text:
We're currently introducing a new design and are making sure everything works.
Christmas and New Year opening times
We will be closed from 7.30pm Thursday 19 December 2019 and re-open at 10am on Tuesday 7 January 2020. Due to staff leave we will be unable to respond to email enquiries during this time. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Archives collections
Hackney Archives is the repository for the Council's archives since 1965 and for those of its predecessors, Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington Metropolitan Borough Councils.
We also collect and preserve original records created by people and organisations based in, or connected with, the London Borough of Hackney. This includes charities, businesses, societies and community groups. You can search many of our archive lists on Access to Archives (A2A).
Local studies library
The local studies library is a large and growing collection of books, journals, pamphlets and ephemera associated with the history of the borough. It also holds information on general topics that have affected local history, locally produced publications, and biographies of local people. Of special interest is the collection of street directories covering the north of the borough during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Search the local studies library.
The Archive holds copies of most newspapers published in the Hackney area since the Shoreditch Observer in 1857. The most important holding is the Hackney Gazette, which first appeared in 1864 though the main series only survives from 1869. For preservation reasons, most newspapers are only available on microfilm.
The first detailed map of the area was made in 1745, when a map of Shoreditch was made by order of the Vestry. In the same year Rocque began his survey of the area 10 miles around London and this provided the earliest detailed maps of Hackney and Stoke Newington. The map collection also includes ordnance survey maps, dating back to the first full ordnance survey of the area in 1870, as well as other eighteenth century maps of smaller areas within the borough and sales plans of estates, mainly from the nineteenth century. Some of the maps have been reproduced and are available for sale.
Photographs, drawings and paintings
The visual collection at Hackney Archives provides a fascinating insight into the history of the borough and a valuable supplement to the archives and local studies collections. The collection of over 20,000 images includes drawings, watercolours, oil paintings, photographs and digital images. A small proportion of these images can be searched on the historic images page. The full collection can be accessed by visiting our search room. About two thirds of the images in the collection have been digitised and can be accessed by a photograph database available in the search room.
Audio-visual sources
The moving image collection at Hackney Archives consists mainly of 16mm cine film and VHS video dating roughly between the 1930s and 2004. Many of the films were produced by the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney between about 1930 and about 1970. A particular strength of the collection is the depiction of housing and urban development in Hackney in the post-war period. Some of the earlier Council films show the opening of housing estates, while some of the later videos update the record with footage of the demolition of tower blocks and of regeneration programmes. The collection also depicts social life and community, with Council films about public health, visits of royalty and other dignitaries, and activities such as a Coronation street party.
Hackney Archives
Opening times
- Tue to Wed 10am - 6pm
- Thur 10am - 7.30pm
- Sat 12:30pm - 5pm
- Closed Mon, Fri and Sun


text:
Here's something Link never found inside a treasure chest: a microATX motherboard.
I don't really know what he'd do with one, to be honest. Surely something in Hyrule is susceptible to silicon and electricity? It's probably less useful to him than a sword and horse are, let's be honest.
But here in our world, wandering around with swords gets you into trouble but computers! Now those are everyday necessities. And so what's inside this Zelda-inspired chest is a custom PC by Reddit user Slash_Fury. In the comments, he adds, "I also crammed an Arduino in there, which would listen to a switch to see when the case was opened, allowing it to play the "item get" sound and light up the yellow LEDs pictured in the album."
Because what good is acquired treasure without a sound? No good!
The full album has a bunch of different angles on the impressive case, as well as some shots of the build in-progress. Scroll down for a couple highlights or hit up the album for the full set.
Here's a Zelda Chest case mod I did a little while back [Reddit]

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Rumor: PSP2 uses memory sticks and has around twice the RAM of Xbox 360
Another day, another bit of rumored spec for the elusive PSP2. You love it though don't you? Of course you do, and today, there's talk that the new device will allow the use of memory sticks and also rivals the processing power of Xbox 360.
Umd headlines
Analysts predict PSP-4000 will support UMD
Analysts Michael Pachter and EEDAR's Jesse Divnich predict that Sony's next handheld will support UMD – or at least, would not be surprised if it did. "I think it is possible and likely that the PSP-4000 will support UMD, and I think that Sony will support whichever formats make it the most money," Pachter told […]
NIS America taking preorders for UMD version of Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman
NIS America has announced that its currently taking preorders for Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!: What Did I Do to Deserve This? on UMD. However, the UMD release will only happen if the firm receives 1,000 orders by November 13 – otherwise production of the UMD will not happen. Loads of PSP owners have requested […]
SCEA: Third parties not required to release PSP games through PSN
SCEA has said that third party games are not required to be released via digital format. Quite a few games released post PSPgo launch hit shelves on UMD and have yet to land on PSN. Because each lacks a digital version, Go users cannot play the titles. This is something that is all in the […]
NIS re-releasing PSP titles for PSPgo launch at 50% off
NIS America's Nao Zook has posted over the US PS Blog news that the firm will be re-releasing some of its PSP titles to celebrate the launch of the PSPgo. Here's what's coming for the handheld's launch tomorrow: Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness Dragoneer's Aria Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What […]
PSPgo - UMD conversion program not possible for "legal reasons"
SCEA's finally confirmed that there will be no UMD conversion program for those upgrading to the discless PSPgo next week. "We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time," a rep for the firm's US arm told Kotaku. End of. […]
SCEE: PSP Minis to likely "transition to UMD" and possibly PS3
SCEE's Zeno Colaco has stated that some PSP Minis are to be transitioned to UMD or on PS3 in order for developers and publishers to access revenue from retail as well as the PS Store. "The most successful Minis titles will probably transition to UMD," Colaco told Develop. "I think that a package of multiple […]
Sony always planned to release a UMD-free PSP
Sony bossman of product planning, Naoya Matsui, has stated that the company always planned to eventually release a UMD-free PSP once the digital distribution market matured. "We'd planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," Matsui told GameBusiness. "But if we'd simply released the hardware, there wouldn't have been […]
Sony plans to put "almost all" UMD games up on PSN
Sony plans to make almost every PSP UMD game released after October 1 available for digital download. Jeff Rubenstein said over on the US PS Blog that when third-party titles are released digitally would depend on the publisher, all first-party titles will hit PSN. "It's my understanding that just about everything hitting after October 1 […]
Sony plans to offer digital replacement for UMD games
Sony says that it will offer a digital replacement for UMD games if you buy a PSP Go. Some maybe even be for free. "We're in the midst of putting together a good will program", John Koller told Gizmodo. "We'll be unveiling that soon [because] we actually think there's a significant group that will be […]
Team 17 says Sony is clever for "embracing digital distribution"
Team 17 says that Sony is clever for its embracing of digital distribution with PSP Go!, and feels that UMD just never really took off. Speaking with Develop, Martyn Brown commended Sony's new handheld and feels that the company has made a wise choice with how game are played on it. "I think it's fair […]
Patapon 2 to be a digital-only release in the US
SCEA's confirmed last night's rumour that Patapon 2 will be a digital-only release in America. "We're considering a digital-only format for the Patapon 2 release as a one time test case as we continue to explore consumer preferences for digital content," SCEA comms boss Patrick Seybold said in a statement. "The downloadable game will be […]
Patapon 2 UMD-free?
Arstechnica's rumouring that Patapon 2's to be a UMD-less affair in the US. That report claims retail cases will be empty, instead containing a download voucher. There's no official word from Sony as yet, although it'd be about as surprising as June following May were it true.
Sony says UMD is "critical to us this year and beyond"
Sony says that UMD is critical to business "this year and beyond," responding to rumors of an upcoming UMD-free PSP. While not directly answering claims of the machine' reality made by Acclaim's David Perry, Sony's John Koller did say that digital download were the future for PSP. "We are making a concerted effort for digital […]
Perry "certain" there's no UMD in PSP revamp [Update]
Update: Kotaku caught up with Perry today and he said he know someone who's working on it. Take a look. Acclaim boss Dave Perry has backed up a tweet earlier today on the lack of UMD support in the heavily-rumoured upcoming PSP revamp, saying he's "certain" the disc's out of the new design. "I can't […]
Dissidia: Final Fantasy will be available via both UMD and PS Store download
Rabid Final Fantasy fans take note; if you want some day-one hands-on time with Dissidia: Final Fantasy, come December 18, a Japanese PSN account will grant your wish. According to a Japanese TGS listing (kindly translated by Siliconera), the Final Fantasy-themed, fan service-tacular fighter will be joining titles like Loco Roco 2 and Patapon 2 […]
All future SCEJ UMD games to be downloadable
Sony confirmed at TGS today that all future SCEJ UMD titles are to be directly downloadable, CVG reports. Destroy All Heroes 2 will be the first game released under the new policy, hitting Japanese stores as UMD and the PS Store as a download on October 15, the same day Japanese PSP owners get direct […]
SCEE to sell PSP PSN games on UMD
According to this Siliconera story, SCEE is to sell two collections of previously downloadable PS Store games for PSP on disc this October. The Playtation Network Power Pack comes with fl0w, Beats, and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops. Go! Lemmings, Go! Sudoku, and Go! Puzzle are part of the PlayStation Network Collection: Puzzle Pack. More through […]
Umd latest
Rumor: PSP2 uses memory sticks and has around twice the RAM of Xbox 360
NIS America taking preorders for UMD version of Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman
SCEA: Third parties not required to release PSP games through PSN
PSPgo – UMD conversion program not possible for "legal reasons"
SCEE: PSP Minis to likely "transition to UMD" and possibly PS3
Team 17 says Sony is clever for "embracing digital distribution"
Dissidia: Final Fantasy will be available via both UMD and PS Store download


text:
Sorry for the inconvenience.
We are glad you are looking for Bucket Bags | Fashion Designers Outlet & Marketplace on Fataka.com. Unfortunately all our products are sold out or we are waiting for fresh stock. Please enter your email and name on the form below and send to us so that we can inform you when new products / stock is available.
We will also send you a Discount Coupon for 5% on your next order.
We regret the inconvenience and look forward to be of service to you, soon.


text:
Friday, 10 December 2010
The most notable studies on running in pregnancy
Bear in mind that this list is no substitute for good clinical judgement and there ARE contraindications to running while pregnancy (but great debate exists around what exactly those contraindications should be).
Clapp 1989 - women running 19-88 km/week or aerobics three or more times a week.
Spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)
controls: 25%
aerobic dancers: 16.5%
runners: 16%
Hall & Kauffman 1987
Strength training and c-section rate
control: 28%
low intensity: 24%
medium intensity: 19%
high intensity: 6%
(I know. It's not running - but wow - ALMOST as good as running [see below]!)
Clapp 1990
running 14-68 km/week and/or aerobics 3-11 times per week (case control study; controls were equal in education and age, etc)
c-section rate
controls: 30%
runners: 5%
length of labor
controls: 390 minutes
runners: 260 minutes
meconium (sign of baby distress) when water breaks
controls 25%
runners: 14%
abnormal heart rhythm in baby during labor
controls: 25%
runners: 14%
Long-term baby outcomes (baby now 5 years old; same running women and controls)
-children of runners significantly leaner and more active
-children of runners significantly "much" higher IQ and oral language skills
Sørensen et al 2003
Pre-ecclampsia rates
controls - control rate
physically active: 35% relative risk reduction
physically active more than 6 hours per week: 69% relative risk reduction
Juhl 2007 Danish National birth cohort:
20% reduced chance of preterm birth among women who exercise > 5 hours per week
This last study is the one I am applying to get permission to analyze specifically for women who run more than 5 hours a week.
P.S. Steph - I'm not trying to give you specific advice, but you mentioned wanting to see studies, so I hope this might be some of what you're looking for.
In other news, The Lorax has chickenpox. He seems completely unbothered by it. I don't think they itch him at all. Happily I've had it, otherwise I'd have yet another pregnancy worry to dwell on.
Speaking of which, I gave myself an ultrasound in the ophthalmology dept. today, just to make sure my pregnancy was intrauterine. The tiny eye probe went just deep enough so I could identify the anterior side of the uterus. I found what might be the gestational sac on the left, but it might have been bowel. There is a reason people go to ultrasonographers, I guess. In Denmark, you have to wait until week 12 to get an ultrasound, so I've got a while - but I'll probably know if it's ectopic before then anyway.
6 comments:
- Stefanie Schocke said...
"I gave myself an ultrasound today"...had to laugh at that :)
Okay...what about women who run 5 or 6 hours a week, but at a slow pace. For example, are running 5 miles a day, but at a 12 minute mile.
- 10 December 2010 at 23:30
- sea legs girl said...
Stafanie, women who do that would still fit into Clapp's, and I think all the studies' (except the strength training) exercise/run group OR intense exercise group. So they'd get all of the benefits of exercising that are discussed here. I don't think any of the studies specified that you had to run faster than a certain pace.
The woman you describe sounds a lot like me the last month I was pregnant with The Lorax. Though I added swimming, spinning and core exercise to it.
- 11 December 2010 at 08:39
- Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...
The first article sounds interesting. Where can I get the Clapp?
Hahahaha! Don't bother answering! Now that I've said that, the article no longer interests me.
But truth is, I am carrying a bit of a beer baby in my belly. I'm going to name him "Gadiater" after the word verification word you blog just gave me.
Is that Danish for "Gladiator"? Or "gadfly"?
(If it's a girl I'm going to name it "Rutabaga", because then her significant other will never have to attend lame Xmas parties in Minnesota.
- 11 December 2010 at 17:59
- sea legs girl said...
Why doesn't it surprise me that you'd be interested in getting "the Clapp"? I think you know how you can get it - in fact you have probably "borrowed" it from women before. :)
- 11 December 2010 at 18:12
- SteveQ said...
I got chickenpox at 17, missing my high school prom, the state championship track meet and the first "last-ever" concert by the Who.
Now I'm wondering if the vaccine helps prevent shingles.
- 12 December 2010 at 20:04
- sea legs girl said...
My reason for not rushing off and vaccinating The Lorax was that I am nearly 100% sure it will not prevent shingles. (If you look it up, they will say the verdict is still out). The reason it probably won't protect is it is a live (attenuated) virus and if it gets in the body, it will set up shop in the nerves, where it likes to live. Years later, it will have the chance to come out again just like it does if you've had actual chickenpox. It is just a matter of the immune system being compromised later down the road and the virus coming out again. In theory, Shingles may be MORE of a risk after you have the vaccine, because you might not reach the same level of immunity, so it might take less for a reactivation.
Did that make any sense?
- 12 December 2010 at 21:03


text:
App Review: GPush by Tiverias Apps
by Rob on
August 19, 2009
Filed under Daily App Reviews, Utility
GPush by Tiverias Apps was heavily hyped in the tech blog world a couple of weeks back. However, if you, like us, tried to get it, you were out of luck. Even with all the hype, the app was not available in the App Store. That was because upon release the developers discovered that their servers weren't quite up to the task. The app was pulled and the developers went to work on server improvements. Today, the app became available once again and, like many of you, we decided to give it a try. Our results were not as good as we had hoped.
Upon launching the app, you are immediately greeted with the request to use your location. I hate this. Apps that don't need to know my location shouldn't include it. This is typically caused by tracking software by one of the app tracking solutions out there. Either way, tracking my location with a push notification app is a little extreme. So, I always deny these requests. After the location modal is dismissed, you can enter your GMail credentials. Here's the next gotcha. GPush supports one GMail account. That's it. So if you're planning to track multiple accounts look elsewhere.
After you enter your credentials your account is registered with the GPush service (servers). That's it. There is no other function to the app other than to register your credentials and device with the service. Now, sit back and wait for emails.
I received multiple emails during the course of the day today. For each of them I received the typical notification from the mail.app. GPush did not notify me of any of them. Not a good sign. Nothing appears to be happening, and reinstalling the app didn't resolve this problem. However, it does appear as though Tiverias Apps is aware of the issue. How could they not be? A message on their site today reads in part:
We understand that an app designed to notify users of email, if not working properly, can be quite obtrusive.
It's not often we give negative reviews on apps here at AppChatter. In fact, if an app isn't worthy of a review we just take a pass on it, since our time is short and people want to know what is good out there in the App Store. However, in this case, I am making an exception to this rule because this app has received so much press lately and has fallen flat on its face. Seriously, if you're looking for push notifications for your GMail account, this is not your answer. It will only frustrate you and will not give you the experience you are looking for. For a buck spend your money on Pocket God if you don't yet have it (it's a much better experience for your money!).
The one glimmer of hope that we have that GPush will be what we all want is the statement on Tiverias Apps website, which reads:
Our goal is to solve the problems people face with email notification on the iPhone. This includes ensuring GPush works as seamlessly as the iPhone allows, as well as making regular updates to the application based on the requests and reactions of our user base.
With any luck, Tiverias will achieve that goal in the near future.


text:
theCryptofishist wrote:Ah, but can it make it through the gut of an elephant?
We're still waiting to find out!
In the meantime I'm enjoying the nice big badass black felt hat Zeke gifted me,,,thanks Zeke and Robin! [knowmie, it's 100% wool, no bunnies were harmed in the making of this hat]


text:
Gideon and Samson: Stories of Weakness and Strength (Selected Scriptures)Articles
Welcome to all of you as we gather together
this evening to continue our series in unlikely heroes. For those of you who are visiting with us,
this will all and much more be contained in a book called Unlikely Heroes which will be
available, I think, in August or in September. But we don't want to just have the book; we
want to share these amazing accounts of people that God used that appear on the surface to
be very unlikely as to their usefulness. And I've often said that God uses unlikely
people, He uses flawed people, He uses failing people, He uses sinful people, because if
He didn't, He wouldn't have any people to use. So we hear another account of how God uses
for His own purposes and His own plans those who on the surface appear very, very unlikely. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verses 32 to 34,
we read these familiar words, "And what more shall I say for the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon and Samson who through faith subdued Kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the
sword, and out of weakness we're made strong. Now there are many more who would be included
in that list, but the book of Hebrews does mention Gideon and Samson. And they are two of the most fascinating and
unique, if not even bizarre characters in holy Scripture. Gideon and Samson are brought together in
our discussion tonight because they are stories of weakness and strength. Gideon goes from weakness to strength; and
Samson goes from strength to weakness. But in both cases, they are useful to God
in very, very important ways. Now both of these men, Gideon and Samson,
are identified in the Bible as judges, judges. In fact, the story about them is in the book
called Judges, and you might want to turn to that book right now because that is where
we're going to be spending our time, the book of Judges. When we talk about a judge, we immediately
have images of the courtroom in our mind, don't we? We think about a bench, we think about a court
of Law, somebody who is instructing jurors, somebody who is hearing cases, who is working
with attorneys, ensuring defendants have a fair trial when they've been accused, and
promises to uphold the law of the land. We have that view of a judge, and rightly
so. But that is nothing at all like the judges
in the biblical book of Judges. So we need to divorce ourselves from that. And I suppose we could wish that the Hebrew
word translated judges had been translated a different way. There were some options, but we had the word
judges, so we just have to redefine it a little bit. In the Old Testament, in the history of Israel,
after the time of Moses; and we went through the amazing story of Moses from the vantage
point of his sister, Miriam. But after the time of Moses and after the
time of Joshua who led the people of Israel into the land of promise after their four
centuries plus of captivity in Egypt, but after the time of Moses and Joshua, but before
the reign of the kings, beginning with Saul and then David and then Solomon, and then
the divided kingdom. So in that window, in that period of history
between Joshua and Saul, is a period that the Bible identifies as the period of the
judges, the judges. The Hebrew term that is rendered "judge" can
be rendered "judge," but it is a word actually that means deliverer, deliverer. The kind of judge that we're talking about
here was someone who was chosen by God to protect, to preserve, and to deliver or rescue
Israel from its enemies. When the nation of Israel went into the land
of Canaan, you, of course, know that it was it was occupied. It had been promised to them by God, but it
was occupied by many different nations. Five of them are identified in the book of
Judges as being the most formidable and the most potentially dangerous nations that Israel
would need to confront. In order for them to survive in that land,
they would have to be delivered from the power, the devastating potential power of these resident
enemies. So the judges aren't legal experts; they aren't
lawyers who were elevated because they were better than the rest. They really were known for their military
feats. They were known for their ability to, by the
power of God, conquer and protect–conquer the enemies and protect the people of Israel. That is the way we are to understand the judges. They are saviors; they are deliverers; they
are warriors. They do some governing and some leading and
some directing, but more like the general of an army than any politician or monarch. That is to say, they have leadership over
the troops at the point of conflict, at the point of protection, at the point of battle. They're not national judges, as if appointed
to rule the nation in some way. They are simply men. And in one case a woman by the name of Deborah
is raised up for a period of time to be a deliverer in Israel–who are used by God to
ensure the perpetuity of Israel. God made a promise to preserve His nation,
and through that nation to bless the world, and through that nation to bring the seed
who would be the Messiah. God made that promise. God will fulfill that promise even through
the history of an apostate, unbelieving nation–God keeps His Word. The story of the judges is a story of God's
protection of a very wicked, sinful people–the people of Israel. But God keeps His promise. The good news is, if God keeps His promise
to preserve the people of Israel who are ungodly, who are disobedient, who are rebellious, we
can be certain that God will keep His promise to those who are His own redeemed, who are
faithful and who are obedient to Him. This then is the story of God's faithfulness
to promises made to Abraham about the perpetuity of His people Israel. The book of Joshua then ends with the Israelites. They've just entered the Promised Land. And they are pledging to the Lord, at the
end of the book of Joshua, that they're going to do everything that the Lord asks of them,
everything the Lord wants them to do, they're going to do it. Joshua 24:24, the people said to Joshua, "We
will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice." That's what we're going to do. We're going to be a faithful people to God
who has brought us out of captivity through 40 years in the wilderness and now into the
Promised Land in marvelous ways, including the amazing story of Jericho. Now years earlier, Moses had instructed the
people when they were on the edge of going into the land that if they served the Lord
faithfully, they would be blessed. And if they did not serve the Lord faithfully,
they would be severely punished. So I need to remind you of what the Lord said
through Moses in Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 to 18. Here's the word from the Lord, to that people
as they stand on the brink before they went into the land: "See, I've set before you today
life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk
in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes and His judgments that you may live
and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do
not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today
that you shall surely perish, you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross
over the Jordan to go in and possess." So, at the very point in which they are going
into the land before they actually arrive, they are warned. And initially they come back with the response
that I read you from Joshua 24:24, "We will serve the Lord and we will obey Your Word." And the good news is, according to the opening
of Judges, Judges chapter 2 and verse 7, is a good word. We might be encouraged by this. "That generation of people serve the Lord
all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen
all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel." All that generation that saw what God did,
all that generation that was part of the miraculous wandering in the wilderness and the entrance
into the land served the Lord faithfully. But that generation died off and another generation
appeared. The next generation committed the ultimate
evil in God's sight. The next generation began to worship idols. And there were idols all over the place in
the land of Canaan, which is why God had instructed them, when you go into the land, put the nations
out, conquer them, eliminate them, drive the idolatrous Canaanites and all their tribes
and people groups, drive them completely out of the Promised Land. God commanded them to do that for the sake
of their own preservation. They did not do that. Consequently they were living shoulder to
shoulder and side by side with idolatrous, immoral, pagan neighbors. And those neighbors had a terribly negative
effect on Israel. Israel fell into all kinds of forms of idolatry
by the influence of those pagan neighbors. They are warned in the second chapter of Judges
not to make alliances with these pagans. They did make alliances with those pagans,
both formal and informal. And so the book of Judges then records what
happens over a period of 350 years of living side by side by with idolaters. The book of Judges records centuries of Israel's
repeated failure to obey God, to honor God. It is the old adage of history repeating itself,
generation after generation after generation. To put it simply, it was a cycle that went
like this: rebellion, punishment, deliverance; rebellion, punishment, deliverance. And in the book of Judges, that happens seven
times, seven times. It happens to every generation. Over and over Israel falls away from the Lord;
they are punished by the Lord. And the agency of that punishment are the
enemies that are surrounding them. They come and oppress them. They are the agent of God's judgment. In the midst of that judgment, they desperately
cry out to God and God raises up a deliverer. And that deliverer comes, a gracious gift
from God to deliver His people. That is the story of the book of Judges. You see it laid out in chapter 2, verse 18,
when the Lord raised up judges for them. The Lord was with the judge, or the deliverer,
and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the deliverer, for
the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted
them. But it came about when the judge died, or
the deliverer died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers in following
other gods to serve them and bowed to them. They did not abandon their practices or their
stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel,
and here it goes again. And so comes the punishment again until they
cry out in some kind of penitence for a deliverer, one cycle after another–a time of peace brought
by the deliverer, until a new generation rises, forgets the Lord, becomes idolatrous, and
the whole story of punishment is repeated. During those four centuries, there are fourteen
judges identified, fourteen of them. They are at different times strung out over
that period of time, and they are in different locations. As I said, they don't rule the nation. They're not political leaders. They're not monarchs. They're simply generals, if you will, of a
sort who lead at the point of conflict, at the point of battle, at the point of defending
the nation from its disastrous enemies coming to attack and to kill. They were appointed not by men. They weren't voted on. They didn't get their position by inheritance. They didn't inherit it from their family. They didn't get it by conquest. They didn't move up the military ranks. There was no man-made selection whatsoever. They were not limited to a special time. They were not limited to a term. They are random as to their identity and as
to their location and as to their time–random from the perspective of the viewer, not from
God's perspective. He raised them up at the point that He wanted
them to rescue Israel from His own judgment through the nations. Now you will remember the names of the judges. In case you will remember some of them, here
are the rest, here are the judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair,
Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, Eli, and Samuel. The Lord raised up these fourteen people,
and by the way, Deborah was accompanied by a man named Barak, who is also mentioned in
Hebrews chapter 11. These were human deliverers the Lord raised
up to maintain His covenant faithfulness with Abraham so that the Jews were not wiped out. It is an act of faithfulness on God's part,
as well as an act of compassion and an act of grace against the backdrop, the horribly
black backdrop of pitiful human compromise and twisted acts of sin and idolatry. There is sort of a characterization of the
whole period given in the last verse of Judges. The last verse of Judges, 21:25, says this:
"In those days there was no king in Israel." I told you this was between the time of Moses
and Joshua and Saul and David. There was no king. And then this, "Everyone did what was right
in his own eyes." This is a bizarre time when people are, in
a sense, running amuck. There's no uniform, unilateral control system. You would say, "Why would God allow that?" Because it should have been a theocracy. God was the reigning king. God was the rightful king, and had they obeyed
God, they would have had the blessing God had promised in Deuteronomy 30. But they did not, and so it is an epoch history
of chaos and bizarre, complex scenarios of behavior and conduct. Two of the men among those fourteen are Gideon
and Samson. If I remember right, Gideon is the sixth in
the line and Samson would be number 12. So they're separated by some years. These are men with serious faults, serious
flaws. They probably would have been rejected for
leadership by any committed if a committee had been given the responsibility to pick
someone. They had serious faults. Gideon was too weak to be of any use. And Samson was too strong to be of any use. Gideon didn't believe that he could accomplish
anything, and Samson believed he could accomplish anything. Neither of those kinds of people make very
good leaders. The man who feels that he has nothing to offer
and the man who feels that he has everything to offer, in either case, you would avoid
such. Well let's begin by looking at Gideon, and
we'll try to tell the story of Gideon, followed by the story of Samson. Judges 6, all right? Go to the sixth chapter of Judges; let's pick
up the story of Gideon. I'm just trying to whet your appetite a little
bit, to dig into these portions of Scripture and read for yourself. Sufficient to say at the very beginning was
the characterization of Israel, chapter 6, verse 1: "The sons of Israel did what was
evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the hands of the
Midianites for seven years." For seven years they were bordered by the
Midianites, by the Amalekites, by Midian and Amalek, and for seven years there had been
this constant terrorizing onslaught coming from these two groups of people. They raided Israel's land. They destroyed their crops. They stole their livestock. They killed people. They were so formidable a threat that the
people wound up hiding from them, hiding from them. They would hide in the mountains; they would
hide in the caves. They would have to do their almost daily work
in some hidden place because they would be raided by these people. And this perpetual dread had gone on for seven
years. Finally they cry out to God for help. "We need help." And help comes–chapter 6, verse 11, "The
angel of the Lord came." That's help; that's help at the highest level. The Lord selects a man named Gideon to be
the answer to deliver Israel from the Midianites and the Amalekites. And the Lord appears to Gideon in a bizarre
place. He is beating out wheat in the winepress. What? A winepress is an enclosed area, a deep pit
where you stamp out grapes. You don't beat wheat in a winepress because
you beat wheat on a hilltop, on an open area because the winnowing is to throw it in the
air and let the wind drive the chaff away. What is he doing trying to sift wheat in a
winepress? He's doing it in order to save it from the
Midianites. They are so constantly a terrorizing potential
that he doesn't even want to do his work where he can be seen or he will be raided and they
will steal his wheat. So he goes down into this winepress and tries
to do his work, fearing enemy marauders who are always on the horizon trying to spot him,
and come, and if need be kill him and take away his wheat. As he works in the humdrum fervency and fear
in this place, an astonishing event happens. The angel of the Lord appears to him. Whenever you see an appearance of the angel
of the Lord in the Old Testament, he appears as a man. He appears as a man. He is identified by the writer of Scripture
as the angel of the Lord. But Gideon would have seen him as a man, and
all of a sudden, a man appears in the winepress. We know that the angel of the Lord appears
as a man because there is not the shock and the panic that would happen if the angel of
the Lord appeared as the heavenly entity, the angel of the Lord. And since the angel of the Lord is God, is
a preincarnate appearance of Christ, if He were to appear in full glory, there would
be terror, the kind of terror experienced by Ezekiel, and the kind of terror experienced
by Isaiah when he saw the Lord, or when John on the island of Patmos had a vision of the
glorified Christ. Gideon doesn't panic. He's not terrified. He doesn't fall into traumatic sleep. Instead, he has a conversation because the
angel of the Lord appears as a man. What startled him wasn't the visual of the
angel. What startled him was the fact that this man
was there in this winepress. In verse 12, "The angel of the Lord who appeared
to him, said to him, 'The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.'" Now that surely got a snicker out of him,
"O valiant warrior." Aren't you a valiant warrior? You coward, you won't even winnow wheat on
a hilltop. You're so afraid of the Midianites and the
Amalekites that you're trying to do a job that can't be done in a pit, O mighty man
of valor. The sarcasm. It's nice to know that even the angel of the
Lord can be sarcastic. Well, Gideon doesn't get it, so he says in
verse 13, "O my Lord, if the Lord is with us"…He just said the Lord is with you…"if
the Lord is with us"–then why has this all happened to us and where are all His miracles
which our fathers told us about? You know, the miracles of Egypt, the plagues,
the miracles of the parting of the sea, the miracles of water out of the rock, the miracles
of manna? Where are the miracles? Now the Lord has abandoned us and given us
into the hand of Midian. If the Lord is with us, something isn't right
here. And then he says in verse 15, "O my Lord,
how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am
the weakest in my father's house?" This is not a man with great faith. This is no noble warrior. This is no valiant, courageous soldier. This is a man of weakness; yet the angel calls
him a man of valor, not because of what he was, but it's what he would become. And in verse 16, "The angel of the Lord says,
'Surely I shall be with you and you will defeat the Midianites as one man.'" In other words, collectively, all of them
as one, you will defeat. Here then is what God does through the Judges,
he raises up a judge at the time when the attacks have gone as far as they can go and
the people have begun to cry out for God to intervene. The Lord comes; He comes on this faithless
coward, and He tells him He's going to accomplish these incredible feats of bravery and He's
going to deliver Israel and he's going to literally eliminate Midian as an enemy, collectively. Well, this is a doubting coward, so he demands
a sign, a sign from God. In verse 21 the Lord graciously gives him
a sign, you can kind of follow along in the text; I won't read all of it to you. He offers bread and meat to his heavenly visitor
because again he's talking to a man, and he offers bread and meat and it's consumed with
fire. And then the man disappears. That's a sign. That's a sign. It is then, according to verses 22 and 23,
that Gideon gets it. We read, "Now Gideon perceived that He was
the angel of the Lord." So Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord God, I've seen
the angel of the Lord face to face." Then the Lord said to him, "Peace be with
you, do not fear, you shall not die." Whenever anybody has a vision of God, the
fear is that they will die. It was Gideon's fear. It was Isaiah's fear. It is always the fear of any sinner when the
sinner sees God. He knows God sees him, and that is the trauma
of holiness. If I see God in all His glory, He sees me
in all my sin. I cannot survive this. And so he is told, "Peace be with you, do
not fear, you shall not die." All the way to biblical evidence indicates
this is the second person of the Trinity, a preincarnate appearance of Christ called
a Christophany; that's another study. But the angel's appearances through Israel's
history are strong testimony, listen, to the Old Testament evidence for the deity of Jesus
Christ. And passages like Isaiah 9:6 and Daniel 7:13
provide that strong Old Testament evidence of His deity. So that night, the preincarnate Christ, the
second member of the Trinity, the Lord Himself, came to Gideon and He gives him some instruction,
verse 27. He gives him instruction and He tells him
to tear down an altar to Baal, which is near his father's house. They should have done that already. The reason they were getting attacked was
because they weren't dealing with idolatry. So He tells him to tear down this altar to
Baal near his father's house. He is frightened, but according to verse 27,
Gideon took men from among his servants, did as the Lord said to him 'cause he feared his
father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day; he did it by night. He's a coward. He gets ten men in the middle of the night
when nobody can see, and he sneaks in and he destroys the altar. Courage was an unfamiliar virtue to Gideon;
nevertheless he does what he's told because he knows he's had a divine visitor. When he hears that the Midianite invaders
have returned, Gideon summons the men of Israel to fight and the story becomes very, very
interesting. He destroys the altar and, of course, the
Midianites eventually come back, and he calls the men of Israel. Now he's starting to take on the responsibility
of leadership and so he says, "We need to fight." And this is a volunteer army, 32,000 men respond,
32,000 warriors. And Gideon is still afraid. Look at verses 36 to 40, "Gideon says to God,
'If You will deliver Israel through me as You have spoken,'" and he's going to ask for
another sign. This is a silly thing, but this is him. "'I'll put a fleece of wool on the threshing
floor, if there's dew on the floor only and it's dry on the ground, I'll know that You
will deliver Israel through me as You have spoken.' And it was so. And he arose early the next morning, squeezed
the fleece, drained the dew from the fleece a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, 'Don't let Your anger
burn against me, could You just do one more?'" Let's do the opposite of this. Let me make the test once more with the fleece;
let it be dry only on the fleece and let there be dew on the ground. "And God did that night that very thing and
it was dry only on the fleece and dew was on all the ground." His faith is so faltering; he's such a coward;
he's so fearful; he's so afraid. And the Lord consents to his request. Now look, there's nothing noble about this;
this is doubt. Gideon's action is not the pattern for believers
to follow. We don't test the Lord. We don't attempt to ascertain the validity
of His Word by asking Him–listen–for miraculous confirmation. We accept His Word, do we not? We accept His Word. We live by believing His Word, obeying His
Word. "The Lord had said to Gideon, 'You will be
victorious over the Midianites and they will flee as one unit.'" The revelation had been sufficient; he didn't
need to have God do all of these things to validate what He had said. God graciously condescends to his doubt and
does them. Once these signs have come, he has a little
more faith and so he collects his army of 32,000 men to face the Midianites. No doubt they had some men who worked out
a battle strategy; he was a farmer, after all. But he is going to be the general of this
occasion because God is going to put him in that position and mightily strengthen him. God has a different strategy, however. I don't know what they planned, we don't know;
it's not revealed in Scripture. But they are camped across the valley from
their enemies. I've been in that very location in Israel,
the scene is vivid in my mind–the valley between where Gideon and his men were and
where the Midianites were. The Lord, however, comes to Gideon, now we
get into chapter 7. Let's look at verses 2 and 3. "The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who
are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands.'" You have too many soldiers. What? You have too many soldiers. "Lest Israel claim glory for itself against
me saying my own hand has saved me." If you win this battle, you're going to think
it's because you had so many soldiers. "Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of
the people and say this, 'Whoever is fearful and afraid, go home, go back, depart at once
from Mount Gilead." Listen to this, 22,000 returned, 22,000. You say, "Why did they come in the first place?" Probably peer pressure. Father and his sons, brothers, uncles, relatives
were all going and when they were given an out; 22,000 of them took it and 10,000 remained. So now God is limiting the army down from
32,000 to 10,000. Downsize the army and get ready for victory. Strange strategy. Gideon would have been helped if he remembered
the words of Moses who told the Israelites way back in Deuteronomy 20, "When you go out
to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots, and people more numerous than
you, don't be afraid for the Lord your God is with you." By reducing the size of the army, God had
made it very clear that Israel would not win by conventional victory strategies. Only ten thousand warriors are left. God says that's too many. Judges chapter 7 and verse 4, "People are
too many, bring them down to the water I'm going to test them there." Take them down to the water; and verse 5,
"Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, he shall set apart by
himself, likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink." Of the 10,000 remaining warriors, 9,700 of
them knelt to drink, and so, in verse 7 of chapter 7, it says, "By the three hundred
men who lapped, I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand, but all the
other people go home. Send the ninety-seven hundred home." Again, this is a very strange way to divide
the crowd. What is the significance? I have no idea. I don't think it has any spiritual significance. It doesn't have any military significance. It doesn't have any kind of significance. That's all I can say. The point is not what that meant; the point
is that there were 300 people who didn't do it the conventional way, and that's how God
got down to the 300. Well, Gideon is seriously terrified by this. His power has been reduced from 32,000 to
300. That's a significant kind of reduction. So a third time God gives him a sign to calm
his cowardly nerves. Here's what God tells him to do: Sneak into
the Midianite camp. Whoa! That is asking a lot out of this guy, this
farmer. Sneak into the Midianite camp. It's a frightening demand but he does it and
he overhears two enemy soldiers, and they're having a conversation in the dark. First soldier tells about a dream, a dream
he had the night before in which a loaf of bread–a weird dream–a loaf of bread rolls
down into the Midianite camp and knocks down a tent. That's what he dreamt about. And the second soldier gives an interpretation. That's in chapter 7, verse 14. Here's the interpretation. This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon
the son of Joash, a man of Israel into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole
camp. Wow! He's articulating his fear because, look,
they were camped opposite each other and they probably knew well; they probably had enough
reconnaissance to know that there were 32,000 people to start with and they must have heard
that the leader of this is Gideon. And so they're living with normal military
fear. Any soldier about to go into a combat in which
his life is on the line may dream about the worst-case scenario. After hearing the dream and the terror in
the enemy soldier's voice, Gideon sneaks back and now begins to really believe the Lord
is going to give them the victory. In the deep darkness of the night, Gideon's
300 men are divided into three companies of one hundred, one hundred and one hundred,
and they're instructed, Here are their weapons, trumpets, torches and empty pitchers. And they are to surround the Midianite camp
on the hills above them, blow the trumpets, smash the pitchers to the ground, and hold
up the blazing torches in the night. And then they are to shout, "The sword of
the Lord and of Gideon." And they did it. And with the cry, the silent stillness of
the black night is shattered with blasting trumpets, smashing pitchers, blazing torches,
yelling soldiers. And it appears to the Midianites as if every
one of those 300 is at the head of an entire battalion. Beyond that, the noise, the shock in the middle
of the night–they are dazed; they are disoriented; they are half asleep; and the Midianites panic
and they think the soldiers are pouring into their camp. And in the depth of the darkness of the Midianite
camp, unable to distinguish friend from enemy, they grab their swords and they slash the
path of escape through their own army and they slaughter their own army. Judges chapter 7, verses 21 and 22, "The whole
army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets,
the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp." And that's what happened. The confused Midianite army destroyed itself. Some managed to escape. Gideon's 300 gave chase, called on other Israelites–maybe
some of those who were starting on their way home–come back, join the chase. And the rest of Judges 7 and Judges 8 describes
the victorious pursuit of Gideon–listen–and he and the three hundred had driven the Midianites
out of Israel for good, for good. As a result of this, the Israelites wanted
to make Gideon king. But Gideon refused and said the Lord is the
true King. All the credit goes to Him. For the rest of the lifetime of Gideon there
was peace for the Hebrew nation. In the words of Judges 8:28, "Thus Midian
was subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted their heads no more and
the country was quiet for 40 years in the days of Gideon." Amazing what God did with a weak coward, isn't
it? Amazing, amazing. A very weak man made strong in the Lord. Now let's talk about another very strong man
who became weak–Samson, Samson–that wonderful superhero, the first superhero, a real superhero. Several generations go by, the cycle continues. And the Lord raises up another deliverer by
the name of Samson, and he is a very unlikely man, very unlikely. The beginning of the story of Samson is sort
of like the beginning of the story of Gideon. Gideon and Samson, as far as personal dispositions
are concerned, couldn't have been more opposite. Gideon was timid and weak and cowardly. Samson was brash and reckless and indomitable. Gideon saw himself as inadequate. Samson saw himself as invincible. Let's go to the thirteenth chapter of Judges. Some time passes. The Israelites once again are under the constant
marauding, attacking power of another enemy, the Philistines, the Philistines. And after years of oppression by the Philistines,
which is the judgment of God upon their apostasy again, the angel of the Lord comes back. This preincarnate appearance of the Son of
God comes to commission a new deliverer because the people are finally crying out to God to
be delivered from the Philistines. The angel of the Lord shows up, in chapter
13, at a home, and there's a husband and a wife there. The husband's name is Manoah. He is the father of Samson. God comes to him in the form of the one called
the angel of the Lord, just as He had come to Gideon. And Manoah makes an offering, realizing that
he needs to honor the Lord for this visit. Samson's mother never had any children. She was barren before the visit of the angel
of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord tells Manoah the
father–he appears to Manoah–that he and his wife are going to have a son, and he's
going to be a very special son. And he tells Manoah to tell his wife some
very, very important things. During her pregnancy she is not to drink wine. She is not to eat anything ceremonially unclean. So she is to be detached from both wine and
any unclean food. After the child is born, she is to treat him
in a very unique way. She is never to cut his hair because Samson
is going to be a Nazarite. "Nazarite" comes from the Hebrew word "to
separate," "to separate." Numbers 6 specifies what the Nazarite vow
was–no drinking of alcohol, no cutting of the hair, no touching of a dead body. This was to symbolize the life of separation,
the life of commitment to holiness. Nazarite vow could be for a period of time,
or it could be for life. In the case of Samson, it was for life. Samson then, from his birth, was instructed
by his parents that he was to live that Nazarite life. However, during his life he violated all three
of those things. He touched a dead body in Judges 14. He drank at a wedding feast, also in Judges
14. And he allowed his head to be shaved in Judges
16. He didn't keep his vow, the symbolic part
of his separation, and he certainly didn't live a separated life. He was a man driven by fleshly desires–illicit,
unrestrained passion, particularly for pagan women. He had a stubborn will. He had irrational desires. He had a violent temper. He had a volatile, combustible personality. He had a wild disregard for the commandments
of the Lord. And all of that combined to make his life
a legendary tragedy, with the very center of that tragedy being his infatuation for
Philistine women. I guess you could say Samson is the only person
who crashed his own wedding. In spite of Samson's flagrant sin for which
he paid a horrific price, God still had a purpose for him when he got his spiritual
act together at the very end. God used him to rescue Israel from Philistine
oppression and aggression. There were times in his life when the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him and he had strength that was supernatural. And it was always related, every time in the
Scripture. In the book of Judges we read about the exploits
of Samson; they're always against the Philistines, always against the Philistines. Well, it all began when as a young man he
insisted on marrying a Philistine woman, a union expressly forbidden by God in Deuteronomy
7. But he's going to marry this Philistine woman,
this idolatrous woman because he liked the way she looked. That's what it says in Judges 14; if you're
in Judges, go to the fourteenth chapter. He saw the young woman; she was pleasing in
his sight. What does that tell you?–that his interest
was superficial. His parents tried to dissuade him from disobeying
God. He ignored their counsel. He got his way. He decided to marry her. So, he starts in Judges 14:6 to go to the
town where she lived. And he's ambushed by a lion. That was not uncommon in ancient Israel. There were mountain lions there, as there
are around here. The odds would normally favor the predatory
cat, I think, with sharp claws and ferocious fangs. But this lion was about to be a victim. Judges 14:6, do you see it there? "The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon
Samson. He tore the lion apart as one would have torn
apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand." Wow! Several months later, Samson was passing that
way again. He saw the lion's carcass there and went to
investigate. I think he probably thought that it would
be full of flies and maggots. Instead he found inside the lion a colony
of bees had taken up residence, and they were producing honey. Avoiding the dead body was supposed to be
consistent with his Nazarite vow, but he ignored that, reached into the carcass, collected
honey and ate it as he walked along the road, even offering some to his parents. The betrothal period came to an end and it
was time for him to go marry this Philistine. The wedding preparations were made. They notified Samson and he traveled back
to his fiancée's hometown for the feast, and the feast would last for seven days. It consisted among the Philistines primarily
of a drunken brawl–seven days of drinking. The biblical text tells us here in this chapter
that Samson was joined by thirty Philistine young men. The bride had her bridesmaids, and these were
the best man's attendants–thirty pagan, idolatrous Philistines were going to stand alongside
Samson. They…I think they are more than participants
in the wedding. I actually think they're most likely guards
to watch Samson because he would be viewed with suspicion, his exploits being known to
them. In an effort to embarrass these thirty Philistines,
show them up, Samson, who was likely drunk himself, challenged them to an impossible
riddle about the lion killing and the honey. Remember that? Samson said to them, this is in Judges 14:12
to 14, "Let me pose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it
to me within seven days of the feast, I'll give you thirty linen garments, thirty changes
of clothing. If you can't explain it to me, then you give
me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing." And they said to him, "Pose your riddle that
we may hear it." So he said to them, "Out of the eater came
something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet." For three days they couldn't understand or
explain the riddle. They get frustrated. They corner his wife in the middle of the
marriage event. And they tell her, "If you don't tell us the
answer to the riddle, we will burn you." They didn't mean with a curling iron. "We will burn you to death and then we will
burn your father's house with your family in it. Tell us." And they relentlessly pled and she gave in. So the Philistine men, the thirty men, come
back, and they give the right answer. Samson is furious. He knows his new bride has betrayed him. He is so enraged that he travels to Ashkelon,
a Philistine city, twenty-three miles away, as a very long cooling off period. He walks twenty-three miles. When he gets to Ashkelon, he kills thirty
men and he strips them of all their clothing in order to make good on the promise to give
clothing to thirty men. And he trudges back, still fuming after a
fifty-mile round trip. And he is still so infuriated that he leaves
the wedding and goes home. That night wedding occurred in early springtime. After some months of sulking, he decided to
return to his wife around the time of wheat harvest, chapter 14. He's going to go back now and make things
right. Unknown to him, his father-in-law, who assumed
the angry groom would never return, has given his daughter to someone else. She's already married to someone else. Verse 20 of 14, "Samson's wife was given to
his companion who had been his friend." Samson shows up at the house, "I'm here. Can we pick up the wedding where we left it
off?" He even shows up with a goat, like a peace
offering. His father-in-law won't let him in. Reconciliation was his hope. Rage becomes his response. The father-in-law, chapter 15 verse 2, says,
"I really thought you hated her, so I gave her to your friend. Can I give you her younger sister, please? You want her?'" This is some father. "Take her, she's even better. Please take her." He's so furious. He takes his anger out on the Philistines
again. These are Philistines now. So he takes his anger out. He captures 300 foxes (the word is actually
jackals), and jackals were more familiar–it's kind of like a cross between a wolf and a
coyote. They had a long tail. So he ties their tails together, and he's
got then 150 pairs–yelping pairs–of jackals. And he torches their tails, sets them on fire,
and sends them frantically zig-zagging through the Philistines grain fields. And they set everything on fire, destroying
everything in the path from grain fields to vineyards to olive groves. When the Philistines find out what he's done
to their crops, they blame his father-in-law-to-be. So they go burn him, and they burn the woman
that he was going to marry as well. So the very thing she tried to avoid–getting
burned–in the first place ends up happening to her. When he hears that they have burned the woman
that he decided he really wanted to marry, who had already been married, he is angry
again. This man is so out of control; it's almost
incomprehensible. He accepts no blame for the circumstances
leading to her death and the death of the father-in-law. He is so angry with the Philistines. God uses his anger providentially to be the
instrument of judgment continually on the Philistines. Judges 15:8, he attacked them hip and thigh
with a great slaughter. Then he went down and hid in a cleft of the
rock at Etam. "Hip and thigh" is simply a sort of a colloquial
expression–top to bottom, a violent assault and attack; again his rage is amazing. But God uses his rage and his anger in judgment
on the Philistines. With their field scorched and their kinsmen
slain, the Philistines had had enough, so they get an army. Go down into chapter 15 at about verse 10. They get an army and they come toward the
men of Israel. And the men of Israel say, "What are you doing? Why are you coming at us?" And they said, "We've come to arrest Samson. We want Samson." Chapter 15 verse 10, "And we want to do to
him what he's been doing to us. Give us Samson." The threat is if you don't give us Samson,
we're going to do to you what has been done to us. His reputation was such that even his fellow
Israelites were afraid of him. So they say, "Okay, we'll go get him." And they take 3,000 men to get him–3,000
men to bring him back, to deliver him to the Philistines. He agrees to go. I think out of curiosity and knowing the strength
that he had, he was afraid of no one. In some meager effort, they decide to tie
him up with some new rope. And they bring him up, tied up. Verse 14 of chapter 15, "The Philistines came
shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily
upon him and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire,
and his bonds broke loose from his hands." He snaps the new ropes; he faces his attacker
like a superhero for sure. Picks up the nearest object lying on the ground,
which happens to be the jawbone of a donkey lying on the ground, and he goes after them. With the jawbone of a donkey, he kills 1,000
of them–1,000 of them with a 9-inch jawbone. At least that's what I've heard is the average
donkey jawbone, ancient donkey jawbone. And then he gets all the bodies. He not only kills them all but he piles them
all in a heap and he calls the name of the place Ramath-Lehi, which means "Jawbone Hill." And then he claims credit for himself, and
in verse 16 of chapter 15 he sings a song to himself: "With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey, I have killed
1,000 men." Well, it was some kind of an effort to kill
1,000 men and pile up their bodies. So he's exhausted. And verse 18, he's very thirsty. And he calls to the Lord–he knows the truth–he
called to the Lord and said, "You've given this great deliverance by the hand of Your
servant, and now You're going to let me die of thirst and fall into the hands of these
uncircumcised?" "I'm thirsty"; he's thirsty to the point of
death. He does acknowledge that God had given this
great deliverance, and God does something wonderful, gives him water out of a rock to
this very, very bizarre, complex, angry man. But after all of this, there is the recognition:
"God, You did this," and verse 20, He judged Israel twenty years. He delivered "Israel twenty years in the days
of the Philistines." The Lord delivered him from life-threatening
dehydration. For the first time in his life he experienced
weakness. There were no Philistines around, and he was
weak when God didn't give that power to him; and He only gave it to him when the Philistines
were there. For two decades they were given a reprieve
from the Philistines. Although they would continue to trouble Israel
long after Samson's lifetime, he broke the back of their early dominance. And in his death, he struck them with the
final blow. The closing drama of Samson's life you all
know. It is an incredible story. The final chapter begins when he does what
he does; he starts looking at Philistine women again. And he finds one named Delilah; now we're
in chapter 16. And the story is even more sordid than that. Even before he met Delilah, the text says
he visited a prostitute in Gaza. Prostitute? Sixteen: 1 to 3–while he was with the prostitute
the men of Gaza were informed that he was there with a prostitute. Now remember, he has for twenty years been
protecting Israel. And so they decided, "We're going to capture
him." That was fruitless because the Spirit of God
comes upon him. He uproots the city gates, the gates of the
city of Gaza, carries them–the gates–on his shoulders to the hills of Hebron, thirty-eight
miles away. So you see his superhuman strength and his
super-sinful weakness–fatal attraction was his life. He fixes his lust on this woman Delilah and
disaster is inevitable. The Philistines put her in his path so that
he sees her, he wants her. And it's a plot. She's going to get close to him and she's
going to find the secret to his strength. They tell her, "We will give you 5,500 shekels
of silver, 5,500 shekels of silver. Biblical scholars have said that the average
yearly wage was ten shekels of silver. Fifty-five hundred shekels of silver. That's 550 times that amount. That would be 550 years of wages, a fortune. No amount was too high to eliminate the deadly
enemy. She was well paid. With a fortune at stake, Delilah was happy
to seduce this Hebrew strong man. She manipulates him and manipulates him over
and over again in chapter 16, verse 6, 8, 10, 14. Finally, in Judges 16:16 and 17, "It came
to pass when she pestered him daily with her words, pressed him so that his soul was vexed
to death, he told her all his heart and said to her, 'No razor has ever come upon my head
for I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If I'm shaven, my strength will leave me and
I'll be weak and be like any other man.'" He would be weak like any other man. So they say, "All right, we're going after
him." They arrive; the Philistines arrive. He's helpless, shorn of his hair. The harrowing words of the text are these,
"He didn't know that the Lord had departed from him." He didn't know. The breach of his life, the sin of his life
reached the turning point with God. Long blinded by might, long blinded by arrogance,
long blinded by lust, he is now blinded by his captors who, according to verse 21 of
chapter 15, gouge out his eyes at Gaza. And he's now a blind grinder, like a mule
tied to a wooden grinder that goes in a circle, grinding grain–utterly humiliated. The Philistines give credit for Samson's demise
to the god Dagon. They have a great celebration in the temple;
they're celebrating that Dagon has defeated the great Samson. The festivities escalate; the madness increases;
they demand to see this man, this strong man, humiliated. Judges 16:25, "They say, 'Go get him, bring
him in, let's mock him, let's laugh at him.'" He stumbles blindly in to the scornful jests. He asks what seems like a small courtesy since
he's blind, and he's only gone wherever they have forced him to go; and he says, "Could
you put me in a place between the two central pillars so I can steady myself?" Archeological evidence indicates that the
whole roof–literally, its power, its force–came down through those two main pillars and transferred
to the foundation. From an engineering perspective, the weight
of the perimeter would be drawn to those pillars and down to the foundation. Without those pillars, the entire roof would
collapse and bring down the entire building. Samson, without seeing anything, knew where
he was as he felt the two pillars. And he asks the Lord for strength. In one climactic, self-sacrificing, heroic
act, according to Judges 16, verses 27 and 28, "Now the temple was full of men and women." All the lords of the Philistines were there,
about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Then Samson called to the Lord saying, "O
Lord God, remember me, I pray, a broken man now, a penitent man, a humble man, strengthen
me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines
for my two eyes." Personal vengeance was always an issue with
him. Even in this great moment, he couldn't completely
divorce himself from his personal vengeance. But there was something larger than that that
moved his heart, because he was now willing to give his life to protect his people from
their deadly enemies. The Spirit of God heard his prayer. In a flash of divine energy, supernatural
strength poured into his body. With one hand on each column he began to push;
those monolithic columns began to move. He knew God had empowered him. As soon as he felt them move, in an explosion
of unimaginable power, he dislodged the columns in a catastrophic crash. The massive wood/stone/plaster structure crushed
everyone; all 3,000 were killed–more than he had slain in his whole life. He had slain hundreds. So Judges 16:30 says, "The dead that he killed
at his death were more than he killed in his life." Samson died penitent, broken and humble. He died for the cause of his nation and the
cause of his God. His God had said, "Remove the Philistines,
remove them from the land." People had not done that. In a final act of faith, he cries out to God
to be an instrument by which he can do the will of God and destroy the enemies of God. And God hears his prayer. One of the people I want to talk to when I
get to heaven is Samson. Two men; opposite extremes. One is weak and becomes strong; the other
is strong and becomes weak. Do you understand that God uses all kinds
of people? He uses the weak and makes them strong. He uses the strong and makes them weak and
then makes them strong. He uses the humble, the fearful, the timid,
the cowardly, empowering them through faith; and he humbles the mighty, the audacious,
the bold for His own purposes. Hebrews 11:34, where we started, says this,
"Out of weakness, they were made strong." And we look at our lives and we wonder, "Can
God use us in our weakness?" Oh yes He can. He has no other people to use. Listen to a final word from Paul. In the midst of his suffering and his terrible
agony, praying that the Lord would remove the thorn in his flesh, he says, "I pleaded
with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient
for you, for My strength is made perfect in'…What?…'weakness.'" It is only when we see ourselves as weak that
we can be made strong in the Lord. Gideon was weak, weak enough to become strong
in the Lord. Samson was strong, too strong to really be
everything God wanted him to be. His greatest feat was the strength that came
out of his weakness; so says Paul, "I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, needs,
persecution, distress for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." Let's have a word of prayer together. Father, we thank You again for the wonder
of the testimony of Your grace in the life of Gideon and Samson. The reminder again that You're not looking
for perfect people because there are none. You're looking for those that are broken and
weak, that they may be strong in You. We thank You that You're a faithful God; You
protect Your people; You keep Your covenant. You made a covenant to preserve the nation
Israel. You've done it up to this day, and You have
made a covenant in Christ to save and redeem those who believe in Him, and You will continue
to keep that covenant as well. We thank You that You are a faithful God;
we have sung it tonight, "Great is Your Faithfulness." And may these truths be encouraging to our
own hearts that You can use us, even with our flaws. We thank You in the Savior's name. Amen.
Related posts:
Written by Valentin Lakin
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Recent Posts
- Strength Training | Cincinnati Children's
- Honest Government Advert | Adani
- Individual Perspective on Effectiveness in Child Welfare: A Conversation With Agency Leadership
- Cell vs. virus: A battle for health – Shannon Stiles
- President Obama and President Clinton Discuss Health Care
- Breaking Stigma: Karen
- Anita on Anxiety, Eating Disorders, and Stigma
- CPR – Injuries and Trauma
- Concept of Thin Cylinder – Thin Cylindrical and Spherical Shells – Strength of Materials
Recent Comments
- Markus Olofsson on Sweden woman arrested for endangering the welfare of a child
- Wolf of Dubai Stocks Investing Channel on Top 3 Healthcare Dividend Stocks – Dividends for Passive Income
- xosi1 on Top 3 Healthcare Dividend Stocks – Dividends for Passive Income
- Flo D on Ma 1ère STRENGTH WARS 🏋♂ Street Workout VS Bodybuilding
- kiwiflare on Top 3 Healthcare Dividend Stocks – Dividends for Passive Income


text:
Off-Campus Link:
Brief Description:
Pamphlets from the collections of the New York Historical Society, covering topics related to politics, government, religion, business, education, science, health, art and entertainment.
Full Description:
25,000+ pamphlets from the New York Historical Society's collections. These 19th and early 20th century pamphlets cover contentious topics related to politics and government, religion and religious movements, art and entertainment, business and economics, health and medicine, education, immigrants and ethnic groups, Native Americans, African Americans, slavery and the Civil War, women, and science and technology.
Coverage Start:
Coverage End:


text:
While Rome burned, Nero fiddled. And while tens of thousands of gallons of spilled oil, natural gas and methane burn near the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf Of Mexico ... British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward spends the day off the south coast of England watching his yacht compete in an exclusive yacht race.
"Hayward took Saturday off to see his 52-foot yacht "Bob" compete in a race around the Isle of Wight off southern England. It was a good day for sailing — breezy and about 68 degrees — but anger simmered on the steamy Gulf Coast, where crude oil is still gushing from a blown-out well. 'Man, that ain't right. None of us can even go out fishing, and he's at the yacht races,' said Bobby Pitre, 33, who runs a tattoo shop in Larose, La. 'I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too.'
"BP spokespeople rushed to defend Hayward, who has drawn biting criticism as the public face of BP PLC's halting efforts to stop the spill. Company spokesman Robert Wine said the break is the first for Hayward since the Deepwater Horizon rig that BP was leasing exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the undersea gusher. 'He's spending a few hours with his family at a weekend. I'm sure that everyone would understand that,' Wine said.
"But Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who taped an interview for ABC's This Week called Mr. Hayward's attendance at the race 'part of a long line of P.R. gaffes and mistakes' that he has made. 'To quote Tony Hayward, he's got his life back,' Mr. Emanuel said."
The yacht outing comes two days Hayward's hostile interrogation on Capitol Hill. It also comes one day after BP's chairman announced Hayward would not be as involved in daily operations in the Gulf.
Alabama's conservative Republican Sen. Richard Shelby delivers the money quote to The New York Times: "I can tell you that yacht ought to be here skimming and cleaning up a lot of the oil. He ought to be down here seeing what is really going on. Not in a cocoon somewhere."
UPDATE: Appearing on CBS News' Face the Nation, Shelby calls on Hayward to resign. Think Progress reports: "[Shelby's] comments were echoed by Louisiana Republican Congressman Joseph [Cao], who added BP is 'out of touch'."


text:
The Art Area is one of three academic areas in the Division of Fine Arts—Art, Music, and Speech and Theatre. Three full-time faculty teach courses of study that lead to the degree Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art.
Art courses at Kentucky State University are designed to serve both those students who are interested in art as a profession and those who are primarily interested in obtaining knowledge of various art forms or opportunities for creative expression. Course offerings include those in ceramics, drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, digital photography, film, digital imaging, design, art history, and art education.
Enrollment in studio art courses is generally limited to 10–15 students. The instructor provides personal guidance and attention to each student. Studio spaces may be available for students to have individual working areas. Studio and academic opportunities are enriched for Art majors by field trips to galleries and museums, and by a series of guest lecturers to the University.
Reba Rye
- Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
- Phone: (502) 597-5994


text:
Craziest Super Bowl Media Day question: Richard Sherman asked about strippers
Wildest question heard at Super Bowl XLVIII Media Day — and it's addressed to Seahawks' cornerback Richard Sherman, who answered it about as well as anyone possibly could.
Reporter: "All of you football guys going into the strip clubs, and throwing... raining down on these strippers. I think that's a bad example for our young ladies. How can we stop that? I think it's a bad example that we're setting for our young girls that they need to be strippers."
MORE: Super Bowl Media Day photos
Now, how could Sherman possibly have been prepared for that?! He was a communications major at Stanford and is almost always — a 26-second ouburst after the NFC Championship game aside — in control with a microphone in his face.
Here's his response:
Sherman: "I've never gone to a strip club and thrown money, so I couldn't tell you. I guess, uh, trying to understand that there are other avenues and other ways you can make money, that women can do anything they want in this world. You can go out there and be a CEO of a company, you can go out there and like I said, same can be said for kids in the inner city, that the ceiling is limitless and don't limit yourself to those possibilities and those circumstances."
Welcome to Media Day.


text:
Your skill will accomplish
what the force of many cannot
Eclipse: EPIC and the Tasks Viewby temporal (Pilgrim)
|on Mar 04, 2013 at 23:05 UTC ( #1021723=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
temporal has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:
Here's a question for any monks out there who use or have used Eclipse's EPIC plugin to write Perl projects. Hopefully Perl-related enough for SOPW =)
I am trying to configure Eclipse's Tasks View properly - which collects and itemizes tasks based on keywords found in comments across projects. This has turned out to be surprisingly counterintuitive.
I believe that the functionality at work here is that EPIC is responsible for marking 'Task' objects, since each interpreter/compiler has its own configuration for this. These objects are then passed to Eclipse's Task handler which is then capable of sorting them based on a description keyword match into types, priorities, tracking completion, even the scope which it should appear in.
That's all fine I suppose, I am able to add tags to the EPIC Task configuration (Window->Prefs->Perl EPIC->Task Tags) but I am unable to use the finer grained control and filtering that Eclipse's Task View provides. EPIC does not even implement a task view type - tasks seem extremely bare-bones and are sent as generic Eclipse 'Task' objects.
Basically, EPIC treats all task tags the same as long as they match any tags specified in the EPIC configs. It then passes the text following these tags as the 'Description' column for the task to Eclipse's Task View.
I'd like to be able to specify several different task tags (TODO,TASK,INV,FIXME,etc) and then associate priorities with these tags.
The root of my problem was that EPIC was assigning all its tags a priority of 'normal' before handing them to Eclipse's Task View. Took me a while to realize that priority was decided by the plugin (looking at other editor prefs - Java->Compiler->Task Tags), while I was trying to assign it based on the description contents within Eclipse's Task View configs. Since there is no priority feature in EPIC's task tag configs I'm concerned that task priorities are not supported.
As of this writing I can create generic 'normal' priority EPIC tasks using whatever keywords I choose - but they are all treated the same. The workaround that I am currently using then uses Eclipse's Task View configuration to assign different types based on a keyword in their description. Some examples to make this more clear:
Task formatting in Eclipse:
EPIC consumes TAG (if it is listed in its tasks tags configs) and passes 'description' to Eclipse's Tasks View with a priority of 'normal'. Well, I want to at least be able to differentiate between a TODO and a FIXME in the Tasks View...
So EPIC knows to look for my generic TASK tag. The Eclipse Task View looks in the description for a keyword to assign the type of task. All this gains me is the ability to filter tasks by task type. Better than nothing, but I sure wish that I could do something with priorities. What I'd really like to be able to do is something like what other editors in Eclipse are capable of:
This would allow me finer grained, less redundant task creation and filtering in Eclipse. Not to mention that I could use priority to change task scope of high priority tasks in other projects to show up on my tasks list when working on other projects.
After playing with all this for a while I was of course made aware of Mylyn, which is a very feature rich task management tool. I don't really need and/or like all of the features. I like how easy and simple Eclipse's current task management implementation is (supposed to be) and Mylyn feels like huge overkill for my purposes.
Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom


text:
Value Line is regarded as the best independent research available. More than just recommendations, Value Line provides the rationale behind its picks for greater understanding.
The Public/Private Equity Industry consists of specialty finance companies and alternative investment managers. Firms operating in this industry invest in other companies, fixed income securities, and various assets, usually collecting management and advisory fees, interest income, and investment gains. Competition is keen, as private equity funds, hedge funds, asset managers, and other financial institutions search for attractive investments and seek to retain top talent.
In times of economic growth, the number and size of these companies grow, as credit is usually readily available to support investment. When credit dries up, however, the focus shifts toward maintaining liquidity, a healthy balance sheet, and a high quality investment portfolio. Therefore, during economic downturns, companies with sufficient liquidity and performing assets may be able to take advantage of available opportunities, making investments at favorable terms, while competitors pull back or exit certain businesses.
These firms usually raise funds from clients to be invested in a range of assets, including real estate, debt and debt-backed securities, equity, commodities, currencies, and other private equity and hedge funds. The managers earn two fees—one based on assets under management and another on the performance of their funds. Performance-based fees can come with a claw back provision, wherein fees are returned if performance is not realized, or a high watermark provision, which requires fund values to achieve prior levels following periods of underperformance before new performance fees are paid out. Because income is based on assets managed, earnings will be hurt during times of generally declining asset values as well as when the funds experience large client redemption requests. Some companies also make principal investments in their own funds, and receive interest and other distributions from such funds as another source of income.
These firms are typically organized as business development companies (BDCs). They seek to take positions in a number of small and middle-market companies via various forms of debt issuance, which may be supplemented by equity investment. BDCs provide managerial, operations, or other business advice, and usually attain board representation. In addition, BDCs may also receive warrants for ownership rights in their portfolio companies. Depending on the relative attractiveness and availability, BDCs usually borrow funds, though they can sell shares, to fund investments, seeking to make their return on the spread between borrowing and lending rates. They can exit positions through secondary sales, or if the underlying company retires the debt, merges, or undergoes a public offering. Again depending on market conditions, BDCs may also bundle a number of their loans to be sold to other investors, in order to pay down debt or fund further portfolio growth.
These companies usually choose to be taxed as registered investment companies, meaning they must distribute at least 90% of their investment company taxable income (generally ordinary income plus short-term capital gains) to avoid being taxed on the distributed amount. Because of the importance of this dividend, stocks of these companies usually trade based on their anticipated dividend yield. That is, the stock price will vary depending on the size of the distribution that is seen as likely. A metric for cash flow available for distribution is net investment income, as opposed to GAAP earnings, since the GAAP figure includes both realized and unrealized gains and losses. Usually, BDCs plan to hold their securities to maturity, and unrealized charges are not cash flow items, whereas interest income and other received fees are.
A company that carries its portfolio investments at market value will tend to have low Earnings Predictability, because the periodic variability in asset values will be recorded as gains or losses. Although these items may not affect the current distribution, they should not be disregarded, since they may act as an indicator for those investments that can either be sold at a profit or amounts that may not be recovered when exiting the position.
When combined with leverage, asset valuation variability will also increase earnings volatility. During periods of generally rising asset prices, the use of borrowed funds can magnify gains on investments. In periods of declining values, however, losses may exceed the amount invested. Too, companies with excess leverage may be forced to sell assets as they drop in value in order to meet collateral requirements or to avoid tripping debt covenants. For example, BDCs may generally borrow as long as assets are at least two times debt and preferred stock. As a portfolio is written down, the company may need to pay down the outstanding debt with funds that might otherwise be invested or paid out as dividends.


text:
Throughout Mike Petke's Metrostars career a sign draped the wall at Giants Stadium which read Petke Power. For my money no lasting image of MLS early years was more vivid and more poignant than that sign. Mike Petke in fact has been one of the better defenders in MLS during his entire career. But the thing that has made Petke stand out for me is his leadership and his ability to score critical goals in critical matches. Petke's goals during his time at DC United all seemed to come at critical times, including one in stoppage time against Columbus in 2003 that has to be considered one of the most exciting goals given the circumstances in the history of the league.
Petke now 32 is Colorado's captain when he's healthy. But the Rapids have been skidding down the western conference table for week and are now led by a manager, Gary Smith who is actually an Arsenal employee on loan to the Rapids. After last week's loss to RSL Petke was quoted as saying " "There were a lot of fans that traveled to come here, and I'm embarrassed. It's over now, and we have to look forward to Thursday, a big game in Dallas. But, it's going to be a tough night tonight."
Petke led by example today scoring a classic goal to sink FC Dallas and to bring the Rapids right back into the heat of the playoff race. This goal was typical of Petke: key situation where his team needs to score and needs to win. Once again Petke power has prevailed, and with the longevity and leadership shown by Petke, don't count the Rapids out just yet.
Comment here


text:
Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Time of Poss.
Dakota Lammy ran for 160 yards and two scores and Branden Downing caught a pair of touchdown passes Saturday as Illinois College ran away with a 56-20 win over visiting Lawrence University.
Quarterback Michael Bates threw for 315 yards and five touchdowns in the win. Davis Kinville and Mike Tonry also ran for touchdowns. Kevin Wallace, Kevin Fuller and Colin Duling hauled in touchdown passes.
"The kids did a great job. Whenever Lawrence made a play, we made a play," said Illinois College head coach Garrett Campbell. "This was a good win. It was another solid defensive performance."
IC got on the board first when Bates connected with Downing on a 26-yard pass. Wallace was up next, hauling in an 18-yard touchdown strike. Lammy and Kinville scored on short runs early in the second quarter before Bates found Fuller on a 26-yard pass with just one second remaining in the first half.
Bates hooked up with Duling on a 19-yard pass late in the third quarter before finding Downing again, this time on a 77-yard catch-and-run, early in the fourth. Tonry scored the first touchdown of his collegiate career halfway through the fourth to conclude the scoring.
IC racked up 613 yards of total offense, helping to overcome four turnovers and over 130 yards of penalties. The Blueboys allowed 297 yards of total offense. The IC defense forced three turnovers and tallied six sacks.
Michael Ray led the defense with 10 tackles. Joe Gaines and Dylan DeFauw made interceptions. Demetrious Baylis registered two sacks, while Carter Cox, Kurt Frischman and Zack Meyer added one each. Frischman and Adam Hickson forced fumbles.
Illinois College improved to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the Midwest Conference with the win. The Blueboys travel to Lake Forest College next Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. start.


text:
We were founded on the principal that all of our Austin, TX clients deserved to get the highest possible level of customer service, no matter what. We've been in the industry for a long time, and have seen or heard numerous complaints about other electrical companies. Throughout that time, we've committed ourselves to not being like them and to making sure that our customers are completely satisfied with the way that our electricians work and the way that they treat them. There are a number of different things we focus on during every Austin electrical job to ensure that you're completely satisfied with what we do.
Estimate - It starts immediately, with our free estimate. Instead of a vague number that is just a quick guess, we take the time to completely assess the job and perform calculations that bring us to the most accurate number possible. Your estimate can be trusted as a very close figure for the total cost of your Austin project, and unless major unforeseen circumstances arise it will be the price you end up paying. Devotion to the Job - We're frustrated when we hear stories about Austin, TX contractors who start a job and then vanish for weeks at a time, and we know that our customers feel the same way. That's why we devote ourselves to every job we take on. When we start a project, you can plan on seeing us every day until it's finished. Commitment to Excellence - We also aren't going to just do our work at the 'bare minimum' level. Instead, we believe in working hard to create the same kind of quality craftsmanship we would want in our home. We don't cut corners, and we won't leave until the customer is totally satisfied with what we've done. Fully Licensed and Insured - There are plenty of fly-by-night operations out there, but we aren't one of the. We carry full licenses and are completely insured. This tells you that we're professionals, and also keeps you and your Austin home protected while we work. Skilled Austin Employees - We don't just hire anyone. Our employees are all highly skilled at what they do. They're professional electricians who work hard to deliver on our promise of excellent service. We also train them on a regular basis as new products and techniques are available. You'll have pros working on your home, not amateurs. Full Range of Services - We offer every type of electrical work your home could need. Whether it's installing some security lights outside, installing new fixtures, replacing your breaker box, or doing an entire new home installation, we can handle the job completely. Austin Commercial and Residential Work - We also pride ourselves on handling commercial and residential jobs. Each one brings unique challenges with it, and our skilled professional contractors are capable of delivering the kind of results on either of them that you deserve.


text:
Other Available Formats
|Standard Editions
|Trade Paperback
|Published: September 12, 2011
|Standard Editions
|Trade Paperback
|Published: September 12, 2011
Amanda L. Davis is the award-winning teen author of the Cantral Chronicles, a dystopian trilogy. She enjoys reading and writing and comes up with new novel ideas while sewing, spinning yarn, quilting, and embroidering. She was born and raised a Florida girl and loves the warmth of the South.
In order to use the search feature, you will need to enter a valid search term.
Please enter your search criteria and press "Go" to start searching.