April 28, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read one chapter in the Acts of the Apostles and two chapters in 1 Samuel.

April 28: Acts 9, 1 Samuel 18, 1 Samuel 19 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Acts 9. On the road to Damascus Saul was Converted.  Ananias met up with Saul and from that time on Saul preached Christ. The Jews decided to kill Saul, but he escaped at night by being lowered out  through a window, hidden in a basket. Saul then went to Jerusalem. The believers were at first suspicious of him, but Barnabas told what had happened to Saul, and accepting Saul’s conversion the Church Prospered. Later Saul healed the paralytic Aeneas, and in Joppa a woman named Tabitha (or Dorcas) died. The believers immediately called for Peter, and he uttered the words “Tabitha cumi” and she rose up again.

1 Samuel 18. Saul began to resent David, and no wonder, women started chanting “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Saul’s daughter Michal fell in love with David, and Saul let them marry after a rather unusual dowry, but he became more and more suspicious and afraid of David.

In 1 Samuel 19 the paranoia is fully developed, and Saul persecuted David, trying to kill him over and over again.

April 27, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read two chapters in the Acts of the Apostles and two chapters in 1 Samuel.

April 27: Acts 8, 1 Samuel 16, 1 Samuel 17 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Acts 8. Saul persecuted the Church, it was so  severe that the believers scattered all over the nations. Thanks to the persecution the Gospel reached Samaria where Philip met Simon the Sorcerer who came to believe, but he still thought the Holy Spirit could be purchased with money! Finally Philip met the Ethiopian eunuch. Thanks to God’s word in the scroll of Isaiah, he too came to believe and was baptized.

1 Samuel 16, Samuel anointed David as King after rejecting all of David’s older brothers and David entered into Saul’s service while Saul was still the titular King. Whenever Saul’s spirit troubled him David played for him and that soothed Saul.

1 Samuel 17 tells the story of David and Goliath. Just read it, it is great reading.

April 26, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read only one chapter in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is a giant chapter.

April 26: Acts 7 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Acts 7 begins with Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin and ends with the Stoning of Stephen.

Vitamin D – one weapon to combat the coronavirus.

 

The organization Grassroots health put out the results of 212 people that had the COVID-19 virus, roughly 50 each having a critical or severe or normal or mild outcome. The results were stunning. Nearly all with a high level of vitamin D level in the blood had a mild outcome, as opposed to those with a vitamin D deficiency.

Up to now vitamin D deficiency has mostly been a concern for the people with the following risk factors, but not as a virus fighter.

  • Osteoporosis or other bone disorder
  • Previous gastric bypass surgery
  • Age; vitamin D deficiency is more common in older adults.
  • Obesity
  • Lack of exposure to sunlight
  • Having a darker complexion
  • Difficulty absorbing fat in your diet

It should be fairly simple and fast to expand this analysis to a larger sample of people that also include people with antibodies to COVID-19 but never showed any symptoms.

If this holds true, we did the exact wrong thing by keeping people indoors in hope to slow the spread. Instead we should have encouraged people to be outdoors as much as possible, still practicing hygiene and social distance, give vitamin D to all over 65 (4000 IU), to all obese and people of dark complexion.

This is by no means the only suggestion, but it is one more weapon in the arsenal to combat this virus.

April 25, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read one chapter in the Acts of the Apostles and two chapters in 1 Samuel.

April 25: Acts 6, 1 Samuel 14, 1 Samuel 15 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Acts 6. To better serve the needs of widows seven people were chosen, among them Stephen. They would later be called deacons.  Stephen spoke boldly about Jesus, in the Spirit, and was seized and so a trial began.

In 1 Samuel 14  Jonathan Defeated the Philistines. Saul’s made an oath that no one was allowed to eat until nightfall. Jonathan didn’t know that, so he ate, and Saul wanted to put Jonathan to death but his men refused the King’s order, and thus Jonathan’s life was spared.

1 Samuel 15, the chapter where Saul is rejected as King.

It is more dangerous to live in a state with a Democrat Governor than it is with a Republican Governor, at least in regard to COVID-19

Taking a snapshot of the COVID-19 cases as of Apr 23 I was curious to see if there were any differences in infection and death rates between states that has a Democrat Governor and those states that has a Republican Governor. And indeed there is, there are nearly three times as many cases (2.89) in states with a Democrat Governor as there are in states with a Republican governor, and the death rate is 62% higher, a more telling statistic.

There could be many reasons for this discrepancy, but here is some food for thought: The indoor environment is where most viruses spread, elevators, staircases, central ventilation, mass transportation just to name a few. This is typical of the urban environment. Living in rural areas on the other hand, much more time is spent outdoors, in sunshine, which kills the virus nearly immediately and fresh air is very good for basic health. Therefore to issue a nationwide ban to stay inside was the wrong thing to do. Cleanliness, social distancing and get outside as much as possible would have been much better. Go out, plant your garden, take your boat out for a weekend spin or visit your cottage in the woods. If you don’t have a cottage just take a walk in the woods and listen to the sounds of spring, but don’t put canned music in your ears. If you don’t have any woods nearby, use any area not crowded.  That is one way to eliminate cabin fever.

Here are the statistics, state by state.

Democratic governor      Cases                  Deaths

New York                             268,581                 20861

New Jersey                         100,025                 5428

California                             39620                    1531

Pennsylvania                     37053                    1685

Illinois                                   36934                    1688

Michigan                              35291                    2997

Louisiana                             25739                    1599

Connecticut                        23100                    1639

Washington                        12753                    711

Virginia                                 11594                    410

Colorado                              11262                    552

North Carolina                   7854                       281

Rhode Island                      6256                       189

Wisconsin                            5052                       257

Nevada                                4208                       189

Kentucky                             3481                       191

District of Columbia        3361                       139

Delaware                             3308                       92

Minnesota                          2942                       200

Kansas                                  2734                       113

New Mexico                       2379                       78

Oregon                                 2127                       83

Maine                                   937                         44

Hawaii                                   596                         12

Montana                             442                         14

Total:                            647,099                   40,983  Death rate 6.33%

 

 

Republican governor     Cases                    Deaths

Massachusetts                  46023                    2360

Florida                                  29648                    987

Texas                                    22393                    576

Georgia                                21883                    881

Maryland                             15737                    748

Ohio                                      14694                    656

Indiana                                 13039                    706

Tennessee                          8266                       170

Missouri                               6384                       243

Alabama                              5832                       201

Arizona                                 5769                       249

Mississippi                          5153                       201

South Carolina                   4917                       150

Iowa                                      3924                       96

Utah                                      3612                       35

Oklahoma                           3017                       179

Arkansas                              2599                       45

Nebraska                             2124                       47

South Dakota                     1956                       9

Idaho                                    1836                       54

New Hampshire                1670                       51

West Virginia                      981                         31

Vermont                              825                         43

North Dakota                     709                         15

Wyoming                             453                         7

Alaska                                   337                         9

Total:                           223,781                       8,749      Death rate 3.91%

April 24, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read one chapter in the Acts of the Apostles and three chapters in 1 Samuel.

April 24: Acts 5, 1 Samuel 11, 1 Samuel 12, 1 Samuel 13 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira were lying to the Holy Spirit and fell down dead. This lead to great fear and great power in the Church. An Angel of the LORD came during the night and freed the Apostles that had been jailed the previous day. They went back to the Temple courts and got called in to the Sanhedrin again for the crime of preaching about Jesus, but Gamaliel gave them good advice, they listen and after flogging the Apostles they let them go.

In 1 Samuel 11 King Saul rescued Jabesh Gilead. Then the people reaffirmed Saul as King.

1 Samuel 12 contains Samuel’s speech at Saul’s coronation.

1 Samuel 13  the real trouble began, Saul offered an unlawful sacrifice, so God would no longer fight for them, Saul’s kingship would be taken away and God would choose a king after his own heart. The weapons for the army were taken away from the Israelites and the Philistines took control of the iron trade.

Ramadan will begin tonight after sundown – or will it?

In 2020 the month of Ramadan will begin at sundown tonight Apr 23. Will it? That depends on what kind of Muslim you are. If you are a Sunni Muslim it begins right at sundown  on Apr 23. If you are a Shiite you also have to see the crescent moon after sunset, in the twilight. This usually occurs one day later , so for most Shiites Ramadan starts Apr 24. Ramadan starts every year 10 or 11 days earlier than the previous year, so in a century Muslims have 103 Ramadan months, and also 103 years.

During Ramadan you must observe a total fast from sunrise to sunset if you are a Sunni, if you are a Shiite you must fast from dawn to the end of twilight. The fasting is total, no eating, no drinking even if there is risk of dehydration during the hot summer days. As an extra prohibition, no sexual relations or vomiting is permitted during this time, and if you are temporary ill you must make up the time later so the total time of fasting is 30 days. This has its problems in northern latitudes if Ramadan occurs in the Summer, especially near or above the polar circle, you could go for more than a month without eating or drinking, so they have set a time limit for fasting, it doesn’t begin before 3 A.M. and doesn’t end after 9 P.M. sun time, not standard or daylight savings time.

All Muslims are encouraged to pray five times a day, kneeling down with the face near the ground facing Mecca. Muhammad and his followers used to face Jerusalem, but when they moved to Medina they changed direction and faced Mecca to distinguish them from the Jews, who faced Jerusalem.

During Ramadan these prayers become mandatory. Normally a Mosque looks like this during Ramadan prayer

This year is different. You are supposed to pray at home, but when do you start your prayer? It matters greatly when you do it. Luckily there are apps available that will tell all the proper time to start your prayers for over 3 million locations.

The times are FAJR (crack of dawn), Sunrise, DHUHR ( a couple of minutes past the Zenith of the sun, ASR (afternoon), Maghrib (Sunset), ISHA (end of twilight) and finally QIJAM (night prayer) which is voluntary for all except for Sufis which have to recite all 99 names of Allah starting right at midnight sun time. The noon prayer is very important, it must be started a couple of minutes after the sun passes its Zenith. To pray right through noon would be offensive to Allah.

Being a Christian am thankful to be able to go to the throne of grace, praying directly to God the Father in the name of Jesus at any time of the day or night. The door is always open.

 

April 23, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read one chapter in the Acts of the Apostles and two chapters in 1 Samuel.

April 23: Acts 4, 1 Samuel 9, 1 Samuel 10 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Acts 4. Peter and John were arrested and hauled before the Sanhedrin, were told not to speak about Jesus anymore. Their response? “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” They were let go and continued telling about Jesus and his resurrection, and a good time was had by all, sharing all things.

1 Samuel 9. Saul  was a tall and handsome man, his father had lost some donkeys, so he sent Saul and his servant to look for them. Not finding them for three days they went to the prophet Samuel, God tells Samuel to meet them, and so they meet up, and thus Saul was chosen to be King.

In 1 Samuel 10 Saul was Anointed King and proclaimed King over all Israel.