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We now come to the time when we look together at the Word of God and what a great evening and wonderful service we've shared together. Now to be culminating in this look at the great book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 19 verses 7 through 10 is our text to study tonight, as we continue in our study of the apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ. For months we have been understanding the terrible wrath of God that is coming on the world. We have covered thirteen chapters that describe the judgment that is to come. It is sad, it is burdensome, it is painful to realize what is coming to those who reject the Savior. But as much space as all that judgment takes up in the text of Revelation, may I remind you it is not the theme of Revelation. Even though from chapter 6 through chapter 18 we have pretty much uninterrupted judgment, that is not the theme of this book. The book is about the revelation of Jesus Christ. The theme is the coming of Jesus Christ in glory. All the scenes of judgment as vast and comprehensive and detailed as they are, are simply a black backdrop against which the glory of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ can be set. That's the real theme. We've gone through the sealed judgments and the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments, we've come to the time when the judgments are over and Jesus Christ will appear here in chapter 19 and verse 11.
Before that appearance in verse 11 there is a time for praise and that takes up the first ten verses of chapter 19. Judgment is finished. It is time for the King and His Kingdom. It is time for praise. So as chapter 19 opens this is what we read, "After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, `Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God because His judgments are true and righteous, for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality and He has avenged the blood of His bondservants on her.' And a second time they said, `Hallelujah.' Her smoke rises up forever and ever and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, `Amen, hallelujah.' And a voice came from the throne saying, `Give praise to our God all you His bondservants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.' And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as a sound of many waters and as the sound of a mighty peals of thunder saying, `Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.'"
In anticipation of the theme of this book coming to its realization, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the host of heaven realize the long awaited reality is about to happen. And they burst into praise. It is rejoicing that has been anticipated since the plan of redemption began in the Garden when paradise was originally lost and they can now sense that paradise is about to be regained. It is the time for the Lord to arrive on earth who will destroy all the remaining ungodly, who will defeat and imprison Satan and his demons and set up His Kingdom on the earth and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Before the actual arrival of Christ there in chapter 19 verse 11, before the actual establishment of the Kingdom and flows in...which flows in to the eternal state, we have this moment of praise. We are taken to heaven again and the hallelujahs of celestial joy occupy our attention in chapter 19.
In those six verses it is no wonder they rejoice. They rejoice in verse 1 because full salvation is come. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. They rejoice in verse 2 because righteousness and justice prevail. His judgments are true and righteous. They rejoice in verse 3 because rebellion is ended as the smoke of the last rebellion of man's day ascends. And they rejoice in verses 4 to 6 because God is in absolute control, He is the Lord God Almighty who reigns.
And so there is reason for heavenly joy in the anticipation of the great realities that take place when the Lord Jesus comes. When the great Babylon falls, the final form of man's dominion in the world, when it falls it will be God's Kingdom to take its place, God's Kingdom, ruled over by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the prayers of the saints for peace and for righteousness and for equity and for justice and for truth will all be answered. All of those of us who have prayed that God would make a world of peace and that God would make a world of righteousness and justice, a world of equity and a world where truth dominated will be answered, tyrants and despots and godless governments and inept judges and purveyors of evil and wicked philosophers and lying teachers shall be no more. Kings and presidents and prime ministers and leaders are all replaced by the rule of Jesus Christ. There will be no more war to scar the earth. And the altered and restored universe will drip with righteousness and truth.
And it is in view of this great prospect, this great reality that John catapulted, as it were, by the Spirit of God into the future hears heaven break loose in thunderous praise. But some of this praise is directed at the Lord for one other glorious accomplishment...one other glorious accomplishment. What is it? Look at verse 7, "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, `Write, blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, `These are the true words of God.'" Another reason for hallelujah. Hallelujah because salvation has come, hallelujah because righteousness and justice prevails, hallelujah because rebellion is ended, hallelujah because God reigns, hallelujah because the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
I believe this wonderful text invites us to our own wedding. The image here is obviously the image of a marriage. That's what it says. The image of a marriage is often used in Scripture...often used. In fact, you have to be very careful because it is so frequently used as an illustration that some people pull all the marriage illustrations together and try to create a theology out of it. And I'll explain a little bit later why you can't do that.
But marriage is a familiar concept to any student of Scripture. The image of marriage is used often for illustrations of one kind or another. Why? Because a marriage was the single greatest celebration known in that part of the ancient world. A marriage was the greatest social event that ever happened. And it still is today, for most people. People spent more money and more time and more effort on a wedding than any other event in their social life...and they still do today. In fact, I'm told that most weddings cost more than most childbirths and certainly take a lot more planning.
In ancient times marriages were even grander. We think they're pretty grand today but they're not like they used to be. They were more elaborate, more grand, more involved. They lasted longer than any marriages do today. Ancient weddings in Bible times were structured around three elements...three elements. First, betrothal. That means to be engaged, or the old word espoused. This was a legally binding contract signed by both sets of parents contracting the marriage of their children. You might be interested to know that very often those contracts were signed before the children were born. It was kind of like, "When I have a son I want him to marry your daughter when you have a daughter." Because family was the most important thing. It was more important to choose the family than to choose the individual. That makes a lot of sense. This was a binding, legal engagement and it is a very reasonable thing.
Now not always did this occur before the children were born, it did often. Many times it would occur when two sets of parents would get together and realize that there was a great affinity in the families, common values, common purposes in life and that there was obviously a potential of a wonderful friendship among those families and a wonderful relationship between their children. And so they would contract that marriage. They were wise enough to know that if you build...try to build a marriage on the flurries and the panics of romantic love, you're going to have some major disappointment. But if you have the solidarity of values and standards and morals and beliefs that pass between families, there's something cohesive in that relationship.
So betrothal was a very, very important issue. The second component in marriage was what we'll call presentation. Now the presentation was a time of festivities. Just prior to the actual wedding itself there was a time of festivities which led up to the actual wedding ceremony which culminated those festivities. And those festivities could last several days. In fact, there's a lot of literature to say they could last a week. You think it cost a lot to marry off your daughter now because you have to spend so much money for the wedding, imagine if you had to entertain the guests and feed them and house them for a week. If a marriage occurred between somebody who was very wealthy or between somebody who had royal blood and was in some kind of role as a king or a leader, the marriage might last...or the presentation anyway might last several weeks.
Here's another little interesting note. The bridegroom was the center, not the bride. The bridegroom was the center of the event. And he would present his bride to the gathered guests and the gathered friends and they would feast together for this prolonged period of time. She was still, of course, a virgin because the legally binding contract did not allow for the consummation of the marriage, they still lived in their own homes apart from one another until the presentation. The bridegroom then would go to the house of the bride and he would get the bride along with her maidens and take them to his house and there the festivities would begin as he presented his lovely bride.
That leads to the third component in a marriage which was the ceremony, the actual exchanging of vows. There would be at the end of the period of feasting, the period of presentation when all the people would come and they would meet the bride and see her in all her glory and her beauty and they would talk with the families and all that would go on, at the end of that time there would be a final meal and then there would be the exchange of vows. The friend of the bridegroom, another name for the best man, would take the hand of the bride and clasp it into the hand of the groom. They would say their final vows and hopefully all the guests would leave. And the friend of the bridegroom would be sure they did and then the marriage would be consummated.
The ceremony and that final hour after that final meal when the vows were shared and the marriage was then consummated was the main event. That's what really brought them together. And by the way, understanding this is why we understand why Joseph was so upset when Mary was found to be with child because they were only betrothed and they had not been married. And that's why the options for him for her were death or divorce because she had violated a legal contract, at least on the surface it appeared to be so, before he was instructed by an angel as to the reality of her having conceived by the Holy Spirit.
So the last meal of the presentation festivities then comes the vows, then the consummation. This is very familiar imagery. The Lord used it in relationship to His church. In 2 Corinthians, for example, the Apostle Paul talking about the church in most beautiful language says, "I betrothed you to one husband that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin." There you have the betrothal and the presentation in one verse. Paul says I gave you the gospel as a kind of a way to betroth you, to engage you to Christ and to present you to Him as a virgin is my desire...to keep you pure through that betrothal period and to present you as a virgin, pure before Him at the time of the ceremony.
Obviously Paul was concerned about the Corinthians because in the next verse he said, "I'm afraid, I'm afraid that the serpent who deceived Eve has deceived you away from your purity of devotion to Christ." I'm so broken hearted because what a terrible thing it would be to have to present you on the day of your wedding as a defiled bride. But there you have that imagery.
Look at Ephesians chapter 5 and you find again the same imagery of the bride and again it is in relationship to the church. This is a marvelous passage, familiar to all of us, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and blameless."
Listen, when it came for the time of the presentation, the greatest anxiety and the greatest pain that a man would ever experience would be if at that time he couldn't present his bride to the guests and the gathered people as a pure and a chaste virgin. That would have been the greatest shame. And again we see that the Lord who has espoused us to Himself...actually, you want to know something? He signed a contract, it's called the eternal covenant, Hebrews 13:20, God the Father signed a contract with the Son in eternity past. And in that contract was a redeemed people that would be His bride, as well as others out of the nation of Israel and out of the nations of the world. But there was a betrothal for this bride in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. And it is the desire, of course, of the Redeemer that when the day comes that the bride is presented, she be presented in all her beauty and all her purity.
The imagery here of a man and a woman and the purity of their relationship is symbolic of the church. The church then was betrothed to Christ in an eternal contract before any of us were born, thus we became part of the elect bride of the Lord before the world started. Some day we're going to be presented, that will happen at the Rapture. The church is taken to heaven. Remember John 14 Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you and if I go I'll come again and take you to be with Me," remember that? It's a very...it's a very simple picture but it carries the picture or the motif of a bridegroom who goes away to get the place ready and He'll come back to get His bride. And He'll take His bride to the place He's prepared in the Father's house.
That's how they used to do it. The father had a house and all the sons lived in the house. And when it came time for the son to marry they might build a wing. Other sons married, they'd build more wings. Sometimes they just kept building them until they enclosed them and a courtyard was in the center and families stayed together. But they would build a wing and the bridegroom would get it ready and some day he'd go get his bride and bring her back for the festivities. And so I think this imagery is wonderfully helpful in looking at the Rapture of the church as the Lord coming to get His bride, to take His bride to make the presentation. He presents her, first of all, in glory, in her glorified form, that is with resurrected bodies, with raptured saints as well as those who have gone on before. Then there's a time of tribulation, a seven-year period of Tribulation and during that time, I believe, that the presentation is going on. I believe that at the Rapture, at the beginning of the Tribulation the bride is taken to glory and presented to the heavenly hosts, to the spirits of just men made perfect who have now had resurrected bodies and are made glorified. And for those seven years there is feasting and joyous fellowship and wonderful celebration. But now it's time for the final supper that signals the end and the ceremony itself, the last great event. And this is what we have here when we talk about the Marriage of the Lamb, the final culminating event. The betrothal in eternity past, the presentation certainly when the saints are taken into glory. And now the final great event, as the marriage is consummated in its fullness.
Now from this imagery that I've presented to you, it seems clear to me that there's only one way to view the bride in this whole picture and that is to see the bride as the church...as the church. Some people seem a bit confused about that. I have really no understanding why they should be. It says the marriage of the Lamb is come and His bride has made herself ready. Clearly from Ephesians 5 and from 2 Corinthians 11 the imagery of marriage fits the church.
Now I want to say something in the next few minutes that's very important. From Jesus' own lips He referred to Himself as a bridegroom. He chose to use the imagery of marriage, of bridegroom and bride. And in Matthew 9 and verse 15 Jesus said to them, "The attendance of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast." In other words, you're certainly not going to mourn when the bridegroom is present. He's really borrowing an illustration. He's saying if the bridegroom is with you, you're happy, it's an occasion for joy, it's a thrilling occasion, it's not a time for fasting. And He is, in effect, saying to the disciples, "This is a time for joy because the bridegroom is here." So He really does use this bridegroom image to refer to Himself and His presence with His own and the fact that it's a time for joy and not for fasting.
See, the Jews had accused Jesus' disciples of not fasting. And He says, "Well, the bridegroom is here, fast when He's gone." By the way, the same statement is made in Mark 2:19 and Luke 5:34. Then over in John's gospel, maybe you haven't noticed this recently, chapter 3 verse 29, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears Him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice and so this joy of mine has been made full, He must increase but I must decrease."
Now here's John the Baptist. John the Baptist views himself as the friend of the bridegroom and he views Christ as the bridegroom. So here is more of this same imagery that sees the Lord Jesus Christ as a bridegroom. Clearly then, from the epistles of the Apostle Paul we can see that when a bride is identified and no bride is identified in these other passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, but where a bride is identified in differing illustrations, the bride is seen as the church. Now I just want to clarify these varying passages so you don't get confused.
Now let me take you to Matthew chapter 22. And we're not going to get past some of these sort of preliminaries tonight, but this is very important. Matthew chapter 22 and the reason I'm taking a minute to do this is because people have blended all of these different passages together and concocted a sort of a marriage theology here that I don't think is accurate.
Jesus speaking in a parable here, Matthew 22, says this, "The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son." Okay, here's the idea of a wedding used again. Jesus used it as an illustration, as I told you, in Matthew 9 and then again in Mark 2 and Luke 5. And John the Baptist used the marriage and the bridegroom idea as an illustration in John 3:29 and 30, speaking of the fact that he was only the friend of the bridegroom, he was not the bridegroom. He had a role to play but he stepped away and when the ceremony was over, he decreases and the bridegroom increases in significance and importance. John used that same picture.
Well here in Matthew 22 Jesus tells the story about a wedding. There was a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, they were unwilling to come. He sent out other slaves saying, "Tell those who have been invited, behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fattened livestock are all butchered, everything is ready, come to the wedding feast."
Now as I said, a wedding feast was a highlight of all social life. And this, by the way, would be the most elaborate celebration imaginable. I mean, there were only...there were only a few kings. In fact, in anybody's country there was only one, right? Only one guy was king and maybe he only had a few sons and how many times is a son going to get married and how are you going to figure you're going to get invited? And, boy, that's the greatest social event of your life. In a sense it's incidental to this...to the point here that it was a wedding. What is important is that it was the greatest celebration those people would ever know in their entire life time...for a king to throw a party for his son who was getting married was to throw the greatest party the country would ever know. And for you to be invited as a guest would be the most unimaginable privilege you could ever conceive of if you could conceive of it.
But would you notice here there's no mention made of a bride. There's no mention made of any feature of the wedding at all. The wedding concept here is incidental to the point. It's simply to point out the greatest of celebrations. It was the greatest imaginable celebration. Now we can see in it God who is the King and Christ who is His Son. God putting together the greatest conceivable celebration for His Son. What would that be? That would be the Kingdom, wouldn't it? And inviting people to come as His guests. Absolutely incredibly, they paid no attention, went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business. Now no sooner would Jesus say that and the murmur through the crowd would be, "O come on, that's ridiculous....that is absolutely ridiculous. For a king to put on the ultimate celebration and to invite you to come, you're going to go...you're going to go, it's absolutely ridiculous. The story is pointless, the story is absurd, it could never happen. Shunning the highest honor conceivable and imaginable, walking away in absolute and utter indifference, back to your farm and back to your business, it's preposterous, spurning such an invitation."
And then you have even worse. Verse 5,...verse 6, "And the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them." O come on, now this is really getting ridiculous. It's one thing to even imagine that somebody might refuse to go to the feast but to kill the messengers that invited them? That's unimaginable, that's bizarre.
What's Jesus talking about here? He's talking about the prophets, the Apostles who invited the Jews to come into the Kingdom and some of them were indifferent and some of them were violently hostile. And if they think the story is bizarre, then let them think about its application.
Verse 7, "The king was enraged, sent him armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire." Hmmm, maybe there's a little taste of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. in that, to say nothing of the smoke that arises from the final Babylon. "Then he said to his slaves, the wedding is ready but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways and as many as you find there invite to the wedding feast. And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good." That means morally good and morally wretched, all of them. "And the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests." You have to get new guests to replace the preinvited ones. The imagery is so beautiful. This is the church. This is the Lord just saying, "Israel, you don't want it, some of you are indifferent, some of you are angry and hostile and violent. I'll turn to some people who were not preinvited, some people who were not a covenant people, a no people. Go out in to the streets, the main highways, anybody you find, no matter how wretched they are, prostitutes, publicans and sinners or how noble they are, religious philanthropists. And the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests."
But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes. And he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?" And he was speechless. And the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness, in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called but few are chosen."
He's saying the people who came and belonged had on the right garment. What was that garment? Isaiah 61:10, "Their clothed with the robe of...what?...righteousness." Will you notice in that parable no bride is mentioned. There's no mention of the bride. In fact, in this parable, in this parable the church is not the bride, the church is...whom?...the guests. You see that? And that is precisely why you can't crisscross various illustrations of marriages because you're going to confound yourself. The marriage is used as an illustration, in this case the church is the guests. And it can't be...this cannot be harmonized with Revelation 19 and the reason I say that is because I read so many people trying to do that. Jesus was using marriage as an illustration there. Marriage is used as an illustration in Revelation 19 of the coming together of the bride and the bridegroom, namely the church and Christ. There is similarity in the use of marriage but you can't mingle the two illustrations.
Let me show you another thing. Look at Matthew 25. Now you're getting the whole business tonight here about this...these marriage illustrations but I hope it will be helpful to you. Here's another one. And again I read several commentators who tried to mix this one in. "The kingdom of heaven," chapter 25 of Matthew, verse 1, "will be comparable to ten virgins who took their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise, or prudent. When the foolish took their lamps they took no oil with them. The prudent took oil and flasks along with their lamps."
Now this is going to be...this is going to be an illustration of being...what?...prepared. Right. "While the bridegroom was delaying..." Now here's what would happen. The bride's at her house and all her maids are waiting and waiting. That's why they used to be called "ladies in...what?...in waiting." They're waiting, who they waiting for? Waiting for the bridegroom. He gets to come whenever he wants. I like it. He gets to show up whenever he's ready.
You say, "Well why didn't they have a definite time? What wasn't it Saturday at eight o'clock like a normal wedding?" Because, my friends, you're talking about a week of feeding people and no supermarkets and no caterers and you're talking about just exactly what you saw in chapter 22 that I read you, you've got to butcher all the animals, you've got to do all the stuff and prepare all the deal and you can't necessarily say it's going to happen at eight o'clock on Saturday night. So you preinvite the guests and then finally when you get it all ready, you go get the bride and the word goes out, "It's time to come now." So these ten were waiting.
"But at midnight there was a shout, `Behold, the bridegroom, come out to meet him.' And all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps." That means they clipped the little wick, you know. "And the foolish said to the wise, `O give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.'" It wasn't that they never had any oil, they just never had enough. "But the prudent answered saying, `No, there will not be enough for us and you too, go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourself.' "While they were going away to make the purchase the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast and the door was shut. And later the other virgins also came saying, `Lord, Lord, open up for us.' But he answered and said, `Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'" Does that sound familiar? That sound like Matthew 7, "Many shall say unto Me, `Lord, Lord,' and I'll say to them, `Depart from Me, I never knew you.'" Let me ask you a question. In this illustration of a wedding, who are the redeemed? Is it the bride? No. There's no bride mentioned. The redeemed here are five wise virgins. And the five foolish virgins are like those people who hang around the fringes but aren't really ready, they're not prepared.
The whole idea is to be prepared when the bridegroom comes to get his bride. The virgins represent professed believers, some are real and some are not. Some are ready and some are not. The true believers are ready and the oil simply means preparedness. But you can't harmonize this with Revelation 19 either. The bride in 22 is incidental. It doesn't even talk about the bride. The bride here is incidental. You don't even know who the bride is. The bride in Revelation 19 is not incidental but crucial.
So again I just submit to you that you have the picture of the motif or the symbol or the illustration of a wedding used in numerous places in the New Testament, don't get confused by trying to mash them all together and come up with some kind of marriage theology...or theology of the bride. It is an important rule of sound biblical interpretation that you cannot compose doctrine by pulling together components from illustrations or parables. Both Matthew 22 and Matthew 25 use a wedding as an illustration and they hone in on some feature of that wedding. Twenty-two wants you to look at the massive kind of celebration it is and to look at the proper kind of garment. That's what that's looking at. And look at the indifference of those who refused it. Matthew 25 wants you to look at the idea of preparedness for the moment is coming when most unexpected, who would ever expect the bridegroom to come at midnight? If you knew anything about women he would know they would be screaming, "But my hair....my hair." The point there is the suddenness and the unexpectedness and the preparedness. You can't blend that in to Revelation 19. Whatever we're going to learn about the marriage of the Lamb we've got to learn from Revelation chapter 19. Okay? And let's not confuse the issue by spreading ourselves all over the place and borrowing from every marriage illustration.
Now let's turn to Revelation 19 and just maybe a few comments because our time is gone. Oh...all right, so be it. Revelation 19 verse 7, "Let us rejoice, let us..." who's "us"? Well, the great voice of a great multitude, verse 6, as the sound of many waters, the sound of mighty peals of thunder, all the angels of heaven, the twenty-four elders, verse 4, the four living creatures, all of the heavenly voices including the bondservants...the bondservants of verse 5 who fear Him, small and great, who would most likely refer to glorified saints, raptured into heaven, probably Tribulation saints, the spirits of Old Testament saints. Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him...rejoice would be enough and then he adds another Greek term, a compound...rejoice exuberantly and give glory. Do all of that because the work of preparing the bride is done. All the glory goes to the Lord for the marriage of the Lamb has come and she is made herself ready.
This is it. The complete and full union of the betrothed church is now ready. They've been betrothed in eternity past, they've been presented since the Rapture, now comes the great ceremony. It's about to be accomplished.
Now this ceremony which is about to be accomplished, I believe, takes place at the establishing of the Kingdom. And I believe this ceremony, I don't think there's any other way than this to interpret it, stretches clear through the thousand-year Kingdom and is really fully and finally consummated in the new heaven and the new earth. Why do I say that? Look at chapter 21. At the end of the thousand year millennial kingdom, which follows the return of Christ, at the end of the thousand-year millennial kingdom, John says, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth," which, of course, had been renovated and renewed and restored during the thousand years, nonetheless, that first heaven and first earth, having been restored, "Passed away and there's no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband."
Now again, do we have to take the imagery of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and put it all the way over into this one, or is this just another use of a marriage picture to show the glory of the new Jerusalem? It could well be that. It could be nothing more than the fact that when the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven into this eternal state and people look and see it, the way it is descried in the vision here by John is that it was decked out like a bride adorned for her husband because that's the most adorning that they would understand in ancient times.
But on the other hand, it might be unfair to exclude the thought that here is the bride, the glorified saints, all of them now out of the Old Testament, Israel, the church, the Tribulation, all of them are now in the new Jerusalem, descending into this eternal state. So it may well be, and I mean, who am I to be dogmatic, but it may well be that we can look at the ceremony as something that starts at the coming of Christ and is ultimately consummated at the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth.
You say, "Well a thousand years is a long time for a ceremony." Yes, but a thousand years with the Lord is as...what?...as one day. The marriage of the Lamb has come. And it really isn't fully consummated until the end of the Tribulation, Satan loose for a little while, a final rebellion squashed and then the new heaven and the new earth is established.
I don't think that the marriage is ultimately finally and fully consummated until eternity future, new heavens and new earth has come. And I have a lot more to say about that. Betrothal in eternity past, presentation began with Rapture, presentation continued through that communion in the presence of the Lord in the time of the Tribulation, I think that presentation leads to the great ceremony where the Lord comes together for the marriage with His bride and that marriage stretches across the period of the Kingdom and is finally consummated in that eternal state when the bride and the bridegroom settle to live forever in glory.
Now listen to what I say and we'll explain this more next time. At that point in time, even at the time of the Kingdom, I think the church is the bride, I think that's clear from Paul's text in 2 Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5. But I also believe that the bride concept is enlarged to include all the redeemed ultimately. And I'm going to say more about that later. But I don't think you can confine it. Ultimately in eternity future, new heavens and new earth, we will all be united to God in the same way. We will all occupy the glories of that eternal state and that bridal adornment. And more about that next time.
So, the marriage of the Lamb. The word "lamb" by the way, referring to Jesus Christ, is used no less than 30 times in Revelation. The marriage of the Lamb has come and the bride, her bride...His bride has made herself ready. Can't help but remember the theme of the first song was the destruction of the harlot. The theme here is of the wedding of the bride. She is ready. She is ready. Notice one little thought and then we'll close. She made herself ready. Does that mean that this is through works? No, no. Philippians 2:12 and 13 perhaps is a good verse if you're a little confused on that. "So then, my beloved, just as you've always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure." It is..it is us but it is Him working in us. Paul says to the Colossians, "I...I labor but it is God working mightily in me." The bride has made herself ready by the power of God and by the grace of God, by the work of the Spirit. This is that great event.
Saints raptured at the beginning of the Tribulation, with the Lord. For that period of time, come back, reign with Him on the earth and at that time they're not only presented to those who are in heaven as they are in the time of the Tribulation but they're presented to the population of the world because the raptured and redeemed saints will come back with Christ and that presentation, in a sense, will continue through the Kingdom. It's all...you don't want to draw too many hard lines. And the final culmination, I believe, comes at the end of the period of the Kingdom. That's a long time to us but to the Lord it's one great consummation.
Another way to sort of see that point is you have the day of the Lord at the end of the Tribulation and you have another element of the day of the Lord at the end of the Kingdom, a thousand years later, and you say, "Well how can it be one day?" And Peter answers that by giving you that statement, "A day with the Lord is...a thousand years with the Lord is as one day."
So I hope you understand some of the imagery here. And that's really an introduction, next time we'll look into the text and they'll be much more that will be yielded from the text itself as we examine this.
But how our hearts should rejoice at what is ahead for those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we have endeavored to cover some of these most important areas of truth in Your Word tonight. Our hearts are so filled with joy, we have to confess that we're glad that the study of all those passages on wrath is over and now we can look joyfully and happily at what You have prepared for Your beloved people. We thank You, Lord, that before the world began You betrothed us as Your own. We know You want to keep us pure. And, in fact, You will, You keep on cleansing us from all sin and the reality of it is, the truth of it is that some day we will be presented in glory after being raptured, we will be taken to glory and presented as a virgin bride. We will look forward to the festivities and the joy of that time of presentation. And then to come back with You to the earth and reign for a thousand years and be presented to this world as Your pure bride. And then finally and ultimately to enter in to that final home when the marriage is consummated and the picture of the bride is enlarged to encompass all the redeemed of all the ages, enter in to that eternal state. O what joy. We thank You, Father, for all that You have planned for us because of Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.
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text:
The State Department has been a pioneer in developing a continuous monitoring and risk assessment program for its global unclassified network, which it claims has reduced security risks to Windows-based hosts and clients by 89 percent over a recent 12-month period.
But the Government Accountability Office, while acknowledging that State has been "at the forefront" of continuous monitoring, said the system is neither inclusive nor reliable enough to ensure security in a network that supports 260 embassies and hundreds of other offices around the world.
Department officials acknowledge that the system is imperfect, but said GAO is overreaching in some of its recommendations for improvement.
Related coverage:
FISMA's future may lie in State Department security model
Cloud security fears outweigh savings, but perhaps not for long
Achieving total security is "impossible and impracticable," State's Chief Financial Officer James Millette wrote in response to a recent GAO report. The proper goal is adequate security, and that's what the department's continuous monitoring and scoring program is intended to provide, he said.
"The department employs a layered approach to security risk management by employing multiple levels of protection," Millette wrote. "This protection is accomplished by implementing a matrix of technical, operational, and management security controls designed to thwart network threats, detect and mitigate vulnerabilities, and strengthen business operations."
State, like many departments, received dismal grades in the early years of assessing its performance under the 2002 Federal Information Security and Management Act (FISMA), getting four Fs and one D- in the first five years. The monitoring and scoring program is an effort to increase real-time awareness and prioritize security efforts, and to push responsibility for problem resolution from headquarters officials to administrators in the field.
The department in 2008 began a program of automated scanning of systems and grading results, which CISO John Streufert said reduced vulnerabilities by nearly 90 percent from July 2008 to July 2009 and cut the cost of FISMA certification and accreditation of systems by more than 60 percent.
State's current iPost system is a custom application intended to provide continuous monitoring capabilities over selected elements of State's global IT environment. "Continuous" in this context means often enough to enable to risk-based security decisions.
The system gathers data from Microsoft Active Directory and System Management Server as well as a host of diagnostic scanning tools. It then formats and correlates the data and produces a dashboard showing current status by site and operational unit, assigning letter grades to each. Scans for vulnerabilities, configuration, passwords and patching status are done every 24 to 72 hours, rather than every three years, and grades are assigned daily.
GAO recognized the value of the effort, but said that use of iPost is not consistent or complete. It addresses only Windows hosts and not other assets on the network, does not include all security controls for information systems, and its risk prioritization is not documented.
"Establishing a process for defining and prioritizing risk through a scoring mechanism is not simple and solutions to these issues have not yet been developed at State," the GAO report concludes.
The report said remaining challenges for iPost include:
The department agreed with GAO's recommendations that procedures be implemented to consistently notify senior managers at sites with low security grades and that it develop a documented continuous monitoring strategy.
It resisted a recommendation for further documentation of data accuracy and iPost configuration management, saying this would contribute to a climate of "paper compliance" rather than dealing with real security issues.
The department rejected three GAO recommendations for additional documentation of iPost data, controls and occupational roles, saying this would run counter to "the purpose of replacing the compliance-based security regime with a continuous monitoring regime," that addresses advanced, persistent and dynamic threats.
About the Author
William Jackson is a Maryland-based freelance writer.
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What an interesting report from the GAO. If I recall correctly, the Department of State sends someone to testify before Senator Carper, and this person states that, because of iPost, risk has been reduced at the Department by 90%. Doing some quick math, based on the numbers in the GAO report, the Department of State would be hard pressed to claim a 50% reduction in risk. What is going on at State? It appears that State's IT leadership has a credibility problem, and that is unfortunate for such a fine and well-respected institution.
And State needs to point out to GAO the fact that security is risk managed and that they have plans for improving the security as resources permit. Feds are gradually understanding about critical controls. Look first to prioritize the various missons and then you know where to focus resources. Focus improving security on quick wins, then hygiene, then advanced. Wish OMB would focus on this too instead of areas that are all over the map. I'm so tired of "theme-based" or "agenda-driven" audits. Were they trying to bring State down a peg? State has a plan and is improving security. These snipe audits only weaken the cyber security cause.
There is only one way to make the computer systems at State 100% safe. Unplug them and go back to using pen and paper. Of course, then you have a whole variety of other problems. But at least the computers will be safe. :)
From the info provided, it seems apparent that Dept of State CIO has a sound technical and fiscal approach that does what's needed, while GAO still has their heads in the sand looking for perfection, irrespective of implementation / maintainability costs or applicability. One thing has always been true of GAO, nothing is too perfect.
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Rain or shine, Seattle is the most vibrant and interesting city in the Pacific Northwest. While its a safe bet to expect a few gray days during your visit, there is plenty of outdoor and indoor fun to be had.
The Fairmont Olympic Hotel
411 University Street, Seattle, WA
(206) 621-1700
Price: Rooms starting at $271/night
This downtown hotel offers many kid amenities like no-tear shampoo, children's sized robes, and milk and cookies at bedtime.
Four Seasons Hotel Seattle
99 Union Street, Seattle, WA
(206) 749-7000
Price: Rooms starting at $405/night
With babysitting services available, the Four Seasons is a great place to stay with children while still exploring the more grown-up parts of the city (museums, high-end dining).
Sheraton Seattle
1400 6th Avenue Seattle, WA
(206) 621-9000
Price: Rooms starting at $159/night
The price for the Sheraton Seattle is definitely right! The location is close to all of Seattle's main tourist attractions and a short walk from public transportation if you want to do even more exploring.
Pensione Nichols Bed and Breakfast
1923 First Avenue, Seattle, WA
(619) 441-7125
Price: Rooms starting at $130/night
Adorable is the first word that comes to mind when describing this downtown bed and breakfast. Located steps from the famous Pike Place Market, most rooms have great views of the city. This B&B is a great place for a special trip with your grandchild. If you're traveling with a larger group, be advised that the rooms comfortably fit about two people, but larger suites are available.
Red Lion Hotel
1415 5th Avenue, Seattle, WA
(206) 971-8000
Price: Rooms starting at $229/night
The Red Lion is an inexpensive Downtown hotel that welcomes families with open arms. With their Seattle Family Vacation package, your grandchildren will receive gifts like a plush red lion, a welcome bag with their own map of Seattle and tickets to the Woodland Park Zoo. This package also grants you access to the Roaring Start Breakfast Buffett and a $50 Chevron gas card. In addition, the Red Lion also offers senior discounts for guests over 50.
Twirl Cafe
2111 Queen Anne Avenue North, Seattle, WA
(206) 283-4552
Monday-Wednesday: 8:30am-5pm
Thursday-Saturday: 8:30am-8pm
Sunday: Closed
Price: $$
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler
Families love Twirl Café for its fully contained and spacious play area. The custom built tree playhouse is just one of the things at Twirl Café for kids to climb on and explore. You can visit for "open play" or if you want some time to yourself to relax, come in for "supervised play" and a member of the staff will look after your grandchild while you enjoy some of Twirl's local and organic menu. Worried about germs? Fear not, the play space is cleaned daily with earth-friendly products and a UV-C sanitizing light!
Rosita's Mexican Restaurant
7210 Woodlawn Avenue Northeast, Seattle, WA
(206) 523-3031
Monday-Thursday: 11:30am-10pm
Friday: 11:30am-11pm
Saturday: 11:30am-10:30pm
Sunday: 4pm-9pm
Price: $
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Rosita's is perfect for casual dining with your grandchildren. It's spacious and is always buzzing with noise, so no one will notice if your family gets a bit loud. Every order comes with complimentary chips and salsa, a welcome treat for hungry patrons and kids who need to be distracted before the meal arrives.
Tutta Bella Pizzeria
4411 Stone Way North, Seattle WA
(206) 633-3800
Hours: Sunday-Thursday: 11am-10pm, Friday-Saturday: 11am-11pm
Price: $
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Tutta Bella is the "first certified" Neapolitan pizzeria in the Northwest and a favorite for locals and tourists alike. Can't agree on what toppings to pick? Don't worry, everyone can get their own 8" Pizzetta version of any pizza on the menu for just $8.
Ballad Brother's Seafood and Burgers
5305 15th Avenue Northwest, Seattle, WA
(206) 784-4440
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 11am-9pm, Sunday: 12pm-8pm
Price: $
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
This super kid-friendly establishment lets kids eat free on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with the purchase of an adult entrée and kid's drink. Young seafood lovers can try the kid's cod fillet and fries, and if your grandchildren don't like surf, there are plenty of turf options like burgers, chicken fingers, and corn dogs.
Zippy's Giant Burgers
9614 14th Avenue Southwest, Seattle, WA
(206) 763-1347
Monday-Friday: 8am-9pm
Saturday: 11am-9pm
Sunday: 1pm-7pm
Price: $
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
The mouth-watering, award winning burgers aren't the only reason to come to Zippy's Giant Burgers. They have an extensive collection of vintage syrup-free sodas and root beer that will be the closest thing to time travel you'll experience in Seattle.
Space Needle
400 Broad Street, Seattle, WA 98109
(800) 937-9582
Hours: 9am-12am (daily)
Price: Children (ages 3-11): $12.00, Adults (ages 12-64): $19.00, Seniors (ages 65+): $17.00
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
A symbol of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, the Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair when nearly 20,000 people rode the elevator each day. Today, the Space Needle is home to an observation deck over 500 feet in the air where you can experience great views of the city and beyond. If the ride to the top makes you hungry, sit down for a meal at the SkyCity restaurant, a rotating eatery that completes a 360- degree turn every hour.
Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum
325 5th Avenue North, Seattle, WA
(206) 770-2700
May-September: 10am-7pm (daily)
October-April: Daily: 10am-5pm (daily)
Price: Children (ages 5-17): $14, Adult (ages 18-64): $20, Senior (ages 65+): $17
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
This one-of-a-kind interactive museum is a great time for children, teens, and adults alike. Older music buffs will love all of the priceless artifacts, like Jimi Hendrix's guitar from Woodstock. Younger musicians will love the Spin Kids Station and Sound Lab where they'll get the chance to play a plethora of instruments and even record a mini-CD.
Seattle Aquarium
1483 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA
(206) 386-4300
Hours: 9:30am-5pm (daily)
Price: Children (ages 4-12): $12.95, Adults (ages 13+): $19.95
Age Range: Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween
The Seattle Aquarium is home to a wide-array of local marine life. Don't miss the Underwater Dome, a 360-degree-view of a 400,000 gallon tank of hundreds of fascinating fish that live in the Puget Sound.
Woodland Park Zoo
601 North 59th Street, Seattle, WA
(206) 548-2500
May-September: 9:30am-6pm (daily)
October-April: 9:30am-4pm (daily)
May-September: Children (3-12): $11.50, Adults (ages 13-64): $17.75, Seniors (ages 65+): $15.75
October-April: Children (3-12): $8.50, Adults (ages 13-64): $11.75, Seniors (ages 65+): $9.75
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Award-winnings exhibits like the Elephant Forest and Tropical Rain Forest are just a few of the adventures the Woodland Park Zoo to experience with your family. See a wide array of animals from aardvarks to zebras, or visit the Zoomazium, a nature-themed indoor play space for children eight and under.
Argosy Cruises
1101 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA
(800) 642-7816
Hours: Open daily, check for cruise times
Price: Children (ages 5-12): $9.75, Adults (ages 13-64): $23.25, Seniors (ages 65+): $19.25
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Argosy Cruises have been setting sail in Seattle since 1949, attracting millions of visitors for their one-hour harbor tours. Hop on and experience a narrated tour of Seattle's beautiful and historic harbor. You'll see the waterfront, the city skyline and the Cascade and Olympic Mountains, all from an open-air deck.
Pike Place Market
85 Pike Street, Seattle, WA
(206) 624-4271
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 9am-6pm, Sunday: 9am-5pm
Price: Free
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
No trip to Seattle is complete without a visit to the Pike Place Market, one of the oldest continually operating farmer's markets in the United States. First opened in 1907, here you'll find all sorts of food, crafts, antiques and collectibles. Don't miss the famous fish throwers at Pike Place Fish Market, where you'll likely see employees tossing three-foot salmons to each other over the counter.
The Children's Museum
305 Harrison Street, Seattle, WA
(206) 441-1768
Hours: Monday-Friday: 10am-5pm, Saturday-Sunday: 10am-6pm
Price: Adults & Children (ages 12 months & older): $7.50, Grandparents: $6.50
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary
Let your grandchildren explore 22,000 square feet of hands-on learning at the Children's Museum in Seattle. Take a tour around the world in the Global Village, where your grandchildren can take a ride through Ghana, pedal through the Philippines or cook in a Japanese kitchen. Every day the museum offers a new program or discovery project for children of all ages.
Gas Works Park
2101 North Northlake Way, Seattle, WA
(206) 233-1509
Hours: 6am-10pm (daily)
Price: Free
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Gas Works Park has long been heralded as one of the most beautiful parks in the city. Built on the site of the old Seattle Gas Light Company, Gas Works Park offers a large play barn, a hill popular for kite flying and spectacular views of Lake Union, and the city. The old, rusted gasification plant in the middle of the park also makes for a unique photo op.
Pioneer Square
608 First Avenue, Seattle, WA
(206) 682-4646
Hours: Open daily, check for tour times
Price: Tours: Children (ages 7-12): $8, Adults (ages 13-59): $16, Seniors (ages 60+): $13
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Pioneer Square was once the heart of the city of Seattle. Today, you can visit this historic neighborhood for a peek into how life was before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. But the history in Pioneer Square isn't all visible from the street. Beneath the street exists three blocks of the original city, which you can tour on Bill Speidel's Underground Tour. (Note: be aware that the tour is 75 minutes and may not be the best idea for younger grandchildren). The tour begins inside of Doc Maynard's Public House, a restored 1890's saloon.
Museum of Flight
9404 East Marginal Way South, Seattle, WA
(206) 764-5720
Hours: 10am-5pm (daily)
Price: Children (ages 5-17): $9, Adults (ages 18-64): $17, Seniors (ages 65+): $14
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
The Museum of Flight is the perfect place for aspiring pilots and plane lovers. Let your grandchildren play pretend in a cockpit or take a ride in a flight simulator. They'll love looking at the collection of more than 150 historic air and spacecraft related artifacts!
Local uniques:
1912 Pike Place, Seattle, WA
(206) 448-8762
Hours: 6am-9pm (daily)
Price: Drink prices vary
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
With a Starbucks on every corner in nearly every city, you may be thinking there's no reason to see another one on your trip. But if you find yourself in need of a snack break, visit the world's first Starbucks. The native Seattle company opened its first store in 1971 in Pike Place Market. Because the market is a historic district with design guidelines, it retains its original design.
Golden Gardens Park
8498 Seaview Place Northwest, Seattle, WA
(206) 684-4075
Hours: 6:30am-11pm (daily)
Price: Free
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Take advantage of Seattle's beautiful forests at Golden Gardens Park. This popular outdoor park is great for a sunny spring day picnic. You can hike on one of its many trails, swim in the Puget Sound or take a fishing break off the pier.
Archie McPhee
1300 North 45th Street, Seattle, WA
(206) 297-0240
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 10am-8pm, Sunday: 11am-6pm
Price: Toy prices vary
Age Range: Baby, Toddler, Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
Wacky is an understatement when it comes to Archie McPhee in Seattle. Kids can easily spend hours perusing the aisles of unique toys and oddities (like the Magical Unicorn Mask or the Yodeling Pickle). Past patrons of the store include Anthony Bourdain, who stopped there while filming his show for the Travel Channel.
The Fremont Troll
North 36th Street at Troll Avenue North, Seattle, WA
Hours: Open daily
Price: Free
Age Range: Preschooler, Elementary, Tween, Teen
The giant statue under the Aurora Bridge is really something you have to see to believe! Your grandchildren will beg you for a picture, or to climb up the giant mixed media statue, which has become a necessary stop on Seattle trips since it was created in 1990.


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Making Waves in South Beach: Upgrades That Help You Travel Brilliantly
Marriott Hotels® is redesigning travel with their innovative Travel Brilliantly campaign, and The Marriott Stanton South Beach is at the helm with recent upgrades that completely reimagine the guest experience. From welcome mojitos mixed with homegrown mint and local rum to new AC units that can sense body heat and adjust room temperatures accordingly, The Marriott Stanton South Beach is taking hotel design to a whole new level. We talked to GM David Cronin about the inspiration behind the hotel's new redesign and transformation, and got a sneak peek into some of their most exciting new ideas.
Apartment Therapy: What are some of Marriott Hotels' top-line ideas and concepts in regards to the reinvention of the hotel stay? How is the Marriott Stanton South Beach at the forefront of this?
David Cronin: The evolution of the core Marriott Hotels brand means enabling today's travelers, Gen X and Gen Y travelers, by making a relevant product implemented to help people travel brilliantly. Innovations need to reflect travelers who use technology and communication all the time.
The Marriott Stanton South Beach was poised to lead the charge. All things modern and sleek are embraced in South Beach. We're already in a very successful location. It was time to reinvest in the property to take it to the next level and maintain a competitive edge.
AT: Can you speak about the inspiration behind the redesign of the hotel and the steps you took to execute the changes?
DC: The mobile app is a big feature. Everyone is connected on their phones, and now we can text you when your room is ready, and you can check in very easily on the app.
We partnered with Jeffrey Beers International for design that speaks to our incredible beachfront location. The rooms have a luxury residential feel — with organically-shaped furniture, beachy colors, and vintage Miami prints. Everything from the upholstered headboards to the sink plugs have been renovated or made custom. There are big showers with waterfall shower heads, and new amenities from Thann, a luxury spa offering in Thailand.
LED television is state of the art, and, obviously, we upgraded wireless internet in the hotel so that bandwidth is super high and can accommodate multiple devices. Something that's not necessarily sexy but is really fantastic is the AC unit — it's networked so that it detects your body heat and drops the room temperature accordingly. If you open your balcony door, the unit knows to shut off the AC. It's an efficient and very nice upgrade.
The hotel's public spaces are communal areas where you can work and play, mixing business and pleasure. Today's travelers want to take their tablet to the pool or check their emails from the patio, and maybe work while having a drink. We designed lots of nooks and crannies so that people can get comfortable.
AC: Are there any elements that cater specifically to a Miami clientele?
DC: Marriott Hotels is moving away from a one-size-fits-all model. We work with what's in the immediate vicinity of the hotel to offer local amenities that feel different and special.
When a guest checks into the hotel, for example, they are offered a signature mojito made with Miami Club Rum (the only rum distilled in Miami) and mint from our garden. This is totally unique to the South Beach locale. At our restaurant, the chef sends out a welcome snack of fried plantains and salsa, another nod to the local culture. We have also entered into a partnership with F1rst Surf Miami Beach, a local surf shop that offers lessons and boards.
One thing that is particularly great is the concierge, which received a top-to-bottom renovation. Located on the 11th floor, it has incredible views of ships coming in. You can enjoy breakfast there, read the paper, and arrange for activities. It's really impressive, and impossible to forget you're at the beach.
To see the changes made to Marriott's South Beach location, visit marriott.com.
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Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder are engaged, according to reports out Thursday.
The "Twilight" actress and singer and the "Vampire Diaries" actor were "crazy happy from the start," a source told E! News.
A source told Us Weekly that Reed "accepted with glee" when Somerhalder popped the question.
The twosome, whose couplehood started


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Lawyer says Heed sentencing for DWI involved no special treatmentBy NANCY WEST
New Hampshire Sunday News
January 26. 2013 7:21PM
Former Attorney General Peter Heed can be heard laughing seven times on the Keene circuit court audiotape of his four-minute DWI sentencing hearing Tuesday, but it shed no new light on what happened the night of Jan. 10 when he was arrested at 11:30 p.m.
"I'm 62 years old. I should know better, you know, but I would learn," Heed said with a laugh at the hearing.
Heed, of Westmoreland, also told Judge Lawrence A. Mac-Leod he was sorry.
"I apologize to your honor. I apologize to the state police," Heed said.
"I am thoroughly embarrassed. You can rest assured you won't see me here again, at least not on this side of the table."
The casual-sounding tone of the hearing in the 8th Circuit Court-Keene District - which was held a day earlier than originally scheduled - was to be expected, according to Heed's attorney, Paul G. Schweizer.
Heed has long known several of the people in the courtroom, including the state police prosecutor, Scott Ellis, Schweizer said.
"Would you expect it to be contentious?" Schweizer asked. "He's known and worked with people in the room for many years. As county attorney, he knew the police prosecutor very well and gets along with him."
Heed, who didn't respond to requests for comment, received no special treatment, Schweizer said.
"He basically got the same thing anybody would get. He wasn't treated any better," Schweizer said.
At the hearing, Heed waived reading documents that may have provided details of the arrest, and waived his rights as part of the plea agreement accepted by Judge MacLeod. "DWI'' was never mentioned during the hearing.
There were no reporters present, and Schweizer said he wasn't sure whether anyone unrelated to the case was in the courtroom.
Heed was sentenced to a nine-month license suspension and $500 fine for DWI-first offense. (See related story.)
A news release state police Sgt. Shawn M. Skahan issued after the hearing said the sentence Heed received is "the standard for first-time offenders where no extenuating circumstances exist (i.e., a blood-alcohol level .16 or above; serious injury; or, an attempt to elude police)."
There was no mention of Heed's blood-alcohol level at the hearing, in the state police complaint, or in court records.
Schweizer said there was no blood-alcohol level in the record because Heed refused to take a breath or blood test to measure it. As part of the plea agreement, Heed will also not face the administrative license suspension process for refusing the test, Schweizer said, adding that, too, is common.
"If somebody doesn't take (the BAC tests), they can't be charged with having over .16," Schweizer said. "(Heed) was appropriately charged ... he was arrested and pleaded guilty to it."
Skahan's release said Heed can petition to have his license reinstated after 90 days provided he completes the Impaired Driver Care Management Plan within the first 14 days of his conviction.
Heed mentioned at the hearing that he was probably one of the first offenders to be sentenced under the new law. Judge MacLeod said it was his first such hearing, as well.
Judge Edwin Kelly, administrative judge for the Circuit Court, said the hearing was moved up one day because the sitting judge recused himself and Judge MacLeod was available that day in Keene.
Skahan's release said Heed's Wednesday arraignment was moved to Tuesday because "a neutral and detached justice was needed given Heed's familiarity with the surrounding courts."
Skahan's complaint on file in court said Heed was arrested for driving under the influence on Route 9 in Keene, while original reports indicated Heed was arrested in Sullivan after police were tipped that someone was driving erratically.
Heed resigned as attorney general in 2004 after one year amid allegations he inappropriately touched a woman at a state-sponsored domestic and sexual violence conference, then tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his resignation. An investigation cleared Heed of any criminal conduct.
Heed served as Cheshire County attorney from 2006 until the end of December, when he resigned shortly after being reelected to join Abramson, Brown and Dugan, a Manchester law firm, to head an office in Keene.


text: At Midwest Sports, you'll find a wide selection of adidas men's tennis apparel, including this year's newest collections. adidas apparel is preferred by top ATP professionals, including Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and many more. From adidas Sequencials to the popular Barricade collection, here you'll find a great mix of men's tennis apparel made from breathable fabric designed to keep you comfortable and quick on the court. If you've been looking for new tennis apparel to help you keep pace with the competition, adidas men's tennis apparel is a great place to start.


text:
Even as the euro zone periphery starts to spy some glimmers of hope, concern is mounting that Germany is drifting apart from other countries at the core of the single currency bloc, notably France.
Economically, the worry is that insistence on fiscal austerity by an out-performing Germany will delay an upturn in France, which has been steadily losing competitiveness to its larger neighbor.
Politically, the risk is that already uneasy relations between French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could come under further strain when the euro zone needs strong, cohesive leadership to create a new institutional framework for the euro.
Philippe Waechter, chief economist at Natixis Asset Management in Paris, said signs of a solid recovery in Germany's economy were bolstering Merkel's position on economic policy going into September's general election.
Hollande, by contrast, was forced to acknowledge on Tuesday that growth would fall short of his government's 0.8 percent forecast. His government has already admitted it will miss its deficit target this year.
"The issue is how the balance of power evolves between Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel, knowing that France and Germany are extremely important in the political construction of the euro zone," Waechter said.
Imbalance of Power
Paris is more in tune with Italy and Spain than with Germany in wanting to put growth before deficit reduction and structural reform.
But the difficulty for Hollande as he seeks political support to counterbalance Berlin is that Italy holds a Feb. 24/25 election that promises an uncertain outcome, while the authority of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been dented by a party financing scandal.
"It's a balance of power that needs to be changed because otherwise Spain, Italy and France will be in even deeper difficulties, and that would be really problematic for the equilibrium of the euro zone," Waechter said.
Both Germany and France contracted last quarter, but business surveys this week have underscored how Europe's two largest economies are now growing apart.
France's all-industry business climate index for February was flat for the third month in a row, the state statistics office said on Wednesday, a day after Germany's ZEW sentiment index jumped to its highest level in nearly three years.
That tallied with a rise in Germany's Purchasing Managers' Index last month to 54.4, its highest level since June 2011. France's index dropped to 42.7, the lowest since March 2009.
Financial markets seem unperturbed. Yields on 10-year French bonds remain below 2.30 percent.
Nicholas Spiro with Spiro Sovereign Strategy, a London consultancy, said France is treated as a core euro member by the bond markets but, judged by many economic and structural indicators, it should be classed as a 'lucky peripheral'.
"France's perceived creditworthiness is strong not because of fundamentals - which are shockingly bad in a number of areas and deteriorating by the day - but because investors do not have many options in terms of deep liquid and relatively safe bond markets as an alternative to Germany," he said.
Growing Apart
Since the birth of the euro in 1999, growth in both France and Germany has averaged 1.4 percent a year, bang in line with the euro zone average.
In the period 1999-2007, France outperformed Germany. Since the crisis, however, France's economy has shrunk 0.1 percent a year on average, while Germany's has grown 0.8 percent, according to economists at JP Morgan.
Germany is reaping the benefits of a fall in its real exchange rate by 16.4 percent since 1999, achieved by dint of wage discipline.
By contrast, France's rate has risen 4.5 percent over the same period. That helps explains why France has lost a bigger share of global markets since 1999 than any other member country except for Italy and Greece, the bank said in a report.
On the budget front, Germany enjoys structural and primary budget surpluses, while France is in the red on both counts.
"France's fiscal, competitive, and structural challenges are substantial, and the economy looks to be taking a step down even as the rest of the region starts to move up," the bank said.
At the same time, the political relationship with Germany has become increasingly unbalanced in the latter's favor. "In the longer term, France has a difficult choice to make between the protection of the existing social model and its political influence within Europe," JP Morgan concluded.
Trouble at the Core
France is not the only core euro member struggling to keep up with Germany. Finland contracted in 2012, hurt by weak exports and troubles at one-time telecoms growth engine Nokia.
The Netherlands is in recession as a depressed housing market saps confidence and consumption.
Given how closely entwined the Dutch and German economies were, the monthly sentiment index produced by the Ifo institute in Munich used to be a good leading indicator of Dutch jobs growth, according to economists at Jefferies in London.
But that relationship has all but broken down since 2010, partly because of the Netherlands' over-reliance on exports to an enfeebled euro zone. If the poor news flow continues, the Netherlands could lose its prized AAA credit rating in coming months, they said in a report.
So how might divergence give way to convergence at the core?
Normalization of euro zone financial conditions will help. Because of a flight to the safety of German banks, lending rates for households and companies are about half a percentage point lower in Germany than they are in France and the Netherlands. That gap should close as banks gradually resume normal service.
Economists will also be looking for signs that reforms are working. The Netherlands is overhauling mortgage tax relief, while France has passed some labor reforms and given employers a 20 billion euro tax break to narrow the competitiveness gap with Germany.
But Spiro said the task facing Hollande remained immense.
"France is not making sufficient headway relative to the scale of the challenge. It's tinkering at the edges as far as reforms are concerned," he said.


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Charles Krauthammer nails the gay marriage issue as far as I'm concerned, especially the comical attempts to claim that President Bush is driving a wedge:
"Wedge? Marriage has been around for, oh, 5,000 years. In every society, in every place, in every time it has been defined as an opposite-sex union. Then four robed eminences in Boston decree otherwise. With the stroke of a pen, they radically redefine the most ancient of all social institutions. And then those not quite prepared to accept this undebated, unlegislated, unvoted, unnegotiated revolution are the ones accused of creating a political wedge!"
But my favorite part of the column is Krauthammer's reference to a Washington Post "analysis" piece (the quotation marks are King Charles') claiming that the President is "rekindling the culture wars." This is the piece by Dana Milbank, naturally enough. It richly deserves the quotation marks. By the way, has the Post, or any other mainstream media outlet, ever referred to an issue raised by the Democrats as a "wedge?"
Meanwhile, the Post's editorial department takes the predictable position that President Bush is "debasing the constitution" by injecting the subject of marriage. At one level, Krauthammer dispatches this argument by showing how activist judges have left the president with little choice. At another level, it can be argued that the constitution should be about how we "constitute" ourselves as a society. Viewed in this light, provisions about central societal issues such as marriage are not necessarily out of place in the constitution. If it is surprising to see the issue there, this is probably because it is (or until recently would have been) surprising to see the definition of this core institution being changed.
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"Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." Winston Churchill
"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." Inscription on the Liberty Bell


text:
Guns N' Roses Guitarist Insists Making a New Album is Their 'Main Priority'
Guns N' Roses have hinted in recent months that the next album from the band won't take nearly as long to make as their last release, the long-long-delayed 'Chinese Democracy.' In fact, finishing a new record has become their "main priority" these days.
According to guitarist DJ Ashba, he and GN'R frontman Axl Rose have been hard at work compiling songs for their next release, which will be the band's seventh album and first with the complete current lineup.
"I can say making a new album absolutely is our main priority, and I cannot wait to get working on it," Ashba tells Mamasfallenangels.com. "Axl has tons and tons of stuff recorded as it is. I mean, he sits there in his hotel room and he'll play me hours of stuff. And I've written over ten songs, I think 12 songs now, for him that he really likes."
While it's still a work in progress, the band hopes the new music is finished sooner than later, seeing how 'Chinese Democracy' took an agonizing 15 years to see the light of day,
"I can't give anybody a definite date, because I'm not going to give anybody false hope," Ashba notes. "But it's absolutely everybody's goal to get out an album within a reasonable amount of time."
On April 14, the classic GN'R lineup will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. While nobody has confirmed rumors of a reunion of all the original members at the ceremony, neither Rose nor Slash have ruled out the possibility that they could all wind up in the same room on their special day.
With the possibilities of classic lineup Rock Hall reunion and a new album from the current incarnation in 2012, it sure is shaping up to be one hell of a year for Guns N' Roses fans!


text:
We're celebrating my 29th birthday today with an amazing meal, and one of the stars at the center of it all are these amazing primal (or nearly so) donuts (which also happen to be gluten free). I've done four variations in this recipe, and they were all amazing, with the Blueberry/Pecan being the most hardcore primal and the Chocolate having the best texture and the Vanilla Maple (w/ or w/o Pecans) being the sweetest and perhaps most reminscent of traditional bakery donuts. All of these though, are firm and nutty, with a rich flavor and satiating effect that the carb rings and krispy kremes just can't even begin to compete with. I actually prefer them to commercial donuts, and even the pickiest dessert eaters take very well to these delectable little morsels!
I apologize in advance to the primal folks for all the sugar on ~top~ of the donuts in the pictures, it's purely for visual effect and completely unnecessary to the taste experience.
Below is the basic recipe, with appr. proportions for making 17-20 donuts. It's all very adaptable and should be changed to reflect your personal taste and preferences. I'm not really into creating detailed, perfectly measure recipes, because I just don't cook that way but these measurements should work just fine until you're confident enough to mix it up. For detailed instructions on deep frying, use google 🙂
Flax Donuts with 4 Variations
- 2 C. Flax Meal
- 1 C. Almond Meal
- 3 Tbs. Coconut meal/flour (optional, can be replaced by extra almond meal)
- 4 tsp Baking Powder
- Salt to taste
- 5 eggs
- 3 tsp of melted butter or coconut oil
- Water to moisten (Cream or half & half are super yummy too)
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract (appr. since I make my own)
- Unrefined Coconut oil for frying in
Mix dry ingredients well. Mix together wet ingredients except water. Combine, and moisten with water or cream until pliable and still sticky without either falling apart and crumbling every time you pick it up or sticking to the bowl in a sodden mess. You want to be able to shape it into a firm donut shape without too much trouble (though you're hands are going to get sticky, regardless).
So that's the basic, completely unsweetened recipe with no flavorings. You could just deepfry them plain like this but I think they're yummier with a few additions. So, I divided the dough into four equal sections and flavored each separately, and measurements below reflect that. If you want to make one batch in one flavor, then quadruple the ingredients below.
Blueberry- Pecan
This is the easiest to keep completely primal and still be super tasty, definitely a favorite!
- Large handful of dried blueberries (fresh would also work, but I didn't have any), half chopped and half whole.
- 1/3-1/2 C. Butter toasted pecans, roughly chopped
- 2-3 tsp Maple syrup (optional)
- 1 tsp cinnamon (I really like cinnamon, but this is also optional)
Fold into mixture, taste and adjust as needed.
Chocolate Coconut
This has a super smooth texture and is wonderfully rich, but of course cocoa powder is a bit bitter and wants some sweetener to taste its best. I used brown sugar in this recipe but of course honey or maple syrup would work fine too.
- 3-5 Tbs dark cocoa
- 3-5 Tbs coconut meal
- 3-5 Tbs brown sugar
- Vanilla to taste
- Water or cream to moisten (after all those additional dry ingredients)
Fold in mixture, taste and adjust as needed.
Vanilla Maple
Sweet, crispy and very satisfying!
- 1-2 Tsp Vanilla extract (to taste)
- 1-3 Tbs Maple Syrup to taste (the darker and more flavorful the better and the less you need)
- 1/3 C. Butter-toasted Pecans, roughly chopped (optional, it's great with or without).
Fold in mixture, taste and adjust as needed.
Shaping and Cooking
Now, you simply shape into small biscuit like shapes, poke your finger through the center of each, firm it up and place on wax paper. Get all of them ready, and then deep-fry in small batches (depending on your fryer) in unrefined coconut oil until golden brown. Place on paper towels or paper bags when done. You can optionally roll in cinnamon sugar while still warm (unnecessary of course, but they look better in pictures that way).
A Caution
Flax can give you a bellyache in large amounts in any form. If you eat six donuts, you're going to regret it. I usually only eat one at a time, but most people can get up to three at a time without issue. If you're extra sensitive to flax, go real easy on this or possibly use a greater proportion of almond or coconut meal.
17 Responses to "Primal Flax Donuts – Four Variations"
Yum, yum, yum, Kiva!
They look SO good.
Thanks for the recipe and variations.
I can't wait to try these. Must go to the co-op and get almond meal and cocunut flour ASAP! mmmmm!
Oh My Gosh!! These look delicious!!! I'm going to try all the variations!!
Have a wonderful, fantastic birthday!!!
Happy Birthday Kiva :-)))
[…] stuffed with nettle dip and goat chevre, sassafras tea and wedges of hard goat cheese follow by primal flax donuts and homemade vanilla bean ice cream. They swam together in the beaver pond, feasted on their […]
Holy moly!
Happy Birthday
wow, these sound and look amazing kiva! thank you for sharing this recipe with us and i hope you had a very special birthday:)
yummmm! thanks for sharing 🙂
happy belated birthday!!!
I can't wait to try these! Thanks so much for sharing!
[…] I threw out all the not-so-healthy sweets in the house! And I made some of these home made doughnuts ease the transition! They are delicious!! And the cool thing is that you can't eat too […]
Peace and Blessing This so great and thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes. Much Love and Light.!!!!!!!!!!
Peace and Love These recipes are awsome thanks for sharing.!!!!!
These sound fantastic, but I'm allergic to almonds!!! What would you suggest as an alternative to the almond meal?
These look great, I can't wait to try them! Will be omitting the sugar :). Do you think chia flour would substitute for the flax meal?
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I've been working towards eating primal and I thought donuts were never going to be an option again. Looking forward to trying these.
How fun! We traditionally have donuts during our summer beach trip and I have been thinking about what I was going to do to make our own. These look totally do-able for us.
These sound great. I can't wait to give them a try.


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FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — A couple accused of imprisoning the wife's daughters in a Tucson home now face new charges in a second Arizona county where they lived previously.
Fernando and Sophia Richter pleaded not guilty Friday in Pinal County Superior Court to child abuse and kidnapping charges. Fernando Richter also pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault, sexual abuse and child molestation.
The Richters were arrested Nov. 26 in Tucson and later indicted in Pima County on kidnapping and child-abuse charges. The couple moved to Tucson last year from the Pinal County community of Catalina, about 20 miles north of Tucson.
Authorities had discovered that the girls — ages 12, 13 and 17 — were being held captive when the two younger girls escaped in late November through their bedroom window and alerted a neighbor.
Police later discovered the 17-year-old was being held separately from her sisters in another room. The three girls were malnourished and dirty and told officers they hadn't taken a bath in up to six months.
Though police have provided details of their girls' captivity in Tucson during a three-month period that ended in late November, few specifics have been provided on the alleged abuse the children suffered in Pinal County, where authorities have said the majority of the crimes occurred from March 2011 through last August.
Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles and the Tucson Police Department, which is the lead police agency in the case, declined on Friday to reveal any details of the investigation of the Pinal County allegations.
"As for the facts, there will be a time and place where we will reveal that information," Voyles said.
The Pinal County indictments say Fernando Richter is accused of hitting some of the victims with items such as a metal spoon and a stick. One of the victims, the indictment said, suffered a bloody nose after being hit by Fernando Richter.
The Richters were each assigned attorneys, though it wasn't immediately clear who those lawyers were.
Leon Thikoll, an attorney who is defending Fernando Richter on a charge of assaulting a Pima County jail officer, spoke on his client's behalf in Pinal County court. Outside of court, he declined to comment, saying a gag order has been issued for attorneys in the Pima County case against the Richters.
A Pinal County judge ordered Fernando Richter, 34, held without bond. Bond for Sophia Richter, 32, was set at $100,000. The judge also scheduled March 10 pretrial conferences for the couple.
If convicted of all 15 counts against him, Fernando Richter faces up to 128 years in prison, while Sophia Richer would face up to 83 years in prison if convicted of the nine counts against her, the Pinal County Attorney's Office said.
Authorities have said the three girls are in state custody and living together.


text:
Mykell Sims' clutch free throws down the stretch help send the Cavaliers to the 4A state title game in Columbia, where they they will face Dutch Fork next Friday.
GREENVILLE — It's constantly said that games are won and lost at the free-throw line.
Mykell Sims made sure it wasn't going to be the latter for Dorman.
The junior guard connected on a pair of critical free throws with 19 seconds remaining in regulation to help the Cavaliers seal a 49-45 victory against Wade Hampton in the 4A upper state championship on Friday night at the Bi-Lo Center.
Dorman (23-4) will face Dutch Fork in the state championship game at 7 p.m. next Friday at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. The Silver Foxes defeated the Cavaliers in last year's upper state title game.
Dorman led the Generals by five until Rebecca Spry knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 47-45 with 24 seconds to go. Sims was immediately fouled and stepped to the line knowing a berth to the state championship was at stake.
"I knew I had to make it for my team, for us to go all the way to state," said Sims, who finished with nine points. "(My nerves) were everywhere."
"That was huge," said Dorman coach Valorie Whiteside of Sims' free throws. "We talked about that because the other day (against Greenwood) we didn't make free throws at the end, even though we pulled out the win. We actually shot free throws for half an hour today."
Prior to Sims' shots, senior post player Kenya Olley gave the Cavaliers a bit of separation with five straight points, capped by a 3-point play to break a 42-all tie.
Olley sat on the bench toward the last half of the third quarter due to fatigue, but said she was rejuvenated for the stretch run.
"(Coach) was giving me a break because I was really tired," Olley said. "(Those points) were really big because it helped the score out. It wasn't really frustrating that we couldn't pull away because we're used to battling."
Dorman scored all its points the old-fashioned way — by attacking the basket. The Cavaliers did not connect on any of the few 3-pointers they attempted, but made a living knocking down shots off the glass and from short range.
Olley led Dorman with 15 points, while Logan Hollis also reached double figures with 14.
"Their best post player was guarding Kenya, so it left me an advantage to go to work and benefit my team," Hollis said. "Kenya's 3-point play was really big. I just almost fell out of my seat. I was just happy. That's the second time she helped us come back going back to Greenwood."
Dorman led 10-9 after one quarter and 23-17 at the half. Khalia Webb's putback with a second remaining gave the Cavaliers the six-point cushion and was the first field goal by either team in nearly 4 minutes.
Dorman maintained the six-point advantage midway through the third quarter until Nikki Young completed a 10-0 Wade Hampton run to give the Generals a 30-29 lead. Hollis broke the drought with three straight points to give the Cavaliers a 33-32 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Young, who finished with a team-high 15 points, knocked down a shot to give the Generals their largest lead of the fourth quarter at 40-37 before Dorman scored five straight, capped by a Hollis basket.
"We lost last year here," Hollis said. "For me to contribute here and help us get to state really means a lot."
"We just battled back and forth the whole time," Whiteside said. "We could never pull away from that team. They are a lot like us. They battled back. They were well coached. They fought a lot, and their defense was awesome. But, this is what we've been working for the two years I've been here. That's been our goal. We've not let any obstacles stand in our way. … We are ready to go."


text:
Pan Macmillan launches new ebook bundles and second round of digital-only Short Reads featuring Peter James and Emma Donoghue/
Pan Macmillan today published its first ebook bundles (collections of 2 or 3 titles in a single ebook) and a second collection of ebook Short Reads for 2011's digital Christmas.
The ebook bundles will sell from between £13.99 and £15.99 and include books by bestselling writers Ken Follett, Jon Ronson, Sue Grafton and Andrew Marr. Ken Follett's Thundering Good Thrillers feature three classic spy thrillers from the master stortyteller, Eye of the Needle, Jackdaws and Hornet Flight.
A History of 20th Century Britain bundles together for the first time Andrew Marr's two bestselling volumes, A History of Modern Britain and The Making of Modern Britain.
Jon Ronson's Adventures with Extraordinary People includes The Pyschopath Test, published earlier this year.
Sue Grafton's new novel, V Is For Vengeance, has also been published early in ebook to meet the demand over Christmas, with the hardback out in January.
The full list is of ebook bundles is:
|Andrew Marr
|A History of 20th Century Britain
|A History of Modern Britain, The Making of Modern Britain
|Jon Ronson
|Jon Ronson's Adventures With Extraordinary People
|Them: Adventures with Extremists, Men Who Stare at Goats, The Psychopath Test
|Ken Follett
|Ken Follett's Thundering Good Thrillers
|Eye of the Needle, Hornet Flight, Jackdaws
|Sue Grafton
|Kinsey Millhone: First Three Novels
|A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse
|Alyson Noel
|The Immortals 1–3
|Evermore, Blue Moon, Shadowland
|Andrea Camilleri
|The Montalbano Mysteries: Three crime novels of Sicily
|The Shape of Water, The Terracotta Dog, The Snack Thief
Short Reads, which were first launched for Christmas 2010, are designed to be eye-catching titles at a low price that enable new ebook device owners to sample some of the best Pan Mac writers when they are hunting around for something to read on Boxing Day.
The 2011 list, with each ebook retailing at 99p, comprises three new titles from three bestselling Pan Macmillan writers - Christmas is for the Kids by Peter James (who has already had huge success with The Perfect Murder ebook, which was in the Top 10 chart in iBooks for much of 2010 and has been in the Top 100 consistently since), Three and a Half Deaths by Emma Donoghue and Bedlam by Andrew Lane. Also now available as Short Reads are Minette Walters' Chickenfeed, Neal Asher's Snow in the Desert and Water from the Sun and Discovering Japan by Bret Easton Ellis.
James Long, Pan Macmillan's Editorial Director, Digital, says,
"We're delighted with our line- up of digital-first products for the big Christmas ebook rush - they look great and offer something exciting and good value to everyone who is looking for something to read on their new device. We are committed to finding the best way to package ebooks both for readers new to ebooks, with our Short Reads, and for dedicated ebook readers, with our bundles."


text:
INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Lilly's third-quarter earnings climbed 7 percent, as a drop in expenses and a payment from a former partner helped offset an 11 percent slide in revenue, but it still fell short of expectations and shares edged lower in premarket trading.
The company has seen its revenue tumble since it lost U.S. patent protection last year for its all-time best seller, the antipsychotic Zyprexa. The drug once brought in more than $5 billion annually, but sales fell 68 percent in this year's third quarter to $374.5 million.
That and foreign exchange rates helped chop Lilly's revenue to $5.44 billion in the three months that ended Sept. 30, from $6.15 billion in last year's quarter.
It will lose patents protecting the antidepressant Cymbalta and the insulin Humalog next year. It has been planning for these expirations for several years now, and the company has set goals of recording at least $3 billion in annual net income and $20 billion in revenue through 2014.
The drugmaker said Wednesday it earned $1.33 billion, or $1.18 per share in this year's third quarter compared to $1.24 billion, or $1.11 per share, last year. Adjusted earnings were 79 cents per share, excluding a $787.8 million revenue-sharing payment from Amylin Pharmaceuticals that Lilly booked in the quarter..
Analysts expected earnings of 84 cents per share on $5.63 billion in revenue, according to FactSet. Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their earnings estimates.
The Indianapolis drugmaker also reaffirmed its earnings expectations for 2012.
Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford said that he expected Lilly to beat expectations and raise its 2012 forecast because the company had been pushing aggressive price increases for its drugs so far this year.
Company shares fell 2.6 percent, or $1.36, to $50.55 Wednesday before the opening bell.
Sales of Lilly's new top-selling drug, Cymbalta, climbed 16 percent to $1.24 billion in the quarter. But revenue from Lilly's third biggest seller, Humalog, fell 3 percent to $575.8 million. The drugmaker said U.S. sales were hurt because Humalog was removed this year from a list of drugs covered by a prescription plan.
Lilly's operating expenses fell 3 percent in the quarter, helped by an 8 percent drop in marketing, selling and administrative expenses to $1.76 billion.
The company has said it will cut costs, depend on sales in foreign markets and developing countries and develop new drugs to help replace the lost revenue. Shares of the drugmaker have climbed more than 20 percent since it first announced in late August that results from studies of its experimental Alzheimer's drug suggest it may modestly slow mental decline, especially in patients with mild cases of the disease.
On Wednesday, Eli Lilly and Co. reaffirmed its forecast for 2012 adjusted earnings of $3.30 to $3.40 per share on $21.8 billion to $22.8 billion in revenue.
Analysts expect, on average, earnings of $3.39 per share on $22.7 billion in revenue.