Monday, December 27, 2004

12:18 PM First call for the “Prayer Party” this Friday night, 7-9 PM in the Upper Room. We normally don’t think of the words “prayer” and “party” going together, but this time both words are appropriate. The Breakaway Band will provide musical entertainment and we will give thanks to God for many answered prayers in 2004 and we will pray for God’s blessing in 2005. Note: We schedule this event early so you can come to the “Prayer Party” and then go to other parties or events scheduled closer to midnight.

12:18 PM On the construction front, we’ve recently installed a new sign in front of the church. That may not seem like a big deal, but it’s the first new sign on our property in almost 50 years. When we purchased our church buildings from the Presbyterians in 1979, we inherited their old sign and just changed the lettering. The new sign has bold lettering on a large concrete slab. After we finished the new portico last spring, we had quite a few granite stones left over. This week stonemasons will lay those stones around the base of the sign so that it matches the architecture of the church.

12:06 PM Yesterday I mentioned the biblical background of circumcision. Later Ted King and I discussed the medical value of performing circumcision the eighth day after birth. It turns out that babies are born low in Vitamin K (which plays a key role in proper blood clotting) and need to build it up from their mother’s milk. Vitamin K reaches optimal levels on the eighth day after birth—the day prescribed by God. Here’s an article called Blood Clotting Reveals Intelligent Design that discusses this in more detail.

Over 40 years ago, a physician named S. I. McMillen wrote a book called “None of These Diseases,” in which he showed the medical basis behind many of the laws of the Old Testament. The book was a huge bestseller and went through several printings. When I spoke at Gull Lake Bible Conference last year, I met his grandson, David Stern, also a physician, who has written an updated version of None of These Diseases. The book covers a wide range of topics, such as the benefits of a “biblical” diet and the medical value of circumcision.