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'The Americans,' Season 1, Episode 4, 'In Control': TV Recap
Philip and Elizabeth have grown as a couple over the past four episodes. Their work as a KGB team is wondrous to watch. They know each others' strengths and weaknesses, when to pick up slack and when to let the other just do their own thing.
But as a married couple, we've watched them learn one another. After Philip crushed the throat of the defector who raped Elizabeth when she was just a trainee, she has warmed to her husband. She's let him in on how she felt as a newcomer to the U.S. and how an affair with one of her contacts was the first true romantic relationship she'd had, even if she was married to Philip.
All of the gentleness—which that culminated with their sex date at a hotel at the beginning of this episode—was put to the test when President Reagan was shot. All agencies were on high alert. Everyone knew it was John Hinckley, but no one knew why. The Jenningses go into full operations mode, and Beeman is pulled from foreign-language lessons to strategize after the shooting. All sides are suspecting KGB involvement.
What sets off flares for the KGB is a statement by a man who clearly needed to pay more attention in civics class. After the shooting, then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig famously told a press conference that he "was in control here," completely ignoring the laws of succession. The KGB, not unfamiliar with coups and power controls, steps up plans for guerilla warfare, codenamed Operation Christopher. Margo Martindale's character, who is finally given the name Claudia, tells Elizabeth that they need to plan for the fall of the government. But as far as Claudia knows, the KGB had nothing to do with the shooting.
Beeman, with reluctance, is tasked by his chief to make contact with Nina. Beeman knows that the Russian embassy is on high alert and pulling her out now will only put her at further risk. But the chief is like a dog with a bone. Any time wasted not pursuing possible KGB involvement is unacceptable. Nina, also reluctantly, makes an excuse to Vasili about spying on congressional aides. Vasili, seemingly skeptical, has her followed.
Beeman gets to show off his super spy skills in this episode, as well. After Nina finally gets out of the embassy, they approach one another on the sidewalk. But Beeman sees a car pull up behind her with no one getting out. There are flashes of curiosity and worry on his face as he awaits a signal from Amador, who is watching the scene. But when his partner clams up, Beeman goes with his gut and bypasses her.
They later meet in a car near the bar where Nina overheard aides talking up their bosses the way kids compare their dads in a fight. Nina, totally shaken by what she's being asked to do, isn't allayed by Beeman's confidence that he wasn't tracked. "I'm the one who does the following," he says.
Nina, looking like a black-haired Scarlett Johansson, tells Beeman that tensions are high at the embassy because they think Haig is staging a coup. Beeman laughs it off, but Nina reminds him that both countries have their fingers on the trigger and that's how it happens. "One mistake, that's all it takes," she says.
Philip thinks the worst is over after finding out from one of the nurses who treated Reagan that he was going to be fine. They send a message updating The Center on Reagan's condition, but they still receive further instructions to map out targets. Philip grows increasingly frustrated with the instructions they're given, trusting his instincts that the U.S. power structure hasn't changed. Elizabeth doesn't care; they have to follow the mission.
While scoping out the Secretary of Defense's house (with a giant rifle that Elizabeth picked out of their arsenal in the woods), the Jenninges are flagged down by a neighborhood security officer. After failing to convince him that she was a lost driver and not to call in the van for a police check Elizabeth casually shoots him in the head(!) and then wipes the wound with a napkin. Elizabeth is nothing if not efficient. Philip just shakes his head at her in the rearview mirror.
Philip and Elizabeth listen to a choppy recording from the bugged Secretary of Defense's house with a conversation alluding to Haig having the coordinates and codes for all of America's nuclear missiles. Philip thinks they should do a little more digging to make sure this is true. Elizabeth thinks they need to warn The Center now.
Here is where we get the best scene of the episode. The previous fissures between Philip and Elizabeth crack wide open. Both are clearly frustrated that the other doesn't see their side. Philip tells Elizabeth that she has been living here with blinders on, never understanding the people or the government. He's spent his time trying to understand his surroundings; Elizabeth spent it focused on the mission.
Elizabeth tells him that he's trying so hard to acclimate to the culture that he's forgotten home. "I fit in just fine, but I remember where I came from," says Elizabeth, reminding him that he only weeks ago wanted to defect. Philip sees their job as one to prevent war and tells Elizabeth that they're going to handle this his way.
The Jennings's extra digging comes from time spent at the Beemans house where Stan tells them that there's nothing to fear: Hinckley is mentally unstable, but not a spy. And the Russians aren't suspected in the shooting.
When Philip comes home after sending the all-clear message to Moscow, Elizabeth struggles with an apology. In the end she tells him that Moscow was lucky to have him on the ground and she's glad they did things his way. Philip is worried that if Moscow finds out they withheld the information about Haig having the nuclear football, they'd be finished. "I won't tell if you won't," Elizabeth says.
Side thoughts:
* I really hope we're not getting into some Romeo-and-Juliet trope with Paige and Matthew. But how cute was it when they were making jokes about the perils of being a travel agent? Oh, if only you knew.
* This week's flashback was kind of pointless. Sure, we learned Elizabeth's real name (Nadezhda), but what else did we gain? Her mother didn't want to be owned by her next suitor? I just don't see the need for it.
* Beeman's home life is a nice contrast with the Jennings's. The Beemans' relationship is crumbling from the outside in. The Jennings's' relationship is growing from the inside out.
* It's interesting to watch this show when you know some of the outcomes. We all know that Haig misspoke and that Hinckley was just trying to impress the object of his obsession, Jodie Foster. But it's a credit to this show that even with that knowledge, the suspense is still there. Thirty years later, and we're still wondering what our characters will do next.
So what happens now? Are you liking the suspense, even if you already know the outcome? Will Henry and Paige learn geography? Leave me your thoughts in the comments section.


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It's a Sonny day
This was done for a book review of Hell's Angels founder Sonny Barger's autobiography. Another from my "trying to be an oil painter" period.
Sonny Barger
The book is pretty much what you'd expect - Lots of tales of badass derring do and mayhem of all sorts. My favorite stuff was how he described threatening kick Hunter Thompson's butt while Thompson was writing his breakthrough "Hell's Angels" even though Thompson's book would put both parties on the map.
I find that I'm attracted to thugs and derelicts of all stripes. Since I can't afford real art, and I'm totally self obssessed, I have a lot of my work hanging in the house. My kids are probably more familiar with what I like to call "Badass Culture" than the more worthy recipients of historical recognition.
I'm probably the same as those white collar Harley types. I like to paint these guys, but I wouldn't last long around them.
Topical: Illustration

subset: commoncrawl


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The Parchman Endowed Lecture Series Welcomes Richard MouwSept. 26, 2013
Follow us on Twitter: @BaylorUMediaCom
Media contact: Terry Goodrich, (254) 710-3321
WACO, Texas (Sept. 26, 2013) - The Parchman Endowed Lecture series will feature Richard Mouw, Ph.D., Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary.
Mouw, Distinguished Professor of Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary where he also served as president for 20 years, is a philosopher, scholar and author of 19 books. He will speak on modern Christian theology.
Brian Brewer, Ph.D., an associate professor of Christian theology at Truett Seminary, said the annual series seeks to invite guests who are at the top of their careers, and Mouw fits that description.
"He is a leading evangelical, philosopher and theologian in America today," Brewer said. "He is very well published and an excellent spokesman in theology."
All of Mouw's lectures will stick to the theme of Christian discipleship. How Christians engage in the broader culture and how to deal with those who have different beliefs are two of the topics that will be covered.
The schedule of lectures is as follows:
� Monday, September 30th: "Exegeting the Cultures that Shape Us," 7 p.m.
� Tuesday, October 1st: "Why God Likes Ancient Chinese Vases," 11 a.m.
"Engaging Religious Pluralism," 7 p.m.
� Wednesday, October 2nd: "Holy Worldliness," 11 a.m.
Q&A Luncheon, 12 p.m.
Brewer said The Parchman Series is not just for Truett students or religion majors.
"We hope everyone can enjoy the series," Brewer said. "Dr. Mouw can engage in a lot of different people's lives and we welcome people from the broader community - not just Baylor - to attend."
The lectures have just one objective: to equip attendees with the knowledge of how to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
"We hope students leave with a different sense of how to engage in culture and how to translate the gospel to a world who doesn't know who he is."
All lectures are free and will be held in the Paul W. Powell Chapel at Truett Seminary, located at 1000 S. 3rd St., on the Baylor campus.
For more information, contact Brian Brewer at (254) 710-6396.
by Kristen Bennett, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
Baylor University is a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having "high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.
Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary provides theological education leading to the Master of Divinity, the Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, the Master of Theological Studies, or the Doctor of Ministry degrees that are centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ and consistent with historic Baptist commitments to prepare persons to carry this gospel to the churches and the world. Within the M.Div. degree program, students can choose concentrations in Biblical Studies and Theology, Christian Education, Ministry Leadership, Missions and World Christianity, Worship Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Sports Ministry, and Youth/Family/Student Ministry. Truett Seminary also offers three Dual Degree programs - a M.Div./MSW and MTS/MSW through a partnership with Baylor's School of Social Work, a M.Div./Master of Music through a partnership with the Baylor's School of Music, and a M.Div./MBA through a partnership with Baylor's Hankamer School of Business. Visit www.baylor.edu/truett to learn more.
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We provide a range of educational resources to students and teachers.
We are continually updating and adding to our suite of resources — watch this space.
Water – Learn it! Live it! (4th edition, updated 2013) is comprehensive curriculum resource for primary and secondary school teachers.
It covers all aspects of the water story, and contains a variety of activities and projects.
Looking for some big, colourful posters for your classroom? How about some stickers or bookmarks for student prizes?
Watch 'Ed' the water drop bring the water cycle to life as he goes on a journey from the river to the ocean and back again.


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Reactivation of Coastal Dunefields in Equatorial Brazil: Aeolian Proxies for Climate-Landscape Interaction
OCCI Funded Project: 2008
Large sand dunes along tropical coasts are sensitive to climatic perturbations and in northern South America these landforms are located within the influence of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), an important player in the climate system.
Our study will focus on reconstructing aeolian activity in coastal dunefields of Pará State, Brazil. Here El Niño is associated with dry periods and past dune reactivation episodes may be linked to ENSO intensification. High-resolution subsurface imaging combined with optical dates of dune sands will be used to map and date key phases in landscape evolution. This database will be complemented by a record of windblown sediment flux into nearby wetlands to develop a new set of geological proxies and extend the existing instrumental record of regional climate change by several millennia.


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By RON WAGNER
Times-News Correspondent
Maybe Brevard's the team everybody should be worried about beating.
Hendersonville was riding high after its first victory in more than a decade over perennial mountain bully West Henderson last week, but the Lady Blue Devils proved that their season-opening defeat of the Lady Bearcats was no fluke with a 25-17, 20-25, 23-25, 25-17, 15-4 win on Tuesday.
The road victory moves Brevard to 5-0 and serves notice that the volleyball balance of power may have shifted west of Henderson County. At the very least, it quiets talk that Hendersonville's first loss was an early-season fluke.
"The girls caught wind of that a little bit, and they used it as fuel because they were told that was kind of a shock to beat Hendersonville the first game," Brevard coach Jessica Merrill, in her fifth season, said. "And they were like, 'no, that wasn't a shock.' I'm a really competitive person. My first couple of years coaching it was hard because the girls weren't so competitive. But these girls, they're a shark tank. I love that."
The Blue Devils are now 3-0 against the Bearcats over the past two seasons and were clearly the better team on Tuesday, despite the close final score. After being thoroughly whipped in the first game, the Bearcats held on to win the second, despite allowing Brevard to score eight of the last 10 points and came even closer to blowing the third game when the Blue Devils went on an 11-2 run down the stretch that tied things at 23-23 after they'd been down 22-12.
Hendersonville used a couple of unforced errors to close out the game and go up 2-1 in the match, but Brevard had the momentum for good. Starting with that late run in the third, the Blue Devils outscored the Bearcats 51-23 the rest of the way, capped by a fifth-game romp that saw HHS crumble with nine unforced errors.
"The desperation they had to play with to get back into Game 3 carried over, because once that desperation kicked in that adrenaline kicked in," Merrill said.
"Brevard's definitely a good team. They came out and played today. We just have to learn to play to win, not to not lose," HHS coach Erica Cantrell said. "We got a little scared in that last set and it definitely showed."
Kjersti Anderson led a balanced Brevard attack with 18 kills, while Gracie Carrick had 11 and Peyton Bailey nine, with Mackenzie McNeal and Rachel Cassell dishing out 25 and 18 assists, respectively. It was the defense that really set the tone for the Blue Devils, however, as they repeatedly came up with miraculous saves as they pulled away.
McNeal also led the way with 19 digs, though Anderson had 16, Bailey 14 and Cassell nine.
"I have some very talented defensive players, but it came down to heart and hustle," Merrill said. "They were determined to not let anything hit the floor."
Cassie Born led Hendersonville with nine kills, while Blaire Hawkins had 15 assists and Cayle Shew 14 digs.
"I think it's hard for them to come off such a huge, hyped game to come play Brevard," Cantrell said. "(My players) shouldn't be down because Brevard's a good team, but they need to learn to play every game, every match, not just the West game."


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Labor unions may not always be civil, but "civil unions" of gay/lesbian couples is the topic here.
As one of about 155 million males in the United States, once I come of age and leave my parent's home I'm free to live alone or with one or more others. I can marry or form a gay relationship. How I make my way in the world is up to me. Each of us has an equal opportunity to do any of those things. The approximately 160 million females have the same life choices. The government encourages marriage between a man and a woman because it establishes a family relationship that most favors the birth and nurturing of children. I see no point in government support for any other kind of relationship.
My previous post was on same sex marriage, also known as "gay marriage" or "gay/lesbian marriage". A reader commented that I am against equal rights for gays. Of course I am, in some degree. I tried to explain why in the prior post. I'm not against same sex couples pairing up, or having civil marriage ceremonies and proclaiming they are in love and are married. I think it's good when two people love and care for each other. I am against any special benefits or licenses extended to them by the government, because most such benefits are available in civil law. Gay/lesbians complain that state marriage licenses confer those benefits automatically, and to exclude same sex couples is discrimination. I contend they could create a standard contract, conferring such benefits on each other, that would be acceptable to all gays. They are highly organized with numerous websites, and could do this easily, if they haven't already.
I didn't mention the next-of-kin problem. Two unrelated people can live as a couple for many years, when one of them is hospitalized. The hospital may not recognize the other partner's visitation rights unless they are married. I don't know whether this is according to state and/or federal regulations or hospital practice. When treatment decisions are made, hospitals and doctors go to kin rather than the undocumented partner. However, this problem can be addressed in civil law, with a power of attorney agreement, for example. I believe the patient should be able to designate the people who may visit him or her, regardless of kinship.
When Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein created his monster and brought him to life, he did so without thinking of consequences. He was meddling with nature. Much like Frankenstein, progressive politicians meddle with society, changing long-standing traditions and institutions without heed to the chaos they cause. An example is their attack on the family. They assert that marriage between a man and a woman is only one form of acceptable family unit. They pass legislation that pays some women to have many babies, from multiple fathers, without ever getting married. When they can, they teach children that homosexuality is normal. Progressive writers slip gay characters into movies, novels, and television programs in an attempt to make gays acceptable. Such tactics have succeeded. Gays are now almost completely accepted, as long as they don't taunt others. But, I and perhaps a majority of others will never accept same sex marriage as normal or desirable.
There are many religious people in this country, and the Bible defines marriage as between a man and a woman, or in the Old Testament, perhaps between a man and several women, as it does in some Islamic countries. I'm not religious, but I consider marriage sacred, something not to be touched. It's there for a lot of good reasons. Our society is built on man to woman marriage and the family. Unfortunately, the marriage rate is declining. The birth rate is declining as well. In a few European countries, it's now negative – the population is actually declining.
Liberal politicians meddle. Vermont, for example, has a civil union -- a substitute for a marriage license. It confers all state benefits to same sex couples that are given with a marriage license. It's a marriage license in almost all ways except the word 'marriage' isn't used. The National Organization of Women has a fairly cogent critique of civil unions in Vermont and in general. NOW article on marriage and civil unions. There are some assertions in their article which are ridiculous. In filling out forms, you have to choose one of: "Married, single, divorced, or widowed?" There's no place for "same sex union" or the equivalent. Big deal? Just answer single, unless you live in a state which allows gay marriage. Second class citizens? Gay/Lesbian people are equal to all other single people, where single is defined as either married under a government license or not so married.
As I pointed out in my previous post, I believe the government should ignore gay unions. Same sex couples can obtain everything I'm aware of (except immunity from testifying against their partner) through existing civil law. Unfortunately, the proportion of people who support same sex marriage is growing. Someday, we may have a consensus of the general population that it should be the law. If and when that happens, man to woman marriages may become the exception. Society will be forever changed, and not necessarily for the better.


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Sculpture Progress For Black Lodge Theme
To simplify my life this Halloween, I picked a theme (Halloween in the Black Lodge - a Twin Peaks reference) that would not involve a lot of large scale prop building. There would only be one big one. Sounds simple, yes? I mean, I usually build numerous props for a theme, so one should be a breeze.
There's a statue seen in the Red Room/Black Lodge on the series.
A very famous statue.
In fact, one could argue besides David, the Thinker, and Atlas, it's probably the most recognizable sculpture ever made: Venus.
It's one thing to create something from your own imagination, or a symbol known by people. But I mean...it's freakin' Venus. Not only do I have NO experience sculpting humans (the closest I've come is my Witch in the Woods but she was a character, not a realistic sculpt), but I am not a famous master Roman sculptor!
I decided right from the start that I would NOT be aiming to recreate Venus. That would be stupid. And drive me to drink.
Instead, I would aim for generic white sculpture of a woman with Roman qualities.
If you missed my last post, check it out first.
Got it? Good. Now onto my current progress.
As you can see, the figure I used as my base is not shaped like a square-jawed, fleshed out woman.
And the shape of the mannequin's face - specifically the nose and eye sockets/brow - make it even harder for accuracy.
I did build it up in areas (to get the jaw more square especially and also a broader, bigger nose. Also, lowered the brow/filled in the eye socket).
Then I used rolled/folded tinfoil to flesh out the hair (hot glued to the head) before covering it with paper mache strips. The plan is to put clay overtop.
Of course, I ran out of clay.
I have my fingers crossed that a cheaper clay will work for the wig part. I've already used a surprising amount to build up the facial features (which still need more work).
Nervous about the hair. Will let you know how it goes next week. Once my show on Sunday is over, it's full steam ahead for Halloween decor!
You and I are in the same
You and I are in the same boat. I've had a busy year, and knowing I wouldn't have as much time to focus on large-scale, time-intensive props, I opted for a theme that's more about overall atmosphere. Of course, the best laid plans rarely pan out, and I've still ended up going large scale in some of the rooms.
This is coming along great, though. With the limited experience I have in sculpting, I'd recommend Sculpey as a great material for doing faces. It's just pliable enough to get those little details nice and accurate. What are you using for the rest of it? Is it Sculpey already? I can't tell. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out, either way.
hey, I think she's coming
hey, I think she's coming along nicely! thumbs up!
busy girl....
just checking in and catching up on my blog reading....sounds busy, busy, busy in the great white north!
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has nominated Catherine Russell to lead U.S. efforts on global women's issues at the Department of State. Russell is the chief of staff to Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden.
Obama made the announcement during a White House reception in honor of Women's History Month.
Obama praised Russell for her work on behalf of women and for helping Jill Biden and first lady Michelle Obama address the needs of military families. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton created the post of ambassador-at-large for women's issues to ensure women and girls are a central part of U.S. foreign policy.
Russell is married to Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon.
Obama also saluted women attending the reception for their leadership extending rights and protections for women.


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Maine lobster catch up, prices down
Maine lobster catch up, prices down
PORTLAND, Maine —
State officials said Maine's lobster catch surged 18 percent in 2012 for another record, but a summer glut caused the value of the state's signature seafood to drop.
Maine's lobster catch topped 100 million pounds for the first time in 2011. And the harvest grew again in 2012 with preliminary figures indicating a catch of more than 123 million pounds.
The huge haul caused a crash in wholesale prices and tensions to boil over. At one point, Canadian lobstermen blocked truckloads of Maine's lobster from being delivered to processing plants, blaming Maine for low prices.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources said Friday that the total value of the catch was nearly $331 million, a decrease of $3.7 million from 2011.


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Photos: Hauntings around Massachusetts
Photos: Hauntings around Massachusetts
Three ghosts were said to haunt the Orleans Waterfront Inn.
A show called "Ghost Hunters" on the Syfy channel recorded a man's voice saying, "Let me down" at the inn.
The remains of hundreds of bodies were uncovered when construction of the MBTA began in the 1890s.
The uncovered bodies now rest at the Central Burying Ground.
The human skin-bound book written by James Allen.
The Colonial Inn in Concord.
Room 24 at the Colonial Inn was said to be inhabited by ghosts.


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Take your Bible and look at 1 Corinthians 1 again with me, as we'll continue our study of this particular portion of Scripture dealing with Chapter 1, verse 18 through Chapter 2, verse 5. Now from 1:18 to 2:5 we have taken as a unit, and we've said that in this particular unit there is the contrast between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of men. Now we have had to divide the particular passage into three messages because of it's length and it's importance and this part three and I apologize to those of you who missed parts one and two. But if you want to get the tapes, it'll give you the full deal.
We're looking particularly today from verses 29-5 of Chapter 2. We'll kind of warm up to that point and then go from there. I read this week about a small English village that had a small chapel as many English villages do. The chapel was made of stone and had a rather traditional ivy covered walls. Over the arch when the chapel was originally built they inscribed the words "We Preach Christ Crucified" so that everybody whoever entered would know what they were there for. And there was a generation of Godly men that did precisely that. They preached Christ crucified. But times changed and the ivy grew and pretty soon it covered the last word and the sign said "We Preach Christ." And the Godly men changed. And there were other men who came and they preached Christ, Christ the example, Christ the humanitarian, Christ the ideal teacher. The years passed and the ivy grew and finally it said "We Preach." And they did, economics, social gospel, book reviews, whatever else. And maybe that stands as kind of an illustration of how man's philosophy effects the gospel.
The wisdom of man is really in the business of crowding out the gospel of Christ. And from a historic standpoint as you look at the church that is precisely what has happened. There is no place within the church of Jesus Christ for the mixture of human philosophy with divine revelation. God doesn't need it. If He needed something, He would have said it. Human opinion doesn't do anything but muddle the waters of God's revelation. We've seen how human opinion regarding evolution has taken a simple creative account here and turned it into a mishmash called theistic evolution.
We've seen how that simple principles of the word of God for human behavior and human wholeness have been met together with Freudian psychology and come up with a mishmash known as Christian counseling that does or does not have any positive or redeeming virtue. Now we've seen this again and again with many things, the Bible, the revelation of God has never really needed human philosophy. It only adulterates it. Now that is the context in which we find ourselves this morning, because we are looking at book, the book of 1 Corinthians that deals with problems. Paul wrote this letter to deal with the problems in the Corinthian assembly. They had many problems.
The first of which was the problem of division. The congregation was being fractioned into little groups. First of all, over personalities according to 1:12. They were dividing up according to the men with whom they identified Paul, Apollos, Peter or Christ, but the second cause of division was they were polarizing according to philosophical viewpoints. As Corinth was so dominated by varying philosophies and it wasn't very far from Athens, which was, of course, the spawning ground for philosophers, they had become a populous divided over philosophical viewpoints. And when they became Christians, they dragged their perspectives, their opinions about the various things in the world into the church and created little groups and rallied around unimportant viewpoint on man's destiny or man's life.
And what had happened was the church had been fractioned into all these little groups. Everybody claiming to be a believer, but everybody adhering to his former philosophy. So Paul writes from 1:18 to 2:5 to try to destroy in their minds this particular issue. To say to them human philosophy is unnecessary. And as we saw a couple of weeks ago, it is unnecessary. Where human philosophy is right, it's right because it matches divine revelation. So if you have divine revelation you don't need it. Where it's wrong, you really don't need it.
So human philosophy is really either superfluous or dangerous. Now when you have the word of God you have the solution to the problems that God wants you to solve. God didn't give us an incomplete revelation. Now we're not saying you should alienate your brain and be ignorant about everything. We're simply saying that God's word is what a man needs. And human opinion only tends to divide rather than unify. So Paul writes this section to contrast human wisdom with divine wisdom and take every avenue he can to show them they can dump human wisdom.
Now as we have seen, and you have an outline that you might want to follow, it'll help you to stay along, we have seen that there are five ways in which Paul shows his point. There are five ways in which God's wisdom is superior to man's. Number one, and we'll review the first three, because we've already done them. Number one, God's wisdom is superior is because of its permanence. He shows this by contrast in verses 19 and 20. Look at them. "For it is written," he quotes Isaiah 29:14, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Now he says that human wisdom is very impermanent. He is going to destroy it himself. He is going to set it aside. It is unnecessary to him.
It is wrong. Doesn't have ultimate answers. In verse 20, he says, when the chips are down and the issue's really there where is the wise? That's the philosopher. "Where is the scribe?" That's the writer. "Where is the disputer?" That's the speaker. Where is philosophy, literature, and rhetoric when you them? Hasn't God shown that the wisdom of this age or this world is foolishness. The best of philosophers, the best of writers, and the best of orators haven't been able to solve any of man's problems. It's impermanent. It's inconsequential. It's go nowhere. And so he says God's wisdom by contrast to this is permanent, because it's implied in the fact that he deals with the impermanence of human wisdom. God's wisdom lasts. God will destroy human wisdom.
All right, the second thing, and we're reviewing quickly, the second thing that shows the superiority of God's wisdom is not only it's permanence, but it's power. It can do that which human wisdom couldn't do. It can save. And human wisdom couldn't save, verse 21. "For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God." Human wisdom could not bring about the knowledge of God. But it pleased God by something as seemingly foolish as preaching to save them that believe. In other words, the wisdom of God exhibited in the cross which to the world looks like foolishness could do what all of the world's wisdom couldn't do. That is it could grant to a man the knowledge of God and it could save a man from hell, from sin, from Satan.
You say yes, but verse 22 says that the Jews are required a sign and the Greeks who sought after wisdom, verse 23, rejected it. To the Jews it was a stumbling block. And to the Gentiles something like the cross was moronic. That's the Greek word. You say, what good does it do for God to show how wise He is and He brings along this thing and they all rejected it. Yeah, they did for the most part, but verse 24 says "unto them who are called Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." And the summary, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men."
And you see Paul is taking in these verses this approach. He's saying God's wisdom is superior because of its power. The world by all of its own wisdom couldn't know God, couldn't do anything about sin, couldn't transform men. And that's why, you know, you can work in politics or economics or you can work in education, you can work anywhere you want and ultimately, you never really affect the change because you can't change people. And the world at the best levels of its understanding cannot do what must be done. It cannot bring men to know God and to be redeemed out of their sin. But God's cross did do that and even though it was rejected by Jews and rejected by Greeks there was some who believed and to them it did become power and it did become wisdom. And that just goes to prove that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 25, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. What that means is the lowest most simple thing God ever did is greater than the greatest things men have ever done. Human effort at its best can't come up to the very base level of God's power and wisdom.
All right, a third thing, God's wisdom is superior not only because of its permanence and power, but because of its paradox. God states the superiority of His wisdom to man's wisdom by redeeming simple humble people. Verse 26, "For you see your calling brethren," look around we saw this, "not many wise men after the flesh," and that literally means not many sophia, not many philosophers, "not many mighty," that is not many influential powerful people. There are a few, but not many. "Not many noble," that's high born. The world looks at three things to determine greatness. Number one wisdom, education, brains. Number two, power and influence, popularity, fame. Number three, high rank.
But God didn't choose very many of these, verse 27, "God's chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He's chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty." The world confound means to put to shame. "And the low born things," verse 28, "and the things which are despised hath God chosen things which are not." In other words, in man's estimation they're nothing to bring to nothing the things that think they're something. You see here's the paradox, here's apparent contradiction, God wants to demonstrate that He does not need human wisdom. In order to do that, He grants His salvation to humble simple people. And they stand as a living testimonial to the world that God doesn't need human wisdom.
Those things, philosophy, literature, oratory all of that, the high ranking things, the influential, powerful, the intelligentsia, that is irrelevant to God. And to show you how irrelevant, God contradicted human wisdom by choosing the simple and the humble. Most of God's people, most of them, are just plain folks. Just simple people. James 2:5 says, "Hearken my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith." The poor, the uneducated, simple people for the most part have always in history constituted the makeup of the church. The reason is they stand then collectively as a testimonial as a rebuke against the world. As the Gentiles stand to make Israel jealous so do the foolish, the simple stand as redeemed people to make the wise of this world jealous.
As we saw last time the simplest person without any education who knows God knows more than the greatest philosopher in the world who doesn't know God. And what a rebuke that is to human wisdom. And of course, Ephesians 3:10 says that God wants to take the church and put it on display before principalities and powers that they may see in the church His wisdom. There's no place for human wisdom. Now that leads us to the next point in verse 29. This is where we begin. Here is a further reason for the supremacy of God's wisdom. It's purpose. God's wisdom has a far more superior...far superior purpose.
Verse 29, "That no flesh should glory before God." The best manuscripts instead of in his presence say before God. Now notice. Here God removes all human boasting. Nobody can say well, you know, I tell you, I'm a Christian. I was smart enough to believe that. Have you ever thought that? You look at some guy and say how can he be dumb enough not to accept this? And what you're saying is I was smart enough. It had nothing to do with you being smart and him being dumb. You say wait a minute.
Let me show you something. Go back to verse 24. Let's see who gets saved, the smart? Verse 24, "But unto them who are called, elected." God elected people. All right, let's look at verse 26. "For you look around and you see your election." Verse 27, "But God hath chosen," middle of the verse, "and God hath chosen." Verse 28, middle of the verse, "hath God chosen." Why'd you get saved? Because you were smart? Because why? God chose you. You say wait a minute. I had to do something. That's verse 21 at the end of the verse. Yes. "He saved them that," what, "believed." Believed, that was your faith response. God's part was choosing. But just remember you're saved not because you're smart. You say well, I listen to all the logical arguments and made my conclusion. No, you were saved because you were chosen of God in His marvelous grace. And the result of that is verse 29, "That no flesh can glory before God." You can't say here I am God. Remember me, I'm the smart one.
That's ludicrous. In fact, the Bible says God said "My glory will I not give to another." So don't mess around with it. Ephesians 2:8-9, "By grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves." It is a gift of God, not of works, lest and that's what would happen. Everybody would go around boasting. No, now let's see the purpose in the wisdom of God, verse 30. "But of Him," capital H, God, "are you in Christ Jesus." Listen, the only reason you're in Christ Jesus is because of Him. Did human wisdom get you here? No.
What Paul is simply saying to them is look the purpose in salvation was that God may be glorified. And so in order for God to get the most glory, He made sure that you had the least to do with your salvation. You see? You say yeah, I got saved because of God's wisdom. That's right. The best that man can do at the highest level of his wisdom is nothing. To change his heart or to know God.
Now let me add this. Once you become a Christian, you don't stay ignorant anymore. You don't stay just humble, you know, very long, in terms of not knowing anything. Watch verse 30, this is terrific. "But of Him are you in Christ." The reason you're in Christ Jesus because of God. "Who of God is made unto us," what's the next word, "wisdom." As soon as you became Christian, the first thing you received was wisdom. Who are the truly wise in this world but those who know God. Who are the truly wise in this world but those who know salvation. We're the wise, and we stand as a testimony for all time that God took simple, humble people who didn't know enough to do anything to redeem themselves, to transform themselves, who didn't even have the mind and the mental abilities of the best of the world and He made us the wisest in existence. And His is the glory, and that's why it says in verse 31, if you're going to glory then you better glory in the Lord.
The purpose for which God's wisdom was granted was that He might receive the glory. And God chose simple, humble people in order that there might not be any question about the fact that salvation is not an issue of intelligence. It's not an issue of man's wisdom, but of His. You know, the moment you became a Christian you really learn something. The Bible even says Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." You receive the truth. You shall know the truth. The truth shall make you free. Let me show you what you learned as a Christian, this is interesting.
This is the instant education you have. And it's a progressive thing as well, but 2 Corinthians 4:6 and I'll show you something, give you a little sequence of verses here. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 it says, "For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness," and God's in the business of doing that. He did it when He created the world physically, but He also was able to do it spiritually. "For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shown in our hearts," when we were redeemed God turned the light on. "And he gave us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." Do you see it there? The first thing indicated here that a believer learns when he becomes a believer is the glory of God.
Now when we say the glory of God what do we mean? All that God is. All of his attributes and all of his nature. First thing that happens when you become a Christian is you know God. You know His nature, you know His essence. Before you were a Christian, you did not know God. Now that's an exciting knowledge, isn't it? I mean to not know God the generator of the universe, the source of all light. That's a handicap not to know Him. When you become a Christian you know Him. He shines, he turns the switch on, flips on the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And it comes through Christ. Let me show you something else you know. You not only know God, Ephesians 1:9, this is something else you know. "Having made known unto us," and this is talking about our salvation, "when we were redeemed, forgiven by grace, He abounded to us in all wisdom," and what does that mean? "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself."
Now mark this, God not only reveals Himself to us, but His will to us. Now this isn't whether you ought to marry Sally or Mary or whatever or whether you ought to work at Lockheed or somewhere else. That's not what it's talking about. What it's talking about is the sweep of God's plan. And that's indicated in the next verse. The dispensation of the fullness of times. Now mark this, when you became a Christian you began to know God, then also you began the knowledge of His will. Boy that's exciting. Now I want to go down to verse 17 and show you something.
Ephesians 1, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him." You know Him. Here's something else to know. "That the eyes of our understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance." Now both hope, now watch it, and inheritance have a future aspect. Right? We are hoping for the fullness of redemption. We are hoping for the inheritance which is reserved for us, laid aside for us. Now we know this. "The eyes of our understanding are open." Now watch it, when you were saved, you came to know God, God's plan, and your destiny. A Christian then knows where he came from, what he's doing, and where he's going.
Do you see that? Now that is the fullness of knowledge. It comes at salvation. Now that's nice to know, right? You know, the people in this world they go around one, they haven't got any idea where they came from. Unless it's an ape. They haven't got the faintest idea what they're doing here. That's why they become an existentialist. They live for the moment. And least of anything do they have any idea where they're going. Let me tell you, if I only wanted to know three things in this world, those would be three I'd want to know. Where did I come from? What am I doing? And where am I going? And God says in Christ you get those three things. Now that's having wisdom, isn't it?
That's why I say the simplest, humblest Christian person who doesn't know anything in terms of the world is wiser about what matters than the philosophers and sages of all the ages. And the glory in all of it, now you can go back to 1 Corinthians. I don't know, we got a little off there for a while. The great thing about all of it is the glory is God's because we didn't do anything. God gave us this wisdom. If I know where I came from, if I know why I'm here, and if I know where I'm going is that cause to boast? What did I do? All of a sudden I didn't have the knowledge. The next day I did. God gave it to me.
But of Him, of God, are you in Christ. It was an act of God. It wasn't because of you. You're in Christ and Christ is made unto you wisdom. And wisdom is the key to that verse. But in addition to that, Paul can't resist throwing in some other things. You not only received wisdom, but you received righteousness. You say what is righteousness. Shorten it up. Take off the ness, righteous. Then take off the eous, right. Righteousness means before God you stand right as opposed to wrong. Good as opposed to bad, sin less as opposed to sinful.
You say, you mean when I responded to Jesus Christ when God called me and I believed that I stood right before God? That's correct. You see, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says "That Christ was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." So He took our sin and gave us His righteousness. When God looks down at Christian from heaven, He sees him with a cloak over him and it says the righteousness of Christ on it, and it covers the sin. And God declares him righteous. That's because of Christ.
There's a great verse in Philippians 3:9, I'll just read it to you. You don't need to look it up. It says, "And be found in Him not having mine own righteousness but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of God by faith." You don't have any of your own. Paul says, I want to be found having His righteousness. You know, it's a wonderful thing to realize that when you're saved you not only get wisdom, but you also get absolute and total righteousness before God. Your sin is done away.
You say how can God do that? Because Christ took your sin and bore it on the cross, paid the penalty. God is satisfied. Another thing, and we could spend a sermon series on everyone of these, but let's go. Another one, sanctification. That means to be set apart or holy. We'll use the word holy. He not only declared you righteous, but He began an inside work of making you holy. You know, the moment you believed in Christ, the principle of the incorruptible seed was planted in you and as John says, "you cannot continue to commit habitual sin." Why? Because God's holy seed is in you. When you became a Christian, the first thing you began to see was something was going on in your life that never went on there before and that was holiness.
Before you are a Christian, evil all the time. Just sin all the time. When you became a Christian, all of a sudden holiness with intermittent sin. And maturity is the decreasing frequency of those sins as you eliminate them walking in the Spirit. But you see holiness is something God has done in us isn't it? Paul said to the Corinthians, "now are you holy." Now are you sanctified. And so we not only are right before God and that's a judicial thing, but we actually are made holy and that's an experiential thing. We began to walk in the Spirit. Romans 8 says "We're taken out of the flesh and we are in the Spirit." If so be it the Spirit of Christ dwells in us and He does. Galatians 5 says "The Spirit begins to produce fruit of holiness."
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "The Holy Spirit begins to conform us into the image of Christ. Ephesians 2:10 says "We were created unto good works." Holiness, then he adds another great word in the Christians vocabulary, redemption. You all know about redemption because of Green Stamps and Blue Chip Stamps. You know the Blue Chip Redemption Center can't do a thing for your soul? But that's the idea. You take something in there and you purchase them. You buy back. To redeem means to purchase. And God by Christ has purchased us from the power of sin. Redeemed.
And so we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1 says. What a promise. And Peter...I love what Peter says, "we're redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the lamb without spot and without blemish." All that is ours in Christ. Look at it. Wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And what did you do to earn wisdom? You're not smart enough to have known that on your own. What did you do to earn righteousness? "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be made righteous." You didn't do anything. What did you do to be made holy? You couldn't make yourself holy. What did you do to redeem yourself? You couldn't pay the price.
The point is verse 31, "According as it is written, he that glories let him glory in the Lord." You see all that you are, wise, righteous, holy, redeemed is due to the wisdom of God. You did nothing. The philosophy of man, what part does it play. Does it play any part in that? Do you see it there in 30 or 29? No. The philosophy of man cannot grant true wisdom. It can't pay the price for sin. It can't make you holy. And it can't deliver you from sin's grasp, but it will do this, if you let infiltrate the church it'll divide you.
And boy believe me, there are churches that are split all over this country over political issues. There is no need for that. There's no place for that. That won't do what has to be done. It won't give you true wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. All it'll do is polarize you at points that don't really matter. If you're going to glory and here he quotes Jeremiah 9:23-24, "glory in the Lord." He's the one who has done it all. Just to give you an illustration of this, go to Galatians 6:13. Whenever the church gets involved in politics or any of those things, economics or anything else, it gets into problems, because then you're dividing on nonessentials. Now here, Paul says if you're going to glory, glory in the Lord. That's all. If you're going to boast, just boast in Him. You didn't do anything to do deserve anything.
Verse 13, "Neither they themselves," Galatians 6, "who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that may glory in your flesh." The Judaisers came into Galatia, they took the Galatian Christians and they confused them by telling them they had to get circumcised and become Jews. And Paul says, they don't care about your souls, all they care about is racking up some more converts. They want to glory in your flesh that you're now a Jew.
Verse 14, "But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." You see, he says there's nothing to glory in but the cross. There's nothing for me to boast about. Another occasion, I think it's Romans, he says, "I will not speak of anything that Christ has not wrought in me." He says there are two reasons I boast in the Lord. One, "it changed by relation to the world by whom the world has been crucified to me and I unto the world." Two, "It made me a new creation." Verse 15 at the end of the verse, a new creature.
So Paul says it was the cross that changed my relation to the world. It was the cross that recreated me and I will give the honor to the cross. I put no glory in humankind. So all that happens when you do is you cause division. Now let me take you a step further. Go back to 1 Corinthians 1, let's look at Chapter 2, verses 1-5. Paul says then that the party spirit at Corinth is a result of human philosophy. You're divided over different opinions. There's no need for that at all, because all you need is God's wisdom. Number one, God's wisdom is superior in its permanence. It's, secondly, superior in it's power. Thirdly, it's paradox. Fourthly, it's purpose. Lastly, God's wisdom is superior by virtue of it's presentation. And this isn't really so much a point as it is an illustration of a point.
It illustrates all the former points. Paul says, if you're confused, if you're confused about the issue remember this, verse 1. "And I brethren when I came to you," and here he's getting into historical facts, "I didn't come with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God." Stop right there. Now remember my presentation to you? My presentation is an illustration of everything I've just said. When I came to you did I come talking fancy words and human philosophies? And what's the answer? No.
So let my coming to you be the illustration of how human philosophy fits. It doesn't. Doesn't have a place. God had determined to save men not by human wisdom, but by the gospel. So when Paul came to Corinth, he didn't come as an orator and he didn't come as a philosopher. He came as a witness. He came declaring the witness of God. And that's the word from martureis, the testimony, the witness of God. Now witness is somebody that sees something objective, something actual, something historical. He says I am here to report to you the testimony of God's objective facts, not to speculate.
I'm here to give you God's revelation. You know, that's all we're to do. And there's no place in the church for philosophy. Now let me just give you an illustration, maybe this might be one that you can relate to. Some of you have been in the church five, six years. Some of you three, four. Some of you one, some of you six months. Now if I were to ask you to tell me what my view is on economics and what my view is on education, what my view is on social issues, what my view is on politics, what my view is on pending bills and legislation before the State Congress or the United States Congress, I dare say there aren't any of you who could answer what my view is. You know why? Because I never told you. You know why I never told you? You didn't come here to hear that. You could go somewhere and have that. You don't have to drive to Panorama City.
When people say to me is John where can I go and hear the word of God, I don't...there's not one week that doesn't pass that our staff doesn't get phone calls and letters saying do you know of a church in such and such a city where they teach the word of God. You can find people giving opinions all over the place. Just try to find some place teaching the word. Look, I have one task. Here is the testimony of God. I come here to declare it to you. You're not interest in my opinions. Somebody said, you know, you ought to warn the people about the economic situation. I said, no, I can't do that. They said why? I said two reasons, number one I don't understand it. Number two, I don't care about it. I am not an expert on it. I just want to teach them the word of God. They can make up their own opinions.
What's going to happen is going to happen because this is God's world and this God's plan unfolding and every new day is just a different adventure. And you don't come here to hear platitudes. And you don't come here to hear, look at it, he says, "I came not with excellency," or that is supremacy or superiority of speech and philosophy, lagos and sophia. I didn't come with all the flowery words and human philosophy. Boy but I'll tell you, you'll hear it a lot of places wouldn't you.
My dad and I were talking about this. He's here this morning, we were talking about this this week, how you turn on your television and there's a guy on there who smiles all the time. And he's smiles and says flowery, flowery things. Words and happy thoughts and nothing. Absolute zero. And it's all very positive. And you can do it, whatever it is, you can do it. And the truth is, most of them can't do it. You can't do everything. And we were talking about the fact that kind of positive bologna that gets pumped out on that deal denies one-half of the whole revelation of God. And that is it denies sin. You don't ever talk about sin. You'll never him talk about it, because it's a negative. And you can't talk about negatives in positive thinking. That's just...that's human philosophy, who needs it.
If you think the Bible is full of positive thinking, you better read it again. I sometimes read the Bible and feel like I just had a wrestling match. I'm so beaten down I can't take it. No, we don't need all that. We don't need all kinds of flowery words that mean nothing. Paul says, I didn't come just offering you a whole lot of human verbiage and a whole lot of human philosophy. I told you the testimony of God. You don't want opinions.
I wrote in the preface of my book, I think I've written it in two of them, that the material is not original. When I start writing material that's original you can throw my books away. Who wants my opinion? God has called me to do one thing and that is declare His testimony. Sometimes I say to myself, MacArthur why are you so dumb. And then I say, I know, that way you never have enough opinions to get in the way of Scripture. I just stick to this and I feel that this is what God has set as the priority. You can only really know maybe one or two things well, and I'd just soon spend my time here. So he says, I didn't come giving you human speech and wisdom, but I came with God's word. That's the first thing. With God's word. The testimony of God. What is the testimony of God? The Testimony of God is, listen to this, it's Jesus Christ. Who does the Father testify to in John 15:26? He testifies to the Son.
The testimony of God is Christ, the gospel. I declare unto you the marturion, the witness of God concerning Christ. "This is my beloved Son, hear Him." Paul says, I'm not coming giving you my opinions and my speculations and my vagaries. I'm coming telling you this is what God said. God says. Isn't that much better? We come together on the Lord's day and whenever we meet together and we say the first thing, let's open our Bibles. Let's look at what God says, not politics, economics, social issues, viewpoints, opinions, human ideas.
Let me give you a further illustration. 2 Corinthians, go back to that 4thChapter again and verse 1. "Therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not." We know our ministry and we stay at it. And here's how it should go. "We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty." Nothing worst than dishonesty in the ministry. There's a lot of it. "Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully." Being hucksters of the word of God. Using it for our ends, bilking people with it. "But by manifestation of the truth. That phrase ought to be outlined in your Bible, underlined. The primary tasks, the only tasks of the ministry is to manifest the truth of God. That's all. "And therefore commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." We have a clear conscience. And they can have one about us. We have a task, simple task. There it is, manifest the truth, God's truth.
Paul said to Timothy some important things about his ministry and what the priorities were. In 1 Timothy 4 he said this, I like it, verse 13. He said, "Til I come," in other words, here's what you do and you just keep doing it, "give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." Now that's pretty simple, right? Read, exhort, and doctrine is a synonym for teach. Now let me give you three things that'll tell you what you're suppose to do as a minister.
Number one, read the Bible. Number two, explain it, that's teaching. Number three, apply it. You know what I endeavor to do with every text I ever teach? Read the text, explain the meaning of it, and apply it to your life. That's what he said to Timothy to do. He didn't say read the text, explain the text, apply the text, and then give a few opinions. No, he said in verse 15, "Give yourself totally to that." That's it Timothy, beginning, middle, and end. Read it, explain it, apply it, and then shut it and go home. That's it.
Now later on in 2 Timothy he just reminded him of it again, Chapter 4 again. 2 Timothy 4, verse 2, this is a solemn obligation. He uses DMR turemiin the first verse. He really lays it on him. He's to be challenged to do this. Verse 2, 2 Timothy 4, "Preach the word." Not your own opinion, the word. I cannot for the life of me, I cannot comprehend how any man can call himself a minister of God and do anything but teach the word of God. I mean, what else is there. "Preach the word. Be on standby in season and out of season." In other words, you are ready to fire out when the call comes.
Verse 3, "But the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." Has that time come? Believe me, we can hardly find it. People don't want a sound doctrine. "But after their own epithumia, their own lusts, desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears." Now the itching ears belong to the hearers not the teachers. They want their ears tickled with beautiful sermons. You see? Nice flowery words. And they'll turn away their ears from the truth and "they'll be turned unto fables."
You know, certain kind of biblical preaching, any kind of biblical preaching that is really biblical preaching is not popular, but there are all kinds of people who want to have sort of a God feeling and they want to go to church. So they'll find one where they get their ears tickled by nice sermons. They go where they can hear what they want to hear. Vincent says this, "In periods of unsettled faith, skepticism, and mere curious speculation and matters of religion, teachers of all kinds swarm like the flies in Egypt. The demand creates the supply. The hearers invite and shape their own preachers. If the people desire a calf to worship, a ministerial calf maker is readily found." He's right.
Paul says, my testimony is this. "I will speak the testimony of God." Not tickle the people's ears by giving them what they want to hear. Believe me, that's what people get. Don't want to bother them. Don't want to upset them. And so people will gravitate from place to place until they find a guy who says what they want to hear. Or else they'll create the need for one and some guy will see the need and jump on the bandwagon and make a mint out of it.
All right, back to Chapter 2, verse 2. Here was Paul saying, "I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." I just zeroed in on the cross. My only design was to preach Christ. Not as a teacher, not as an example, not as perfect man, but Christ crucified, Redeemer, the Savior. I didn't give opinion, that's revelation. I didn't give speculation. That's fact, right? That's fact. Now he's not saying there that he denied the rest of the Scripture because in Acts 18 it says that he for 18 months declared unto them the word of God. But his emphasis was the cross. And he means by that God's redemptive plan. God's revelation as opposed to human speculation. That was Paul's message.
In fact, it was so much a dominant message in the early church that people thought that the Christians worshiped the dead man. Celsus said, "Christians worship a dead man." And the Palatine Hill in Rome there's some archaeological digging some years back and they found a picture that somebody had drawn to caricature Christians and they had a Christian kneeling at the foot of the cross with a crucified donkey on it. And the bottom of the picture said Alexio Minosworships his God. Now you see that's what Paul meant when he said in Corinthians that to the Gentiles the cross was foolishness.
But be it foolishness or not, Paul never changed his message to accommodate the people, did he? Never. Never. You say yeah and that's why they all stumbled at it. Yes, but for those that were called there was redemption. So number one, now mark it, when he preached, he preached God's words. Number two, verses 3 and 4, when he preached, he preached with God's power. Verse 3, "And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling." Now that isn't like him, is it? Usually the earthquakes, but not Paul. Usually everybody in town shakes, but not him. What's he doing shaky?
When he came to Corinth, he was really shook. The fear and trembling here I don't think means physical illness. Some have said that, but I don't think there's any indication of that. I just get a little look at the terms that are used here and the idea of fear and trembling is used in several other passages. It is used for example in 2 Corinthians 7:15, Philippians 2:12, and Ephesians 6:5 and each of those times it has to do with mental anxiety over an important issue.
For example, in Philippians 2:12, "It's work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." It's an anxiety that comes with something that's very urgent. And so Paul says I was in such urgency over you and Corinth was the vanity fair of the world. It was a corrupt city. In fact, it got to be when a person was so debouched that their life was one steady stream of gross immorality. They were said to Corinthianize. That was synonymous with filth. That became the verb for continual prostitution.
And he was in this city and he'd been thrown out of Philippi and had to run for his life. He was thrown out of Thessalonica, he had to run for his life. The Thessalonians traced him to Berea and he had to leave there. He got to Athens and he was about at the end of his rope. Finally he got to Mars Hill and preached and there wasn't a great response. He hustled off to Corinth. He lands here all alone and he's very, very discouraged. He sees a city just dominated by sinfulness, just a filthy place, all alone and he's afraid. He has a terrible mental anxiety over the lostness of the city and he knows that he's hopeless in himself. And so in verse 4 he says, "My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."
He didn't come with his own words and he didn't come in his own power. Believe it. He came in the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, I didn't want to come in my own power, because if I had then you would have identified with me and not Christ. Verse 5, "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." I didn't want you to buy a philosophy. I wanted you to be new creatures. I didn't want you to put faith in my speculative ideas. I didn't want you to put faith in my opinions. I wanted you to put your faith in God whose power can transform you.
So he says, I didn't come with lagos and karigma, and those are almost synonymous terms. Maybe speech refers to personal contact and preaching to public preaching. But I didn't come with persuasive words. Enticing means persuasive. Didn't come to persuade you to use the right words, to exact the right responses, to draw you over to my opinions. I just came and let the Spirit flow and let His power flow and He and His power were able to change lives. He said the same thing in 1 Thessalonians when reminded the Thessalonians of how it had been with them.
He said, "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and the Holy Spirit." And only that can mean there's a change in a life. Paul was a man with great natural abilities, but he didn't use them. Spurgeon said, "The power that is the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher. Otherwise men would be the converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preachers' learning. Otherwise it consist in the wisdom of men. We might preach til our tongues rotted, til we would exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless the Holy Spirit be with the word of God to give it the power to convert the soul."
Now you see that is precisely what Paul is saying. I came to you not with a human message, no, no. The testimony of God, the cross, I gave you. And not with human power, with divine power. The reason that your faith should not be standing in philosophy but in the power of God. I'll never forget a pastor said to me one time pointed to a guy after a service. He said, "See that fellow, he's one of my converts?" I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah, not the Lord's, mine." Boy that stuck with me. He made his point. Stott said this, "It seems that only preaching God honors through which His wisdom and power are expressed is the preaching of a man who is willing in himself to be both a weakling and a fool."
You see, God not only chooses weak and foolish to save, but weak and foolish to preach. And the weaker and more foolish you are, the more God's word and God's power can be expressed. So now you know the truth. And hopefully the result is you don't have converts of John MacArthur, but to Jesus Christ. Paul makes his case, don't you think? He makes his case for the fact God's wisdom doesn't need human wisdom. The Corinthians didn't need to bring human wisdom into their church and neither do we. It'll only bring division. May it be that we always unite around God's word and God's Spirit. Let's pray.
Thank You Father for a clear message this morning from Your word. While your heads are bowed for just a minute as we close, there are for every different life here several particular needs I'm sure. Some of you have never met Christ. You're standing hopefully in the wisdom of the world, philosophy of man, but there is no hope there. Maybe this morning you feel like you'd like to put your hope in Jesus Christ and you'd like to have Him made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. If that's your desire, you can do that right now by just putting your faith in Christ and asking Him to take your life. Transform it. You can do it silently in your heart. Others of you as Christians maybe you've been leaning too much to your own understanding and not in all your ways acknowledging His wisdom. Maybe you need to make a commitment in that area. Others of you know this church stands for the declaration of the word of God and maybe you're saying to yourself this is where I ought to be. Where God's word is honored and human opinions are not given.
Thank You Father for our time together, for the blessing that Your word has been to our hearts. Confirm it to us, use it through us this week to Your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


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"Labor: What to do when you get a letter from a union health or pension plan payroll auditor"
InsideCounsel 04/08/13 Angela Marie Hubbell
Employers who participate in multi-employer health or pension plans are often surprised by the broad nature of the requests from payroll auditors. Frequently, the request will suggest dates when the auditor plans to be on-site at the employer's place of business and will ask for payroll information for nonunion and other employees for whom the employer may not be required to make contributions to the health or pension plan. We often get calls from employers who would like to limit the information provided or to have the audit performed offsite.
Some employers try the route of stonewalling the auditor, suggesting that every possible date proposed by the auditor is inconvenient. Others try to insist that the audit can only be performed after normal business hours. Both of these approaches are mistakes. A payroll auditor generally has a right to perform the audit on-site at a time convenient to the auditor. If the dates proposed by the auditor would present a true hardship for the employer, the employer should advise the auditor of the conflict and work with the auditor to find a mutually convenient date for the audit. While the employer can choose a location at the worksite that is designed to be minimally invasive to conducting business, the employer should offer a reasonable schedule that includes normal business hours for the auditor to be present.
Many employers incorrectly believe that they can withhold data for executives and other nonunion employees because these individuals do not participate in the plan. But the trust agreements for most health and pension plans permit exactly that. Employers are well-advised to review the trust agreement and any participation agreement with the plan. Most commonly, the employer agreed to be bound by the terms of the trust agreement at the same time it signed the collective bargaining agreement.
The trust agreement usually provides the health or pension plan with direct authority to audit the employer's complete payroll records. In addition, the Supreme Court has found that the audit of all payroll records is a reasonable method for independently verifying the status of all individuals employed by an employer to insure that the right amount of benefit contributions are being paid. (Central States Pension Fund v. Central Transp.) This applies not only to executive salaries but also to nonunion employees, including those in right-to-work states where specific employees have elected not to join the union. Because union status is distinct from the right to benefits, if an employee is performing work covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the company must make contributions on behalf of the employee. Health and pension plans have a right to review the payroll records relating to all employees, including executives and nonunion employees, to determine whether the company properly made contributions.
Employers will be well-served to review the applicable language in their collective bargaining agreements to ensure they are making contributions for all work covered by the agreement. This may include work performed by temporary employees, work performed by nonunion employees and contributions relating to vacation or severance pay paid at the time of an employee's termination. Employers who self-audit on these issues are likely to avoid unpleasant surprises in the auditor's formal findings.
Employers who receive a letter from a plan auditor may want to consider the following suggestions:
- Review the trust agreement and any participation agreement for a broader understanding of the health or pension plan's audit authority
- Be cooperative with scheduling
- To the extent possible, prepare and review the required materials in advance of the audit
- Because many employers are concerned about releasing the salary information of their executives, the auditor may be willing to accept a total salary figure for a group of executives. In addition, many auditors are willing to sign confidentiality agreements in which they agree not to provide salary information about executives to the plan or the union.
Originally published in InsideCounsel, April 8, 2013


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The Alzheimer's Association is the leading, global voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care and support, and the largest private, nonprofit funder of Alzheimer research. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's, and since our founding in 1980, we have moved toward this goal by advancing research and providing support, information and education to those affected by Alzheimer's and related dementias.
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is a not-for-profit organization of over 6,400 health professionals devoted to improving the health, independence and quality of life of all older people. The Society provides leadership to healthcare professionals, policy makers and the public by implementing and advocating for programs in patient care, research, professional and public education, and public policy.
The Arthritis Foundation is the only national not-for-profit organization that supports the more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions. Founded in 1948, with headquarters in Atlanta, the Arthritis Foundation has multiple service points located throughout the country. The Arthritis Foundation is the largest private, not-for-profit contributor to arthritis research in the world, funding more than $380 million in research grants since 1948. The foundation helps people take control of arthritis by providing public health education; pursuing public policy and legislation; and conducting evidence-based programs to improve the quality of life for those living with arthritis.
Get all the benefits you deserve. Find and enroll in federal, state, local and private programs that help pay for prescription drugs, utility bills, meals, health care and other needs.
Resources for Clark County: Senior Information & Assistance, Home & Community Services, Family Caregiver Support Program, Area Agency on Aging, Long Term Care, Ombudsman, Adult Protective Services
In order to serve a growing senior population, AoA envisions ensuring the continuation of a vibrant aging services network at State, Territory, local and Tribal levels through funding of lower-cost, non-medical services and supports that provide the means by which many more seniors can maintain their independence.
The mission of AoA is to develop a comprehensive, coordinated and cost-effective system of home and community-based services that helps elderly individuals maintain their health and independence in their homes and communities.
The Geriatric Mental Health Foundation was established by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry to raise awareness of psychiatric and mental health disorders affecting the elderly, eliminate the stigma of mental illness and treatment, promote healthy aging strategies, and increase access to quality mental health care for the elderly.
Welcome to the Eldercare Locator, a public service of the U.S. Administration on Aging. The Eldercare Locator is your first step for finding local agencies, in every U.S. community, that can help older persons and their families access home and community-based services like transportation, meals, home care and caregiver support services.
Founded in 1977, Family Caregiver Alliance was the first community-based nonprofit organization in the country to address the needs of families and friends providing long-term care at home. Long recognized as a pioneer in health services, FCA now offers programs at national, state and local levels to support and sustain caregivers.
The Meals On Wheels Association of America is the oldest and largest national organization composed of and representing local, community-based Senior Nutrition Programs in all 50 U.S. states, as well as the U.S. Territories.
The official U.S. Government site for Medicare
Learn about your prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Includes side effects, dosage, special precautions and more. Browse dietary supplements and herbal remedies to learn about their effectiveness, usual dosage and drug interactions.
We serve seniors (people age 60 and older), people with disabilities age 18 and older and veterans. We're here to identify resources that will let them live independently in their own homes for as long as possible.
Advancing professional geriatric care management through education, collaboration, and leadership.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) is the leading consumer and community-focused health organization dedicated to the prevention of osteoporosis and broken bones, the promotion of strong bones for life and the reduction of human suffering through programs of public and clinician awareness, education, advocacy and research.
Since its inception more than 50 years ago, the National Parkinson Foundation has worked to address the unmet needs in Parkinson's care and treatment. In 2010 and beyond, NPF works every day to improve the quality of Parkinson's care through research, education and outreach. We believe by working together, we can improve the quality of care for every person diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Comprehensive overview of stroke, including warning signs, emergency stroke center locations and patient education resources.
Ride Connection, a non-profit organization, is dedicated to providing responsive, accessible transportation options for those in need. While many of our customers are older adults and people with disabilities, we strive to provide transportation solutions for the community at large.
Navigating Medicare can be confusing. To find out about your Medicare insurance options, contact the Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) program. Our volunteer counselors provide one-on-one counseling and assist with appeals or insurance complaints.
TriMet's LIFT program is a shared-ride public transportation service for people who are unable to use regular buses or trains due to a disability or disabling health condition.


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GOMA, Congo (AP) — M23 rebels fired two rockets into the eastern Congo city of Goma, killing one person and wounding four, officials said, in an apparent spillover from three days of fighting raging north of the city.
The attack underscores the heightening tension in Congo and comes as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Congo's capital far to the west for a two-day visit. He is expected to visit Goma, where a new U.N. military brigade is being formed to attack rebel groups and bring stability to the mineral-rich region.
The two rockets exploded in Goma's Ndosho neighborhood, said Col. Premanku Ghosh, a U.N. peacekeeping officer in Congo who blamed M23 rebels. He said civilians were among the casualties. Earlier, another official with the U.N. peacekeeping mission said one mortar round had exploded in the neighborhood of Goma, apparently referring to the same attack. Ghosh said the range of the firing, over 10 kilometers (six miles) indicated the weapons used were rockets.
Wednesday marked the third day of fighting between the rebels and government forces just north of Goma after a nearly six-month lull, officials said. Last November, the M23 rebels, who are allegedly supported and equipped by neighboring Rwanda, seized Goma before retreating from the provincial capital fewer than two weeks later under intense international pressure.
The Congolese army is holding its positions in the area of Mutaho and there is no evident movement of M23 headed towards Goma, said Ghosh.
Mutaho, where the fighting broke out, is a largely unpopulated area in the dense forest at the foot of the Nyaragongo volcano, around 10 kilometers (six miles) northeast of Goma. Both sides are bombarding each other with mortar rounds and rockets.
Congo, an enormous country the size of Western Europe, has endured decades of conflict, especially in its mineral-rich east. An investigation by U.N. experts found that Rwanda and Uganda have backed M23, which both governments deny.
U.N. peacekeepers were widely criticized for failing to stop the rebel advance into Goma last November. Since then, the U.N. Security Council voted to create a special intervention brigade in Congo with a mandate to attack armed groups to bring back stability.
Ban told reporters in a news conference in the capital that he was deeply concerned by the renewed fighting. He stressed that international community would stand with Congo.
"We are in a very crucial and important timing at this time," he said. "The Security Council recently strengthened the mandate and role of the United Nations Peace-Keeping Mission — MONUSCO — with the introduction of an intervention brigade. This is again an unprecedented one and I am sure that this will bring peace and security at this time. ... We are deeply concerned about the recent recurrence of violence by the M23," he said.
Only around 100 soldiers from Tanzania have arrived so far to form part of the brigade. Congo's army has proven to be no match for the rebels, who are believed to be getting high-end equipment including night vision goggles from Rwanda.
The M23 called the creation of the intervention brigade "a declaration of war" and have vowed to fight the U.N. should they try to enter M23 territory.
Associated Press reporter Saleh Mwanamilongo contributed to this report from Kinshasa, Congo.


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This giveaway is now closed. You can enter to win again on Wednesday's giveaway!
Winners are:
Lorraine who says…"my biggest challenge is coming up with new and fun ideas. Seems like I'm also making the same basic lunches for my kids."
Janelle who says…"I can't seem to get a good variety for lunch. We are always eating the same things!"
Congrats ladies!
It's day 2 of the daily giveaways of my Breakfast and Lunch Cookbook!
This cookbook is filled with wonderful, delicious and easy recipes that will help you get your day started out on the right foot! Here are some of our favorites…
- Chocolate Chip Raspberry Pancakes
- Bacon and Egg Quesadillas
- Vanilla Almond French Toast
- Overnight Honey Nut Granola
I'll be giving away 2 copies each day this week…you can enter up to 3 times each day. Please leave separate comments for your separate entries!
1. Contests will start and end at 7 am EST each day this week.
- Entry #1: Leave a comment just sharing your biggest struggle with the lunch hour.
- Entry #2: Tweet the following on Twitter: "I've entered to a copy of @5dollardinners Breakfast and Lunch Cookbook. Have you?! http://bit.ly/tuesdaygiveaway #backtoschool"
- Entry #3: Become a Facebook Fan, or subscribe by email or in an RSS reader!
2. Winner will be selected by Random.org. Winners will be announced back here on this post, and notified via email with further instructions.


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Pregnant singer Christina Aguilera has become the latest celebrity mom-to-be to bare all for a magazine cover.
The Beautiful hitmaker and her fiance, Matt Rutler, are expecting a baby girl and the singer has stripped off to show her full form in a new spread for V Magazine.
In one shot, Aguilera poses completely nude and in another she covers up in a sheer white dress, exposing her breasts.
She says, "As a woman, I'm proud to embrace my body through all stages of life, staying fearless and confident in surrendering to the unknowns the future has in store."
According to V editors, the singer contacted them about the sexy shoot after asking photographer Brian Bowen Smith to capture her "blissful moments".
Aguilera also posed nude during her first pregnancy on the cover of Marie Claire in December, 2007.


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A microdiscectomy is a minimally invasive outpatient spine surgery offered at UPMC. This procedure treats patients with "pinched" nerves in the spinal column caused by herniated or ruptured discs.
Ruptured discs can apply pressure to nerves, causing:
A microdiscectomy can offer a safe and efficient alternative to traditional procedures, and a quicker and less painful recovery for patients.
This procedure requires a one-inch incision in the midline of the lower back. Once the incision is made, the surgeon inserts microsurgical tools to act as a guide to the ruptured disc.
The surgeon then removes a small portion of the bony material covering the spine to gain access to the ruptured disc. The doctor then removes the ruptured portion of the disc and any disc fragments that are causing pressure on the nerves.
Most patients are able to return home the same day of their surgery and can usually resume normal activity soon after.
How can we help you?
Schedule anappointment »
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For help in finding a doctor or health service that suits your needs, call the UPMC Referral Service at 412-647-UPMC (8762) or 1-800-533-UPMC (8762). Select option 1.
UPMC is an equal opportunity employer. UPMC policy prohibits discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, sex, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected group status. Further, UPMC will continue to support and promote equal employment opportunity, human dignity, and racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. This policy applies to admissions, employment, and access to and treatment in UPMC programs and activities. This commitment is made by UPMC in accordance with federal, state, and/or local laws and regulations.
Medical information made available on UPMC.com is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You should not rely entirely on this information for your health care needs. Ask your own doctor or health care provider any specific medical questions that you have. Further, UPMC.com is not a tool to be used in the case of an emergency. If an emergency arises, you should seek appropriate emergency medical services.
Pittsburgh, PA, USA | UPMC.com


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Burnt sugar + salt… This is one of my absolute favourites, and these days no self-respecting ice-cream parlour can not offer their own version of salted caramel. The recipe here is based on the wonderful and inspiring San Franciscan Bi-Rite Creamery. The ice-cream is absolutely delicious on its own, but personally I like to add pieces of Almond Toffee because...
a) I love chunky bits in my ice-cream, b) I'm a total glutton, and
c) It makes it even more delightful.
So let's get going. For the ice-cream you'll need:
400ml (1¾ cups) cream*
200ml (¾ cup) milk*
120g (½ cup) or 180g (¾ cup) sugar (if you add almond toffee go for lower amount)
1 teaspoon salt
5 egg yolks (medium or large eggs)
1. Sprinke the egg yolks with 3 tbsps of sugar. Put the rest of the sugar in a heatproof pot over medium heat and let melt. Stir gently while the sugar is melting.
2. When the sugar starts to smell 'caramelly' and develops a dark colour take off the heat and carefully! (it will bubble up and can sputter) pour the cream into the caramel. It doesn't matter if some of the caramel hardens in the process as it will melt later on.
3. Add milk and salt to the caramel-cream mix. Put on medium heat and while stirring constantly heat up until mixture starts simmering (bubbles form around the edges).
3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar to break them up. Then, little by little (1/2 a cup at the time), and while whisking constantly add caramel-cream mixture to the egg yolks.
4. Pour the whole mixture back into the pot and slowly heat up, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Let the mixture thicken, but don't let it come to a boil. It's fine when you coat the back of your spoon and run a finger through it, and it holds a clear path.**
5. Strain the mixture through a sieve and place the container into an ice-water bath. When it has cooled down to room temperature put the container into the fridge. Let it cool for at least 2 hours or overnight.
6. Start your ice-cream machine, pour in the cold mixture and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. If you want to your ice-cream with almond toffee bits add the pieces in the last minutes of churning.
7. Eat right away or fill into a pre-chilled container and put in the freezer for the ice-cream to harden more.
Glutton like me? Okay, let's proceed to the…
Almond Toffee
150g (1 cup) roasted, cut (halfed, quartered and slivered) almonds
150g (2/3 cup) sugar
60ml (¼ cup) agave, tapioca or corn syrup
3 tablespoons water
240g (1 cup) butter
½ teaspoon salt (not needed if you use salted butter)
1. Line a large baking sheet with parchment or a nonsticking baking mat.
2. Put butter, sugar, syrup, water and salt into a heavy, heatproof pot and cook – stirring constantly – until mixture turns light brown. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
3. Stir in the almonds and cook a few more minutes (stirring constantly), watching carefully that (while it's okay for the mixture to turn a bit darker and smell more of caramel) it does not burn.
4. Pour – careful! extremely hot! – mixture onto the baking sheet and spread with a wooden or heatproof spatula to 1cm/ 1/3 inch thickness.
5. Let cool for an hour or so, then chop up. (Into slivers or small chunks if you want to add the toffee to ice-cream, or into bigger pieces if you want to eat the toffee directly).
6. Stored in an airtight container in the fridge it will keep for weeks (though it has never survived more than a week in mine).
*I use whipping cream and full-fat milk. If you use double cream you can go for half-fat (1-2%) milk.
**If you have a thermometer this should be between 75-85°C/ 165-185°F.
Ice-Cream of the Week | Salted Caramel Ice-Cream & Almond Toffee
6 comments:
- Blindcopy said...
that sounds and looks absolutely delicious (as did the other recipes)! and the photography... beautiful!
- August 22, 2013 11:13 AM
- Tiffany Kadani said...
Oh my gosh I just died.
I am dead.
This looks so amazing my heart can't take it.
- August 22, 2013 1:53 PM
- Fashion art and other fancies said...
Ohlala. Ice cream! The ideal summer treat!
- August 22, 2013 4:37 PM
- Jane Droll said...
this is so me!!!!! lol! i want it!!!!
- August 22, 2013 9:42 PM
- Beauty Follower said...
Looks delicious!
- August 24, 2013 2:36 PM
- HiFashion said...
This looks and sounds unbelievably delicious.
- August 26, 2013 10:27 AM


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Duplicate Sidebar Widget
Builder allows the user to quickly create a wide variety of layouts that can have a large number of widget areas. One problem that often comes up is the need to have the same widgets used in widget areas of different layouts.
For example, imagine having three layouts called Home, Blog, and Default. Each of these three layouts uses a two column Widget Bar module for the header. To keep the look of the site consistent, the same widgets should be used across all three layouts. Manually adding the same widgets to each of the three layouts and then updating three sets of matching widgets when any changes need to be made is possible but time consuming and error prone.
The Duplicate Sidebar widget functionality offers an easy way to manage this type of setup. Simply drop the Duplicate Sidebar widget into a sidebar that needs to have matching widgets, and select the desired sidebar from the "Sidebar to Duplicate" drop-down.
Using the widget
Continuing with the example described above, the following will show how to set up three layouts with matching sidebars using the Duplicate Sidebar widget. The image below shows the top of the three layouts: Default, Home, and Blog.
The Default layout has widgets added to it to build a simple header for the site. Now the Home and Blog layouts need to be updated to match. Using the Duplicate Sidebar widget makes quick work of this.
The image below shows how the widgets were used in each sidebar to duplicate the Default layout's widgets.
The image below shows what the header area of the three layouts look like after saving the widget changes:
Creative Uses
It is possible to create a loop of Duplicate Sidebar references. In other words, you can add a Duplicate Sidebar widget into sidebar A that is set to duplicate sidebar B and add a Duplicate Sidebar widget into sidebar B that is set to duplicate sidebar A without breaking your site. This leads to some interesting possibilities.
For example, the following image shows the result of loading a 5 column Widget Bar module with one Text widget and a Duplicate Sidebar widget each. Each Duplicate Sidebar widget is set to duplicate the next column's sidebar with the last one set to duplicate the first one, creating a circular reference. The image below shows the result of this type of configuration:
This is not likely to be useful for many users, but it could be just what you are looking to do.
- The Duplicate Sidebar widget is a Builder version 2.6.0 feature.
- The Duplicate Sidebar widget will insert the widgets from the other sidebar in the same location it was added in the widget order. Other widgets can be added above and below the Duplicate Sidebar widget to add additional widgets specific to that sidebar.
- The widget will not break if you tell it to duplicate its own sidebar. It will simply not display anything in this case.