The Letter from the Apostle Peter to “elect strangers” is an amazing word to those of us who may feel estranged from our own culture by the activities, voices, moods and attitudes it exudes. In writing to a group of gentile Christian refugees who had migrated to foreign lands and then began to live with…
Immune checkpoint inhibition; a novel approach to fighting cancer
The Nobel prize for medicine went to 2 researches who developed ways for our own innate immune system to fight off certain types of cancer. In a shift away from the classic “chemotherapy” approach, this new approach called “immune checkpoint inhibition”, blocks the ability of a cancer cell to turn off the immune system. When…
Novel and Exciting Molecular Approaches to Fighting Cancer
Here are some exciting new approaches to cancer treatment. Molecular biology has stared to move from toxic chemotherapy that functions as a “biological nuclear explosion” in the body, wiping out everything (cancer and non cancer cells) in its path, to an elegant use of molecular techniques to specifically target cancer cells with the body’s own…
Lower is better
New evidence that maintaining a blood pressure under 120 systolic reduces risk for cognitive decline https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/science/systolic-blood-pressure-intervention-trial-sprint-study
Update on the Shingles Vaccine
The new Shingles vaccine “Shingrix” is out and updated guidelines for its use have been presented in the MMWR from CDC. Recommended for those aged 50 and up, ok to use if one has previously received Zostavax and can be received whether or not one recalls having had chickenpox as a child (as 99% of…
Purity then responsibility; Sanctification in a nutshell
The process of living a faith life within a secular culture is never easy. Feeling as if one is always going against the grain or swimming up stream can be tiresome. But in looking at God’s promises to us in Hebews 1:1-4 and 1 Thessalonians 4:7, encouraging promises emerge. The first is that God’s action…
John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress and “Shame’s” speech; religion indicted
I have been reading the classic Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan written in the mid 17th century by this English churchman, pastor and preacher. The book is an allegory set inside a dream of the narrator describing the journey of the main character, Christian, as he travels from the city of Destruction to the Celestial…
A Prayer for those struggling with addiction…
I was blown away by this article which described the scale of the opioid epidemic. It prompts any thoughtful person to ask “what can we do?”. While old “medicines” like methadone or newer “medicines” like buprenorphine have been used to ease the cravings that come as one attempts to come off of heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone,…
Protected: Growing pains and growing TULIPs from then to now…
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
1 Corinthians 4:2; Is it faithfulness, obstinacy or incompetence?
Paul gives us an awesome reminder (1 Corinthians 4:2) that the key measuring stick in serving the Lord by serving others is “that one be found faithful.” It is so easy to get caught up in success and not faithfulness. But what the Lord challenges me with in regards to this reminder is in having…
1 Corinthians 1 and 2; is that message foolish? Yes I am.
So often today we are inundated by messages from the philosophical experts telling us what and how we should know and think about things. Even as a blogger, I run the risk of being another one of those persons, a “writing head” so to speak. So as I came across this passage of scripture (1…
Call enlivens volition
It never ceases to amaze me as to how gracious God is. As Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 remind, God finds us when we are not able to find him on our own. He calls us to Himself out of our totally lost situation in love and in wisdom. This calling of us, termed “predestination”…
