text:
|Bowie, Md.
|High School:
|Thomas Wootton
|Mathematics with Computer Science
2011-12: Competed in seven regattas as the crew...finished seventh in the A Division of the Charles River Invitational (10/2)...competed in the both the A and B Divisions of the Navy Intersectional (3/11), finishing 14th and 15th, respectively...contributed to MIT's eighth-place finish at the Duplin Trophy (3/25)...ranked eighth in the B Division of the President's Trophy (4/8)...was 15th in the B Division of the Emily Wick Trophy (4/15) and the George Morris Trophy (4/29).
2010-11: Competed in two regattas as the crew...member of A Division boat that finished fifth in the Central Series 4 (4/9)...captured first place at the Midweek Tech Invite (4/12).
On Dry Land at MIT: Majoring in mathematics with computer science...was a market analyst intern with an asset management company in Shanghai, China...conducting a UROP with MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence where she is a software/web developer with the specifica project in the Climate CoLab.
High School: A 2010 graduate of Thomas Wootton High School...competed on the indoor track and field team...Maryland Scholar...National Scholar...two-time first place finisher at regional TEAMS engineering competition...first place at Newton's Nightmare physics competition.
Personal: Daughter of Forrest Zhang.


text: Experts agree that the need to assess large sample collections that number in the tens of thousands is fundamental to modern human genetic studies and recent studies in diabetes and breast cancer have illustrated this. Significant advances in genetic analyses of autism will require this level of ascertainment while being both rapid and affordable. Currently DNA is available on only a few thousand individuals with autism worldwide. This proposal aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a mechanism for large-scale subject recruitment with DNA collection. The investigators propose to recruit within the Interactive Autism Network (IAN) and validate the accuracy and utility of the resulting collected samples. As the centerpiece of this pilot project, the investigators will collect DNA from 3,000 affected children in just a one-year time period, using mailer-based saliva collection kits. What this means for people with autism: The proposed studies have the potential to revolutionize the way in which subjects with autism are recruited for research studies. By correlating fast internet-based assessments with traditional diagnostic procedures, the investigators have proposed to double the number of autism subjects with genetic samples that are currently available. This will allow the genetic risk factors for autism to be uncovered in a much more meaningful timeframe, permitting clinical investigators to focus on development of diagnostics and targeted biological therapeutics.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Emma Bunton
Celebrity Babes Home / Entertainment ChannelBlonde, British and Beautiful, solo artist Emma Bunton has enough B's to make any parent happy on report card day. The former Spice Girl has shown on any occasion that she's got the good grades to make it on her own, but now she's out there proving it to anyone who might have doubted her in the first place with a solo career that rivals any British superstar. No longer known as Baby Spice, Emma was born in 1976 in North London where she showed her desire to perform at an early age. After seeing Olivia Newton-John in "Grease" and experiencing an entire decade dominated by Madonna, Emma was set on becoming a singer. The young performer went on to attend the Sylvia Young Theater School, but because she came from a low-income household, Emma was forced to drop out after a few short months. She was later offered a scholarship by the same theater school where she finished her education.
After graduation, Emma made some extra cash as a model and commercial actress before being cast as a troubled youth in the BBC soap opera "Eastenders." Two years later, Emma answered an ad in a trade paper looking for young female singers to form a band called Touch, but the name was shortly changed to the Spice Girls. Following a year of training under their original manager, the girls got impatient of waiting for a record deal and left for Virgin Records to sign a new contract. The Spice Girls released their first album "Spice" in 1996 and the group exploded on to the pop scene with incredible media attention that led to extensive tours and a merchandising frenzy that hadn't occurred since the immense popularity of boy band New Kids on the Block. Several years later, Geri Halliwell led the group to new management once again before leaving the group to pursue a solo career. The other four girls shortly followed suit, but Emma was among the last to make her way into the studio. Nearly a decade since the group was first formed, Emma is now the most successful solo artist of the quintet and is ready to conquer the US all over again.
Dating Info: Get More Women Now!
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Emma Bunton on the WebEmma Bunton
The official website of Emma includes updated news on her latest projects, an online diary, album samples and a small picture gallery.
An online database of Emma's many TV appearances.
Yahoo! LAUNCH
A decent artist page from Yahoo! that includes access to music videos, album information and pictures.
Emma News
A great fan site with info on the aspiring solo act, updated news and a nice collection of multimedia.
Best Eye Candy
A sexy collection of over 100 photos.
Emma Bunton on the Radio and ScreenEmma's musical career and future is among the best of her former bandmates because of her natural voice and simple transition from girly pop star to mature artist. While with the Spice Girls, Emma appeared on all three of their albums (Spice, Spice World and Forever) and also starred in the film "Spice World" as herself. Emma's solo career launched in 2001 with her debut release A Girl Like Me and has followed up its overseas success with her new album, Free Me.
Emma SaysOn proper manners:
"Be sweet and honest always, but for God's sake don't eat my doughnuts!"


text:
We are continuing in our study of the 15thChapter of 1 Corinthians, coming this morning to verses 29 through 34. 1 Corinthians 15:29 to 34. Now there are some of you persistent Bible students in this congregation who have asked me to interpret 1 Corinthians 15:29 for the nine years that I've been here, and I have stalled you off until this very hour. And how I can no longer stall you because here we are, at a very, very difficult passage in the Scripture that we'll endeavor to gain an understanding of as we look at this morning.
Now, I've entitled this passage the incentives of resurrection, the incentives of resurrection. And just a basic principle to start with that'll help you to understand the approach we want to take, all doctrine, whether it's the doctrine of resurrection or any other doctrine in the Bible, all Bible doctrine, all theology, all truth in Scripture is given in order that it might bring about a practical response.
Scripture is never intended to be theory. It is always intended to have practical incentive built into it. Right doctrine leads to right behavior. Right principles lead to right conduct, that's the way the Bible goes. God lays out certain truth and then expects certain kinds of behavior in response to that.
The theology of Scripture is not something just to be discussed and just to be talked about among theologians, just to be adhered to in creeds. It is something to be lived out and inherited all theology, all truth about God is the fact that a practical response is commanded by the very truth itself.
A good illustration of this would be to draw you back in your Bible to the 12thChapter of Romans just to point out what I mean in this principle. In the 12thChapter of Romans, the first part of the verse, verse 1, says this, "I beseech therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice." Now we stop right there. This is the first exhortation given to the believer in the book of Romans, for all in tense and purposes. This is it.
It doesn't come until the 12thChapter, which means there are 11 chapters of theology. The greatest theological treatise in the New Testament is the first 11 chapters of Romans. And after all of that theology, all of that truth about God, all of that pure doctrine, finally he says, "therefore," and therefore is the key word in Chapter 12. "Therefore, on the basis of all of these doctrines," which he calls by the way the mercies of God, all of these things that are connected with the nature of a merciful God, all of these theological truths because they are presented therefore you are to present your body as a living sacrifice.
So after 11 chapters of theology, then you have the exhortation to behavior. It is always characteristic of the apostle Paul that Christian ethics or Christian behavior or Christian morality rises off of the foundation of redemptive accomplishments. You feel in Romans 1 to 11 that Paul's mind is sweeping and searching across the infinities of the nature of God. And he's grabbing every...every salient point out of God's nature and the whole of theology. And after he's been all up in the infinities dealing with that, all of a sudden he comes down to earth and he says, "now brothers, therefore, this is required of you."
Now every great theological truth has practical implication. In fact, in Psalms 116, we come to what really could be said to be a response to the whole book of Psalms. The whole book of Psalms discusses who God is and what he's done. Who God is and what he's done. And then you get to 116:12, and you hear the Psalmist say this, "What shall I render the Lord for all His benefits for me."
In other words, all that He is and all that He has done lays up on me, the necessity to render to God something of myself in response. Now you have it again illustrated, I think, well in the 7thof Luke, and I want you to look at, because I want to establish this principle in your mind from this passage. In Luke 7, verse 40, Jesus answering and He said unto Simon, now watch this, "Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee." And he said, "Master, say on." "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. The one owed five hundred danereiand the other fifty. And a Danereous would be a day's work, so that's a lot. On owed five hundred days work, one fifty in money.
"And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him more or most?" Simon answered and said, "I suppose that he to whom he forgave most." And He said unto him, "Thou hast rightly judged." Now, this is what that's saying, our response is in measure to the degree that God has benefited us. In other words, we must look and see what God has done and respond in kind to the magnanimous comprehensive work of God on our behalf.
That's the essence of this principle. First of all, you see the sweep of what God has done, and then there is to be a response in our lives that fits the comprehensiveness, the totality of the grace of God on our behalf. Very simple principle, and yet very, very important. Now, as we come to 1 Corinthians 15:29, this is precisely what Paul is dealing with here. He is saying look, the whole concept of resurrection truth lays out some very strong imperatives. Because the resurrection is a reality and he has established that in the first 28 verses beyond doubt, because the resurrection is a reality, because the resurrection is a fact, it carries with it some great incentives or some great motivations. If we remove bodily resurrection, we lose those incentives. We lose those motivations.
Paul wants to say here, we can't people to present their bodies to Christ. We can't get people to come to Christ. We can't get people to serve Christ. We can't people to live a holy life if we don't have a resurrection. And so again, we see that Paul's approach in this chapter is to say to the critics in verse 12 there, who said there's no resurrection. If you say that, here's what you've done. And in this little section, he says in effect what you've done is to remove some major incentives out of Christian living.
Principles of behavior. And what it boils down to is this, people are not going to give their life to something they don't really have hope in. And if you tell people there's no bodily resurrection, what makes you think for a minute they're going to bother with Christianity? Or what makes you think they're going to live a sacrificial life? Or what makes you think they're going to set their life apart to holiness if there's no resurrection, if there there's no consequences, if there's no rewards, if there's no punishments, if there's never any accountability? That's the essence of this chapter.
On the other hand, if there is resurrection, if we will face Christ, if we will have to be at the judgment seat of Christ, if there will be a day of reunion in heaven, if there will be a time when we dwell with the Lord Jesus and the saints and the ages forever, if there are those things in eternity for which we hope and in which we can believe, then there is incentive for this life.
That's his point. I'm sure you would agree with me that nothing short of the confidence of resurrection hope would ever have allowed Stephen to lay beneath the stones while his life was being crushed out and asked for forgiveness for those who did it. Nothing less than resurrection hope could have allowed as tradition tells us. Andrew to be crucified by being tied to a cross and left there for days until he was dead. Nothing less than resurrection hope would have left Peter to live his life out for Christ, finally to be crucified upside down again as tradition reminds us. If it wasn't that he believed that someday he'd see his master face to face and hear well done Peter.
And that some day he'd be in heaven and see some of the fruit of his labor. And I'm sure nothing but resurrection hope would have allowed the apostle Paul to give his life continually and finally to put his head on a block and have it severed from his body, nothing less in resurrection hope would have made him do that. He did it with absolute faith that he would see Christ and that he would see the people he loved and won to Christ in this life and he'd part of the redeemed community forever with God.
It was that kind of hope that was incentive to those kinds of people. Now if you remove the possibility of resurrection you have removed this great, great incentive. That's what he's saying. Now, he picks out three areas, three incentives. He says if you remove the resurrection, you have removed an incentive to salvation, you have removed an incentive to service, and you have removed an incentive to sanctification.
He zeroes in on three key powerful incentives that would be lost without the belief in the bodily resurrection. Now you see bodily resurrection is the faith that some day, after we die, we will live again in a glorified body in a resurrection body. A body like, but unlike, the one we have. But the point is that we will rise again to be who we are minus our sin, and to dwell with God forever as who we are.
There is real resurrection for us as individuals. Now, this is what Paul has been through in the first 28 verses. This great hope is at the heart of the Christian faith and the gospel. If you remove that, first of all, you remove a great incentive to salvation. That's his first point. Let's look at it in verse 29.
"Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" Now that verse beloved has between 40 and 400 interpretations. Any one of which might be right with some exceptions. What it's saying, I really don't know. I'll be very honest with you. I do not know. I will...I will take a calculated risk. I will throw myself at your mercy this morning and you can determine whether or not there's much ground for my conclusion.
But believe me, you don't hardly have time during one week to study 40 views intelligently, let alone to come to a conclusion, but I have one anyway and I'll offer it to you. I will not be dogmatic on this, simply because this is one passage that is so obscure and so difficult that we couldn't be dogmatic, but we can draw some conclusions that I think the context sort of lends itself to.
Now, let me give you a basic point that I'm working with as a result of working over the text. By the way, I started with a completely different view on Monday than I wound up with on Friday. In fact, I was very surprised at my conclusion. I think three people talk to me during the week and I told them three different views that I was holding on that day.
But anyway, this is Sunday morning and here we are. Ask me tomorrow, you don't know where I'll be. But anyway, I think that the context lends itself to the fact that Paul is trying to point out things that would be lost if we give up bodily resurrection. And so in my mind, there must be legitimate things. And there's much reason for that. I just make that statement to you.
But I think what Paul is saying here is simply this, people get saved because they anticipate resurrection. In other words, one of the strongest incentives for people to become Christians is the hope of resurrection. You know, it...to become Christian means you don't have to look at the bleakness of the...of the grave. You can have resurrection hope.
To become a Christian means that you can be rejoined with everybody else as a Christian and spend eternity with them. To become a Christian means you can enter into heaven and dwell with God and live in His celestial kingdom and all the marvels of that kind of afterlife. You see, that in itself is a great incentive for salvation. And I think essentially that's what Paul is saying here.
Now I know you're saying well, I don't see it. Well, I'm going to try to help you. Let's look first of all at the simple statements in the verse. "What shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?"
Now the Mormon church takes this verse and they take what appears on the surface to be the most obvious view, that somebody is baptized for a dead person. And the Mormons call it vicarious baptism. And they teach...and incidentally you might note that that is not common only to Mormonism. That was a heresy taught by two ancient fathers in the church known as Cerenthand Marcien. They both believe this. In fact, it was branded as heresy even then.
But they say Paul is saying this that a Christian who is alive and has been baptized can get rebaptized for a dead person so that the dead person can get saved by proxy. Okay? So like if you're great dear friend at work dies without the Lord, you can come here and get baptized for that dead person and by proxy he'll get saved. The Mormons, of course, teach that the spirits of those who have died can't enter heaven unless a Mormon is baptized for them by proxy.
Now it's obvious, I think, to all of us that we don't believe that. Proxy baptism, vicarious baptism could only be extrapolated out of this text, and there's a simple principle, a biblical interpretation. You never generate a doctrine out of an obscure text when no other text in the Bible teaches it.
I mean, you...that's mercilessly attacking the Bible with your own bias and making it say what you want it to say and you can't do that. The person who gets baptized himself doesn't get saved by being baptized let alone a dead person. We believe you're saved by faith in Jesus Christ, right? And baptism is simply an act of obedient faith that proclaims that...that testimony of salvation. But no one is saved by baptism. Not living people to say nothing of dead ones.
It is a point unto men once to die the Bible says and after this the baptism? After this, the judgment. Christian baptism is in view in this verse. Let's look at that. You see the term baptize. Let's take it piece by piece. The term baptize is referring to Christian baptism I believe. It's the normal term. Some would assign it to some pagan custom, but it seems rather undefined, the most common understanding of this to anybody reading it would be Christian baptism. And I don't see any reason to make it any other thing.
Some people are being baptized in a Christian manner. Some people are coming to Christ is what it's literally saying. Now mark this in your thinking. Whenever you see in the New Testament the idea of being baptized, it always has a relationship to salvation unless it's talking about something like the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a spiritual thing. But when you're talking about water baptism in the New Testament it is something that is synonymous with salvation. And that goes all the way back to the words of Jesus in the great commission. Because Jesus said, "Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing and teaching."
And He didn't teach baptismal regeneration. He didn't mean save them by dunking them. What He was saying was, "Go into all the world and make disciples, first by winning them to Christ and then by teaching them." In other words, from the very utterance of Jesus, baptism was a term used synonymously with salvation.
And you see those terms used that way in many cases. When Paul talks, for example to the people in Acts 19 who were disciples of John and asked them if they've been baptized. He's not talking about some ritual. He's really wanting to know if they've been saved by faith in Christ.
So those are synonymous. So in that sense of synonym, when you look here and see this, you could read it this way. "What shall they do who are saved?" In other words, it's synonymous with them being saved. Some people, and note that they would probably be somebody who is not a Christian, the we in the next verse referring to the believers and particularly the apostolic group, and so he's pointing off into the distance and says "What about those people, unbelievers who are being saved and baptism being the outward symbol of it."
Now we go to the next word, for and then the dead. Now could somebody get saved for the dead? Well, let's look again at the next word for. And this becomes arbitrary all the way along the line, but I want you to see how this one view seems to hang together. The word for here is huparein the Greek. Now that word can be translated by no less than probably 12 different words.
It could be translated over the dead, above the dead, across the dead, beyond the dead, on behalf of the dead, instead of the dead, in the name of the dead, because of the dead, in reference to the dead, or with regard to the dead. And we see a little of the problem. And all of those translations would be if the context permits and the case permits accurate.
So what you really find out is you have to pick one. And as I look at it, I think perhaps the best one would be a causal use and that we could translate it because of. Huparecan be translated because of and it would read this way, some people, unbelieving people are being saved because of the dead. Now it is most likely that the dead have reference to Christians. The dead.
Now, why would they do that if the dead don't rise? Now let me give it to you simply. There are some people who come to Christ and are saved because of some dead person or persons. What do I mean by that? Just this. There are two things I think in this particular area that draw people to Christ. One is this, an unbeliever sees a Christian and he watches that Christian face death. And that Christian has hope and confidence. He is encouraged. He anticipates being with Jesus. For example, Mike McKillipwas told that he would just have a little while to live. Now they really don't know how long, but originally he had a little while to live. He...his response was oh, then I get to be with Jesus all the sooner.
Mike's a young man in our church. Then I get to be with Jesus all the sooner. As a result of that, hearing that, and knowing that somebody came to Christ. In other words, the hope of the Christian in the face of death becomes an incentive for other people who look at death so fearfully so blackly and so bleakly.
So that sometimes when a Christian dies the very death of that Christian with confidence and faith and hope can actually be the thing that draws somebody else to Christ. I'll give you an illustration of it. I found an article about seven soldiers of the Red Army during a period in the Finish-Russian War. It was written by an imminent engineer in Finland by the name of Nordenburg who was actually in on the experience. This is what he said, "I offered my services to the government and was appointed an officer in General Manerhiem's army. It was a terrible time. We besieged a town that had been taken by the Red Army and we overtook it.
A number of Red prisoners were under my guard and seven of them were to be shot at dawn on Monday. I will never forget the preceding day. The seven men were kept in the basement of the town hall and in the passage, my men stood at attention with their rifles. The atmosphere was filled with hatred. My soldiers were drunk with success and taunted their prisoners, some swore and beat on the walls with their bleeding fists, others called for their wives and children who were far away because they knew at dawn they were all to die. We had the victory.
That was true enough, but the value of it seemed to diminish as the night advanced. Then something strange happened. One of the men doomed to death began to sing. He is mad was everyone's first thought, but I had noticed that this man whose name was Koscanen, had not raved and cursed. Quietly he sat on his bench. Nobody said anything to him. Each was carrying his burden in his own way. Koscanen sang rather waveringly at first and then his voice grew stronger and became natural and free. And all the prisoners turned and looked at him as he sang these words. "Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe on His gentle breast, thereby His love are shaded sweetly my soul shall rest. Hark it's the voice of angels born in the song to me over the fields of jasper, over the crystal sea."
Over and over again he sang that verse, and when he had finished everyone was quiet for a few minutes and then a wild looking man broke out and said "where did you get that you fool, are you trying to make us religious?" Koscanen looked at his comrades with tear-filled eyes as quietly he said, "comrades, will you listen to me for a minute? You asked me where I got this song, it was from the Salvation Army.
I heard it three weeks ago. My mother sang about Jesus and prayed to Him often." He stopped a little while as if to gather strength and then he rose to his being the soldier that he was and looked straight in front of him and said, "it's cowardly to hide your beliefs, the God my mother believed in is now my God. I can't tell how it happened, but last night as I lay awake I suddenly saw mother's face before me. It reminded me of the song I had heard. I felt I had to find the Savior and hide in Him. I prayed that Christ would forgive me and cleanse my sinful soul and make me ready to stand before Him.
It was a strange night, there times when everything seemed to shine around me. Verses from the Bible and the song book came to mind. It was God's answer to my prayer. I couldn't keep it to myself. Within a few hours I shall be with the Lord, but saved by His grace."
Koscanen's face shown as if by an inward light is comrades sat quietly. He himself stood transfixed. My soldiers were listening to what this Red revolutionary had to say. "You're right," Koscanen, said one of his comrades at last. "If only I knew there was mercy for me too, but these hands of mine have shed blood and now I've reviled God and trampled on all that is holy and I realize there is a Hell and that's the proper place for me." And sank to the ground in despair. "Pray for me Koscanen," he groaned. "Tomorrow I shall die and my soul will be in the hands of the devil."
These two Red soldiers went down to their knees and prayed for each other. It was no long prayer, but it reached heaven and we who listen to it forgot our hatred. It melted in the light of heaven, for here were two men who were soon to die seeking reconciliation with their God.
The change in the atmosphere was indescribable. Some of the men sat on the floor, some on the benches, some wept quietly and another talked of spiritual things. None of us had a Bible, but the Spirit of God was speaking to all of us. The night was almost gone and the day was dawning. No one slept a moment. "Sing the song once more for us Koscanen," said one of them and you should have heard them sing not only that song, but verses and choruses long forgotten. The soldiers on guard united with them for the power of God had touched everyone. Everything changed in the venerable town hall basement resounded in the early morning hour with the songs of the blood of the lamb. The clock struck 6:00 and how I wished I could beg mercy for these men, but I knew it was impossible.
Between two rows of soldiers, they marched out to the place of execution. One of them asked to be allowed to sing Koscanen's song once again and permission was granted. And then they asked to be allowed to die with uncovered faces and so with hands lifted to heaven they sang with might and mane "Safe in the arms of Jesus." And when the last line had died out the Lieutenant gave the word fire, and we clinched our heads in silent prayer.
What happened in the hearts of the others I don't know, but as far as I was concerned I saw a new man. I was a new man from that hour. I had met Christ and one of His loveliest and youngest disciples and I had seen enough to realize that I too could be His."
That's a beautiful story isn't it? And you know, there have been people come to Christ simply because they've seen the hope in the heart of a believer. And what Paul was saying here possible is just that. If there is no resurrection, then why are some unbelievers being baptized because of the great hope they see in those that have died? See, if there's no resurrection, why?
There's a second element to this. You know another great thing in death that is a cause for people to be saved is the hope of reunion. Do you know that? I've never had a funeral in which I didn't give that word. You say to someone who's a Christian that's died and you'll say, "you know, this person knew and loved the Lord Jesus Christ and they went to be with Him and if you will come to Christ, you can be rejoined with this one you love," right?
You've heard that at funerals. I would dare some of you came to Christ because you wanted to be reunited with somebody you loved who went to be with the Lord.
That happens all the time, all the time. I've seen a husband who wouldn't come to Christ for any other reason, finally come to Christ when his wife died, because he wanted to be reunited. I've seen it happen in the case of a mother dying and a child who had been wayward and rebellious come to Jesus Christ in the hope that he would be reunited with his mother, reunion.
Paul is saying look, if there's no reunions, if there's no fulfillment to hope, why are people getting saved? Because of this anticipation that they see in the hearts and lives of Christians. James Boyer, who takes this view in his commentary on Corinthians says, "the hope of the resurrection is held by saved people was after they died a powerful incentive to their loved ones still living to be saved and baptized."
Well, reunion is a great, great incentive. The anticipation of the hope of resurrection is a great, great incentive. If there's no resurrection, we don't have that incentive. We have to say to somebody look, you loved one is dead, but don't worry, it's nothing. You know, it all ends there. Redemptive history winds up as Ladd says in a cul-de-sac in a Palestinian grave. It's all over there. You'll never see them again away, so you can understand what that would do to one incentive for salvation.
By the way, the hope of believers throughout all of the Scripture has always been of reunion after death, did you know that? Believers have always hoped that. Clear back in Genesis 37 where you have a very undefined view of life after death early in Genesis. You find this in the heart of Jacob. And Jacob is talking about the fact that he doesn't think he'll ever see Joseph again because Joseph's brothers have made Jacob think he's dead.
They brought in a blood spattered coat and so Jacob tore his clothes and put sack cloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. Genesis 37:35, "And all his sons and all his daughters rose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted." And this is what he said, "I will go down to the grave to my son mourning." He was sad, but he had the hope in his heart that when he died, he would be rejoined with his son. That's always been in the heart of believing people.
When David's little son died, that little son born of that illegitimate union with Bathsheba, when that little baby died and David's heart was broken, he said, "look he cannot come to me, but," what, "I shall go to him." He had that confidence.
In Matthew Chapter 22 in verses 30 and following Jesus and dealing with the subject of resurrection said, "You missed the point because you don't understand God and what you don't understand about God is that He is the God of the living, not the dead. He's the God of the living Abraham, the living Isaac, and a living Jacob."
And the Thessalonian Christians, you know, they were all uptight. The Thessalonians believe that Jesus was going to come at any minute. They believe He was going to come at any moment. And in that tremendous confidence and in that tremendous belief, they were having problems because they were saying boy, we're going to glorified, Jesus is going to come, the Christians who've died, have they missed it all? Have they missed it all?
They're just in the grave, they were victimized perhaps by the philosophy that was dominant in their time. And so the apostle Paul writes to them in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and says, "Brethren I don't want you to be ignorant concerning those who sleep." Don't sorrow like the people with no hope. Don't sorrow like the Greeks who don't believe in life after death or resurrection. "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who's sleep in Jesus will God," what, "bring with Him."
You don't have to fear. We're going to be reunited. They'll all be there, reunion again. Reunion has always been in the heart of the believers. And many have come to Christ because of the hope of reunion. Many have come to Christ because they've seen the confidence of a dying Christian. I can't help but think in Acts 7, when Stephen was being stoned and it says they laid their cloaks, the people stoning them laid their cloaks at the foot of a man named Saul, who turned out to be Paul. I can't help but think the Holy Spirit dropped that little note in there just to kind of let us think that the apostle Paul must have never forgotten the shining of the face of Stephen, the forgiveness in his heart, the hope that he had in the face of death, and just maybe the remembrance of that great hope of dead Stephen was part of the cause for which Paul responded so instantly on the Damascus road.
Maybe the hope of Stephen was a part of what made Paul turn so quickly to Christ. But if the dead don't rise, there's no union with Christ, the grave is the end, there's no way we can look forward to hope that incentive for salvation is lost.
Now Paul says there's a second thing here, back to the 15thChapter. A second thing, if there's no resurrection, we have secondly lost the incentive to service. We have lost the incentive to service. There's really no problem with interpreting this. This is obvious. He says, verse 30, "Why stand we in jeopardy every hour?" He says, look if there's no resurrection why am I doing this? What am I some kind of a masochist?
Why do I stand in jeopardy every hour? Frankly, beloved I really believe that if you remove the hope of resurrection you will tear the motivation right out of all service to Jesus Christ. Why? Because the only thing that makes people willing to suffer, willing to endure, willing to go through all kinds of hardship to do the work of Christ at any cost is the fact that some day that work is going to have eternal results. That some day there's going to be fruit in heaven that they're going to see. That Jesus said would remain. That some day they're going to stand before Jesus and say here I am and I gave the best I had and they're going to hear well done. And that's going to make it worth it.
Listen, if there is nothing more, if we just have our spirits float and get absorbed into some kind of eternal fog, and we aren't going to be who we are now, and the grave is the end, and there's no resurrection like some were saying in the Corinthian church, then there's no reason to give my life as a sacrifice now man. This is all there is. I got to live it up, you know. I'm...I'm going to join the beer commercial. I'm going to grab all the gusto I can get because I only go around once. I'm going to string it out and live it up as long as I can. I'm sure not going to make myself a burning sacrifice, throw my life away and die and go into blackness forever.
Service is predicated on the hope of resurrection. We suffer because see that ahead. I was watching the other night when Ali was fighting Earnie Shavers, and I kept saying to myself, that's crazy. Those two grown men beating on each other and enduring all of that agony. And then a little voice says to me, yeah, I remember MacArthur, you used to play football. Is it any different? Not a lot.
Why do people do that? Why do people punish themselves like that? There's only one reason and that's because of the potential of victory and success and glory, that's all. You take all that away and they won't do that. Same thing's true in the Christian life. You remove all the glory. You remove all the reward. You remove all the eternal consequences. You remove the victory and nobody's going to bother with it.
Paul says, every hour he was in danger. Now somebody's going to say well, Paul...now...now Paul you're speaking a little evangelistically. Paul, you...I realize that's part of the profession to speak in hyperbole like that, but after all every hour Paul? I mean, you do now and then have a little break from jeopardy. So he just get very vehement in verse 31 and he says literally, "I swear I do." And at the end of the verse, the verse really says, I can read it this, "I swear that I die daily." And he's not talking about some great spiritual crucifixion of self. This is not dying daily in the terms of devotion to Christ.
He's saying I swear that every day I'm one step away from dying physically, every day, this is no exaggeration. And he swears...it's interesting that he would be so vehement as to make an oath out of it. The term I swear, which your Bible may say I protest, the Greek particle here that is used to introduce an oath. He's...he wants to really solemnize his point.
And he swears, and it's interesting the way he does it, it's not translated perhaps the best way in the authorized. It should read this way, "I swear by the pride I have in you in Christ." In other words, "I swear it by the pride I have in you in Christ." Now what does this mean? Well, to swear by something means that you're willing to forfeit that something if the word isn't true. So you're really making an equalization.
Let me say it another way. I know it's hard to understand. It's almost Hebraism that we can't translate in a sense. But what...what he is saying is as true as this is so true this is. As true as I am proud of what Christ has done in you, that's how true it is that I die every day. That's really what he's saying.
I swear it. As proud as I am of what Christ has done in you and he was proud of the saving work of Christ in them even they were a mess. He was proud of what Christ had done. He wasn't too proud of what they'd done. As proud as I am of what Christ has done, that's how truly I say to you I die every day. My life is on the line every day, every hour I'm in jeopardy.
Now don't you come along say to me well Paul by the way there's no resurrection. Then he's going to say in verse 32, "If then only in a human way, only from a human viewpoint, only humanly, only after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does that profit me? I should fight beasts for this if there's no resurrection. What a waste." Paul put his life on the line every day, every day.
It came to the end of his life, he said, "I fought the good fight." Every day, every day, read 2 Corinthians Chapter 4 and see all the things he says there. "We're troubled yet not distressed, perplexed not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. Always, always, bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." Always.
The guy went from problem to problem to problem. Well somebody would say well, you know, I know now. And then you get a little problems I remember over there in Damascus you had to come over the wall in a basket. I remember when we had to ship out you one time because the Greeks were trying to kill you. No, then Paul you do have trouble. Paul says, I have it every day and the reason is because Paul only knew one kind of ministry and that was confrontation and he's slammed up against the system every day of his life and generated antagonism, every day.
And then he says don't come to me and tell me I've been doing all this just for this life alone. This is no way to live. I'm just trying to throw this life away and make an investment in the next one. He even said, "I count the things of this life as manure." Didn't he say that? It's a throw away. Throw this life away. Jesus put it another way. "Don't lay up treasure in this world." Throw it away. Give it away. Invest it in the lives of people. Invest it in the kingdom." Don't pile it here. Don't stack it here. Throw this life away, because it's the next one that matters. Now when some Joe comes down the pike and says hey there ain't no next one, Paul says, whoa. I'm too far gone to buy that.
And that's the message here. Throw you life away, it's manure in this life. We'll make the next life meaningful. If you give it God as a living sacrifice. Now people say well what is this about fighting beasts at Ephesus? I don't know that either. You say when did Paul do that? I don't know, because that's the only time it's ever mentioned.
You say are these real beasts? I don't know that either. But it says they're beasts. People say well, it can't be real beasts, because you see we don't have any other record of it. Well, you have this record. How many times does God have to say something to make it true. Well, you say they couldn't be real beasts simply because Paul was a Roman citizen, and a Roman citizen really couldn't suffer that kind of a situation. He couldn't be brought to...into the arena before the beasts.
And Paul, as a Roman citizen, wouldn't have done that. Well, listen, Paul's roman citizenship did get him out of some things, but it may well have been that it didn't get him out of this and those people would have figured if the beasts all eat him, who's going to protest, right? Who's going to write Rome and tell them? Not us and not him either. I don't know. Some say, no, this is a wild beast, it's a metaphor. I know Linskiand his commentary goes on paragraph after paragraph to prove it's a metaphor. And I'm not sure he does, but it might be.
He says it's a...it's really just wild beasts is a metaphor for the wild people at the riot in Acts 19 that occurred in Ephesus, maybe so, I don't know. But whatever is, Paul says, look, verse 30, "All of us apostles are in jeopardy. I particularly am in jeopardy. I die daily. Here's one incident. I had to fight beasts in Ephesus."
By the way there is an old historic church legend that says he did beasts in Ephesus and that they had the same problem that they had in the den of Daniel. They became totally passive and left him alone. That's just a legend. But the point is this, Paul is saying what good is it if it's all a human effort. If it's all just here and now and good-bye and it ends at the grave. What a way to give your life.
And so at the end of the verse he says, look "if the dead rise not, let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die." Folks let's not get all bogged down in this kind of stuff. Let's just live for the sensual. Let's get all we want to eat and all we want to drink. Let's have a party. Let's do all we can. Grab all the gusto, live it out, dead, that's it.
Tomorrow we die, forget it. Like the rich fool, eat, drink, and be merry, tomorrow we die. By the way, that's not anything new. That's a direct quote from Isaiah 22:13 and that's the way people with no resurrection hope have always lived.
That's our society isn't it? That's what Solomon said. Read Ecclesiastes, he keeps saying it over and over again. "I can see nothing better under the sun than to eat and drink and do what you want and have fun and rejoice and then die." Certainly don't go out and give your life a sacrifice every hour of every day for a cause that isn't going to come to pass any way. For a Christ that never rose from the grave.
Classic literature is full of this kind of thought. Herodotus the Greek historian tells one of the customs of the Egyptians. He says, "in social meetings among the rich, when the banquet was ended a servant would often carry around to the guests a coffin. And in the coffin was a wooden image of a corpse carved and painted to resemble a dead person as nearly as possible. And the servant would show it to each of the guests and he would say, 'gaze here and drink and be merry for when you die, such you shall be.'"
That's a great way to end a party. I'll tell you what, that's a great way to get a party going. If you really believe that you are going to party. But the Christian life with it's challenges and dangers and the investment of life and throwing it away is absolutely useless if there's no eternal fruit, right?
Those dear precious saints in the 11thChapter of Hebrews who invested their lives in the kingdom of God at the cost of their own life. It says, listen to this, "Through faith they subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, the obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the violence of the sword, they escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness they were made strong, they became valiant in fight, they turned to fight the armies of the aliens, women receive their dead raised to life, others were tortured not accepting deliverance, others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings and bonds and imprisonments, they were stoned, sawed in half, tested, slain with a sword, wandered in sheep skins and goats skins, destitute, afflicted and tormented, they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth." Why? Why? In verse 35, "That they might obtain a better resurrection."
You take away the resurrection there's no incentive for any of that. And even our dear Lord Jesus in Chapter 12 which follows it right up, it says this, "And Jesus for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is now set down at the right hand of the Father."
You see it was anticipation of resurrection glory that caused Christ to endure the cross. Great principle. If there's no resurrection, there's no motive to endure. There's no motive to serve, so says Paul.
Thirdly, you take away the incentive to salvation, you take away the incentive to service, you take away the incentive, thirdly the sanctification. This is very brief, so note it quickly. Verse 33, "Stop being deceived, evil company corrupts good morals." Make no mistake, he says.
Present tense stop staying in the deceit you're in. Stop following this mistake and notion. You've got to get rid of this heresy about the resurrection. Stop being deceived. You know why? Because, now watch this, evil, and then you have a word here that's most interesting, evil blank corrupts good morals. Now the word hamiliabasically means association. Evil association, however, according to some lexicons, it also carries the meaning of a sermon or a lecture.
Now if we combine those two meanings, this is kind of what we get, stop being deceived. Hanging around evil people giving evil messages will lead to evil morals. Or if you wanted to just squish it all together, bad theology corrupts good morals. The idea here is associating with somebody who's teaching bad theology. Hanging around and evil lecture. And evil association with an evil individual giving an evil lecture would be the...the combination of significances of the term in Greek.
And verse 34 note it says in the middle of the verse, "some have not the knowledge of God." See some in the church didn't know God truly, didn't know God's teaching truly and so they were espousing heresy and listen to this, now here's our point that we made at the beginning of the message, bad theology leads to bad behavior just like good theology leads to good behavior.
Just like because of all God has done because of this truth, you are to so live, so if you introduce error, you're going to have corrupt morals. So he says stop being deceived. Bad theology will corrupt your good morals. You've got to break the association with these people teaching this heresy.
You can't run around with heretics without it having a corrupting influence. In other words, what he's saying is look, holiness is predicated on association with good teaching. If you deny the truth of the resurrection you have removed an incentive to good living.
You know, one of the reasons that I live the way I live is because I have to stand before the Lord and give account, right? When after in the end of Chapter 1 of Acts the Lord had given all the instructions about the kingdom and given them everything they needed to know and said now go to it men, He ascended into heaven and the angels said, "this same Jesus who was taken up from you shall so come in like manners you've seen him go and don't you forget it." He'll be back to check on how you did.
And so he's saying look the resurrection, confidence in that resurrection will draw your heart to holiness. And he says in 34, "awake to righteousness and stop sinning." But if...but you won't be able to do that if you run around people who don't know God, who teach bad theology, you're going to come up with bad living. You tell a guy there's no resurrection, there's no life after death and watch the way he lives.
Thecidadiesrecords how that when the deadly plague came to Athens, he says, people committed every shameful crime and eagerly snatched at every lustful pleasure because they believed life was short and there was no resurrection so they would have to pay no price for their vice.
Horace gives his philosophy. He says, "tell them to bring wine and perfume and the two short-lived blossoms of the lovely rose while circumstance and age and the black threads of the three sisters fate still allow us to do so."
Catulluswrites a famous poem, one of the most famous poems ever, he says this, "Let's live my lesbia and let's love value the tales of austere old man and a single half penny, suns can set and then return again, but for us when once our brief light sets there is but one perpetual night through which we must sleep. So Lesbia let's live it up babe. Let's love. It'll all be over." Take away the thought of life to come. Take away the thought of accountability to God. And you take away the incentive to sanctification and holiness.
Life loses its value and morality is motive. Bad theology. A theology without resurrection is a theology that doesn't know God and that kind of theology leads to bad living. And he says you people better turn it around. Look at verse 34, "and wake up to righteousness."
And he says it at the end of the 34thverse, "I'm ashamed that I have to remind you because you should have known." You should have known. You see beloved the resurrection has tremendous implications. If Jesus rises from the dead, if He is alive, and we shall live also, then there is an incentive for people to be saved because there's hope after death and there's reunion.
There is an incentive for people to serve Jesus Christ because you can throw this life away and know that you're going to get it a million fold in the life to come. There is an incentive to sanctification because morality will be honored and rewarded in the days to come. And anything less than that is shameful heresy and will corrupt the truth. And so Paul says, hold to the resurrection.
Let's pray together. Father we thank you for the truths that we've shared this morning. And we know that these are true things. We trust they're the intention of the writer in this text. We know above all that they're true. We pray that we might so live in the face of death that others seeing us even die will be drawn to Christ that they too might have such hope. We trust that some in our midst this morning may even be drawn to Jesus Christ because the desire is so strong in their heart to be joined to someone they love.
It's enough to think of even having reunion with Jesus Christ, that's enough to draw us to be baptized in His name. Father, help us to know that because we shall live forever in the next life we should give ourselves to suffering service, we should give our lives totally, spend them, throw them away as it were like manure so that we may lay up treasure in heaven.
Help us too Father to realize that what we believe about the future is going to determine how we live in the present. Help us to live as those who must give account. Help us to live as those who can stand before your face unashamed and boldly say by the power of the Spirit of God, I endeavor to so live to honor the King. May we accept the incentives of resurrection that we might be to the praise of Your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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Hayward heroics
EUGENE -- McMinnville kept up with the field in the field but had its ups and downs on the track at the OSAA State Track and Field Championships, held Friday and Saturday at Hayward Field.
Senior Tim Tatton finished second in the Class 6A boys' discus throw on Friday, recording a mark of 163 feet, 1 inch on his second attempt. That made up for a 6A shot put performance in which Tatton fouled on all three attempts.
Tatton added five team points for the Grizzlies in the boys' javelin throw on Saturday with a mark of 179-10, good for fourth place.
Mac senior Dakota Buhler recorded a mark of 17-4.75 on her third attempt in the 6A girls' long jump Friday, good for fifth place. Senior Lucy Bellville finished fifth 6A girls' high jump with a clearance of 5-2 on Saturday.
A pair of Grizzlies set personal records and finished on the podium in their state debuts Saturday. Sophomore Jalyn Clark-Johnson uncorked a 35-foot, 9.75-inch shot put on her final attempt to finish seventh among 6A girls. In the 6A girls' discus, senior Dominique Burden set personal records in her first two attempts, finishing eighth overall with a throw of 113 feet even.
Junior Tanner Scanlon's boys' 300-meter hurdles race was the last of the meet with a Mac athlete on Saturday, and Scanlon concluded with a fourth-place finish. Scanlon clocked 39.00 in the race, five-hundredths of a second slower than his school-record time in the 300 hurdles, set earlier this year.
Senior Nic McDaniel added a point to the Grizzlies' total Saturday with an eighth-place finish in the 6A boys' 800 (2:00.49). McDaniel also placed 14th in the 6A boys' 1,500 (4:26.67) earlier in the day.
Sophomore Whitney Rich finished 11th in the girls' 3,000 (10:54.84) and 12th in the girls' 1,500 (4:54.00). Junior Taylor Petersen failed to qualify for the final of the girls' 200; Scanlon failed to qualify for the final of the boys' 100.
Junior Bethany Mohler through the javelin 119-2 but did not place. Junior Noah Daugherty recorded a mark of 158-7 in the boys' javelin but also did not place.
The McMinnville girls' 4x100-meter relay team of Dakota Buhler, Montanna Gubrud, Annika Nyquist and Taylor Petersen finished 14th in 50.88 on Saturday.
Yamhill-Carlton track and field
With a strong girls' 4x400-meter relay, Yamhill-Carlton ended its track and field season on a high note.
The quartet of Kayla Archer, Perrin Xthona, Suzanne Van De Grift and Sarah King rolled to a fifth-place finish on Saturday. Archer, Xthona, Van De Grift and King combined to clock 4 minutes, 7.06 seconds in the event.
King and Van De Grift each added individual medals to the Tigers' stockpile Saturday. King finished seventh in the girls' 200 (26.18), while Van De Grift recorded a sixth-place finish in the girls' 400 (59.30).
Y-C pole vaulters Zachary Perkins, Mariah Schock and Erin Cline all failed to clear a height in their respective events.


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NC students get help to ship sodas to soldiers
NC students get help to ship sodas to soldiers
A local bottling company is coming to the rescue of some Gaston County students who wanted to send a little taste of home to soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Gaston Gazette reports that students at East Gaston High and Stanley Middle schools collected nearly 150 cases of donated soda for an Army unit of 250 soldiers. But the students found the cost of shipping the drinks was too steep for them to handle.
Up stepped Mark Begley of Pepsi Beverage Co. in Cherryville. He sent a truck to East Gaston High School on Thursday to get the drinks ready to ship. They could be dropped off at the Air National Guard in Charlotte and then flown to Charleston, or they could be shipped to Afghanistan directly.


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Browse Lessons Learned
Speaking from years of experience, Gerri Hayes talks about planning TAH-grant-supported professional development courses for high school educators. [...] »
Guide educators step-by-step through lesson creation with intensive lesson study. Matt Karlsen discusses the implementing of a lesson study grant project. [...] »
Place-based teaching isn't as simple as dropping students off at a museum. Sarah Jencks and Talia Mosconi talk about introducing teachers to layered teaching with historical sites. [...] »
It may be tempting to ask students to identify only with young, heroic figures that students want to see as similar to themselves. James A. Liou argues that students should be encouraged otherwise. [...] »
Teaching with place involves more than walking students around a battlefield. If you're using place in a TAH program, make sure to do your homework! says James A. Percoco. [...] »
Thorough evaluation must collect formative as well as summative data. [...] »
Text-based primary sources not catching your students' (or your) interest? Kim Laing and Elspeth Inglis of Kalamazoo, MI, talk about introducing objects to the classroom. [...] »
With effective collaboration, TAH Grant projects can change and grow. [...] »
Immerse K-3 teachers in programs designed for them. [...] »
Sit in the Historian's Chair to engage with primary and secondary sources. [...] »


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First Amendment Center
Criminalizing blasphemy is critical to protecting global peace, the head of the Arab league told the U.N. Security Council yesterday.
"If the international community has criminalized bodily harm, it must just as well criminalize psychological and spiritual harm," Nabil Elaraby said. "The League of Arab States calls for the development of an international framework which is binding … in order to confront insulting religions and ensuring that religious faith and its symbols are respected."
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Contact Information
The Office of:
560 Broadway, Suite 1100
Phone: 303-866-6777
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Morgan Cox
Phone: 303-866-6784
Fax: 303-866-6637
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Purpose Statement
This site is designed to provide a hub of information regarding the Colorado English Language Proficiency (CELP) standards, academic language and resources to support the academic achievement of all Colorado students through language development.
CELP standards and academic language are supported through the Colorado Department of Education.
CELP standards are essential for English Language Learners to access all Colorado standards concepts and skills. Academic language is needed by all students to master the Colorado Academic Standards. Academic language is essential for preparing students in Colorado to become educated and productive citizens capable of succeeding in a globally competitive workforce.
On December 10, 2009 the Colorado State Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt the World-Class Instruction Design and Assessment (WIDA) standards as the Colorado English Language Proficiency (CELP) standards. English Language Proficiency standards are required by Colorado state and federal law. The CELP standards exceed minimum legal requirements. Overall, the standards center on the English language needed and used by English Language Learners (ELLs) to succeed in school. They guide all educators who teach ELLs and help students' access grade level academic content while learning English.
Understanding the Colorado English Language Proficiency Standards (a.k.a. WIDA Standards):
- Resource Guide (PDF)
- FAQs (PDF)
- Performance Definitions (PDF)
- Speaking and Writing Rubrics (PDF)
- Glossary (PDF)
- Features of Academic Language in the CELP standards (PDF)
- Topic Map (PDF)
Other resources can be found at WIDA.
2010 Colorado English Language Proficiency Standards:
- Preschool - 5th Grade CELP Standards (PDF)
- Grades 1-2 supplement aligned to the Common Core State Standards (PDF)
- Grades 3-5 supplement aligned to the Common Core State Standards (PDF)
6th Grade - 12th Grade CELP Standards (PDF)
- Grades 6-8 supplement aligned to the Common Core State Standards (PDF)
- Grades 9-12 supplement aligned to the Common Core State Standards (PDF)
Resources for Teaching English Language Proficiency
Instructing English Language Learners is supported through a wide array of free instructional resources. This webpage lists just a few of these resources and will be updated regularly. If you are an educator in Colorado and have suggestions for a great free resource please email Morgan Cox.
Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)
CAL is a private, nonprofit organization working to improve communication through better understanding of language and culture. Some of their many publications:
- Using the SIOP Model: Professional Development Manual for Sheltered Instruction, 2nd Edition - Supports educators, at the school, district, and state levels, as they prepare teachers to use sheltered instruction to provide English language access to content while learning English.
- What's Different About Teaching Reading to Students Learning English? - A research-based curriculum to help teachers work more effectively with the English language learners in their classrooms
- Listening and Speaking: Oral Language and Vocabulary Development for English Language Learners - This professional development workbook and companion video provide knowledge-building, practical tools for educators working with English learners.
Mid-Continental Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
McREL is a private education research and development organization whose mission is "Making a difference in the quality of education and learning for all through excellence in applied research, product development, and service." A few publications:
- Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners - This resource applies the strategies from McREL publication Classroom Instruction that Works to reaching English language learners.
- Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners Facilitators Guide - An educator's guide for conducting professional development on how to improve the academic performance of English language learners.
¡ColorÍn Colorado! is a free web-based service that provides information, activities and advice for educators and Spanish-speaking families of English language learners.


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Improve your NT5 micOrder the MJE-384K Cardioid Capsule –
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Btw, this is Michael Joly writing. Read on to learn why the MJE-384K is a great sounding, great value upgrade to your existing RODE NT5. Then buy a 384K capsule or send me your questions.


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As farmers and ranchers across the country struggle this summer to overcome devastating crop, livestock and structural losses from drought, wildfire, storms and floods, they face another insidious threat to their ability to make repairs, restock, replant and get on about their business—the U.S. Congress.
While ranchers are disposing of animal carcasses or selling off herds; while farmers are planting into dust, realizing the probable futility of their actions but unable to do otherwise because of crop insurance mandates; while rural communities struggle to relocate or rebuild following floods and destructive storms, their elected officials are slashing funding for programs crucial to their recovery.
One of the most ill-conceived reductions Congress has made so far is the cut to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the agency that oversees farm programs, works with farmers and ranchers on applying for loans or disaster relief funds following drought, flood, fire or other disaster.
Just in Texas, FSA has worked with $2.3 million less for fiscal year 2011 than they spent in fiscal year 2010. With every continuing resolution Congress passed, FSA's budget shrank a little more. And they face even more cuts as legislators debate 2012 expenditures.
The U.S. budget deficit, most reasonable folk would agree, must be tamed. And it should be evident that reducing spending must be part of any solution to get that number down. But Congress' slash and burn strategy with apparently little consideration for the long range ramifications of their actions will, in the end, do more harm than good.
FSA programs put money back into farmers' and ranchers' pockets following crop and livestock losses. Those funds allow farmers to replant, replace lost equipment, repair fences and restock herds. As money goes out to buy barbed wire, seed and fence posts, rural communities get a boost as farm supply companies, equipment dealers and local merchants see sales increase. Tax revenues improve, folks keep jobs, the economy improves.
But when lack of operating funds delay issuance of those check to qualified producers the entire community suffers. Some businesses, some farms, some ranches may never recover.
Currently, Texas and other state FSA offices are working without the temporary employees they need to process applications and get funds where they are sorely needed. FSA staffs have severe travel restrictions, limited county committee meetings and reduced office support for items such as postage.
What that means to the producers waiting on checks is delay. And those delays will become longer as the mass of applications that will be inevitable following this disastrous spring begin to hit FSA offices in the coming months.
FSA may come in for criticism from time to time as producers express frustration with government bureaucracy and what seems an agonizingly slow process to receive approved funds. But as the Texas state FSA director recently said, the agency is committed to accuracy and to fulfill its mission effectively and efficiently. And with the disasters that occur somewhere every year, delays and frustration will be inevitable. But to hamstring an agency as vital to the well-being of farmers, ranchers and rural communities by stripping it of adequate operating funds to efficiently perform its mission is far beyond ridiculous.
FSA is not alone. Other programs vital to serving agriculture are also in for severe budget cuts. And targeting agriculture is both short-sighted and non-productive. There is simply not enough money in the farm program budget to make event a small dent in the deficit. But agriculture is an easy target.
Congress should take balancing the budget seriously, but cuts to programs as vital as FSA should come only after considerably more reflection than has apparently been the case so far.


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This week, we've got some extra inning walk offs, a walk off grand slam, and yes, some walk offs that were self-inflicted by the losing team.
June 30th, Athletics vs Tigers
A walk off grand slam? That's awesome. Good on you, Rajai Davis. He could have just put one in the gap or the corner to tie the game, but he wanted the full monty.
July 1st, Diamondbacks vs Pirates
When the ninth inning started, Wade Miley was just three outs away from a shutout. A few batters later, the Pirates were celebrating at PNC Park. Sometimes, nothing you do is ever good enough.
July 1st, Phillies vs Marlins
The Phillies battled back to tie this one in the eighth…and their bullpen dam finally broke in the 11th. Baseball is a rough game sometimes.
July 2nd, Brewers vs Blue Jays
Edwin Encarnacion just needed a single to win this one. But Edwin Encarnacion doesn't do singles – this monstrous second deck smash was more than enough for Blue Jays fans to go home happy.
July 2nd, Angels vs White Sox
Given the conditions at US Cellular Field, I think the Angels were just happy to get back to southern California after this game. Don't cry for them, though – they've got their own awesome walk off coming in a little bit.
July 4th, Blue Jays vs Athletics
Nick Punto gets credit for the double that won this game for the Athletics. But Oakland should give an assist to Melky Cabrera – it was his bobble in left that allowed Derek Norris to score and end 12 innings of dueling goose eggs.
July 4th, Astros vs Angels
I don't know how Mike Trout hit this ball where he hit it, but here we are. The fireworks got started a little early in Anaheim on the 4th.
July 5th, Orioles vs Red Sox
Sometimes, it's not how hard you hit it, it's where you hit it. Jonathan Herrera learned that with this broken bat, walk off single into shallow right center for the Red Sox on Saturday.
July 5th, Yankees vs Twins
The Yankees had the inning-ending double play they needed. It would have sent this game to a 12th inning. But Francisco Cervelli's throw to first was well wide of Mark Teixeira's glove, and that was that for New York.


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Carlo Has posted an extensive list of Microsoft Posters, take a look.
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Samsung Galaxy S3 unboxing and preview of SIII flip cover case (video)
A quick unboxing of the Samsung Galaxy SIII (S3), the white version from Sprint. This video also provides a preview of the Samsung Pebble Blue Flip Cover Case designed specifically for the Galaxy S3.
We'll have a review of the supposed iPhone-killer in the coming days. The phone was slated to hit stores today, though a supply-demand crunch has pushed the release back for some markets. The S3 is available from all four major carriers – T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon and AT&T.
The S3 sports a 4.8-inch display, which as you can see from the photo below, is massive when compared to the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen.


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31 December 2006
And We're Back
I've been trying to figure out how to write about all I did and saw and learned in Kenya, but right now it's such an undigested mass of experience in my head that I distrust much of anything I might say about it all, for fear of generalizing too much, for fear of blathering on, for fear of ranting. I've been dreading the inevitable questions such as, "How was your trip?" because there is no way to sum it up succinctly. The best thing to come up with is to say that if I were able to go back in a time machine and tell my earlier self if it was worth the time, expense, and anxiety, then I would certainly tell myself yes, go for it, do this. I would certainly warn myself of a few things, though -- be ready to be more outgoing than you are normally comfortable being, be ready for many hidden expenses, don't expect too much from the organized events (because "organized" is not what most of them were, and the best experiences were the most spontaneous, anyway), be prepared to be suspicious of everything anybody says, and though you won't regret not going on safari you may want to limit your time on Lamu more (the smell of donkey shit will become tiresome, as will the constant attention from locals wanting to offer their services for one thing or another -- they are friendly in a way that, for a lifelong New Englander, is both amazing and wearying).
I came home with a pile of books and magazines, and will report on them as much as I can, because one of the things I would like to do is find ways to bring more attention to some of the African literature that is difficult to find outside of Africa. A consortium of literary journals from Africa, the U.S., and elsewhere are working now to create ways to bring more of what has been published from Africa to readers throughout the world, and I hope be to be able to help bring more attention to these efforts as they progress.
Meanwhile, I have hundreds of emails to catch up with, various writing assignments to complete, jet-lag to get over, and that full-time teaching thing that I'm also supposed to be doing...
I'll be posting some links to various things that appeared while I was away, and I'm also moving this blog to the new version of Blogger -- no change in address or anything, but there will be some tweaks to the template and functions, and inevitably I'm sure there will be some moments when things look a little weird or out of place.
20 December 2006
Ships in High Transit
Thank you to everyone who so kindly wrote of their anticipation of the following:
Around the age of twelve I took a highly significant shit. The actual shitting was not that special; what gave this otherwise banal episode an aura of importance was what happened after: as I pushed down the handle, I noticed for the first time, painted on the side of the porcelain tank in faded bold print: Made in Sussex.
That same evening I told my father of my discovery, expecting as children typically do that parental enthusiasm for the banal would be equal to or greater than their own, not understanding that by the time older folk have started having kids, the exotic origins of the downstairs crapper are as banal as the shit they were made to move.
Matano's boss may very well have his toilets made in
How interesting then, to read this excellent story, which extends the metaphoric potential of waste production and disposal into a meditation on history, identity, and the vagaries of negotiating both. (Spoilers start here).
Armitage Shanks, one of that class of not-quite Brits, has decided he should perhaps aspire to the "heroism" of his ancestors, of shipping "heavy ceramic water closets around the world".
So he decides to make shit up (Note: I can't promise I'll stay away from all the easy excremental puns--please bear with my enthusiasm). Enter the Maa, a piece of fakery both rank and grandiloquent.
The story of the Maa People niftily synthesizes the most common stereotypical narratives about Africa, and draws on that reliable saw of everyone from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Rider Haggard (whose brother, by the way, was for a time a colonial District Officer stationed in Kenya) to Leo Frobenius: a group of isolated primitives is somehow in possession of ancient wisdom, which they have intuitive (and therefore degenerate and inferior) access to. Typically there's a pile of old stuff to go along with this mystical power, tied to it in some ineffable way. While this intuition is beyond the pale, so to speak, simply unacceptable as the route to that legacy, it takes the right person to come along and use his superior faculties in claiming that antediluvian prize.
It's also this apparently innate superiority that turns primitive intuition, itself a mask placed on the "Other", into a non-threatening artifact (Matano's astute disappointment with the desire of Westerners to turn a person into an index of exotic features, for example). And the story is full of these ostensibly non-threatening artifacts, like Matano, Abdullahi, Otieno a.k.a Ole Lenana, and the "Maa" women arrayed in the hotel courtyard to sing for Armitage--I mean Ole um Shambalaa's guests.
All involved in the local end of the charade understand, like um Shambalaa, that making shit up pays. And all are prepared to go to the necessary lengths (i.e. "making a white man your pussy" as Otieno does, getting in business with Nigerians— Matano's secret sex tape) in order to realize profits.
No desires—especially the sexual kind—are ever anything but part of a sales pitch. Everything is a hustle. Everything has a price, and the rapacious hunger for profit is only successful in the degree to which it identifies and secures an equally rapacious desire for what is on offer.
I'm thinking of the pitches in the story, first Shanks, then that of Prescott and Jean Paul (as seen through Matano's eyes), Abdullahi's, the anonymous panting-into-the-receiver monologue for the "SugarOhHoneyHoneyMommy" in Germany, and the unwittingly self-parodying macho bluster of the beach boy. The story could even be seen as a parody of a sales pitch, pointed bitingly at its own absurd debasing premise. Everyone has something to sell. The goods are a body and history is a marketing strategy.
On the other end are the Jean-Paul and Prescotts, themselves in search of an angle, of something to sell and a way to sell it, and the working class European tourists taking a vacation from twelve months spent in "some air-conditioned industrial plant", availing themselves of the pleasures their history has prepared them to seek after, again and again, and that the locals are working overtime to convince them is really their hearts' desire.
There is plenty in this single story to think over, and it's a testament to Wainaina's acuity and skill that he is able to suggest in just a single story about tourism the devastation wrought on a whole continent by the relentless application of the pernicious logic underlying this sad business.
Earlier I told a story about my early experience with a toilet, and if I may, I'd like to take a cue from Wainaina and, at the risk of being excessive, tie that encounter more firmly to the story.
The promises and injunctions of colonialism are those of the toilet. With independence came the realization that, in fact, both the revamped toilet and the shit it was supposed to disappear could still provide an entertaining spectacle (the secret raison d'etre of tourism?), if only because the nation-state-toilet was now a caricature of its former pure, guided-by-the-enlightened-European self, a thing now made of shit. Shit disappearing more shit; developed, highly industrialized others may come attend the museal proceedings, and for a hefty price, extracted by the locals with cynical resignation, indulge in purging themselves into various flavors of delight.
Shanks' efforts are ironic in their production of the very thing his family devoted itself to making disappear. His desire to sanitize his past is simply more bullshit proffered in the hopes of making money. Matano and the rest chase that money, and find themselves laboring to produce shit facsimiles of their history, their selves, for the pleasure of others. It is still possible to do things like provide for one's own, to make sure that "things will appear in the household" and "school fees…mysteriously paid", but these minor victories cannot be weighed decisively against the logic to which all efforts are finally bent.
And so the wheel turns as before, a sad dirty secondhand joke laughing mirthlessly at itself. For money.
Topical exegesis aside, the story is put together well enough, and I'm looking forward to that promised novel. I suspect Wainaina's will find the novel a more amenable form than the short story.
I do wish the story were leaner. There are extraneous bits whose variant repetition of thematic concerns does not seem to add to the story. For example, the paragraph about the village is a distraction and should have been left out. Same goes for the one featuring the Texan.
Otieno is an interesting character, particularly in the context of an aggressively homophobic society, who should've had more space in the story. The lamentably common stereotype of coast-dweller as more susceptible to the foreigner-introduced "perversion" of homosexuality receives comparatively little treatment for a story so deftly concerned with the production of stereotypes. Wainaina could have gone further.
Jean Paul's view of the proceedings would have made for a satisfying counterpoint to the well-handled treatment of Sixty Minute Lady. I also wanted to hear more from the "Maa" women, who always appear as a group. Why not as individuals? Isn't there one local woman—Giriama femme to Matano's homme—who might have featured with the same prominence as the other more visible characters? I'm not interested in the reproduction of social inequities in the structure of a story purportedly about those inequities; I am unlikely to learn anything interesting if this is the case.
In this sense the writer appears to share the blind spot of his main protagonist. This is less a negative criticism than the recognition by an artist that one is always working within the parameters of a received discursive imperative, and whether or not we hew to the injunction that we must obey this imperative, I find the most rewarding literary experiences (reading, writing, and discussion) come from an investigation of the marginal and "distasteful".
Some little things, such as a Swedish man named Jean Paul, I found mildly distressing.
Marechera references are always a plus, and I encourage those unfamiliar with this extraordinary Zimbabwean writer to read Black Sunlight, from which the line " and the mirror reveals me, a naked and vulnerable fact" is taken, as well as House of Hunger, The Black Insider, and Cemetery of Mind, all of which are readily available in the US. For those in Zim, send me a copy of Mindblast!
This is a longer post than I intended, but honestly it doesn't feel long enough. I hope this story receives the attention it deserves, for its merits as a fine piece of fiction that is part of what Borges might have called our universal patrimony, and also as one of the best short stories to have been written by a Kenyan in a long time.
19 December 2006
A Few Resources
15 December 2006
Thanks to Matt
I apologize for having kept you all waiting--I realize Matt meant for this to come on sooner, but I've been having cold feet.
But, I'm very excited and grateful to Matt for the opportunity. He and I had dinner the week before his departure, and our conversation has stayed in my mind. The prospect of his visiting my hometown had the curious effect of making me feel as though I had just arrived in the US, as opposed to having lived here for several years.
I also realized, with pleasure, the swarm of connections that each person has the ability to make by simply leaving one place and going to another. Perhaps there will be time to talk in some detail about these connections in my entries. I feel in this moment generous enough to make a number of philosophical remarks about chance and fate and so forth, but as my papa says, this would be just "winetalk".
I'm simply happy that a friend of mine has the chance to see the place where I'm from, a chance so few of my friends here have. I'm also happy that SLS is providing a much needed fulcrum for the literary efforts in Kenya and in the region, efforts which a change in the political climate has allowed to thrive.
That there are now, in Kenya, not just Nairobi I hope, fifteen year olds writing bad poetry and nursing the stirrings of literary ambition who have the opportunity to know of such an event as SLS, let alone attend or be close to it in some way, is itself a watershed.
I look forward to the emergence of an open, vibrant literary culture. I want those same people, my neighbours, my relatives, my friends, who fed me with all sorts of books, with the skiffy that made me want to become, well, a skiffie, to see "local produce" on their shelves.
With that in mind, let me say that the next entry will be on "local produce", so to speak. I'll be talking about Binyavanga Wainaina's "Ships in High Transit", which Matt mentioned.
11 December 2006
Guest Blogger: Njihia Mbitiru
And it only makes sense that while I'm in Kenya the first Mumpsimus guest blogger should be Njihia Mbitiru, who is in the same masters degree program as I am in at Dartmouth, is a Clarion Workshop graduate, and is originally from Kenya. In fact, my participation in SLS Kenya owes a lot to him, because he stopped me one day at the Dartmouth library and said he'd just read an amazing Kenyan story -- "Ships in High Transit" by Binyavanga Wainaina. That put Wainaina's name into my head, I read up on his literary organization Kwani, and started paying more attention to Kenyan writers. When I chanced upon a reference to SLS Kenya somewhere, I was intrigued, and when I saw Wainaina was involved, I decided to apply.
So please be nice to Njihia while I'm gone -- this is his first time blogging, so any encouragement is welcome. His first post should appear sometime in the next day or so, if all goes well...
07 December 2006
"Words Can Mean Anything"
--Sarah Ruhl,
Orpheus never liked words. He had his music. He would get a funny look on his face and I would say what are you thinking about and he would always be thinking about music.
If we were in a restaurant, sometimes I would get embarrassed because Orpheus looked sullen and wouldn't talk to me and I thought people felt sorry for me. I should have realized that women envied me. Their husbands talked too much.
But I wanted to talk to him about my notions. I was working on a new philosophical system. It involved hats.
This is what it is to love an artist: The moon is always rising above your house. The houses of your neighbors look dull and lacking in moonlight. But he is always going away from you. Inside his head there is always something more beautiful.
Orpheus said the mind is a slide ruler. It can fit around anything. Words can mean anything. Show me your body, he said. It only means one thing.
(She looks at her father, embarrassed for revealing too much.)
Or maybe two or three things. But only one thing at a time.
05 December 2006
Duotrope's Digest
For writers, indeed, this is a treasure-trove, providing detailed information on a stunning variety of publications. It's also got a great search engine that lets you filter results by all sorts of different criteria, including genre, length, media, payscale, submission type, country, theme issues, and even what awards the publisher nominates for. The site claims to update daily, with every market checked at least once a week.
The White Diamond
Now I have added The White Diamond to that list. It is an astounding film, strange and powerful, filled with rich imagery and immense, subtle depths of emotion and philosophy. It presents many of Herzog's favorite themes and character types, making it feel like a cousin to Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo, but it is a gentler film, more hopeful and less corruscating in tone, but no less powerful in its portrayal of obsession, vision, and nature.
The White Diamond tells the story of Dr. Graham Dorrington, a British aerospace engineer who created an airship to fly over the canopy of the rainforest in Guyana -- rainforest canopies have been mostly unexplored territory, and are thought to be places of tremendous biodiversity. Herzog explores Dorrington's reasons for taking on the project, which stem from his association with Dieter Plage, a wildlife filmmaker who died in 1993 in Sumatra while flying above the rainforest in a craft Dorrington had built for him. Herzog shapes the story to portray Dorrington's quest as the dream of an obsessed man, the sort of dream common to many Herzog protagonists.
Of course, any story leaves things out and trims ragged edges into cleaner cause and effect relationships -- reality contains too many details to be reduced to anything other than itself -- but Herzog is particularly known for sculpting his documentaries, and in a BBC interview, Dorrington addresses how that tendency affected The White Diamond:
BBC Four: Herzog is famous for fabricating certain elements in his documentaries. Did you experience any of that?This is a different approach from the cinema verite style of many documentarians -- filmmakers who would be horrified to stage any scene -- but it highlights the difference between journalism and art. Journalism seeks a mythical objectivity, with journalistic documentaries pretending their severe selection of materials to be somehow beyond the influence of any particular point of view, while art is (I'm tempted to say by definition) raw material shaped by perception. (I don't mean to denigrate journalism here -- just because absolute objectivity is impossible doesn't make it a bad ideal to strive toward.)
Graham Dorrington: As the film went on I did repeat phrases that Werner used. I balked at one point when he wanted me to talk about curses, but he would often insist on a particular wording. For instance, the scene with the champagne bottle at the falls was all his language although the idea was mine. Also, some things were acted. The argument with Herzog in the film is completely fake -- pure acting. Why did I do it? Because I said to Werner that if I was going to do the film then we'd have to do it 100% his way; it would be no good for him to tell me how to design an airship and I couldn't tell him how to direct a film. So the argument was set up, but it did underline the feelings of a lot of people about who was really in control. On the other hand, there is a scene at the end where I had to think very intensely about Dieter Plage which brought back a lot of sadness and was very genuine.
Herzog's mastery is shown in his ability to distinguish between good material that is raw and good material that needs to be shaped. The staged argument is convincing, and as Dorrington says, it efficiently conveys a conflict of ideas that, in the messier reality outside the film, would have come out in more fragmentary, less open ways. It helps viewers discern the characters' motivations and priorities. The scene where Dorrington talks about Plage's death is left raw, mostly a single shot with very few edits, because part of the film has been building up, through careful hints and shards of information, to that climactic moment, and it is as powerful a monologue as I've ever seen on film, an agonizing and cathartic moment of shared, tortured humanity.
And then there is the beauty. Herzog has not made a nature documentary. With The White Diamond, the place he depicts is intimately connected -- indeed, interpreted -- by the people who are a part of the story. We see the rainforest through their differing perceptions of it. By the time we are released into our own consciousnesses and given imagery without commentary, we glimpse the animals, the plants, the trees, the water through many different points of view -- through the view of personal, natural, and cultural histories, none of them complete, all of them full of possibility. The White Diamond is certainly an incomplete and perhaps even misleading portrayal of the "real" Dorrington, but it is much more than merely a portrait of a person -- it is an evocation of the mysteries Herzog has himself been obsessed with for his entire career, the unsolveable, fascinating mysteries of desire, dreams, and nature.
02 December 2006
Quarterly Conversation
01 December 2006
Katherine Min at The Happy Booker
In any case, we loved in particular these sentences of Katherine's:
I come to fiction from the premise that reality isn't so great. Reality is what we're stuck with. Fiction is compelling precisely because it takes us beyond what is merely real.*What is a little party at Mumpsimus Central? All I'll admit is that it usually involves archaic words, obscure books, and shotgun shells.
Salon Fantastique Giveaway
I have come upon some extra copies of the new anthology Salon Fantastique edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and so it's time for a giveaway.
The first three people who email me the correct answer to the following question will receive a free copy of Salon Fantastique:
Who established the salon at the Hotel Rambouillet?Here's the table of contents for the book:
Answer: Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet
"La Fee Verte" by Delia Sherman
"Dust Devil on a Quiet Street" by Richard Bowes
"To Measure the Earth" by Jedediah Berry
"A Grey and Soundless Tide" by Catherynne M. Valente
"Concealment Shoes" by Marly Youmans
"The Guardian of the Egg" by Christopher Barzak
"My Travels With Al-Qaeda" by Lavie Tidhar
"Chandail" by Peter S. Beagle
"Down the Wall" by Greer Gilman
"Femaville 29" by Paul Di Filippo
"Nottamun Town" by Gregory Maguire
"Yours, Etc." by Gavin Grant
"The Mask of '67" by David Prill
"The Night Whiskey" by Jeffrey Ford
"The Lepidopterist" by Lucius Shepard