Sunday Sermonette: Days of Future Past
Exodus 12 is very long, so we ' ll just take part of it today. It ' s a mashup of describing what is about to happen and what the Hebrews should do in the next two weeks; and what they will be required to do every year in the future to commemorate it. Note that God gives time for a lengthy buildup to the 10th plague and the exodus, apparently so that future commemorations can also be of substantial duration. TheLord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man i...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 30, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: On the Sanctity of Human Life
Exodus 11 is on the short side. It is also crystal clear about the real meaning of all this. Now theLord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.2 Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. ”3 I ' ll just note again that we don ' t know how God is doing all this talking. Does Moses hear the voice in his head, does it come down from the sky, is there yet another burning bush? Anyway, KJV has it that the people are to ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 23, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Hard, hard heart
I forgot to index last week ' s entry, it was Exodus 9. Here ' s Exodus 10, which makes very clear what is really going on here.Then theLord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them2 that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am theLord. ”Let ' s review, because this is important. Earlier we learned that God would harden Pharaoh ' s heart. Pharaoh was inclined to let the Hebrews go early on ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 16, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Get your story straight
You can run into problems when you start adding plagues . . . Then theLord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what theLord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”2 If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back,3 the hand of theLord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field —on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats.4 But theLord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die. ’”You m...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 9, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The World ’s Most Spiritually Powerful Places
Conclusion:
These are just a few of the many magical places where you can harness your spiritual or psychic abilities. Hopefully, this article has inspired you to go on a voyage of inner discovery of your own. Just remember, wherever you travel, it’s important to keep a positive state of mind. So, my final words are just to embrace the energies with open arms and feel them entering your body.
Megan Neal writes for Psychic Future offering a full range of psychic, tarot card, and horoscope services and guidance. Whether you are looking for advice or specific answers, their psychic readers, clairvoyants, and medium...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - June 4, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: meganneal Tags: featured motivation self improvement spirituality travel Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: I hate it when that happens
As we continue with the plagues, keep in mind that the Torah as it now exists was published in the 5th Century BCE, long after these events supposedly occurred, and that the Egyptian captivity is entirely mythical. The composition of the various elements of the Torah happened over the preceding 200 years or so. Psalm 78 recounts this mythical history but lists only 6 plagues. Psalm 105 lists 7 plagues, in a different order. Apparently someone decided to insert 3 more to make 10, but who knows why?1 [a]Then theLord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what theLord says: Let my people go, so that t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 2, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Bioabsorbable Wound Dressing with Nanoscale Chitosan to Rapidly Stop Bleeding
Chitosan is a sugar compound derived from the exoskeletons of shrimp, crab, and other shellfish. It is used extensively in medicine, including in dressings, because of its well known hemostatic properties. These properties work at the nanoscale, so delivering tiny bits of chitosan to the site of a wound can help improve how it works compared with larger pieces. However, chitosan tends to clump, so simply delivering it as a powder doesn’t work.
Researchers at Texas A&M and Assiut University in Egypt have now managed to encapsulate chitosan nanofibers within a hydrogel, which can be placed inside a wound and left t...
Source: Medgadget - May 31, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine Materials Plastic Surgery Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Jehovah the psychopath
The character of God in the Old Testament is the most morally repugnant being imaginable. This seems inexplicably untroubling to the faithful -- the rabbis and theologians don ' t seem to worry about it much. But I have certainly noticed it. Let ' s pay attention to what ' s going on here, in Exodus 7, as the story finally picks up some speed.Then theLord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.3 But I will harden Pharaoh ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 26, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Badly in need of an editor
In spite of multiple continuity errors, weird interpolations, and repetitiveness, the authors have been moving the plot along reasonably well. Then we get this. First, God talks to Moses again, exactly how or where we don ' t know, and basically repeats stuff he has already said and also makes a couple of false assertions.Then theLord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”Well no, that ' s not what ' s going to happen. He won ' t " drive them out of his country. "2 God also said to ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 19, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
What Does the Helium Shortage Mean for MRI?
Not only is Party City shutting down 45 stores in part because of the worldwide helium deficit, but medical imaging centers are also vulnerable to the short supply.The chemical element is a byproduct of natural gas production and the second-most common element in the universe. At one point the United States was the world ’s top helium producer, but got wrapped up in financial troubles and resorted to selling off its reserves in the late 1990s. Yet as of recently, Qatar, the world’s main producer of helium and claims 75 percentof global supply, was forced to stop exporting the gas after a handful of Middle Eastern coun...
Source: radRounds - May 17, 2019 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
What causes kidney stones (and what to do)
Stone disease has plagued humanity since ancient times. Kidney stones have been identified in Egyptian mummies. The Hippocratic oath describes their treatment: “I will not use the knife, not even verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.”
Who gets kidney stones and why?
The lifetime risk of kidney stones among adults in the US is approximately 9%, and it appears that global warming may be increasing that risk. (As the climate warms, human beings are more likely to get dehydrated, which increases the risk of stone formation.) There are four major types of kidney stones: cal...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 17, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kevin R. Loughlin, MD, MBA Tags: Health Healthy Aging Kidney and urinary tract Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: The plot convolutes
Exodus 5 is mercifully relatively short, though it still displays the repetitive style we ' ve gotten used to. It seems straightforward but with a bit of reflection, it reveals interesting pathology on the part of both Pharaoh and God. And the plot has gotten away from the scribes. Nevertheless, unlike the previous chapter, which has bizarre elements that get left out of popular tellings of the tale, this episode is well known.Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what theLord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”2 Pharao...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 12, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Strange Interlude
There ' s plenty of competition for weirdest passage in the Bible, but we may have the winner here. Exodus 4 is plenty weird overall, but it contains an interpolation which is weird, bizarre, and very very strange. The chapter is also very problematic theologically, but I think most interpreters pretty much ignore the problems. I won ' t. Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘TheLord did not appear to you ’?”2 Then theLord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”“A staff,” he replied.3 TheLord said, “Throw it on the ground.”Moses threw it on the ground...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 5, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: What's in a name?
Exodus 3 is one of the most famous passages in the Bible. By famous I mean that people have some images from it in their heads, particularly the burning bush and the declaration " I am who I am " (KJV " I am that I am). I don ' t mean that very many people have actually read it and thought about it. So let ' s give it a good look. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.2 There the angel of theLord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though...
Source: Stayin' Alive - April 28, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Sunday Sermonette: Bring on Cecil B. DeMille
The story we are about to read is not only the foundational myth of the Jewish people. It has also become a foundational myth of American Christian identity thanks to the 1956 movie starring Charlton Heston. The movie actually differs from the Biblical story in minor respects, but more important I think is that it fills in the blanks. The Biblical account is quite vague as to historical context, and offers little in the way of visual detail or specificity of action. It ' s mostly an outline, concerned with plot but little concerned with character. (The Torah doesn ' t get subjected to much literary criticism but I ' m will...
Source: Stayin' Alive - April 21, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
