$42.5 million goes to Colorado State for stem cell research

The story does not explain what kind of stem cells. If it is from the umbilical cords, then hip-hip-hoorah. But if it is those essential stem cells that are procured from embryos, then they are the biggest losers of all time.

 

This is my granddaughter's heartbeat at barely 4 weeks.

 

To harvest a stem cell from an embryo, one must murder the embryo. According to Prolife Physicians.org, the classification of what makes life had to be defined, categorized and agreed upon in order to know if life—or the evidence of it—was found on another planet. According to the elementary definition of life (found at the link provided), this categorizes embryos as Life and harvesting the stem cells from the embryos is then categorized as murder.

To date there have been zero, nada, no cures developed from embryonic stem cell research. However, President Barack Obama revoked Bush’s order  in 2009. It is sad that the words “responsible” and “human embryo stem cell research” are in this Executive Order which negates what Bush did. Now  the FDA approves embryonic stem cell treatment for spinal injury.

The problem with this is that treatment for spinal cord injuries that have proven somewhat effective are from bone marrow stem cells not embryonic stem cells.
Stem cell treatment, using Beike’s cord mesenchymal stem cells and protocols for spinal cord injuries, is available at various hospitals in China and one in Thailand. Generally, many patients have reported improvements soon after treatment, and continue to notice more improvements for up to 12 months following the stem cell transplants.

Back in 2005 Byron Spice of the Pittsburg Gazette reported that scientists have now found cells that are “strikingly similar to embryonic stem cells in their ability to regenerate a wide variety of tissues.” They are cells found in the placenta. Since then stem cells have been found in the umbilical cord. Why must we use embryo stem cells? What makes them so much better than these other stem cells? The cells, called amniotic epithelial cells, (try pronouncing that, I dare you)potentially could be used to produce new liver cells to treat liver failure, or new pancreatic islet cells to cure diabetes or new neurons to treat Parkinson's disease. – Pittsburg Gazette, 2005

I am going to try not to sound sarcastic here. If anyone had bothered to ask me several years ago, I would have told them that there is no way God would have created a cure for anything that would require the death of another human. God just does not work that way, except only once and that was the death of His only Son to secure the life of all Believers which was on a Spiritually higher plane than mere physical healing. Other than that one instance, God does not take the lives of innocents to save other human lives. Therefore He would not grant a cure for any disease at the sacrifice of a human being's life.

Struggling with wickedness

Ever wonder why the wicked seem to prosper so well while we struggle with all kinds of things?

I did.

Jeremiah did, too, he writes 12:1  Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?  It is a terrible question. Can you imagine what it would be like to have God far from your reins? We don't have to look very far to see examples of what happens when authority and restraint are far from our reins.

A more explicit example is found in Romans 1:18-32.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

I shudder at those verses. What would it be like for God to just let go and let you have your own way? Just like children need boundaries, and actually beg for boundaries, so do we Christians. It is how we stay sane, how we stay close to God, how we stay clean. God created order from chaos which gives us our equilibrium.

The wicked may prosper but nothing is done in the dark that will not be found out. God has blessed me by letting me see the wicked be found out. Oh, not all of them, just a few, but enough for me to know that they do not prosper forever.

So what if the wicked prosper until they die? They will not prosper after death. Some of us will just have to wait until the Day of Judgment to see some of the wicked receive justice. That will be so horrendous, though, it will mean that they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. I don't care what anyone has done to me... fired me... manufactured evidence against me... betrayed me with other women... thrown me out of house and home... rejected me... spit upon me... called me all manner of things and even prayed to God for evil to befall me... None of that is worth eternal torment. I would not wish that on any person.

Have mercy, Lord. Have mercy on me and on those who revile me and reject me. Draw them close Father and pour Your Spirit over them, Father for they know not what they do. Open their eyes, Father to what they do. Make them see. Give them compassion, for they shall surely die without You.

All of that wickedness is merely temporary. The sting of losing a job only lasted until I was employed again. Admittedly, it took a lot longer to forgive my husband who betrayed me, but I don’t grind my teeth at night anymore. The other things were sword stabs, and they wounded, but not mortally. God is the great Healer. When all the attacks against our person and our spirit from wickedness whether from Satan or from other Christians are measured against how huge God is, the seeming mountain becomes a mole hill. They last no longer than the time it takes for water to pour out of the hand.

Thank goodness God is in control of believers’ lives. Why should we want Him in complete control?

Job 38 has a huge list of things that God did.

Job 38:4 Where were you when I founded the earth? Declare if you know understanding. 

Not even a twinkle in my daddy's eye! I do not understand how God spoke and brought the universe from nothing.

Job 38:5 Who has set its dimensions, do you know? Or who has stretched a line on it? 

Oh... yes! God stretched a line around the earth's middle and we can see it from space. Job didn't have the faintest notion what the line meant. He could not see the "big picture" that we can see by turning on NASA channel.

Job 38:6 On what were its bases sunk? Or who cast its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 

Ummm... Nothing? Well, not exactly nothing. We know all about gravity and how it interacts with mass and how motion has a lot to do with positioning in space. Job was a herdsman, albeit very rich, but he did not have a PhD from MIT. We humans know the answer to this question, even learned it in 11th grade science class or in physics class, but knowing it doesn't give us greater insight to God's personality.

Job 38:8  Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it burst out; it came forth from the womb? 

Lots of archeology evidence of the Great Flood. Lots of historical accounts of it dating before Moses. So, therefore, Moses must have copied the story from other sources, right? No, not, nada.

Job 38:9  When I made the clouds to clothe it, and darkness its navel-band; 10  and I broke My limit on it and set bars and doors; 11  and I said, You shall come to here, but no further; and here your proud waves shall be set?

Tides, ebbs, moon's gravitational pull. Science explains to us what God means by bars and doors and waves being set. It is only from other forces such as earthquakes that the waves set is pushed back beyond the normal high tide. But there is a door and a bar where the water cannot go beyond. Only God did that.

Job 38:12  Have you commanded the morning from your days, and caused the dawn to know its place, 

We have pictures from space of the dawn/dusk boundaries, and the boundaries of the seas, the cloud covering, the "navel-band" of darkness. But not even the strength of every living soul on earth can keep the sun from rising or the earth from rotating.

We have pictures from 4 miles under the ocean's surface that depict mountains and trenches of the seabed, and indeed man has walked the ocean's depths... but only recently.

We still cannot comprehend the hugeness of earth. We compare how "small" it is compared to how "large" Saturn and Jupiter are, and we compare how "small" they are to the vastness of the Sun. Can we truly comprehend how big earth is?

In the pictures from space only 200 miles from the earth's surface, a human being cannot be discerned, and cities look like splashes of light.

And yet, of all the things God created, He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believed on Him would never perish, but would have life eternal. Since Man is like the grass of the field, green and lush today then dry and burned tomorrow, the wicked only prosper for a flash of time. Too bad they cannot store their riches in Heaven where it will neither rust nor dissipate like fog.

5 Ways to Give Mercy

How often have you thought today: "Jesus really, truly, and deeply loves me! Little ole, human me!"

Have you recently thought about the depth and breadth of mercy that Jesus poured over us dirty, filthy sinners by loving us so much He went to the cross? He loved us first, even the stubborn ones who hang on to the mistaken belief that trusting God is like facing a raging grizzly -- a life full of unpredictable danger and strife.

That is exactly what life is like without God's mercy and grace.

Matthew 12:6-8 But I say to you, One greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this is, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," you would not have condemned the guiltless.

We like to watch a show called Forensic Files. The other day I was very surprised that a fellow who had killed a woman's daughter was spared the death sentence because the mother had pleaded for his life. She said that as long as there was life there was hope for him to repent. That kind of mercy is rare between and among humans.

Often times the victim's family cry out for vengeance not mercy.

What about that sacrifice part?

What good does that do? Not one slender whit, which happens to be much smaller than a splinter, by the way.

Mercy and forgiveness is valued by God much greater than sacrifice is. If the Hebrews had learned this, if the Jews had learned this, then they would never have turned away from Jesus. They never understood that Jesus, a completely sinless person, had to take all the sin of the world upon Himself so that we humans could be free of sin. Well, at least those humans that believe Him. Jesus said from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

Mercy is that thing that God gave us while we were still sinners. Forgiveness is what He gave us as He watched His Son go to the cross. According to the worldly thinking, that is impossible. I look around and see so much hate and so much unforgiveness and bitterness. What is so sad is that most people cannot see unforgiveness for the cancer it is. How much energy is wasted by harboring hatred and unforgiveness? It does not mean that we have to fraternize with those who have hurt us, nor do we have to allow them the opportunity to do it to us again. Jesus said to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16).

How do we do that?

1. Be willing to let go of the hurt. If we keep rolling that hurt around in our minds, nurturing the anger, nursing the hurt, reveling in the injustice of it all, we are merely playing into Satan's hands and opening our armor for the fiery dart of bitterness. Make no mistake, we can hide our feelings from friends and loved ones, but we cannot hide them from Satan. He knows our weakness and exploits it to the hilt of that dart. There is the sting. It is not the hurt from the betrayal or the hurtful words or the lack of support which deeply hurts. Of course it does. But time does heal wounds from the outside. Those self-inflicted wounds of anger kept alive, and bitterness which we keep open and bleeding by continuous poking and prodding turn to stinging cancer.

Examine that and see if it is really as bad as it feels. Sometimes, we blow things out of proportion and add importance to nit-picky things. Oh, come on, you can think of at least one time when you did that. I can think of a dozen. I am not belittling that really huge thing like infidelity. Been there, too. That kind of anger takes several years to work through. But, oh how great freedom felt when I finally let that last bit of anger go.

2. Decide to give mercy and to forgive. It absolutely is a decision. Just like deciding to lose weight or quit smoking or deciding on a worship lifestyle instead of a worldly lifestyle.

3. Understand it will take lots of time. We have the Holy Spirit inside us and we have the mind of Christ, but we are not God. It takes a lot longer for us because we've got so much more to influence us. The world, our friends and acquaintances who, sad to say, "egg" us on.

4. Set the thoughts of anger aside. Paul said to get angry but do not sin. That kind of anger is over some injustice. God does not hurt us. Nothing hurts a child of God that is a just hurt. He may discipline us and chastise us for our unruly behavior, but He will never harm us or hurt us. It is our pride that gets hurt so often, and when it is bruised, it is painful. So setting aside the thoughts also includes setting aside pride. It only gets in the way of forgiveness and gives fuel to the flame to anger. God does not like it when someone messes with His kid. His vengeance is so much wiser and so much better than ours ever could be. The question here is how can we expect mercy and forgiveness from God when we harbor unforgiveness toward a brother or sister in Christ?

5. Obey God’s command. It is commanded that we forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ anything. That hard verse comes to mind. Forgive or your Father in Heaven will not forgive you. However, giving mercy truly expresses God's heart. Doing that we begin to truly look like Him.

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and in no way be judged. Do not condemn, and in no way you will be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and good measure will be given to you, pressed down and shaken together, and running over, they will give into your bosom. For the same measure which you measure, it will be measured back to you.

If that isn't "What goes around comes around," I don't know what is. Not that karma stuff, but truly as we pour out blessings on others, God pours more and more blessings on us. We cannot out give God.

“But what about unbelievers?” Good, no, excellent question. Have you ever noticed how Jesus so often answered a question with a question?

Can a believer nurture anger and bitterness toward someone not a believer and still have room in his heart for God? How does that draw more lost to God?