what happens at those electrodes. If a DC current is applied to seawater, numerous reactions take place when the ions hit the electrodes. Some ions will plate out on the electrodes, some may bubble off as gases, and the electrodes themselves may dissolve. These and other effects all serve to change the nature of the solution at the electrode, impacting the measured conductivity.
So how do conductivity probes get around this problem? They use an AC current rather than DC. Using fields that oscillate very rapidly, there is no overall movement of ions toward one electrode or the other. The ions move one way for a tiny fraction of a second, and then back the other direction for the second half of the cycle. Overall, the solution and electrodes stay unchanged and the conductivity is accurately measured. Modern conductivity meters use complex AC waveforms to minimize additional complications such as capacitance, which can interfere with simple conductivity measurements.
In practice, commercial conductivity probes have either two or four electrodes, with the four-electrode version being more resistant to fouling and other effects that can cause degradation of the measurement. The electrodes are made of nonreactive materials such as epoxy/graphite, glass/platinum or stainless steel. The choice depends primarily on the nature of the solution to be tested, but nearly any commercial unit will be suitable for tap water.
Does Temperature Impact TDS Measurements?
One final complication is that the conductivity of ions in water depends upon temperature. There are a number of factors that cause this effect, but one big one is simply that the ions are naturally moving around faster as they get warmer. When the same numbers of ions are moving faster, the apparent conductivity is increased. The relationship between conductivity and temperature is complicated and dependent on the solution being tested.
Pure water responds fairly linearly with temperature, with its conductivity rising by 4.55% for every degree centigrade (2.5% per degree Fahrenheit). Sodium chloride solutions have a smaller change, about 2.12% per degree centigrade. Tap and other natural waters have many different ions in them, and such systems sometimes respond nonlinearly with temperature changes, but not typically to as great of an extent as does pure water.
For this reason, nearly all conductivity meters simultaneously measure the conductivity and the temperature. The internal electronics then take the temperature into account, and normally provide a value that is "corrected" to what the conductivity would be at a standard temperature (25°C). Some use a fixed correction (for example, one manufacturer uses 2.1% per degree centigrade, another uses 1.9% per degree centigrade). More expensive units often allow the user to select the temperature coefficient (I'd use about 2-3% per degree centigrade for tap water). Others even allow nonlinear corrections to be used. If your meter allows that, I'd pick that option as it is likely a fixed correction that is optimized for fresh water systems (often called nLF). Some very advanced meters also allow nonlinear correction for ultrapure water. If your meter uses either of these nonlinear corrections, it will clearly say so in the provided manual.
In short, since conductivity meters typically correct for temperature changes, the conductivity of the water sample can be measured regardless of the temperature of the sample.
What Do the Units "ppm" Mean?
The units of measurement that TDS meters use are even more confusing than the name TDS. Conductivity meters (including TDS meters) always work by first measuring conductivity. Conductivity in solutions always has units that relate to resistance. Often those units are mS/cm (microsiemens per centimeter), but for solutions with higher conductivity, mS/cm (millisiemens per centimeter) is typically used (for example, normal seawater has a conductivity of about 53 mS/cm). For reference, the conductivity of totally pure water is 0.055 mS/cm.
[[Aside: Often the purity of very pure water is presented in units of resistance, or Mohms (megaohms). In that case, totally pure water has a resistance of 18 Mohms, which is just 1/conductivity in mS/cm. Also, for curiosity, the highest known conductivity of an aqueous solution is that for 31% nitric acid, at 865 mS/cm.]]
Unfortunately, TDS meters do not typically provide a result in unambiguous conductivity units. They internally convert their conductivity measurement into a different unit: parts per million or ppm. Parts per million is the same as mg/kg. So these devices are somehow converting the conductivity unit into a weight based unit. The problem is that different users and different devices can define that conversion differently.
If you choose a meter that reads in mS/cm, then all of the concern about ppm units that is described below can be eliminated. The Pinpoint Conductivity meter is such a unit (Figure 2). Some devices allow either unit to be displayed, although these are usually more expensive, such as the Oakton Con 200 (Figure 3).
True TDS meters (that only give output in TDS units, such as the Oakton TDS Tester shown in Figure 4) typically convert the conductivity reading into the ppm concentration of some salt that would give the same measured conductivity. For example, it might be set to give as its output the concentration of sodium chloride (NaCl) that would give that same conductivity. So if the device detected 447 mS/cm, it might display that as 215.5 ppm, as that is the concentration of sodium chloride that gives that same conductivity.
Unfortunately, there is no single exact conversion between conductivity and ppm NaCl as the conductivity of a sodium chloride solution is not linear with concentration (that is, 20 ppm NaCl is slightly less conductive than twice that of 10 ppm NaCl, the reasons for which are beyond this article, but in a sense, the more ions there are in solution, the more they interfere with each other in terms of sensing the voltage, and in terms of moving in response to it). Nevertheless, for values in the range sensed by most TDS meters, a rough conversion is that 1 ppm NaCl = 2.1 mS/cm.
Now the fun really begins. The problem with such devices, at least when not carefully calibrated, is that it is not clear whether it is referring to ppm of sodium chloride equivalents, or to something else. Potassium chloride (KCl) is actually used as the standard more often than sodium chloride. Additionally, researchers often use something called 442, which is a mixture of sodium sulfate (40%), sodium bicarbonate (40%) and sodium chloride (20%). The 442 mixture is designed to mimic the ions often present in natural fresh water systems.
These systems all have slightly different relationships between concentration (in ppm) and conductivity (in mS/cm). Table 2 shows this relationship for some commercial conductivity standards made by Oakton. For many aquarium purposes, it may make little difference whether the true value corresponds to 10 ppm NaCl or 10 ppm 442, but there is a 30-70% difference in the measured conductivity and hence in the total ions present. Consequently, two aquarists using different meters (which may use different standards) may get substantially different results on the same water. Of course, if you calibrate the meter yourself (if that is possible, not all meters can be calibrated), instead of accepting a factory calibration, then you eliminate this concern since you know exactly what you calibrated with.
Table 2. Conductivity and ppm values for various commercial standards made by Oakton.
Tips for Using TDS Meters
1. Always rinse the business end of TDS and conductivity meters before and after each use with as clean fresh water as you have available. The buildup of salts will interfere with proper operation, and the carryover of salts from one solution to another can skew the readings.
2. Do not touch or otherwise abrade the electrode surfaces, except with a soft, nonabrasive cloth.
3. Clean the electrodes, when necessary, by soaking the tip in acid (e.g., vinegar or diluted hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid)) and then rinsing well in water. If it is heavily fouled with organic material, soaking the tip in alcohol or bleach may help. Gentle wiping with a soft, nonabrasive cloth may also be acceptable.
4. If you care what the exact readings mean, be sure to calibrate the meter using a commercial standard. Some meters may require an exact standard, or any of several standards with a preset value, so get the meter first and see what you need. Home improvement, Halloween costumes, and more on Menards Ad. One standard is adequate. If all you care about is whether the reading is zero or not (for testing water purification systems), then calibration may not be important.
5. Nearly all conductivity (TDS) meters have automatic temperature compensation over the range from 0 to 50ºC. Even the least expensive units usually do this. If for some reason yours does not, the standard temperature for taking readings is 25ºC. Just be aware that readings in cooler temperatures will be artificially low if it is not corrected (about 2-4% per degree centigrade).
6. Only very expensive meters have cell constant adjustment. The "cell constant" is another word for calibration, but is somewhat more sophisticated as some units allow you to use different electrode assemblies optimized for different types of solutions. For example, some are optimized for low, medium, or high conductivities in the solutions to be tested. The meter would have to know what kind of electrode assembly it was attached to, if it were allowed to be changed. Most TDS meters will not permit this change.
7. If you are using a TDS or conductivity meter to monitor the performance of an RO membrane, then the measured value should drop by at least a factor of 10 from the starting tap water. So, for example, if the tap water reads 231 ppm, then the RO water should be less than 23 ppm. In many cases, it will drop much more than that. Less of a drop than a factor of 10 indicates a problem with the RO membrane.
8. If you are using a TDS or conductivity meter to monitor the performance of an RO/DI system, then the measured value should drop to near zero. Maybe 0-1 ppm. Higher values indicate that something is not functioning properly, or that the DI resin is becoming saturated and needs replacement. However, that does not necessarily mean that 2 ppm water is not OK to use. But beware that it may begin to rise fairly sharply when the resin becomes saturated. Do not agonize over 1 ppm vs. zero ppm. While pure water has a TDS well below 1 ppm, uncertainties from carbon dioxide in the air (which gets into the water and ionizes to provide some conductivity) and the TDS meter itself may yield results of 1 or 2 ppm even from pure water.
9. If you are using a TDS or conductivity meter to monitor the saturation of limewater, then it will have to be able to read as high as 10.5 mS/cm (about 9300 ppm of 442 equivalents). This linked article describes how that is done.
10. If you are using a TDS or conductivity meter to monitor the salinity of a marine aquarium, you will have to be able to read up to about 53 mS/cm (about 53,000 ppm of 442 equivalents). I do not suggest trying to determine salinity from diluted samples, as the conductivity of seawater does not drop linearly with dilution.
11. You can measure the TDS of a water sample in any way that is convenient given the water and the meter being used. The primary consideration is that the entire electrode assembly must be submerged in the sample without a lot of bubbles or solids present between the electrodes. So, for example, you cannot typically get a good reading by holding it in a stream of tap water because air often gets between the electrodes that way (resulting in an artificially low reading).
I hope this information proves useful in using your TDS meter successfully!
Happy Reefing!
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