Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20121216.htm

CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE
God's 2012 Christmas Season Provisions
Part III: God's 2012 Christmas Season Health Care Provision
(Luke 2:1-7; Matthew 2:11-14 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    After President Obama's reelection to the presidency last month, some political pundits claimed that The Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, was here to stay, and that everybody simply needed to adjust to that fact.

    On the one hand, it is true that something constructive needs to be done about health care in America. Yahoo.com ran a December 10, 2012 story, "iHealth Care Updates Launches New Help Care Program to Provide Medical Debt Relief" to report that the Centers for Disease Control claims "one in three Americans report that their family is experiencing the financial burden of medical care," and "Chris Jones, the founder of iHealth Care Updates says an increasing number of people find themselves bankrupted by medical bills.'"

    However, merely adjusting to Obamacare is proving to be far easier said than done, a fact we can easily document as follows:

    (1) The huffington.post web site, along with numerous stories that have appeared the last several years in various sources, reports in one of its stories that when the health care law becomes operative, insurance companies will have to cover costs for previously uninsured Americans and those with preexisting conditions. These companies will naturally pass the costs onto their customers, in turn likely leading to more people no longer being able to afford health insurance, and leading to more government control of health care. That will only add to long-term fiscal and social problems, for the government's control of Medicare and Social Security has proven to be very inefficient!

    (2) Additionally, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in his December 10, 2012 huffington.post story, "Obamacare Preexisting Condition Fee To Cost Companies $63 Per Person" reported that, "Especially at a time when we're facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it,'" in citing Chantel Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary. Some companies may have to lay off workers to cover such costs just when the nation needs more jobs!



    Thus, we ask, "Amid the challenges of gaining affordable, adequate health care, and complications in doing so caused by government involvement, how can we obtain adequate health care this Christmas?!"

    Need: "How can we obtain adequate health care this Christmas?!"

  1. Joseph and Mary committed themselves to heed God's will that first Christmas, with Joseph agreeing to take Mary as his wife though she was with child, the Messiah, and Mary agreeing to bear Him though she was a virgin, Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38.
  2. Thus, God met even their government-created health care needs:
    1. That first Christmas, Mary and Jesus were forced to face great health care challenges due to actions by various government officials:
      1. Mary and Jesus faced a perilous delivery due to Caesar's action:
        1. Caesar's decree made Mary go to Bethlehem with many others, so she found no room in the town inn and was forced to deliver Jesus in a cave stable and lay Him in a manger, Luke 2:1-7.
        2. This enclosed setting with its exposed animal urine and feces and animal mouth and nasal secretions in its manger hay posed a grave threat of infection in the delivery for mother and Child.
      2. Mary and Jesus faced a perilous postpartum due to Herod's action:
        1. Soon after Jesus' birth, King Herod sought to kill Him, creating the need for Mary to flee with Jesus into Egypt, Matt. 2:13-14.
        2. This very stressful event could lead to immune deficiency and illness for Mary (Anne McIntyre, The Complete Woman's Herbal, 1995, p. 67), and that could endanger her Infant Jesus!
    2. However, God met their health needs so they could fulfill His will:
      1. God naturally kept Mary and Jesus free of infection at Jesus' birth:
        1. Mary's immune system kept her from infection by exposure to farm animals due to her exposure to farming like everyone else in her native Galilee, Jean-Pierre Isbouts, The Bib. World: An Ill. Atlas , 2009, p. 267. Thus, 40 days after delivering Jesus, she entered the temple without health problems that would have left her unfit to go there, Luke 2:22-27; Leviticus 12:1-4; 15:31.
        2. Mary's nursing of Jesus passed to Him her body's immunity so that He could enter the temple with her, Lk. 2:22-27: (1) the first few days of nursing, Mary's body gave Jesus colustrum that had "transfer factor" molecules that act like tiny computer chips that transferred her "lifetime of immunity" information to Jesus' immune system "chips." (purehealthsystems.com, "Colustrum and Immunity") (2) Also, her colustrum had growth factors that enabled His body to "rebuild and repair itself more effectively" in recovering from any infection He acquired at delivery, Ibid.
      2. God naturally guarded Jesus from illness at His later circumcision:
        1. The Biblical call to circumcise Jesus (Gen. 17:12) put His body at risk for infection via its exposure to stable and manger germs: (1) the Vitamin K His liver needed to clot blood and so seal His circumcision incision was synthesized by good bacteria in the gut (Donald Cooley, 1980, Better Homes & Gardens Family Medical Guide, p. 498). (2) Yet, "the digestive tract of the fetus is sterile" (kenyon.edu, "Newborn baby digestive tract"), so a circumcision between days 2 and 5 with no sutures as in Jesus' case with His low Vitamin K count would leave Him open to acute infection by a slow healing wound exposed to residual stable and manger germs. (Bert Thompson, "Biblical Accuracy and Circumcision on the 8th Day," citing Holt & McIntosh, Holt Pediatrics, 1953, p. 125-126, apologeticspress.org)
        2. However, in a natural vaginal birth like Jesus had, He ingested some of Mary's vaginal and fecal flora that would breed so fast unchecked by other bacteria in His previously sterile gut that, on the eighth day, His Vitamin K count would be at its highest natural level in His life! (Ibid., kenyon.edu; Ibid., Thompson)
        3. Mary and Joseph heeded Scripture to circumcise Jesus on the eighth day, greatly minimizing His chance of infection as His large amount of Vitamin K soon sealed the incision, Luke 2:21.
      3. God supplied natural products to offset Mary's postpartum stress:
        1. Right before Mary and Jesus' stressful flight into Egypt, the magi gave Him frankincense and myrrh, Matthew 2:11-14.
        2. Frankincense treats chest infection, catarrh, laryngitis, fever, urinary infection, scarring, wounds, et al., and myrrh treats chest infection, colds, flu, sinusitis, sore throat, vaginal infection, cuts, lowered immunity, et al. Ibid., McIntyre, p. 42-43.
        3. The amount of these herbals, coming from magi "king makers" (Zon. Pic. Ency. Bib., v. Four, p. 33-34) was great, so Mary had enough of them to offset her stress-induced reduced immunity!
      4. Thus, Mary and Jesus were equipped to fulfill God's will for them.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin to come under God's "Much More Care," John 1:11-12; Romans 8:32. (2) May we heed God's will and seem Him provide for all the health care needs we face that we might fulfill His calling for us!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 As God supplied Mary with natural ingredients to offset her postpartum health crisis, it is similarly prudent for us to use insight of natural ingredients for our health needs, thus bypassing insurmountable costs and complications in dealing with a troubled health care industry.

Such advice comes from people like Beth Noordmans in Cushing, Minnesota. In her article, "A laundry-list of must-haves," Countryside & Small Stock Journal, Nov.-Dec. 2012, p. 46, she writes that though she is a nurse and the daughter of a man who is a physician's assistant and a mother who is a registered nurse, she has "pretty much removed modern' medicine from our home" as "(m)ost of the time modern medicine deals with treating symptoms and fails to identify and deal with the root problem(s). For my family, our first changes were made to what we eat. We now eat very few (1) processed foods, (2) refined grains or (3) refined sugars.

Many of her favorite natural remedies are (4) Yogurt (to sustain healthy gut bacteria, improve digestion and strengthen the immune system); (5) Blackstrap molasses (for easily absorbed iron); (6) Raw honey ("full of healthy enzymes and antibacterial properties"); (7) Garlic (a superb natural antibiotic . . . speeds healing and prevents "full blown infection"); (8) Elderberry syrup: (an immune system aid that works better than the flu shot to protect in the flu season); (9) Virgin coconut oil ("antibacterial, anti microbial and anti fungal, great for the immune system"); (10) Cod liver oil (boosting the immune system and reversing tooth decay); (11) Activated charcoal capsules ("for upset stomach and other digestive issues"); (12) Bentonite clay: ("for cuts, scrapes, stings, bites"); (13) Ginger tea (soothing an upset stomach) and (14) Garlic ear oil (ear pain and infections), Ibid., p. 46-47.

[(15) Also, an SIM missionary and a registered nurse I knew in Nigeria told my Mother that to handle the threat of a common cold or a common sore throat, at the very first symptom of rawness in the throat, gargle with salt water. We have found this advice works well!]



May we commit to do God's will and find Him providing all we need for our health care needs, and that in a variety of ways!