New Release Nothing Else Matters by Brian Mayes
“A Dose of Optimism” for the pandemic: The daily key to empowering hope
Donald McNeil is the New York Times science and health reporter focusing on plagues. He has “become a household name for many over the past several months” due to his early and consistent reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. His article this week in the Times, titled “A Dose of Optimism, as the Pandemic Rages On,” has therefore drawn significant attention.
McNeil reports that “non-pharmaceutical interventions” such as mask-wearing and social distancing have “made a huge difference in lives saved.” Now he focuses on pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. On this front, he has become “cautiously optimistic,” citing experts who “are saying, with genuine confidence, that the pandemic in the United States will be over far sooner than they expected, possibly by the middle of next year.”
We have already fared far better than we did during the Spanish influenza, the pandemic to which this one is often compared. It cost 675,000 lives in a country of 103 million, a toll equivalent to two million dead today.
In addition, the flu season in the Southern Hemisphere was almost nonexistent this year because of social distancing and mask-wearing. As a result, if Americans get their flu shots, we can hope to avoid a “twindemic” of coronavirus and influenza. Monoclonal antibodies such as the regimen given to President Trump are making progress, and the FDA is likely to begin approval of vaccines sometime in the next three months.
Such progress is expected to catalyze markets and jumpstart the global economy.
The first person in the US to contract coronavirus twice
This is very good news, coming at a time when we need such pandemic-related hope.
A twenty-five-year-old man in Nevada with no history of significant underlying conditions has become the first confirmed US patient to become reinfected with COVID-19. He has now recovered, though his second case was more…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.
Three Filters for Helping to Discern God’s Call
When I started pastoring, I had little doubt I would remain a co-vocational pastor indefinitely. I enjoyed my corporate job. I clearly understood my calling to pastor. In what I thought was an ideal arrangement, I served my church in the evenings and on the weekends while maintaining my day job. But after two years God called me to serve another church full-time. The season of ministry changed. My income went down, and my stress went up. But—for the most part—I remained content.
A certain (uncomfortable) peace comes with following God’s call.
A few years ago, I started a group in my church dubbed “Project Shepherd.” The goal of the group was to equip men called to lead the church—future preachers, pastors, and missionaries. When I floated the idea to my church, little did I know two dozen men would step forward and acknowledge God had called them. The group was four times the size of my first church.
Hearing them verbalize their callings brought back emotions from the beginning of my calling. I was certain God had called me to pastor. I was not certain exactly what that meant. The guys in my Project Shepherd group knew they were called, but like me, the did not know what was next. The common theme with this group was the question, “How do I know what I’m supposed to do?”
I shared with my group three filters for early discernment: position, church, and place. These three frames can help narrow a calling.
Position. Some church leaders are called to a specific…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Thom Rainer.
Second Mass Death of Marine Animals Occurs Off of Russian Peninsula Close to Where 95% of Seabed Life Died Last Week – Urban Christian News
A mass death of marine animals has been discovered off the coast of a Russian peninsula just over a week after a similar finding in the area.
Scientists and others reported seeing dead animals along the seabed of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east, authorities said on Monday.
The discovery was made south of an October 5th find in which 95% of marine life died in an unexplained event.
Kamchatka regional governor Vladimir Solodov announced the second ‘extremely large’ mass death on Instagram on Monday, saying neighbouring beaches had not been affected, the Moscow Times reported.
Climate change ‘and other polluting effects as we humankind cause to the Pacific Ocean’ were ‘almost certainly linked’ to the deaths, Solodov said.
He added that he couldn’t say that a Soviet-era storage facility housing poisonous chemicals had been responsible for the deaths, as has been speculated since the first incident last week.
Earlier on Monday, Andrei Adrianov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the mass death was the result of toxins from microalgae, known as algal bloom.
Marine biologists have backed Adrianov’s theory, highlighting the presence of yellow foam – a phenomenon associated with algal blooms – which could be seen from space.
Soldov said he has requested a ‘comprehensive research project’ from the Russian government to explain the mass deaths.
‘We’ve encountered a new large-scale phenomenon that science has yet to comprehend,’ he said.
Alarm was raised last month when surfers and swimmers in the area began…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Urban Christian News
Golden Retriever Protects Crying Girl as She is Being Told Off by Her Mother – Urban Christian News
This is the heart-warming moment a family dog called Harry rushed to protect his young owner from being told off by her mother in China.
The parent got extremely upset after discovering that her new facial cream had been ripped open and used by her two-year-old child.
While the woman was scolding her daughter, their five-year-old golden retriever ran to shield the crying child with his paws.
The pet, named after J.K. Rowling’s fictional character Harry Potter, also snarled at the parent, seemingly telling her to back off.
Harry’s adorable reaction was captured by the pet owner, Ms Sun, on Friday at their home in eastern Chinese city Xuzhou.
The Chinese mother had just purchased a facial cream for her daughter and left it in the living room as she went to prepare lunch.
After she returned, the woman was exasperated to find that her toddler daughter, You You, teared up the product packaging while playing with the tub of moisturiser.
‘I was honestly really upset. I’d just bought the cream and half of it was already gone,’ Ms Sun, 32, told MailOnline. ‘My baby started crying because I was shouting at her quite aggressively.’
But the parent’s anger melted away when she saw her golden retriever, Harry, rushing to protect the little girl from being scolded.
Footage shows the furry guardian standing in front of the crying toddler while baring his teeth at the mother, seemingly warning her to stop.
The pet even became more defensive as the mother told him to move out of the way.
‘You, get up. Stop protecting [her],’ Ms Sun can be heard saying in the video.
Harry also…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Urban Christian News
Greg Laurie Is Set to Return to the Pulpit on Sunday following COVID-19 Diagnosis
After testing positive for COVID-19, author and pastor Greg Laurie will return to the pulpit on Sunday according to The Christian Post.
The Harvest Christian Fellowship Senior Pastor experienced symptoms after attending an event for Supreme Court Justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett, but later told his congregation that the symptoms “were never that bad.”
“As you know I’ve been dealing with COVID-19 and so many of you have taken the time to pray for me and let me know that you’re praying for me so I’m happy to report that I’m doing great and feel great,” he said after completing 10 days of quarantine.
“The fact of the matter is, my symptoms were never that bad. Thank God for that. I know it isn’t that way for everyone and I attribute that to so many people praying. Let’s remember to continue to pray for all of those infected with the coronavirus that they have a quick and complete recovery.”
Laurie told CBN News that he received a positive test after experiencing fatigue, aches, pains, fever, and trouble with his sense of taste.
He was one of many political and religious leaders to contract the virus after Barrett’s nomination ceremony, including President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. The President was admitted into Walter Reed Medical Center the day after his diagnosis, but was released only three days later. COVID-19 has killed an…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
College ministries find new ways to reach students amid lockdowns
For hundreds of thousands of college students across the U.S., campus ministries play a key role in finding community, building friendships, and discovering a sense of purpose and belonging.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the college experience. Between strict social distancing policies, limited gatherings, and in some cases, campus-wide shutdowns, students are no longer able to connect in traditional ways.
In these uncertain times, college ministries are tasked with finding alternative methods to reaching students with the truth of the Gospel — and they’re finding new and innovative ways to rise to the occasion.
“God is doing something new and exciting, and He often does it through suffering and disrupting the things we’re comfortable with,” Noah Haas, chief of staff for The Navigators, told The Christian Post. “God works through disruption. It’s easy to rely on things you’ve done in the past, but God isn’t allowing us to settle for that. The needs are significant right now. We want to meet students where they are because we believe that the…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.
Amy Coney Barrett Says Judges Shouldn’t ‘Impose Their Will on the World’
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday explained her judicial philosophy as an “originalist” and said it’s not a judge’s role to impose his or her “will on the world.”
Barrett, if confirmed, would replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and become the first mother of school-age children to serve on the court. She has seven children.
Barrett was appearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as it held its second day of hearings and began its questioning of her.
Her embrace of originalism – a judicial philosophy held by the late Antonin Scalia, a member of the conservative bloc and a hero of the Right – would be a dramatic departure from the liberal philosophy of Ginsburg. Explaining originalism and her view of the Constitution, she told senators, “I understand [the Constitution] to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it. That meaning doesn’t change over time and it’s not up to me to update it or infuse my own policy views into it.”
“Judges can’t just wake up one day and say, ‘I have an agenda. I like guns; I hate guns. I like abortion; I hate abortion’ – and walk in like a royal Queen and impose their will on the world,” Barrett said.
Barrett, 48, called Scalia a “mentor.” But Barrett – who clerked for Scalia – quickly added, “I want to be careful to say that if I’m confirmed, you would not be getting Justice…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
Pandemic hits SDA church with estimated $26M decline in tithes
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is now in “survival” mode financially as it estimates a $26 million decline in tithe and mission offerings from their more than 21 million members around the world amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“According to reports received from division treasurers, the decrease in tithe income could be estimated as low as 5 percent and as high as 25 percent in some places, and the decrease in mission offerings as low as 10 percent and as high as 40 percent,” world church treasurer Juan Prestol-Puesán said during his Oct. 8 financial update to the members of the General Conference Executive Committee, according to the Adventist Review.
The Adventist Church headquarters estimates the impact of the decline will amount to $26 million and pointed to budget control measures such as the suspension of allocations to selected functions; introduction of budget reductions for departments and programs; and reduction, reallocation, and redirection of personnel to blunt the impact of the decline in donations.
Prestol-Puesán said between March and June 2020, all major church…
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Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – The Christian Post.
Israeli Archaeologists Find Ancient Weight from First Temple Period
Israeli archaeologists found an ancient weight from the time of the first Jewish temple built by Solomon.
The weight was found near the Western Wall beneath Wilson’s Arch, an ancient stone arch, in Jerusalem.
According to CBN News, the weight is the measurement of two shekalim.
“The weight is dome-shaped with a flat base. On the top of the weight is an incised Egyptian symbol resembling a Greek gamma (γ), representing the abbreviated unit ‘shekel.’ Two incised lines indicate the double mass: two shekalim,” said Dr. Barak Monnickendam-Givon and Tehillah Lieberman, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The shekel weight system was used during the First Temple period for annual taxes that were used for temple maintenance.
“According to previous finds, the known weight of a single shekel is 11.5 grams, thus a double shekel should weigh 23 grams – exactly as this weight does. The accuracy of the weight attests to advanced technological skills as well as to the weight given to precise trade and commerce in ancient Jerusalem. Coins were not yet in use during this period, therefore the accuracy of the weights played a significant role in business,” said Dr. Monnickendam-Givon and Tehillah Lieberman.
The weights would have also been used for sacrifices, offerings, food and other items.
“How exciting, in the month of Tishrei, whose symbol is the scales of…
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Click here to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Christian Headlines.
