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Believer's Rewards
Tonight our subject in our prophecy series is the judgment seat of Christ or the believer's rewards. In the great closing chapter of Revelation Jesus gave us a clear statement introducing to us an event that would follow immediately the rapture. The statement that He made is in Revelation 22:12 and this is what He said: "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be." Jesus said I am coming quickly or suddenly and when I come I will have with me rewards to give to men on the basis of what they have done.
Now this introduces to us the fact that there is going to be a time of reward for the believer. This is not the only Scripture that mentions it. In II Timothy 4, we read this, the words of Paul as he closes out his ministry: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only but unto them also that love His appearing." When Jesus comes for His church it will be immediately followed by a time of rewards. We leave this world, we meet Jesus Christ in the air, we go to the Father's house and there is a time of reward.
Now this even is called by the apostle Paul the judgment seat of Christ. That is the term that is used in II Corinthians 5:10. And there Paul says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and He's talking about believers as we shall see later on.
Now Paul also speaks of this judgment in Romans 14:10. "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." Again indicating the same things. Some manuscripts there read the judgment seat of God, but it's talking about the very same thing.
Now the question that we want to pose and then answer tonight from the Scripture is what is this judgment seat? What is this time of rewards that happens immediately after the Lord comes? When I look forward to the rapture and I look forward to it and I know that Jesus could come any moment, but when I look forward to that I also have to have in my mind's eye the whole concept of rewards because that is what is going to take place immediately after the rapture. And so as I'm anticipating the coming of Christ, I must also be anticipating a time of rewards for the service, which I have rendered to Him. Therefore, this is a very important subject to me. If I'm going to be at the judgment seat of Christ I want to know what it is and I want to be there in all of the best possible circumstances. We want to know what the Scripture says and so what we're going to do is bounce around in Scripture and you're going to have to move with us a little bit to kind of stay with it.
Now I just want to take this from a simple standpoint and just consider each aspect of it right down the line, the place and time of it, the person, the people, the purpose and the promise. And we'll just take one of those at a time.
First of all where is this going to happen and when is it going to happen? The place and time. Well I've already told you and having read those two Scriptures I hope substantiated that it's going to happen immediately after the rapture. "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shall be." The picture is Christ coming and with Him is the reward. And then as I read from II Timothy 4, Paul says He's going to give me a crown of righteousness at that day and he talks about the day of His appearing.
And so we believe then that the judgment seat of Christ, as it is called by Paul, at least in a authorized version, is going to take place immediately following the rapture. Now what about the place of judgment? Well the place of judgment is clearly defined for us in the very term judgment. The translation of the Greek word into judgment is really not a fair translation because judgment conjures up all kinds of fearful thoughts. When we think about judgment in the classic sense of its use in Scripture we think about sin don't we? Because all the judgments that take place in the Bible are judgments upon sin except this one, except this one. And so it is really unfair to call this a judgment at all and perhaps it was unfair of the King James translators and all that followed in their train to use that term because it conjures up all kinds of fearful thoughts. The idea that we're going to stand before Jesus Christ and all of our sins are going be blown up on a screen. We're going to get so many supernatural slots for everything that happened after the cross and all of this kind of thing, and this is sort of a stop before we get into heaven. It's the St. Peter at the gate bit, you know, and do you pass? Well I'll check my list and all this. The idea of judgment has imposed upon our theology all kinds of misconceptions. Some have even decided, and of course this is basically what you come up with if you're a millennial, going back a few weeks you remember what that is, no kingdom. That everything happens at one big moment then you've got the judgment seat of Christ happening together with the great white throne and some people have everybody at the great white throne. And I think all of this basically has been conjured up by a misunderstanding of what the term means when it talks about the judgment seat of Christ.
Now let me just show you basically there are seven major judgments in Scripture. And I'm just going to list them for you. If you want to get them down you can study them on your own. I'll make a brief comment about each. And I want to show you something and I want you to keep it in mind. Every different judgment has its own time and its own place. God is very specific in all of them watch. The first we'll call the judgment of sin.
Now the judgment of sin is recorded in the four gospels. It happened in time about the year 30 or so A.D. It happened in place on Calvary's cross. That was the judgment of sin, was it not? For it was there that He who knew no sin became what? sin for us. God judged sin fully and finally in the death of Jesus Christ. That was the judgment of sin in time about the year 30 A.D. or a little later, in place Calvary. That was sin being judged. That was judgment falling upon the God-man Jesus Christ as He bore our sins. God was judging sin.
Second judgment: the judgment of self. Now the judgment of self goes on in time throughout the church age, throughout the age of the believer's life. The place: the earth. In I Corinthians 11:31, Paul said this: "If we judge ourselves we shall not, what? be judged. If we judge ourselves we'll not be judged. You know what He meant by that? If we're careful to evaluate our own lives spiritually we'll avoid the chastening of the Lord. The place is earth. The time is now. The judge is the Spirit-controlled believer. And this is my obligation to so evaluate and so pattern my life after the things of God that I am consistently dealing with issues in my life and because I am doing that and living a holy life I do not fall under the chastisement of God for my sin.
Now let me say this: Christ's death on the cross took care of the sin principle, but as we live the Christian life God will discipline us. That is not redemptive discipline in the sense of redeeming us under God. That is corrective discipline. That just shows us we shouldn't do that any more. It's for the sake of our own joy and for the sake of our testimony. And so if we judge ourselves here and now on this earth we're not going to suffer discipline, but believe me if we do sin and if we do not carefully bring our own lives into control by the Holy Spirit what happens? The Lord will discipline us. He will chasten us, and every son he scourges. We all fail. We all sin and consequently know the judgment of God in the sense of its chastisement or corrective quality.
The third kind of judgment is the judgment of believer's works. Now this is the judgment we're talking about tonight. The judgment of believer's works is going to take place after the rapture. The place is not the earth, but the place is heaven. And we'll get into detail on that.
The fourth judgment in the Bible is the judgment of Israel. Israel is going to be judged. Now this judgment is recorded in Ezekiel 20:33-44. And you remember that when Christ returns at the end of the tribulation it says at that point He judges Israel. Now remember we've talked about the fact that He will purge out of Israel what? The rebels and then he will take those that are left to believe into the kingdom. The judgment of Israel then, the place earth, the time at the end of the rapture, the beginning of the kingdom.
So you see each of the first four judgments involves a specific time and a specific place. The judgment of sin, Calvary around the year 30 A.D. The judgment of self, now, as the believer lives day by day and as he deals with sin in his own life and lives a holy and victorious life he avoids chastisement. And then the judgment of believer's works, future, the place, heaven. The judgment of earth, earth at the end of the tribulation. Now what I'm saying is this: you can't lump everything together. God is very clear about distinctions in judgment.
Fifthly there is the judgment of the Gentiles. The judgment of the nations. This judgment is explained in Matthew 25:31-46 where the Lord comes and separates the believing Gentiles from the unbelieving Gentiles. The unbelieving ones are cast into hell. The believing ones go into the kingdom. The place, earth. Remember how Christ comes down, His feet touch the Mount of Olives. He splits the Mount of Olives, all the nations are gathered into the Mount of Olives, and there He judges the nations. The place is earth. The time is the end of the tribulation.
Sixthly, there is the judgment of Satan and his demons in Scripture. Now this is announced to us in Jude 6. It says, "The angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation and yet reserved an everlasting change on the darkness," watch, "unto the judgment of the great day." God has planned a special judgment for Satan and his angels. And of course, you know when this is? It is at the end of the thousand- year kingdom. You remember that Satan is loosed for a little season at the end of the millennial kingdom, and then God takes him and the Bible says, "They are committed to the place prepared for them, the Lake of Fire to be tormented day and night forever and ever. So, at the end of the thousand-year kingdom there's going to be a judgment on Satan and his demons, Revelation 20:10.
Seventh and lastly there is the judgment of the unsaved, the judgment, of all of the unsaved, of all of the ages, and that is recorded in Revelation 20:11-15. That is called the great white throne judgment, and that happens right after the kingdom, after the thousand-year reign of Christ there is a resurrection and all of the ungodly are brought before the throne and Christ judges them out of the books that are written. They cannot make it on the bases of good deeds and they're all thrown into the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now there you have the seven judgments that complete God's judgment plans. Now keep in mind that every one of those has a unique place and a unique time and so we do not want to fall in the error of throwing everything in the same bag when we talk about judgment. Now we're going to put out of that the one judgment that we want to study tonight and that is the judgment of the believer's works. In a real sense it is almost unfair to lump it with those judgments because all of those judgments are judgments on the basis of sin, you see? This one is really not a judgment on the basis of sin unless it would be an indirect judgment on the sin of omission, and in that sense it is a judgment on sin. And we'll see what we mean by that in a moment.
Now the word that is used for judgment seat will come clear to us if we'll look at II Corinthians 5 and we'll begin at that point. II Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad." Now the word judgment seat is the word that we want to notice. The literal Greek term is the term Bema. If you're going to transliterate it's B-e-m-a. Now that describes the place of judgment. Literally Bema means a raised platform mounted by steps. That's literally what it means. Its simple meaning is just a raised platform. It is used in Acts 18 as the official seat of a judge. It is used as a place where a dignitary sat. For example, in the book of Acts when Herod wanted to have his big day and he had everything set up and he climbed up and sat on his throne he sat on a Bema. It's merely a seat of dignity or prominence or authority.
Now mark this: Bema is a place rather than an act. When you read the judgment seat of Christ the word judgment is not really intrinsic with the word. It really is just a plain old seat of authority. It's a place, a location. It doesn't have any connotation of penalty. It only has a connotation of prominence or authority or dignity.
Now the Corinthians had an interesting concept of Bema, which must be considered since this is II Corinthians and usually when the Spirit of God wrote to somebody in one of these letters He spoke in the language they understood and the terms that would relate to their culture. Outside Corinth was a large Olympic stadium and the Greeks, of course, were great on athletics and the Olympic games, of course, the heritage is obviously from back there. And the large Olympic stadium outside drew athletes from all over Greece. They would come and assemble periodically to compete in the Olympic games. In the midst of the stadium there was a raised platform. It was a platform of prominence. It was a platform of honor. It was a platform of dignity. It was called the Bema. There would be a contest. The winner of the contest would then be led to the Bema, he would ascend the Bema and stand on the top and he would be honored by a leading citizen who would take an oak leaf cluster or perhaps a laurel wreath or a garland for around his neck and he would step up and place that on him as the symbol of his triumph. So Bema does not significantly speak about penalty. It does not specifically speak about judgment. It really only specifically has reference to prominence or dignity or honor. And, of course, every believer is going to climb up on the honor stand. That's really what it's saying.
So you see, the judgment seat of Christ is not something that we're afraid of. Even in Corinthians we'll see later after everything has been done if says, "And every man shall have praise of God." Did you know that Christianity is the only thing I know of where everybody wins and nobody loses? There are no losers in Christianity. It's a can't lose proposition. We will all receive praise of God. We will all go up on the reward stand. Interestingly enough Bema is never used to speak of a judicial bench. It is associated only with honor and reward and dignity and prominence. So the place, the Bema. Where is the Bema? I'll tell you where it is. It's got to be in heaven. Why? Because Jesus said in John 14, "I'm going to come and I'm going to get you and I'm going to take you to the Father's house." And if we're going to meet Him in the air and go and be with Him then that's where it's got to be. The place, the time, after the rapture in heaven.
Now the person. Who is the judge? Who is the one that's running the show when we get there? Well, we know who it is. We must all appear before the judgment seat of whom? Christ. We meet Him in the air. I love what it says in I Thessalonians, "So shall we ever be with the Lord." So He's the one that's going to administer the rewards. Boy won't that be a blessed time? And I don't want to get you hung up on legalism so just remember there's not going to be a loser there. Everybody's going to rise to the Bema.
Now we'll talk about some things that need to be considered in terms of negatives in a minute. But from the positive side, first of all, no losers. And Christ is the judge. John 5, Jesus said, "God, the Father, has committed all judgment under the sun." And you see that's part of the exaltation of Christ. He will manifest authority in judgment. Revelation 22:12, "Behold I come quickly and My reward," watch this I love it, "My reward is with Me to give." You see? So the reward is going to come from Christ Himself. I mean just the thought of standing face to face with Jesus and having Him say, "This is for you from Me for your faithfulness." That's personal isn't it? That's personal. And the idea of the Scriptures always there's an individual kind of thing for every person. It's not all right everyone who scored 64 go to the left side of heaven. Everybody who scored less the right side of heaven and there'll be a group there passing out crowns.
God is always very personal in dealing with believers and in the case of the judgment seat of Christ face to face with Him and in each case individually. He is going to be the dispenser of the gifts that show the faithfulness exhibited in our life. He is constant companion. He is bridegroom. He is rewarder. All right that's the time and the place and that's the person.
What about the people? Who's going to be there? Well look at verse 10 again. I'll tell you who's going to be there, we. "For we must all appear." You say, "Well who is the we?" Well that's easy to figure out. It's the church. It's Christians. In the first place Paul is a Christian talking to Christians and so the pronoun would encompass him and them as well. But let me show you why we know it's Christians. Verses 1 to 9 couldn't be anything but Christians and to keep it in the context it has to be Christians in verse 10, verse 1. "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Can an unbeliever say that? No. So whatever we it is it's the same we that have an eternal tabernacle with God.
What about this one? Verse 5, "Now He that hath wrought us for the very same thing as God who has given us the earnest of the Spirit." Can anybody say that but a believer? Anybody possess the Holy Spirit but a believer? No. And then he says, "Therefore we are always confident that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord." And then go down to verse 8. "We're are confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord." Can anybody say that but a believer? No. Only believers are going to be present with the Lord.
How about verse seven? "For we walk by faith, not by sight." That's for a believer and only a believer. You see it's got to be the we of faith. It's us who know Jesus Christ that are in view. We are going to mount the platform of rewards. What a marvelous promise. All of us are going to be there.
In I Corinthians 3:15 and we're going to be jumping from II Corinthians 5 to I Corinthians 3 to Romans 14 and so forth so get ready. But in I Corinthians 3:15, I want you to take a footnote here of this point. Here is the same scene detailed to us, the same occasion, the judgment seat of Christ. Now some of the works that we're going to have to offer aren't going to be very valuable. They're going to get burned up. But watch. "If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be," is going to be what? "saved." Everybody at the Bema is going to be what? saved. That's why I say it's a can't-loose proposition. There's going to be a certain amount of loss that you'll suffer, but in the end you can't loose. You're going to ascend the Bema, there will be some reward for every believer and ultimate salvation, of course.
So all at the judgment are saved. Look at verse 11. I mean everybody who even gets there is going to have the foundation that no man can lay. That which is laid, which is whom? Jesus Christ. So you won't even be there unless you've got the right foundation. And what about verse 16? "No ye not that ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you." This is all Christians. This is a time for believers and believers alone.
Now I mentioned earlier seven judgments. The Christian is only really subjected, in this day and age as we know it, the church age, to three of those. We are subjected, in a sense, to the judgment of sin. You say you mean I have to die for my own sin? No, but I am crucified what? with Christ. So in a sense I was nailed to the cross with Him. Then the believer participates in the judgment of self to avoid discipline. And thirdly the believer will participate in the judgment of works, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." Every believer is going to be there.
All right, we've seen the place and time, after the rapture in heaven. We've seen the person who is the judge, Jesus Christ Himself. And we've seen the people who are going to be there, the church. Now specifically, let's look at the purpose.
What is the point of this judgment? What is it going to be ultimately for? What is the reasoning involved? Well, in order to understand that we want to pick up on statement in Romans 14:12. Now here you're talking about the same judgment again. And here is the point: verse 12, "So then," Romans 14, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." There's the purpose. That's it simply stated. Every believer is going to give account of himself to God. You know God knows everything and God knows humankind better than humankind know themselves. And God knows that we respond to motivation and one of the greatest factors in motivation is the factor of authority and accountability. A man once asked Daniel Webster what was the greatest thought he had in his life and he said, "The greatest thought I ever had was my personal accountability to God." God knows that we need to be accountable to somebody. If we never had any bosses or any authorities I mean this world would be chaotic more than it is now. That's why everybody kind of cringes in a corner whenever authority starts to crumble. Have you seen that? You look across the world whenever authority starts to crumble everybody starts to cringe because somebody's got to hold everybody in check. And that's what kind of panics us even in America as we watch what happens in something like Watergate and we see the crumbling of those that we are banking on to hold this thing together. Do you see? We respond to authority and authority has a great influence on us. You know what's the first law of safe driving? Watch for the police. Any body knows that. You go along going any speed you want until an officer pulls onto the street and then you go back to the speed limit and sing Praise the Lord and he pulls off and you floor it again. But you see we respond to authority. I mean it's the same in school when kids are in school and the teacher leaves the room. You go through the same process.
When I was a little kid one time and I got in a lot of trouble. One day in particular I was jumping to desk to desk when the teacher was out. She was gone and I didn't hear the pitter patter of those orthopedic wedgies coming and she came in and there I was between desks. And I was unaware of the presence of authority, but when I knew it was there, man did I shape up. There's a sense that God knows that humankind respond to authority, that authority plays a very important part in our behavior pattern. And the fact that we have to be accountable is a very overwhelming motivation. And so the Bible clearly says that the judgment seat of Christ is so that everyone of us, no exception, will be able to give account of himself to God.
And I think in a grace orientation very often we can be very free and easy about this accountability. But someday we're going to stand face to face with Jesus Christ and we're going to have to talk about the issue of our life.
Now there are many views of how this thing works. Some say this: some say this is a judgment, which will determine whether we get into heaven or not. That's a fairly common view. As I said earlier that's the Saint Peter at the gate routine where we all get up to the gate and we go through a little time of judgment and all the goods are weighed against all the bad's and if the goods out weigh the bad's we get into the place. Friends, that is absolutely ridiculous. In the first place what Scripture ever gave anybody the right to sit Saint Peter at the gate outside there at some kind of check-in station?
By the time you get to the judgment seat of Christ you'll already have been raptured, translated, glorified. If you've already been raptured, translated, and glorified there's nothing left to do to you. In terms of qualifications for heaven, it is done. The only people who are going to go in the rapture to begin with are the redeemed, right? So once we get that far there's not going to be any check-in station, there's not going to be any passport that we have to give, there's not going to be any qualification on that end of it. I thought of a verse that kind of goes at it from a strange angle, but it proves a point. Romans 8:30, "Moreover who He did predestinate, whom He called He also justified, whom He justified He also glorified." Now watch. Whoever He justified He glorified, so whoever He glorified He justified. So if you're already justified when you get there there's nothing to do in terms of qualification. So the old idea that you're going to get up there and somebody's going to put down a little book and see whether you can make it or not is ridiculous. Unbelievers will never get anywhere near heaven. This judgment takes place not outside some pearly gates, but it takes place in the Father's house in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with the believers.
Now other people say this: other people say well this judgment is the judgment in which God is going to punish believers for all the sins they did after they were saved. This is another common view. That when you got saved that took care of the sins up to your salvation, but when you get up there all the sins you did since you've been saved are going to be flashed up on the screen. It's going to be like an eternal drive-in and a monstrosity of a screen and here comes John MacArthur. Look at this, oh look at this, you see. Boy what a horrifying thought.
I mean if I thought about that long enough I wouldn't want to go to heaven under any circumstances. And these people would teach us that all the sins from birth to salvation are forgiven when you're saved, but everything from salvation on has to be punished. You know what that does? It propagates the inadequacy of the cross. It makes a mockery out of the cross and says God can only handle sins up to a certain point. Listen, when Jesus died on the cross every sin was in the future anyway, every one of mine. Boy what heresy. Boy would that lead to legalism. Can you imagine that the legalism and the law keeping, the fear that that kind of thing would impose? And by the way, if you died with one sin unforgiven where would you go? Hell. You'd never get that far if there was one sin that hadn't been dealt with. And Romans 6 through 8 would be totally contradicted. Romans 6 through 8 says we are not under law, we are what, we are under grace. There is no way that any sin in the life of a Christian is unforgiven. Did you get that? There is no way that any sin in the life of a Christian is unforgiven.
In Hebrews 8:12 he says, "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember," now long? "No more." In Colossians, 2:12, great verse, "Buried with him in baptism in which you're risen with him to the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead and you being dead in your sins hath He made alive having forgiven you all trespasses." All of them. The tense is irrelevant. I John 2:12, "I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for His name sake." Now watch this one. Remember Ephesians 1:7, what a great statement, I love it. "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace." Did you get that? We have as much, watch this one, we have as much forgiveness as He has grace. You think that's enough to handle you? It says according to the riches of His grace. It doesn't say and you have been forgiven out of the riches of His grace. Not out of but according to. I'll show you the difference. If I go to a rich man or something and say, "There's a real need here and I know you're one of the richest man in the world and you've got x number of millions of dollars and I want you to give to this need." And the man says, "Oh I'll give to that need," and he sits down and writes out a check for nine dollars and a quarter. You say, "Thank you very much sir you have given me out of your riches."
But if I say to another rich man, "Rich man I have a need and the need is for x number of dollars," and the rich man takes out his checkbook and says, "How much do you need?" and he writes me a double the amount I need, then I say, "Ah ha you have not given me out of. You have given me according to." And when God starts dispensing grace He doesn't dole it out, out of His grace, He gives it out according to His grace. As rich as He is that's how much forgiveness you have. There are no limits. It is full and it is total.
Let me give you just a fabulous illustration of this. It comes out of Isaiah 38 and so many of the terms used in the Old Testament are vivid, but this one is really very very vivid. Isaiah 38, you'll know the Scripture. 38 verse 17 I think it is. Yes, listen to this: you don't even need to look it up, just listen. He says, "But Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption." Now he's talking to God and he says this: "For thou have cast all my sins behind Thy back." You know what the literal Hebrew is? You have put all my sins between your shoulder blades. Have you ever tried to turn around and looked between your shoulder blades? There's a lot of places you can see. That's not one of them. God has put your sins in the one place that, and that's a beautiful metaphor. God is saying in effect, "As a man could never see what was between his shoulder blades so I have placed your sins in a place where I cannot see them." That's forgiveness. When somebody comes along and starts telling me I'm going to have to stand before some big screen and watch my sins in cinerama, I say forget it.
Let me show you a couple of other passages. Romans 8: Romans 8:1. "There is therefore now no what? Condemnation of them who are in Christ Jesus." All right that's a clear statement. There's not any judgment. Cateh crimah, no judgment. No penalty for sin, none at all. Well there may be some things held against us. Go to the end of Chapter 8. This is so good; just love it! Verse 33: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Whose going to show up and say, "Well he did so and so." Watch. Shall God that what? Justify! Listen if God has already declared you just is there a higher court in the universe? Whose going to show up and say sorry God you missed a couple over here? "Who," verse 34, "is he that condemns? Is Christ?" No. See there's no condemnation. No charges, so you cannot expect to go to the judgment seat. You don't have to fear that you're going to have your sins exploded in your face.
But there's another interesting view. Other people say what's going to happen there is we're going to be judged for every sin we didn't confess. Now this is common. If you didn't confess it it doesn't get forgiven. Beloved I've told you many many times forgiveness of sin has nothing to do with confession in the life of a Christian. Confession is for fellowship not for forgiveness. When you are saved all your sins are forgiven. When you confess them you merely maintain the pure fellowship with the Father. Listen, I could sin and have in my life and not confessed it and it does not violate my salvation. You know what it does? It fowls up my pure fellowship with the Father. Unconfessed sin is an issue of fellowship and we've covered that so many many times. If you have questions about it you study I John 1 carefully and we even deal with that in the little book on the body. But confession is only for fellowship.
So you see the judgment seat of Christ isn't a sin thing at all in the sense of positive dealing with sin. You say, "Well John, if it's not for sin what's it for?" I told you, it's for reward. But let me go back to II Corinthians 5 and let's pick it up there. "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad. Everybody's going to receive the things done in his body. Isn't it interesting that everyone is going to receive? It doesn't say anything about judgment, just receiving. Verse 9, "We labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted." Now notice the word accepted. Again it's confusion. It really means that we may be well pleasing. We're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Paul says we work in this life that when we get there we may be well pleasing. Remember the parable in Matthew 25? Well done, verse 21, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. That's what it's all about. It's a time of receiving. That's what the word accepted literally means. We're going to be made manifest to Jesus Christ to receive our reward in accordance with the things, which we have done in our body whether they be good or bad.
Now let me take a footnote. Again people have been confused on the term whether it be good or bad. You say, "Well there's the bad things. What's going to happen with that? Are all the bad things going to be exposed?" Let me give you a clear thought on this. I think it's clear. You must understand the word bad. The Greek language mainly uses two words in reference to bad or evil: ta cos and paneras. Those speak of moral ethical bad as opposed to goodness. Those speak of evil, sin; neither word is used here. The word used here is phaulos p-h-a-u-l-o-s. That word is used to speak of something, which is worthless. It is not a moral word. It is not the ethical word. It is not the idea of evil or sin. It is simply the idea of something that has no lasting value. The best synonym and the one that most lexicons would give would be worthless or valueless.
And so this judgment, beloved, is not to decide whether we've done moral good or moral evil, it's simply to take those things, which we have done as believers and see which of them had eternal value and which of them did not. Now believe me there are things that I have done in my life that are morally inconsequential, but at the judgment seat they're just going to be worthless. You go out and you spend an afternoon mowing your lawn. Now morally that's inconsequential and when you get to heaven that'll go into the fire and it'll be burned up, in terms of subtracting.
Now that's a very very minimal reference. There are other things, which may have more moral implications. But basically the term here is not to give us the idea there's going to be a good bunch piled up here and a bad thing over here. It is valuable or it is worthless. Now watch. The judgment seat of Christ then is this: a man goes who has lived believing in Jesus Christ, all of the works which he has done are there in the mind of God. It is then a process of God subtracting the worthless ones from the valuable ones and then rewarding the believer on the basis of the valuable ones that remain. The difference in rewards is only going to come because some believers have understood their priorities and they're going to have a pile of valuable things while other believers, probably most, are going to have a monstrous pile of worthless things. But it's not a question of moral evil. It is only a question of sorting out the bad from the good in the sense of what is valuable.
Now in order to see how this works the Bible gives us three different figures. The first is stewardship and this we'll look at in Romans 14 and we'll just take these very quickly. But in Romans 14 and we'll see it in other passages as well. We're introduced to the idea of stewardship. We as Christians, now mark this, we as Christians have been given certain things by God. We've been given spiritual gifts, we've been given natural abilities and talents, now these are not our own. We only hold on to them like stewards. A steward was somebody who ran something for someone else. He didn't own it; he just took care of it. As we've said many times you don't own your spiritual gifts. They're not yours, they're Gods. He gave them to you. You're supposed to care for them in trust. Life is a stewardship. You need to manage it. Peter talks about that, doesn't he? that we need to take care of our gifts as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And so we are merely managing what we have for God.
Now in Romans 14:10 it says, "Why do you judge your brother?" Some of these Christians instead of managing their own stewardship were running around trying to manage everybody else's. "Why do you judge your brother? Why do you set it not your brother for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." Listen he says this: you be concerned with the stewardship of your life because you're going to have to face God with it. Before you get all preoccupied in what somebody else is doing, you get preoccupied in what you are doing with your stewardship. You may not agree with some other Christian's activity, you may disagree with some other man does, even some man in the ministry, but that is his stewardship. You care for your stewardship. Now this doesn't mean you don't rebuke a sinning brother, but it means in the area that is gray, in the area that is non-moral, in the area where each man can be led of the Spirit of God it is not for you to operate the stewardship of another man's life. For we're all going to stand there. "And as I live," says the Lord, "Every knee is going to bow to Me and every tongue confess, and every one of us give account of himself to God."
So we are granted a stewardship of life and we'll stand before God to render account for that stewardship. And it behooves us not to be preoccupied with somebody else's stewardship but only with our own.
Now the stewardship metaphor is carried out again in I Corinthians Chapter 4. Let me just quickly point you to that. I Corinthians 4:1, "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." We're stewards again. We hold them in trust. Verse 2, "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found," what? "Faithful." That is all God says. I've given you a trust. Now be faithful with it. Then Paul goes on to talk about I'm not going to judge my own stewardship. I'm not going to judge someone else's stewardship. I'm going to let God do that. Verse 4 at the end, "He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come and He," watch this, will be bring to light the hidden things of darkness, make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God." Did you notice that beautiful statement at the close of verse 5? Every man is going to have what? Praise of God. Every Christian is going to be a winner.
Now He says your life is a stewardship. You take care of your own. Don't judge others and wait for the Lord who when He comes will make an evaluation and even reveal the inside, the hidden things of darkness, motives, and then reward you on the basis on the good which remains after the worthless has been subtracted. And so the Bible sees this as a stewardship.
Now the Bible also sees it as a structure, another metaphor. Verse 11 of Chapter 3. Just go back one chapter. I Corinthians 3:11. Verse 10 He said, "Everybody's going to build on a foundation." Verse 11 he says, "The foundation is Christ." Now he says here's your life. You're going to build and you're either going to build gold, silver or precious stones, or what? Wood, hay and stubble. And what's going to happen? Every man's work shall be made manifest, the day will declare it, it will be revealed by fire, the fire shall test every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built on it shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet as by fire.
Now what's he saying? He's saying as a Christian you have a foundation, Jesus Christ, and you have a choice to build. You can build your life on wood, hay and stubble. Do you know that wood, hay and stubble are not morally bad? Did you know that? Wood's a nice thing. It's good. You can make some lovely things, beautiful, nice, artistic beautiful wood things, and it's great. Now hay is not so good. You can make a thatched hut that doesn't last too long. Stubble that's strictly bird nest material.
But there are basic degrees of what you can do and it's not morally evil that is the dominate theme. It's merely inconsequential. Do you see? And you know this is the tragedy of so many Christian's lives that they don't live horribly immoral lives; they just live disastrously inconsequential ones. That really if they died there wouldn't be anybody in the world, spiritually speaking, who would miss them. And everybody's going to be saved, and everybody's going to have praise of God and there are crowns for all of us, but believe me there are some who are going to receive more than others because some are going to have the gold and the silver and the precious stones that are going to go through the fire and they're going to be deemed by God to be precious with eternal value. And beloved you what to know what it comes down to? You go right back to the beginning of Chapter 3 and it comes down to whether you are carnal or what? Spiritual. Carnal people do worthless things. Our lives, this is my prayer for my life, our lives should be so absorbed in priorities that we are building upon the foundation of Christ with gold, silver, precious stones and that's what's going to stand the test.
There's a third figure and the last one we'll look at in I Corinthians 9. And here the Christian life is like a race, and again it speaks of the time of rewards. Verse 24, "Know ye not that they who run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run that ye may obtain." Christian ought to run to win. "We all strive for the mastery, use temperateness to discipline ourselves and they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." So Paul says, "I'm working to get a crown." I run not as uncertainly, I fight not as one that shadowboxes, I keep my body, bring it into subjection." In other words what he's saying is I have to discipline myself. As a Christian the object is to run to win, which means you have to keep your body under subjection. You know what the literal Greek is? I beat my body black and blue. I have to discipline myself.
Now Christian you're going to stand before Jesus Christ and it's going to be a time of rewards and you are going to need to discipline yourself to understand your priorities and to be a steward of your gifts and talents to receive a full reward. You say, "Well what's God going to judge then?" Well first of all He's going to judge motives. Do you know that? That's going to rattle a lot of cages, 'cause there's some people who've got all the works but you know what they did it for all the wrong reasons. And whatever you've done out of legalism disqualifies you. God's going to judge the motives. You say, "Where did He get that?" I Corinthians 4:5, we just read it. "He's going to bring to light the hidden things of darkness and the secret counsels of the heart."
Boy I hear that and I say, "Search me O God, and know my heart. Try me and see if there be any wicked way in me." And then He's not only going to judge the motives. He's going to judge the conduct. We're going to receive for the things done in the body and then He's going to judge the service. Every man's work shall be made manifest. Every feature of our Christian life is going to be exposed to see whether it has eternal value and remains and is worthy of reward. And so we see the place, the time, the person, the people, and the purpose.
Lastly, the promise. What's going to happen? Well we go right back to II Corinthians 5 and we find out. Pardon me, I Corinthians 3. Stay where you are. We go to I Corinthians 3 and this is what it says. "If any man's work abide," verse 14, "Which he hath built upon he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss." There are the two things. There's the promise that awaits, either reward or loss. For some it's going to be a day of wonderful rewards. Did you know the Bible talks about five crowns: the incorruptible crown, crown of righteousness, the crown of rejoicing, the crown of glory, the crown of life. Each a separate reward for faithfulness. There's going to be wonderful rewards. The incorruptible crown, that's for the one who obeyed the Lord's command and made self-sacrifice and disciplined his life to live for God. The crown of righteousness, that's to all who love His appearing. That means everybody who is so in love with Jesus Christ that the looking for His coming dominates their life. The crown of rejoicing, the soul winners' crown, the crown of glory, the shepherd's crown, that's for the elders, the pastor teachers. The crown of life, that's for the guy who went through the persecution and martyrdom for Jesus' sake. Crowns.
You say, "But John," I always think of the Imperial Margarine commercials, boinggg, you know, is it some kind of a crass thing where we're just racking them up for some cosmic closet to store them away? No it isn't at all because in Revelation 4, what do the 24 elders do with their crowns? They cast them at the feet of Jesus. What a blessed day that'll be. Oh what a joy.
But listen, beloved, I hesitate to say this, but yet I say it because it's in the word of God. Some of you are going to be there and you're going to suffer loss. You're not going to receive the full reward that you could have received. Why? Because you haven't lived the kind of life you should have lived. You haven't ordered your priorities. Listen. Listen to this statement: II John 8, "Look to yourselves, listen, look to yourselves that you loose not the things, which you have wrought that you receive a full reward." You know you can actually earn things and you can actually do the things that please God and then like Paul had such a fear of you can become a cast away. You can forfeit your crowns by some sin in your life. Remember Revelation 3:11, remember this: "Hold that fast which thou hast that no man," what? "Take your crown." Paul said in Colossians 2:18, "Don't let anybody rob you of your prize."
With some people, I hate to say it, it's going to be a day of shame. But you say, "I thought there was no judgment." No, but there'll be shame there. Say, how do you know that? I John 2:28, "Little children, abide in Him that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." You know it's possible that a Christian is going to be at that judgment seat and down deep in his heart there's going to be maybe just a little, and I don't think the right word because I don't think we can understand heaven and there's no sorrow there, but there's going to be a loss. The Bible clearly says, "suffer loss." And the Bible does indicate the possibility of shame. And there will be some works very definitely worthless. I don't know about you but I want my life to count in that day and then I want the joy of giving those crowns to Jesus Christ who makes it all possible. Check your life, beloved.
Let me just give you a little poem I think I recited once to you. It was in my grandfather's Bible and I memorized it many many years ago and that poem has stuck in my mind. It goes like this: When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and He shows me his plan for me, the plan for my life as it might have been. And I see how I blocked Him here and checked Him there and wouldn't yield my will. Will there by grief in my Savior's eyes, grief though He loves me still? You see in that day there's going to be that possibility of living a whole lifetime with little to show for it. The poet goes on: Then my desolate heart will well nigh break with tears I cannot shed, I'll cover my face with my empty hands, I'll bow my unfound head. Oh Lord of the years that are left to me I give them to Thy hand. Take me, break me, mold me, for the pattern that Thou hast planned.
I think we'll all receive a crown, at least, but I love the Lord Jesus Christ so much that I want to show Him that I have desired to win everything there is to win for His glory. I hope you have that same desire in your heart.
Father, thank you for the time we've spent together. We know that there's no sorrow in heaven, but Father there's sorrow in our hearts now to think that we would accept all that You have done for us and not do all that we could for You and know that we would suffer loss and know that we would stand and give account of our lives and when the works that we have done are given the test of fire the most of them by far would be burned and consumed away as worthless. God, help us to order or priorities, help us to do the things that matter. In Jesus' name. Amen.


text:
Fra: Charles Dickens Til: James White
Sprog: engelsk.
Tavistock House, friday, May 22nd, 1857.
My dear White,
[...] We purpose going to gad's Hill for the summer on the 1st of June; as, apart from the master's eye being necessary ornament to the spot, I clearly see that the workmen yet lingering in the yard must be squeezed out by bodily pressure,or they will never go. How will this suit you and yours? If you will come down, we can take you all in, on your way north; that is to say, we shall have that ample verge and room enough, until about the eight; when Hans Christian Andersen (who has been 'coming' for about three years) will come for a fortnight's stay in England. I shall like you to see the little old-fashioned palce. It strikes me as being comfortable. [...]
Believe me, ever affectionately yours
Charles Dickens

subset: commoncrawl


text:
America's Schools: Held Hostage by Microsoft
Schools in America are held hostage by Microsoft and are being choked one school at a time. We have allowed Microsoft and our State and Federal governments to force us into financing cycles that schools cannot afford.
I have lived in Montana most of my life and worked with schools to get technology funding for 14 years now. The districts I work with use Linux on 75% of the Desktops and all of the servers. I have pushed Open Source applications and operating systems in schools for a long time and there is some progress. However, Microsoft has a serious choke hold on schools. Here is how the choke works.
1. Unlicensed Software Installs
One way schools get in trouble is when they feel they do not have enough money so instead of purchasing licenses they install more products without the proper license. To Microsoft, this is piracy and theft. I agree with Microsoft here, if they have a product and a price you either pay or do something else. I am amazed when I hear schools that steal software from Microsoft but then tell kids there are rules and ethics that they must follow. Schools that cheat on licenses are placing themselves at the mercy of Microsoft.
2. Software Updates
Software purchases must always be made with the recognition and the funding that the software must be updated both in terms of license and hardware. Here is how this works. A school gets a grant for technology and purchases Library software in year one. Not only must the school continue to purchase Library software updates each year, they must also purchase the Microsoft license that allows you to run the software. Oh…and also you must purchase the hardware that runs the software for Microsoft. This is called the Domino effect…one purchase forces the next purchase and schools are locked into these scenarios where they cannot get out. Microsoft controls the software, the cycle and the cost of schools teaching students.
3. State and Federal Requirements
One of the most damaging trends for schools in America is the demand that they purchase Microsoft products in order to report to Federal and State authorities. The State of Montana requires that you provide information from the school to an online sources for the state. The Office of Public Instruction says that they are creating an online interface for schools that is easy to use and will facilitate all operating systems. Well,only if your operating system is Windows (at least Windows 2000) and Internet Explorer 6-7. If you use Linux you cannot report to the state.
Schools and Libraries is a site used by the Federal government to provides funding so schools can get Internet access and help with technology. However, you cannot apply for this Federal funding, provided especially for poor schools, unless you have Internet Explorer 6-7.
What is worse is that each year the requirements for school reporting are tied to State and Federal funding outside of technology and the technical requirements to make those reports is tied to the updated versions of Windows and Word or Excel. I talk with people involved in schools in Europe on a weekly basis and they always talk about the freedom that the government allows in terms of which operating system and applications are used in schools.
What's up with the U.S.? Why are schools locked into these strangle holds?
Long live Open Source!
October 14, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Where does it say that IE6-7 is required, and what happens otherwise? I checked the site, and I couldn't seem to find where it mentioned that. Does the browser page use ActiveX or something that makes it incompatible with Free Software browsers?
If what you say is true, though, this would be a huge problem. It is kind of hard to believe that the US government would REQUIRE Windows and IE.
October 14, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Part of the problem is that the rule-makers are ignorant of the burden they impose upon the schools and the whole school system by ignoring in whole or in part the value Free and Open Source Software can provide. The other part of the problem is that Microsoft is only too happy to cheer on, and even start schools and school projects down that long, expensive road. Richard Stallman recently compared teaching kids in schools using machines running Windows to addicting the kids to crack. Once they start that way, you can only go deeper and either pirate software or cough up lots of money.
To be sure, there is software written to run on GNU/Linux that is proprietary and you pay to use it. This is as it should be. However, if there is a secure, efficient, stable system that is available at little or no charge at all(this same system is used by major corporations and government offices), then why isn't exploration of using this in our school systems being explored more forcefully?
I agree with the basis of this post, our schools are in a very real way held hostage by Microsoft, and I would like to get someone in a position of authority to say why this is so.
October 14, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I agree completely! Schools can't afford no longer being held hostages by Microsoft with the Federal and States Governments approval. Besides being overwhelmed by lobbyists there is also the apathy of some school districts that permit this to happen. I work in a school district and I've been running FOSS exclusively for over six years and I see my supervisors that are thinking of dumping GroupWise for MS Exchange, without even considering better open source alternatives for our district email. We also run a failed attempt to migrate our mainframe to an proprietary Pearson attendance system that clog the servers continually and finally they gave up. Now they're going with another proprietary solution that runs on MS Access and .NET. It seems that IT departments have no will to give a try to open source alternatives or not the guts to do it!
October 16, 2008 at 1:26 am
Comment number 3 says no response was received to a complaint sent to the US Accounting Office. The reason may be that there is no such government agency.
October 16, 2008 at 10:10 am
If you want to use a website that requires IE6 and are running Linux, try doing a Google search for IEs4Linux. It requires Wine and some work, but allows you to run IE6 under Linux and *may* solve your compatibility problem with those state and federal websites…
October 16, 2008 at 11:24 am
From a state/federal funded non-profit techie:
We have used Macs for about 20 years or so, for those reports that use Excel spreadsheets with Active-X controls and IE only sites, we have a couple Windows Laptops around to do the reports (they get turned on once or twice a month at most).
Also when discovering a limitation of a site or report, making sure to let them know you are not a Windows user is something you must do. If you have technical staff let them offer suggestions to remedy the problem, ("this feature of site X is all that needs to be adjusted…") even if they don't do anything now they will get an understanding that they could in the future support multiple platforms.
To be sure, there is software written to run on GNU/Linux that is proprietary and you pay to use it. This is as it should be. However, if there is a secure, efficient, stable system that is available at little or no charge at all(this same system is used by major corporations and government offices), then why isn't exploration of using this in our school systems being explored more forcefully?
The common thing I hear is there are no Linux guys to support it, while there are a ton of MS guys out there. We've been through many many MS guys, either not that bright, are too bright and leave for another job instantly (without notice), or are so overloaded that they have a hard time keeping things maintained. Lot of hiring and even more money spent for essentially the same situation.
October 16, 2008 at 11:51 am
I have worked in community colleges and even they are tied into the M$ cycle.
I also see the commenter Peter may have missed the point in the article, now he is suggesting that we use Wine, Ie4linux to get reports to the state and federal agencies.
The simpler approach is for the state and federal governments change their state of mind and allow ALL browsers to work and not just IE.
October 16, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I have been engaged in a running gun battle with the Austin Independent School District for two years over this issue. All I wanted to know as a taxpayer was how much money out of the school budget was being spent on Microsoft products. Man, you would have thought I'd have asked them for one of their lungs. They dug in their heels and when I finally invoked the Freedom of Information Act of 1974, they agreed to release me the information.
After I paid them 2000 dollars US to cover "administrative costs".
You're not only fighting MS…you are fighting high level tech support personnel (often MCSE's), teachers who are told to use MS products by the NEA due to huge donations from MS and Ignorant administrators who think its actually illegal to take MS Windows off their computers. These are PhD's by the way…
The battle has been uphill…thank you for giving me another weapon in which to fight it.
October 16, 2008 at 8:10 pm
You obviously don't get it! The US government is broken, has been for a long time. It's going to only get more broken until the current recession/depression forces the butt-heads to drop dead.
October 17, 2008 at 10:26 am
We have the same problem here in Virginia. We use a third party application for students to take there standardized testing called TestNav. This application will only work on windows because of the IE requirement. This app is used throughout the state. I asked the company who makes the testnav app if they could port it to linux a few years ago. The stated there was just not enough interest throughout the state. Talk about a monopoly!!!! So we are kinda forced to having windows at our desktop clients.
October 17, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Many jurisdictions have boilerplate provisions in their bylaws/charter/etc., that prohibit doing business with convicted monopolists without a 2/3 majority approval. Has anyone tried checking to see if they could hold their school board to this?
October 17, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Comment #9 suggests using IE4Linux which creates a licensing problem.
"Microsoft Corporation (or based on where you live, one of its affiliates) licenses this supplement to you. You may use a copy of this supplement with each validly licensed copy of Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 software (the "software"). You may not use the supplement if you do not have a license for the software."
I don't know about you, but I am not interested in $250,000 and 5 years in jail!
February 17, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Comment #8 provides a link to The U.S. Government Accountability Office, not the U.S. Accounting Office. The complaints sent to the U.S. Accounting Office mentioned in comment #3 most likely went to NSA (No Such Agency).
October 14, 2008 at 10:49 pm
October 15, 2008 at 5:53 am
October 22, 2008 at 2:08 pm


text:
Thursday, January 27, 2011
NASCAR doesn't do enough with points system
The scoring is simplified, yes -- the base points will be awarded on a 43-to-1 basis, giving 43 points to the winner in the field, 42 to second place and so on, down until 1 point for the 43rd (and last)-place finisher.
But as I wrote last week in The Charlotte Observer, you have to have a serious number of bonus points attached to first place to ensure drivers risk everything to get there in the final laps.
I suggested 25 extra bonus points for the winner.
NASCAR went with three.
It's just not enough, even though NASCAR will award a bonus point to anyone who leads a lap and one more to whomever leads the most laps. With a maximum of 48 points per race, that's just not enough separation between first and second and third and on down the line. It values consistency more than winning, which has always been the problem.
On the other hand, NASCAR made a positive move by allowing the final two spots in the 12-driver Chase for the Championship to go to the drivers with the most wins who weren't already in the Top 10. So that mitigates this a little, given that those drivers who win but have more up-and-down results can still make the Chase.
Still, it's not enough. If you're going to change the points system, you really need to change the points system, and not just make it simpler to deal with but still with the same inherent problem that winning doesn't count for enough.
18 comments:
Agreed. I rarely watch NASCAR any more because each individual race counts for so little, even for the winner. Especially on the cookie-cutter mile and a half tracks, the races become very humdrum ho-hum.
- January 27, 2011 at 7:10 AM
Of course NASCAR is trying a new point system. They have got to figure out a way to try and get Jr. into the mix without just giving him a spot.
- January 27, 2011 at 7:25 AM
Have the drivers drink liquor for 2 hours before the race.
Then have a 1 hour race.
The winner is the driver with the highest combined finishing position and breathalyzer result.
- January 27, 2011 at 8:56 AM
Why is this on the Panthers' page?
- January 27, 2011 at 8:57 AM
Why is this on the Panthers' page?
- January 27, 2011 at 8:58 AM
Agreed. Why is this on the Panther's page, Scott??? Could you not summon up your usual, inane Panthers drivel???? Someone please explain to me why he is still on the Observer's staff.....anyone???
- January 27, 2011 at 9:07 AM
Scott, I'm with you on this one.
Let's have a little history lesson. Back in the '60s and early '70s, it was common to have 40-50 races a year. And of course you had the super-teams of Richard Petty and David Pearson who were so much better than everyone else they could easily win at least half the races they ran in. So (as legend says) there was a gathering at a Daytona bar where the points system we know was developed. It was put in place to force drivers to run all the races in order to win the championship. By the '80s, NASCAR was no longer holding races at campgrounds and beaches and had cut back to 29 races. At that point, the points system became obsolete.
With all the money sponsors put into race teams these days, there is little risk of someone wanting to be in 20 races and expecting to win the title. So you have to place more emphasis on winning.
There are 2 other issues that need to be addressed: "Start and park," where a marginal driver starts the race and a few laps in, "mysteriously" has a problem and drops out, and wrecked cars racing for 1 or 2 more spots. This causes those "debris cautions" that alter the outcome of some races.
To provent this, award no points or money for finishing worse than 30th. Also, award no point for leading a lap.
I would have loved to see them set the winning points at 100, then 75 points for second, then -1 point for positions 3-30. Keep the 5 points for leading the most laps.
- January 27, 2011 at 9:19 AM
I agree that this does nothing good, but actually makes it worse. It used to be that the difference between 2nd-6th was greater than 22nd and 26th, giving at least some motivation to keep racing for the habitual 4th-5th place cruisers.
I also agree that points should stop after 30th. Give 31-43 5 points to award making the race, and that is it.
- January 27, 2011 at 9:28 AM
- DMorrisPE said...
1. Points for 1st thru 30 ONLY: 50, 35, 28, 27, 26, 25, etc. No points for 31-43. 1st & 2nd points include bonus for good finish.
2. 5 Bonus points for leading the most laps
3. 2 Bonus points for quickest legal pit stop of the race with no penalties such as speeding, missing lug nuts, stuck gas can, running over hoses. Reward the pit crew's work.
- January 27, 2011 at 9:44 AM
I don't know why they continue to give a bonus for leading one lap. With all the team orders, how hard can that be for eighty percent of the drivers to accomplish. One of their team mates will just pull over and let them go by. Can you imagine Bobby Allison letting Richard Petty go by just so he could get bonus points. Didn't think so. I thought this was a racing series not a charity organization, or at least it use to be.
- January 27, 2011 at 1:00 PM
- http://www.ehow.com/members/stevemar2-articles.html said...
The new points system sounds interesting! I am just a casual fan of NASCAR but intend on following it a little more closely this year. It sounds like there is a strong commitment from the governing body to attract more fans. I hope it works!
- January 27, 2011 at 1:04 PM
Why not have the Regular Season winner be seeded 1st or at least tied for first to start the Chase regardless of the number of wins they may have? They earned that right by winning the Regular Season over the first 26 races.
- January 27, 2011 at 2:19 PM
Nascar still doesnt get it!
Fans dont really care about the Chase or how it get awarded!
The big problem is to much is made out of the Chase and it demotes the reason we go or watch, it the race!
Nascar biggest problem is races get boring in the mid portians, the action is usally at the end!
If they would let the points be a incentive to make drivers want to lead instead of taking a top 5 racing would be much better!
Paying points to lead lap segments would be a good start!
Ask youself two simple question as to why you go or watch a race on TV!
Am I here to see a great race?
Am I here to see who wins the Chase?
- January 27, 2011 at 2:25 PM
I think everyone should just shut up, quit whining and offering opinions, and just enjoy the race!!!
- January 27, 2011 at 7:07 PM
They should do away with the starting over for the last however many it is races. If they want the fans involved at the end then judt dont score any points for anyone for the first so many races, then start the points the last 15 or however many races they want at the end. That way every driver has a chance at the end, make the first races just for winners. Maybe give each winner 1 point to start at the end for each race they won.
- January 28, 2011 at 1:24 AM
Panthers page? Uhhh ... its called the sports section blogs but lets hope the new rookie coach Rivera is smart enough not to take Newton as first pick since he brought up the first need is for a new QB. Hell they been saying that for years.
They took a Heisman and everything else winner who was "clean" with Weinke 10 yrs ago and it didnt work out. He was bigger stronger and better than Newton too plus had the 2nd best rookie season of all time.
Better hold out for Luck in 2012 and skip the troubled one from Atlanta metro who played for 3 schools in 3 years and was backup as a freshman to Florida Gator Tebow who was a soph and won the Heisman that yr.
Newton went to a Jr College in Texas as a soph and then to Auburn his jr year after soliciting schools like Miss St a big wad under the table that Auburn paid. Miss St reported to the NCAA and Auburn invest from the FBI is still pending.
Other than riding the pine behind Tebow until he could start his senior year, Newton was also caught stealing a high dollar students laptop his freshman year and thats the real reason he left Florida.
- January 28, 2011 at 8:38 AM
Jimmy Clausen is a joke.
and a turd
- January 28, 2011 at 8:47 AM
Fox played Clausen to get the 1st pick for defense. Either Fairley or Flowers should be picked. The 2nd pick could be QB as there are 10 quality QBs in the draft.
- January 28, 2011 at 4:51 PM


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Standard ECMA-350
Data Interchange on 130 mm Rewritable
and Write Once Read Many Ultra Density Optical (UDO) Disk Cartridges
- Capacity: 30 Gbytes per Cartridge - First Generation
3rd edition (December 2006)
This Ecma Standard specifies the mechanical, physical, and optical characteristics of a 130 mm optical disk cartridge (ODC) that employs thermo-optical Phase Change effects to enable data interchange between such disks.
This Ecma Standard specifies two types, viz.
The disk shall be two-sided with a nominal capacity of 15,0 Gbytes per side and the cartridge (two sides) shall provide a nominal capacity of 30,0 Gbytes.
This Ecma Standard specifies:
This Ecma Standard provides for interchange between optical disk drives. Together with a standard for volume and file structure, it provides for full data interchange between data processing systems.
The following file can be freely downloaded:
The previous replaced "historical" editions of this Ecma Standard are available here.


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RV Forum flags - click HERE
if we wanted to do Disneyland, Grand canyon, Redwoods forest etc... would we be best to do at start or finish because of weather?
We were thinking of being in the California area for 4-6 weeks so would this itinerary work better with time and weather? I'm concerned that August will be too hot there and any later starting the trip and we encounter cold weather elsewhere on the trip.
Thank you for the advice re DL and DW. We are going to do both as we were gifted a small sum for the trip from family and that will cover one of those adventures so we plan on doing at least a week in both.
For five people to spend a week at both DL and WDW you better have more than a small sum. Have you checked prices lately? I am an annual pass holder at WDW and I go there several times a week. I am astounded at how much things cost there. A bottle of water is $3. The water coming out of water faucets tastes terrible. Considering how expensive it is you might want to forget DL since it is basically a very small copy of the Magic Kingdom at WDW. Seeing both places would be redundant considering the time and expense.
Packing snacks is a great way to save money at WDW. There are lockers for rent at the entrance to each park so you could pack a cooler, rent a locker and then find a picnic table when you are ready to eat. You are definitely not going to walk around with a cooler in tow, although I do occasionally see someone doing just that. Understand that returning to the motorhome for lunch is not really an option since that will take you at least 2 hours.September of next year would be a great time to see the park since September is one of the least crowded months. You will need to make your reservations asap since it sells out quickly. Here is the crowd calendar for September of this year and you can see that there are a lot of days that are crowd level 2 and 3. Compare that to July when just about every day is an 8 or 9. https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/
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text: I am a feminist mama raising a feminist son in a not-so-feminist world. A is working his way towards 3; his dad and I live and play in Toronto and we are a vegan family. We celebrate and practice Gentle/Natural Parenting and the three of us love pizza. This blog is a place to share, collaborate and connect. Send me an email, share your ideas, offer your opinion.


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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Death Goddess Keywords
No surpises with the top search terms: Three of the top four were:
'death goddess wow'
'dk death goddess'
So clearly a few folks have been looking for my blog :) and google/yahoo/etc are kind enough to point them to me when using the terms used in my blog title.
I've also gotten some hits from more 'informative' search terms like:
'dk wow 3.2.2 dc spam'
'best food for death knights'
'3.2.2 frost dk pve spec and rotations T8 geared'
which relate well to articles I've posted on Death Knights, so it's no surprise that search engines eventually point here. Most of the 228 different keyword search strings leading to my blog have 'dk' in them.
However, every search engine has its quirks, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that some poor souls ended up here when they entered:
'overpowered' :P
'elite jerk dk'
'snottydin' (hey, I did put snottydin in a post title)
'broomhilde' (wtf? how did that happen? I can't even find my blog on any page when I enter those terms)
and: 'Hawaiian hine' - at least it's not pron!
If you're a blogger, how did searchers find you?
5 comments:
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Most serached term is "Plagued Candles"ReplyDelete
Some really awkward ones were:
Lolcats (Pictures, maybe?)
Jail Bait (O_o)
Rogue Defense Cap (Lol'd)
And of course there are quite a few intelligent thoughts about Expertise/Hit with Tanking, Tank Specs. Blah blha blah.
Sometimes I question my faith in humanity on the internet.
- AnonymousNovember 13, 2009 at 1:36 AM
Seriously, you don't want to know =PReplyDelete
I get some combination of orbs + righteous + blog, alongside an array of frankly terrifying weird stuff, including epiclust, prettiest pornstar, Dragon Age boobs, and my personal favourite: CAD BANE! For I am the bane of cads. Or possibly a caddish bane. Who knows.
True, both of you have the title of the blog for titillation. :PReplyDelete
Although, I would have thought the 'Goddess' part of mine might have proved more problematic. :)
I don't get any weird ones really, it's highly predictable: tanking. Have a look.ReplyDelete
Your lovely blog (really more of a theorycrafting/informative site than blog) is quite focused, Gravity... although I wouldn't have been surprised to see a few derivations of 'pwnage' in there that could give some funky results. :)ReplyDelete


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Hi friends~
I will be at Eidolon Fine Arts Booth this weekend at APE~! I would be selling/signing my sketchbooks, prints and magic cards all Saturday and Sunday, except when i go around shopping for wonderful books and toys myself! :D I hope to see you there!
Some recent paintings:
Shelly W


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SATURDAY 14 MAY 2011 - this is the last of four such events in 2011
Thanks to our friends at ASH4x4 (Billy & Keith), BOFA4x4 is organising an exclusive 'pay & play' day at Hawkstone Park, Weston-under-Redcastle, Shropshire SY4 5UY on Saturday 3 September 2011. The site has differing off-road courses and terrain to cater for all levels of experience - there should be something for everyone and all for £25 per vehicle (reduced to £20 if we get approx.20 vehicles attending).
This site will be for the sole use of BOFA4x4 and its members and will not be open to the general public on this day. Note - this event will also be 'co-promoted' with other clubs, but is initially open to BOFA members. Later this event may be 'opened up' as deemed necessary to fill places.
Charity - any 'surplus' on this event will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.
How Does the number of vehicles affect the price?
In order to make this viable, we need a minimum of 10 vehicles. If we cannot get 10 vehicles booked in by 20 August/b], then we will cancel this event. If we get more than 10 vehicles, then funds will be raised for charity. If we can get 15 to 20 motors, then there will be a reduction in the price. Max number of vehicles 20-ish.
[b]IMPORTANT - if you commit to attending, then you commit to paying! Please only put your name down if you wish to attend. If you decide to withdraw and your lack of participation takes the number of vehicles below the minimum 10 motors, then you will be required to "do the decent thing" and cough up!
Normal BOFA4x4 Terms & Conditions Apply.
Please register your interest by posting here (please do not PM / phone / text) this is so we can keep everything organised in one place!
Members attending (min 10 required)
1. Grizzly
Terms & Conditions
Please read this very carefully before attending any get together or event organised via this website. Please note that neither BOFA4x4 or the event organiser(s) will not be held liable for any accident, damage, loss or any mishap whatsoever; on the way to, during or returning from any event posted on the BOFA4x4 Forum and we will not enter into any correspondence regarding any claim relating to the above.
If you attend a get together arranged on the BOFA4x4 Forum, you do so under the understanding that its of your own free will and at your own risk and you will relinquish all rights to entering the organisers, BOFA4x4 or its members into any claim or correspondence to any legal process or payments by attending the event.
You will be asked to sign a disclaimer at a get together or event to eliminate the organisers from any liability. If you are unwilling to do this, then please do not attend, as you will not be allowed to participate with the other members.
Please also note that the organiser does not provide any insurance cover for any events unless specifically stated otherwise in the details contained within the post.
If you think you will require additional insurance for any get together, then its highly advisable that you get cover arranged on the basis that you will not be able to claim from BOFA4x4 or any of the members that have organised the event or get together. Please note, all vehicles attending a BOFA4x4 event must be insured and in a road legal condition, including a valid MOT certificate*
* A limited number of non-road legal vehicles can be used on the site provided they are "booked in" (limited to 6 trailers)and are fully functioning and in good working order


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While notorious British filmmaker Pete Walker got his start making cheap sexploitation films, it's his horror movies that are best known as they had a tendency to be rather controversial with little regard for social taboos of the time. His first horror film, or more realistically his first thriller, was Die Screaming Marianne, a decent first effort that entertains but fails to fire on all cylinders such as better known efforts from the man like The Confessional which are teamed up with more established classics from his filmography, Schizo and House Of Whipcord for a Blu-ray debut through Kino and Redemption Films. Here's a look at the four movies that make up this collection, each one housed on its own disc with its own extra features...
House Of Whipcord:
Walker's attempt to take on the women in prison movies that have proven popular throughout the years, House Of Whipcord sounds more salacious than it really is but it still manages to pack an exploitative punch if not necessarily for what it shows but at least for what it infers.
Set in what was at the time the modern day of 1970's England, we meet up with a pretty young woman named Ann-Marie (Penny Irving), a fashion model who falls for a dashing young man named Mark E. Desade (Robert Tayman). This soon proves a mistake, however, as Mark's insistence that she accompany him to a fancy looking mansion out in the middle of nowhere turns out to be a successful attempt to get an immoral woman like Ann-Marie locked up! That's right, this is no regular mansion, it's basically a prison for women deemed unfit for society by those who run it, they being Justice Bailey (Patrick Barr) and Mark's own mother, Mrs. Wakehurst (Barbara Markham).
Shortly after she's put into captivity, poor Ann-Marie is judged and found guilty of lewd behavior, sentenced to imprisonment indefinitely until such a time arrives that she can prove herself sufficiently pure of mind, body and soul as to be fit for release. Some of those who claim to be so pure, however, have got skeletons in their own closets...
While tame compared to films like the Ilsa pictures or the women in prison movies made by director's like Jess Franco and Joe D'Amato, House Of Whipcord is still strong enough to work. A very obvious lashing out against the conservative right who no doubt saw Walker as immoral in much the same way that the judgmental types in charge of the house see Ann-Marie, the film is well paced and nicely shot but what really makes it work are the performances. Barbara Markham steals the show as Mark's mother, whipping and abusing her way through the inmate population with way too much glee on her face, while Irving makes for a completely sympathetic (and, it must be said, very beautiful) leading lady. Sheila Keith, who worked with Walker on Frightmare, is also here and does a fine job playing one of the prison guards.
The film is unapologetically grim, it makes no false pretenses or apologies for what it is and it spits in the eye of social mores. It's a mean spirited, nasty picture that shows off solid direction on Walker's part and makes good use of a fairly clever script. Yes, the exploitative elements are all here but there's more emphasis on angry social commentary than on whippings and exposed breasts.
Directed by Walker in 1976, the film begins when a popular figure skater named Samantha (Lynne Frederick, who was at one time married to none other than Peter Sellers) is announced to be engaged to her fiancé, Alan Falconer (John Leyton). While most would be happy for the couple, a strange older man named William Haskin (Jack Watson) is anything but. We see him glare after reading the newspaper article on the impending nuptials and then pack himself a giant knife and board the first train to London where the ceremony is to take place.
Upon his arrival, Haskin basically starts stalking poor Samantha. She knows he has something to do with her past and the death of her mother but her memories of that early age are fuzzy at best. He shows up at the side of the road, he shows up at the wedding reception, he shows up in windows and he eventually shows up face to face - but what is his connection to Samantha and why is he going to so much effort to get to her? This certainly isn't going to be any good for her marriage!
Very obviously influenced by Hitchcock's Psycho (something which Walker admits to in the extra features) albeit with a good bit more bloodshed and nudity, Schizo takes a bit of time to get going but picks up nicely around the half way point. The film also pulls from the Italian Giallo films that were popular at the time, mixing up some mildly psychedelic moments and trippy camera work during a few key scenes to help build some atmosphere and tension and doing a great job of working in the picture's interesting soundtrack into the action.
Performance wise, we're also in pretty decent shape. Lynne Frederick is lovely and quite charming in the lead, doing a good job of translating her character's obvious and understandable breakdown on screen into something we can sympathize with. Watson steals the show as the killer, however, smearing his face against a window or skulking in the shadows with a knife. He's sweaty and creepy and a little perverted - all the better, considering who he's supposed to be in the movie. The film, however, does have one obvious flaw and that's that the twist is given away in the very title of the movie. As such, we know pretty early on where this is all going - but getting there is still a good time, thanks in no small part to the creative murder set pieces and the presence of a few lovely naked ladies.
Die Screaming Marianne:
The film starts off with a fantastic go-go dancing scene in which Marianne (the lovely Susan George of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs) shakes what the good Lord gave her to the sounds of some fuzzy garage rock. She's a dancer who works in Portugal where a gang of tough guys are chasing her down. When she meets up with a British gentleman named Sebastian (Christopher Sanford of Clive Donner's Old Dracula) and he offers to take her back to his place, a safe distance away in London, she accepts and the two begin a romantic relationship together.
Soon enough, Sebastian proposes and Marianne accepts his offer. She's got her own motives, however, and when she messes with the wedding certificate to botch the wedding replacing Sebastian's name with that of Eli (Barry Evans best known for the goofy English sex comedy, Under The Doctor), the best man, it becomes obvious that something is up. It all ties in to a scheme in which Marianne's father (Leo Genn of Walker's seminal Frightmare and A Lizard In A Woman's Skin), a judge of dubious moral standing, is attempting to swindle some money out of a Swiss Bank Account to which only Marianne has access to. Her father has long reaching ties and won't let family relations get in the way of scoring the cash and so he sets into motion a sinister plan to get Marianne back to Portugal, whether she likes it or not.
Full of a few red herrings and interesting bait and switch attempts, Die Screaming Marianne is a decent thriller even if there are a few too many loose ends for its own good. The plot is a little predictable in spots but the ending works well regardless and Walker paces the film fairly well, ensuring that even when the movie isn't necessarily good, it is at least interesting. The highlight of the film is George's lead performance. She's a complete sexpot in the film and easy enough on the eyes that she's able to carry herself well here, even if her performance isn't as good as some of her other work. The rest of the cast seems to sleepwalk through the picture, not coming across as particularly good or particularly bad, though Leo Genn is fun as the sinister father of our shifty female lead.
Those expecting the excess of some of Walker's better known and more notorious efforts are likely to be disappointed in Die Screaming Marianne's lackluster levels of sex and violence and at times the movie does feel very restrained when compared to more gratuitous fare such as Frightmare or The Flesh And Blood Show. On the other side of the coin, however, the movie looks quite good and features some great seventies mod culture oddities such as the go-go dancing opening and the swanky, posh, colorful sets used throughout the movie.
The Comeback:
An American rock and roll star named Nick Cooper (Jack Jones) hasn't released a record in six years and as such, it's time for him to make his comeback. In order to do this, he heads off to England where he holes himself up in a creepy old house where he'll have the peace and quiet he needs to create his latest and greatest musical masterpiece. What Nick doesn't know is that shortly after he left his American abode, his ex-girlfriend (Holly Palance - yep, Jack's daughter!) was chopped up into bloody little pieces by a maniacal killer dressed up like an old woman.
Once Nick arrives in England he's met by the sexy Linda (Pamela Stephenson), the secretary of his manager, Webster Jones (David Doyle who is instantly recognizable from Charlie's Angels). The two hit it off in more ways than one and despite some glares and passive aggressive comments from Jones, they start to fall for each other. Once he starts really getting into his work at the house, things start to get weird for Nick. The hired help, an elderly couple who go by Mr. And Mrs. B (Bill Owen and Sheila Keith respectively) seem innocent enough on the surface but they just might be up to something sinister if the voices that Nick starts hearing are anything to go by. The more time he spends there the stranger it gets when he starts seeing his ex-girlfriend's corpse wandering around the building and when most of the people Nick meets wind up dead, you just know there's something seriously wrong here...
From the opening scene in which Holly Palance gets chopped up through to the shock ending, The Comeback is a fast paced movie that, despite the goofy premise and at times rather obvious red herrings, proves to be quite a bit of fun. It isn't an intense psychological thriller or a thinking man's horror film, it's a slasher with some possible supernatural overtones that plays around with a few themes of mental instability and terror. Throughout the movie it becomes obvious that someone or something is trying to drive Nick insane, it doesn't take us long to figure that out, the fun comes in trying to guess who it is and what their motive could be. After all, everyone loves a rock star, right? With Palance's corpse wandering around though, is it all in his head or is someone really pulling some strings behind the scenes, making life difficult for him?
The film benefits from a few excellent murder set pieces and some grisly gore effects that take things a little further than you might expect them to. The case is also pretty interesting, it's a lot of fun to see David Doyle pop up in this one as he's so often associated with the character of John Bosely from Charlie's Angels. Jack Jones is fine in the lead, and it's interesting to note that he was the son of Allen Jones and that he also showed up as the lounge singer guy in Airplane II: The Sequel. The highlight of the film in terms of the casting however is seeing Pamela Stephenson in various states of undress. She's not only a gorgeous woman but she's also quite good in the movie, using her doe eyed innocence and natural good looks to charm the pants off of Nick pretty early on in the film. She has an interesting chemistry with him on screen, it's a shame that they didn't work together more and that she didn't get more film work (most of her appearances after this film was made were on various television shows, most notably a stint on Saturday Night Live though she did show up in Superman III and Mel Brooks' History Of The World Part One).
The four features are presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed as follows:
House Of Whipcord: 1.66.1 widescreen
Schizo: 1.78.1 widescreen
Die Screaming Marianne: 1.66.1 widescreen
The Comeback: 1.85.1 widescreen
All four films have been transferred from the original negatives and are presented in their proper aspect ratios offering significant improvements over previous DVD releases. Detail is strong and color reproduction is good throughout. Some minor print damage is present in all four films, usually early on in the films but popping up throughout - but none of it is seriously distracting or irritating. As has been the norm for the Kino/Redemption titles, these are more or less transferred 'as is' and not heavily restored but the elements used appear to have been in very good shape over all. Schizo looks a bit soft and fuzzy early on but clears up once we get past the opening credits, the other three are more consistently crisp. Regardless, Walker fans should be pretty pleased with the way that this set has turned out...
Each of the four films in the set is presented in English language LPCM Mono. There are no alternate language options supplied nor are there any closed captioning or subtitle options provided. As far as the audio quality goes, these movies sound just fine for what they are. Things may be a little on the flat side here and there but that's simply age related limitations in the source material showing through. Dialogue is generally pretty clean and easy enough to follow and the score's generally sound good as well, particularly in Schizo and The Combeback, which make better use of music than the other two movies.
The extras for the first film start with the commentary track from Walker who is joined by the film's director of photography Peter Jessop and biographer Steven Chibnall. Carried over from past DVD releases, this is a solid track with Walker doing most of the heavy lifting and Chibnall more or less keeping him on topic. Walker addresses the themes and ideas that make this more than just another women in prison movie while also discussing some of the film's technical issues with Jessop offering his insight along the way.
There's also a brand new interview here with Walker entitled Perversions Of Justice and while it may repeat some of the information in the commentary, it's nice to see Walker as well as hear him as he's got a good screen presence and a very amiable way of going about explaining his motivations and relaying the history of his work that's endearing and interesting. Rounding out the extra features are trailers for The Comeback, Die Screaming, Marianne! and The House Of Whipcord.
The only extra on this disc of much interest is a good twelve minute interview with Walker entitled My Sweet Schizo in which the director talks about writing the film based only on a very rough concept. He talks about the sex and violence in his movies, about what works and doesn't work so well in this picture, about the cast members he had on board for this project and how horror films have more or less gone mainstream in recent days compared to how they were viewed when he was still active in making them. Rounding out the extra features are trailers for The Comeback, Die Screaming, Marianne! and The House Of Whipcord.
The biggest and best of the supplements on this third disc is another commentary track, again carried over from the previous DVD release, with director Pete Walker, moderated by Jonathon Rigby. Those who have heard Walker's commentary tracks before know him to be an intelligent man with a great, dry wit and this proves to be the case with this track as well. He details the history of the production, the trouble he went through getting the film made, the casting decisions and more in addition to talking about what it was like to work with Susan George at the time. It's an interesting and enjoyable discussion that is both educational and entertaining.
An Eye For Terror, Part 1 is the name of the new featurette on this last disc and it allows Walker to talk about how and why he got into the horror movie game when he did, what the reception to his work was like at the time and how he feels about some of these movies in hindsight. Rounding out the extra features are trailers for The Comeback, Die Screaming, Marianne! and The House Of Whipcord.
Jonathon Rigby, author of the book English Gothic, moderates a commentary with Pete Walker himself and he proves to not be at a loss for words when discussing the film. He covers pre-productions aspects like wrangling up the cast and the shooting locations as well as budgetary issues. He provides us with some fun anecdotes about some of the performers and gives us a few 'what might have been' moments when he talks about some of the original casting choices and locations that he had in mind for the film before he ended up with the cast we see here. This is a pretty interesting commentary and fans of the film or of Walker in general should find it quite enjoyable.
This disc also features an interview with Walker, entitled Slasher Serenade and running just over twelve minutes. Here Walker covers the origins of the picture, the casting of the film and the writing process as well as a few other items of note. Jack Jones also chimes in with his thoughts on the movie. Rounding out the extra features are trailers for The Comeback, Die Screaming, Marianne! and The House Of Whipcord.
The Pete Walker Collection is pretty much essential for anyone with an interest in the director's output. While he's made better films than the four collected here (and those are hopefully coming to Blu-ray sooner rather than later) this quartet holds its own and provides plenty of entertainment value. On top of that, Kino's boxed set offers up the films in the best quality they've seen on home video so far, and with a few new extra features as well. Highly recommended.
Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.


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H and H Bagels
2239 Broadway (at West 80th Street)
H&H Bagels was founded in 1972 by Helmer Toro and became one of the largest bagel manufacturers in the world. This was H&H's original location and they expanded to a larger plant on 46th Street at 12th Avenue. This site closed in 2011.
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