Sinners

The great evangelist George Whitefield once received a letter in which he was brutally criticized by a peer. He was called everything but a preacher. Whitefield, with impeccable clarity, penned the best response to criticism I've ever encountered. He wrote his assassin a brief reply: "Thank you sir for your criticism. If you knew about me what I know about me, you would have written a longer letter." Genius. Whitefield got it. _We all deserve longer letters._ If we can ever get here in our hearts, the world will open up to us. The gospel says, "Get here soon." - from "What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him" by Byron Forrest Yawn

We are all sinners.  Let us recognise this and turn to the Lord for Salvation.

Are Vaccinations Ethical?

I talked with the chaplain last week about a number of things, including vaccinations and I wanted to share what I have learned in some of my research. There are certain types of them that I believe are unethical and I will not take them. I realize that a topic like vaccinations could get rather heated. This is a matter of conscience - good Christian people could disagree about the ethical concerns of using this type of vaccination. I think it may be possible for Christian people to both use them with a good conscience, but the information should still be put out there for people to make their own decisions.

In a number of vaccines human cell lines are used (usually as the culture to grow the virus in). Both of the lines used are originated from murdered unborn babies.

On the CDC website itself are the following two documents:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-1.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf

These are both directly on the CDC website and can be found by searching for "excipient" on their website.

The second document looks like it was actually composed in 2012. It lists recent vaccines that were made with MRC-5 and WI-38 human diploid tissue. A mere google search will turn up the following about these tissue lines:

"MRC-5 (Lung, diploid, human)

"Derived from normal lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus by J. P. Jacobs in September 1966 (Nature 227: 168-170, 1970), the MRC-5 cell line was established in a growth medium consisting of Earle's Basal Medium in Earle's balanced salt solution supplemented with 10% calf serum. Following initial cultivation, subcultures were prepared twice weekly at a 1:2 ratio. When the cells reached approximately the 7th population doubling, the majority of the cultures were harvested to prepare a frozen cell stock. Subsequent observations revealed that the MRC-5 cells are capable of attaining 42-46 population doublings before onset of the decline in proliferation usually experienced with human fibroblast lines. The MRC-5 cell strain (like the WI-38 cell line) is susceptible to a wide range of human viruses." (http://www.viromed.com/services/product/mrc5.htm)

"WI-38
(Lung, diploid, human)

"The WI-38 human diploid cell line was derived by L. Hayflick from normal embryonic (3-month gestation) lung tissue of a female (Exp. Cell Res. 25: 585, 1961). The growth medium used was Eagle's medium in Earle's balanced salt solution supplemented with 10% calf serum. The cells have a finite lifetime of 50 (plus or minus 10) population doublings with a doubling time of 24 hours (Exp. Cell Res. 37: 614, 1965). The cell line has been shown to have one of the broadest human virus spectra of any cell population that has been tested and is especially useful for isolation of rhinoviruses." (http://www.viromed.com/services/product/wi38.htm)

Notice they have their own citation for where this cell line originates. I have no way to check theirs, but the information can found on other pages, and is not from a page that is in anyway biased against the use of such cells. (Not that bias is bad.)

What keeps you from leading well?

I am reading "What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him" by Byron Forrest Yawn. He says:

"Here's the deal. In order to be freed from the fear of man and be comfortable in your own skin you have to answer ["What's your greatest weakness?"] honestly for yourself. I don't mean surface answers either. I mean the "thing beneath the thing" type answer. I have an anger problem goes to I'm selfish and when people don't do exactly what I say I destroy them with words. I'm not very patient, goes to I'm blindly arrogant and consider anyone who makes a mistake incompetent. I don't like to open up and talk, goes to I'm so immature and delinquent I'm embarrassed someone will see it. I haven't found the career I want, goes to I'm too afraid to try anything that requires strength of character. If you get it out there and deal with it, you'll know how your grandfather felt at seventy.
"By the time a man reaches premarital counseling, he should know these things. There should exist an inventory. He should be able to tell his bride and counselor exactly what it is about him that will make following him a challenge. ..."

Here is a challenge to my friends, especially those in a relationship who are not yet married:
First, make a list of the things that will make it difficult for your future bride to follow you, and a list of what you are doing to fix them.
Second, ask your significant other to make a list of the things that she sees.
Third, compare and discuss your lists, (yes, it may hurt, but suck it up) and pray together that God would help you overcome those things, by His grace.

If you are following Jesus as your Lord, thank Him that His death covers all your failures and gives you the strength you need to continue the fight. With confidence continue the fight, striving for holiness!

"Many people have asked me, 'How can you tell whether you've got a friendship on which you can base a marriage?' The answer that Kathy and I have always given is this. When you see the problems in each other, do you just ant to run away, or do you find a desire to work on them together? If the second impulse is yours, they you have the makings of a marriage. Do you obsess over your partner's external shortcomings, or can you see the beauty within, and do you want to see it increasingly revealed? Then move forward. The power of truth that marriage has should hold no fear for you." - Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, p. 144