Acts 13, Saul’s first Missionary journey, Preaching at Cyprus, Saul’s name changed to Paul, at Pisidian Antioch, Blessing and Conflict in Antioch.
Mark 10:17-52. A Rich Young Ruler asks what he must do to receive eternal life, but he cannot make himself do what Jesus required of him, so Jesus commented: ”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples were astounded and said: “Who then can be saved?” upon which Jesus answered “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Yes, that’s how it is with salvation. Jesus then predicted his resurrection. James and John wanted to be great, but Jesus pointed out that greatness comes by serving. The chapter finally ends as Jesus healed Bartimaeus.
Judges 19 tells in painful detail about the Levite’s Concubine and Gibeah’s crime, probably the most gruesome story in all the Bible. The Bible is honest and tells it as it was, totally wicked.
Judges 20 describes Israel’s War with the Benjamites. Another horrendous chapter.
In Judges 21 they had killed nearly all so the Israelites had to find wives for the Benjamites. The book of Judges ends fittingly: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes,” in other words, anarchy.
Why the name change from Saul to Paul?
I have counted the u.s covid-19 cases cases and deaths for the first week of April, and divided them by states requiring mask wearing and not requiring wearing masks. The mask wearing states had a death rate of 0.91% while the non mask wearing states had a death rate of 1.59%. The non mask wearing states had 244 deaths per day. This means we could have saved 244 (1.59-0,91)/1.59 = 103 lives per day as a nation if all were forced to wear a mask, everything else being equal (which of course it isn’t). (Look at Appendix 1 to see how your state is faring.)
Are there any better ways to save lives?
In March 2020 President Trump became a proponent of using HydroxyChloroQuine as a remedy for Covid-19. It was met with strong opposition from CDC and even scorn from his political opponents. CDC even published strong advice against using it to treat Covid-19, while still recommending its use to treat Lupus and rheumatoid patients with essentially no restrictions, including pregnant women and nursing mothers. After all, it had an over 50 year safety record as treatment for Malaria. Even Dr Fauci acknowledged its safety and efficacy as a cure for Coronaviruses as early as 2005, (see Appendix 2). Many countries are using HCQ as a first defense against COVID-19, and they experience on average less than half the death rate of nations that do not use HCQ as a first defense. To complicate matters, HCQ is prescribed to between 16 and 30% of all Covid cases in the U.S. As a guess with today’s 491 death’s per day, we could have saved more than 40%, about 200 lives a day, or twice as many lives as are saved by the mask mandate. The biggest problem for CDC is that HCQ is generic, cheap and easy to produce, so there is no profit in making a double blind study. For Trump opponents it was far more important to defeat Trump than to save a hunded thousand lives. ( see https://lenbilen.com/2020/09/06/u-s-a-corona-virus-death-rate-as-of-september-5-is-3-00-41-countries-have-higher-death-rates-15-countries-giving-hcqzincz-pac-to-covid-19-patients-as-soon-as-symptoms-occur-have-much-lower-death/ )
But there are other interesting cures for COVID-19, Ivermectin is fantastic. It has one problem, through.You can buy it at Tractor-supply, it is used as an antiparasitic agent for dogs and horses, and it is generic. However the worldwide interest is so big that at least 50 trials have been conducted and there is a 76% decrease in mortality. That means,using it properly would save nearly 400 lives per day.
Appendix 1
These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates:
State Cases Deaths Death rate Cases Deaths Death rate
Last seven days Total Since Pandemic started
Alabama 305 18 5.90% 517,452 10,652 2.06%
Kansas 183 8 4.37% 305,489 4,959 1.62%
California 2688 109 4.06% 3,685,570 59,884 1.62%
Kentucky 538 18 3.35% 429,841 6,184 1.44%
Arkansas 156 5 3.21% 331,505 5,660 1.71%
Nevada 309 8 2.59% 305,929 5,308 1.74%
New Mexico 200| 4 2.00% 192,989 3,963 2.05%
West Virginia 376 7 1.86% 144,820 2,735 1.89%
Guam 7,804 134 1.74%
Oregon 468 8 1.71% 168,795 2,439 1,44%
Virginia 1380 23 1.67% 631,083 10,436 1.65%
Louisiana 363 6 1.65% 447,655 10,185 2.28%
District of Columbia 116 1.4 1.21% 45,498 1,077 2.37%
Massachusetts 2142 25 1.17% 650,573 17,358 2.67%
Maryland 1311 15| 1.14% 421,823 8,410 1.99%
Puerto Rico 210,181 2,139| 1.04%
New York 7552 76 1.01% 1,968,112 51,120 2.60%
North Carolina 1526 15| 0.98% 924,810 12,212 1.32%
Indiana 994 9 0.91% 693452 13,099 1.89%
Washington 1007 9 0.89% 375,725 5,368 1.43%
Ohio 1900 17 0.89% 1,030,864 18,741 1.82%
U.S. Virgin Islands 2,945 26 0.88%
Wisconsin 733 6 0.82% 582,643 6,667 1.14%
Pennsylvania 4162 27 0.75% 1,063,979 25,440 2.39%
Utah 398 3 0.75% 388,426 2,139 0.55%
Illinois 2982 20 0.67% 1.269,196 23,740 1.87%
New Jersey 4166 27 0.65% 942,311 24,783 2.63%
Hawaii 97 0.6 0.62% 30,363 467 1.54%
Connecticut 1045 6 0.57% 319,779 7,940 2.48%
Michigan 7226 40 0.55% 804,031 17,450 2.17%
New Hampshire 394 2 0.51% 86,035 1,250 1.45%
Colorado 1481 7 0.47% 474,053 6,294 1.33%
Minnesota 1931 9 0.47% 535,182 6,990 1.31%
Vermont 164 0.7 0.43% 20,615 231 1.12%
Delaware 320 1.1 0.34% 97,042 1,567 1.61%
Maine 316 0.4 0.13%| 53,434 750 1.40%
American Samoa 0 0 0.00%
Total 48,929 447 0.91% 20,160,004 377,797 1,87%
These are the states and territories without mask mandates:
State Cases Deaths Death rate Cases Deaths Death rate
Last seven days Total Since Pandemic started
Montana 144 6 4.17% 105,526 1,489 1.41%
Georgia 1253 36 2.87% 1,068,199 19,305 1.81%
Mississippi 209 6 2.87% 306,611 7,077 2.31%
Texas 2,886 79 2.74% 2,817,742 49,124 1.74%
Iowa 562 13 2.31% 384,173 5,843 1.52%
Nebraska 274 6 2.19% 212,785 2,183 1.03%
Wyoming 59 0.9 1.53% 56,802 701 1.23%
Missouri 594 8 1.35% 581,164 9,196 1.58%
Arizona 628 8 1.27% 846,230 17,023 2.01%
N. Mariana Islands 159| 2 1.26%
South Carolina 1001 11 1.10% 559,597 9,237 1.65%
Idaho 278 3 1.08% 182,841 1,989 1.09%
Florida 5489 56 1.02% 2,096,747 33,844 1.61%
Tennessee 1094 10 0.91% 820,965 11,997 1.46%
South Dakota 244 0.9 0.37% 119,197 1,939 1.63%
North Dakota 154 0.3 0.19% 104,364 1,468 1.41%
Oklahoma 275 0 0.00% 441,906 6,669 1.51%
Alaska 172 0 0.00% 61,198 309 0.50%
Total 15,316 244 1.59% 10,766,206 179,393 1.67%
Appendix 2:
Dr Fauci also wrote about mask wearing during the Spanish Flu
In Mark 10:1-16 Jesus explained the Christian concept of Marriage: One man, one woman, one lifetime,“6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Then Jesus blessed the little children and said: “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”
Judges 16 contains the vivid story of Samson and Delilah and how he finally was captured. In his death Samson slew many more than when he lived.
Judges 17 is short, contains only the telling of Micah’s Idolatry.
Judges 18, as the Danites had failed to take their allotted land from the Philistines they wandered around and finally settled in Laish and changed the name of the city to Dan, and there they still practiced idolatry.
Mark 9:33-50. Jesus’ disciples argued among themselves who was the greatest. To give a perfect object lesson Jesus picked up a little child and explained what it means to be a servant of all. Jesus taught unity, not division, “whoever is not against us is for us,” and warned of of the dire consequences of offenses and told them to be “salt with savor” and to be at peace with each other.
Judges 12 records Jephthah’s Conflict with Ephraim where they killed people based on their accent. After that three more people, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon led Israel.
Judges 13 tells of bad times for Israel for forty years. Then came a glimmer of hope, the birth of Samson.
Judges 14. Samson started out great, but then he took a Philistine as his Wife.
Judges 15. Samson defeated the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
This prophesy from Isaiah has been unfulfilled unto this day. Yet, Damascus is back in the news with Russia, the Assad regime, Iran and Turkey all fighting for control of Syria.
Mark 9:1-32,Mark 9 begins with the Transfiguration and gives an explanation regarding Elijah, he had already come. Then a boy with an evil spirit was healed and the disciples asked Jesus why they could not drive out the evil spirit. He answered: “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” After that Jesus predicted his death and resurrection but the disciples did not understand it.
Judges 10. Things went from bad to worse with Tola, Jair and Jephthah as leaders, so the Israelites were again oppressed. They finally repented and got rid of their false gods.
Judges 11 describes the glorious victory and tragic vow of Jephthah. Jephthah’s Daughter is forever memorialized.
Psalm 33 is a Psalm about the sovereignty of God in creation and history. Here and in many other places of the Bible it encourages us to “sing a new song”.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 