St. Jude's Breakthrough Treatment

St. Jude's Breakthrough Treatment--to GOD Be the Glory

How This St. Jude's Breakthrough Treatment Helped a 2-Year-Old Child Defeat Stage 4 Cancer:

"It Was Literally as Bad as it Gets"

News Staff

"His entire face and skull was full of cancer, and all of his bones were full of cancer. He had a large tumor that was present in the middle of his body." -Dr. Sara Federico

(Memphis, TN)— [CBN News] Gideon Purchase's appearance today of a happy, lively 2-year-old hides the long battle he's fought for most of his life.

At six months of age, he began losing his appetite and wasn't sleeping. More fussy than usual, his parents thought all of the symptoms were related to teething.

Then a yellowish bruise appeared over one eye. The next day, it covered both eyes and a lump appeared on his head.

A quick visit to the doctor resulted in a devastating diagnosis for his parents—stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma.

"It's literally as bad as it gets," Gideon's mother Katie Purchase told NBC's Today.

The boy was taken by Medivac to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., where scans revealed the spread of the disease.

"His entire face and skull was full of cancer, and all of his bones were full of cancer," recalled St. Jude physician Dr. Sara Federico. "He had a large tumor that was present in the middle of his body."

But through the mercy of God, there was hope for Gideon. St. Jude doctors had a plan to attack the cancer that was growing in his body.

They treated Gideon using a new technique combining an antibody with chemotherapy at the beginning, middle and end of treatment.

"The early results are surpassing all of our wildest expectations," Federico said.

Within six weeks of the new clinical trial, Gideon saw amazing progress.

"He went from 84 percent of his marrow having tumors to zero percent," Federico explained.

The tumors on his face, arms, and legs completely disappeared and others had dramatically shrunk. However, Gideon still had to undergo a bone marrow transplant and follow up radiation treatments.

"Being how aggressive this disease is, they can't leave one cell alive," his father, Gary, said.

After 15 months of treatment, Gideon's doctors finally declared him healthy.

"You yearn for the day when you're not toting around an entire IV tree behind your kid," Gary said. "And then it happens, and you just kind of sit there like, 'Wow. We made it!'"

Today, Gideon is a cancer-free, rambunctious young boy. His parents say they appreciate every moment with him.

"It makes you appreciate the little things. Suddenly, life's problems just don't seem like a big deal anymore," Gary said. "He makes us treasure every day. To God be the glory"

Words to Ponder

Words to Ponder

The BIBLE

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His mercy endures forever." Psalm 107:1

Quotes of Presidents

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves." Abraham Lincoln

Wise Words

" When you turn a blind eye to atrocities, you are complicit in them." David Crossman

Franklin Graham Responds to Matt Lauer Scandal

Franklin Graham Responds to Matt Lauer Scandal:
"Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out" by Leah Marieann Klett
"This is a warning to all of us to examine our lives." -Franklin Graham
...

(New York, NY)—[Gospelherald.com]

Evangelist Franklin Graham said the firing of longtime "Today Show" anchor Matt Lauer over sexual misconduct allegations is a "warning to all of us to examine our lives."

The son of Billy Graham and founder of Samaritan's Purse weighed in on the controversy in a Facebook post:

"What we're seeing in the recent string of what is termed 'misconduct' really boils down to a morality issue--people failing to follow God's standards, and that is called sin," he contended. "The Bible tells us '... be sure your sin will find you out.' This is a warning to all of us to examine our lives."

The evangelist emphasized that the commandment doesn't just apply to movie stars, media personalities, and politicians, but to everyone.

"One sin leads to others and can have a great impact on our own lives and the lives of those around us," he said. "Sin has devastating consequences--here on earth, and for eternity. But God is anxious for us to come to Him in repentance and ask for His forgiveness and help. True healing comes through trusting Jesus Christ in faith and following Him as the Lord of our lives."

Adorned by the Doctrine of God

Adorned by the Doctrine of God

From: Today God Is First by Os Hillman

"Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things" (Titus 2:9-10).

The island of Crete was known for its corruption and many false gods. It was also the center of the jewelry trade. Thus, the use of the word "adorn" in the above passage may have been intentional by Paul due to this fact.

Titus and the believers in Crete were challenged by Paul to adorn their lives with the doctrine of God. Whenever you are challenged by an environment that is corrupt and ungodly, you have an opportunity to let your light shine before those in that culture.

The greater the corruption, the greater your light can shine. It is not a time to flee, it is a time to shine brighter.

Paul addressed five unique things believers could do:

1) Be obedient to their masters. They were to submit to their authority structures

2) Be well pleasing in all things. This meant doing their work with excellence

3) Not answer back. They were to handle conflict with wisdom and courtesy

4) Not pilfer. They were not to steal, but model integrity

5) Show all good fidelity. This meant demonstrating loyalty and dependability

Do you find your environment difficult to work in?

The answer is to live to glorify the Lord in the midst of your culture. The way you live your life will be viewed by many others.

An industry survey revealed the average person will come in contact with 300 people over the course of a year through their work. What better opportunity to let your life be adorned by the doctrine of God.

St. Francis Assisi agrees: He encouraged believers in his day to "preach the gospel always and when necessary use words."

Christians Aren't Getting the Job Done

Christians Aren't Getting the Job Done by Bill Wilson

As a prophetic people living in a prophetic time, we Christians should be focused on the commands of Jesus rather than self-indulgent, extra-biblical and emotional activities that are distractions from The Great Commission.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

In Mark 16:15, he said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Are we effective witnesses? Are we as a whole obeying and serving Jesus? According to a recent poll by the American Culture and Faith Institute, we have some work to do.

 

Executive Director and Founder George Barna developed a measure that evaluates if a person has confessed their personal sin, asked Jesus Christ to save them, and believes they will live eternally in Heaven only because of His grace toward them.

Barna reports that the "proportion of adults who meet the born again criterion has been on a downward trajectory since 2010. For the 15 year period from 1991 through 2005, an average of 40% of the adult population qualified as born again. That average rose slightly, to 44%, during the five years from 2006 to 2010. Since that time, however, the mean has plummeted to just 36%, with 2017 producing the lowest proportion of born again adults since Barna began the tracking process in 1991."

 

According to Barna's research, the 2017 average indicates that just 31% of adults are born again. Barna says this trend is not likely to reverse itself,

An analysis of faith by age group indicates that America's two older generations are more likely to be born again than are younger adults: 33% of those 65 or older and 37% of people 50 to 64 are born again. In comparison, 31% of those in their 30s and 40s are born again while only 23% of adults under 30 fit the criteria.

As older Americans pass away, the population proportion of younger adults will increase, continuing to drive down the born again proportion in the years to come. Children and teenagers are exhibiting a lower likelihood of becoming born again, too, further limiting the possibility of the growth of this segment."

 

Barna noted, "Fewer churches emphasize and equip people for evangelism these days, and the results are obvious and undeniable. The implications of ignoring gospel outreach - especially among children, who are the most receptive audience to the gospel - are enormous.

All the 'church growth' strategies in the world cannot compensate for the absence of an authentic transmission of the good news of what Jesus Christ has done for humanity." 

Herein is the problem in my opinion, the vast majority of churches are teaching doctrines of self improvement rather than service and obedience to God. Many have lost sight of the importance of being born again and the subsequent enthusiasm for serving the Lord and spreading the good news.

Believers in Christ need to prayerfully consider these trends

Government Ponzi Scheme

Government Ponzi Scheme

A woman died at age 65. She paid into the system for almost 50 years and collected NOTHING?  Keep in mind all the people that die every year who were paying into the system and got nothing!

And these governmental morons mismanaged the money and stole from the system, so that it's now going broke.

BEAUTIFUL! and they have the audacity to call today's seniors "vultures" in an attempt to cover their ineptitude.

DISGRACEFUL!

The real reason for renaming our Social Security payments is so the government can claim that all those social security recipients are receiving entitlements thus putting them in the same case as welfare, food stamp recipients.

F.Y.I.  By changing the name of SS contributions it gives them a means to refute this program in the future.  It's free money for the government to spend under this guise.

 

The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a *Federal Benefit Payment*?  I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you.

  

The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment."  This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income!  Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.

If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.  If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!

This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.

That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it's a fact). And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.  Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger *Ponzi scheme* than Bernie Madoff ever did.

They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking.  They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them.  And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer.

Isn't it funny that they NEVER say this about welfare payments?  But is it our fault they misused our investments?  And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a *benefit*, as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.

Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!

Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare.. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.

Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.

Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.

What Garrison Keillor and Jay-Z Have in Common

What Garrison Keillor and Jay-Z Have in Common by Dr. Jim Denison

Another day, another bombshell.

Garrison Keillor, the former host of A Prairie Home Companion and longtime cultural icon, says he's been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior. And rapper Jay-Z admitted that he has cheated on his wife, Beyoncé.

This after Matt Lauer's firing yesterday by NBC News stunned America. The list of powerful men facing allegations of sexual misconduct continues to grow by the day.

Media coverage has centered on these men and their actions. However, I have seen much less attention given to women who are the victims of such abuse. As a result, I will focus on them today.

As a man, I cannot comprehend what it is like for women to experience and disclose sexual abuse. But I can offer three biblical responses to their pain.

1. Your courage is to be applauded.

Megyn Kelly's response to Lauer's firing was especially powerful. After showing video of Today show anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb responding to the news, she replied: "I see the anguish in my colleagues' faces. When this happens, what we don't see is the pain on the faces of those who found the courage to come forward. It is a terrifying thing to do."

She explained: "We don't see the career opportunities women lose because of sexual harassment, or the intense stress it causes a woman dealing with it when she comes to work each day. I am thinking of those women this morning, hoping they are OK.

"The days to come will not be easy. We are in the middle of a sea change in this country, an empowerment revolution, in which women who for years felt they had no choice but to simply deal with being harassed at work are now starting to picture another reality, to feel that change is within their grasp."

Kelly called recent disclosures of sexual abuse "a sign of progress, of women finding their voices, their courage, and of the erosion of a shameful power imbalance that has been in place for far too long."

To those who choose such courage: know that your sacrifice is making a real difference. God wants you to "not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9). He invites you to "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might" (Ephesians 6:10).

2. You deserve to be treated with dignity.

Chris Legg is lead pastor at South Spring Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, and a professional Christian counselor. He and I corresponded yesterday on our topic. Here was his response, a paraphrase from Gavin de Becker's book, The Gift of Fear:

"The most common greatest fear for women is being assaulted by a man. Most women make dozens of decisions a day to avoid putting themselves in a situation to be physically harmed by men.

The most common greatest fear for men is feeling rejected by a woman. Most of us make many decisions to avoid feeling like the women in our lives are rejecting us."

Here's how I would apply Chris's insight to today's subject: If a man fears rejection by a woman, he might act inappropriately out of a need to feel wanted. His action then substantiates her fear of abuse, causing her to withdraw further from him and exacerbating his fear of rejection. He then responds even more forcefully and the cycle continues.

This pattern helps explain why some men behave so inappropriately toward some women. Since such abuse is rooted in masculine insecurity, we are not surprised to find it throughout human history. From Absalom's rape of Tamar (2 Samuel 13) to today's revelations, this is a recurring and tragic pattern.

As a result, we need to say loudly and clearly: women deserve dignity. Every woman. Every day. Every time.

God created women in his image (Genesis 1:27). Husbands are to "love their wives as their own bodies" (Ephesians 5:28). We are to esteem our wives as "far more precious than jewels" (Proverbs 31:10).

3. Unwanted advances or inappropriate behavior of any kind is always wrong. Always.

God knows and cares.

Abuse victims often feel isolated and alone. But you're not alone. The Lord of the universe knows your suffering (Proverbs 15:3). He grieves as you grieve and hurts as you hurt.

No matter how people treat you, your Father will always love you as his child. In fact, he often calls us his "adopted" children (Ephesians 1:5; Romans 8:14–17, 23). In the Roman empire, adopted children could never be disinherited. They would belong forever to their fathers.

So it is with you. The God of the universe applauds your courage, honors your dignity, and loves you unconditionally.