"This Week in Worship: Preparing for the Wilderness of Death" with Reverend Brent Ross, Senior Pastor of Normal Heights United Methodist Church of San Diego, California, United States for Thursday, 10 March 2016
While the Bible is certainly full of the ideas of abundance and overflowing waters, the idea of the wilderness in the Bible also has a long tradition. God does not just speak to people through “milk and honey” or gallons of wine, but sometimes the most significant encounters happen in places of wilderness-emptiness-scarcity. For the last week, we will explore a Biblical passage about the wilderness as we also look for God’s presence in the wilderness areas of our lives.
We are excited that this week our very own, Rev. Tonya Douce will be preaching!
March 13th // John 12:1-8 // Preparing for the Wilderness of Death
Mary anoints Jesus for his death in this passage… we now prepare for Holy Week.
John 12:1 Six days before Pesach, Yeshua came to Beit-Anyah, where El‘azar lived, the man Yeshua had raised from the dead; 2 so they gave a dinner there in his honor. Marta served the meal, and El‘azar was among those at the table with him. 3 Miryam took a whole pint of pure oil of spikenard, which is very expensive, poured it on Yeshua’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair, so that the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of the talmidim, Y’hudah from K’riot, the one who was about to betray him, said, 5 “This perfume is worth a year’s wages! Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” 6 Now he said this not out of concern for the poor, but because he was a thief — he was in charge of the common purse and used to steal from it. 7 Yeshua said, “Leave her alone! She kept this for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for John 12:1-8
As you may know, a few weeks ago we ended our service with a call to action to provide mosquito nets and repellent to pregnant woman in Haiti who are at risk for the ZIKA virus. Leah Rashidyan told us about an organization that she works with called MamaBaby Haiti and how some of these supplies could really help these women and their unborn children. Well, we are happy to report that after many hurdles, the mosquito nets and repellent have arrived in Haiti and began being distributed on Monday! Challenges included finding a purchaser who had 200 nets immediately available, getting the DEET repellent to Haiti after being denied by American Airlines, getting the mosquito nets on a private shipping plane after their plane broke down the first week, and finally setting up a distribution method from MamaBaby Haiti! These efforts have involved no less than a dozen individuals who gave their time and problem-solving skills to successfully deliver the items to Haiti.
The MamaBaby Haiti board has thanked us for our contributions towards protecting 200 women and their babies from the Zika virus. Please continue to hold women and their children in your prayers during the rainy season in Haiti.
Click here to read an article further explaining the dangers of Zika for pregnant women. Below are some photos of midwives educating and distributing the items. Visitwww.mamababyhaiti.org if you'd like to learn more about MamaBaby Haiti, or to donate to the cause. Thank you Leah for bringing this opportunity to us!To Your Health
Zika likely behind more pregnancy problems, birth defects than anyone realized, researchers say by Brady Dennis March 4
A pregnant woman sits on a bed after being released from the hospital where she was treated for the Zika virus in Cucuta, Colombia, last month. (Dania Maxwell/Bloomberg)
Researchers following scores of pregnant women in Brazil infected by the Zika virus say the pathogen can cause a range of "grave" complications and birth defects -- including some that have not previously been linked to the virus -- and that problems can surface at any stage of pregnancy.
A study published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the cases of 88 women treated at a clinic in Rio de Janeiro between September 2015 and last month; 72 of the women tested positive for Zika in their blood, urine or both. Forty-two of the women who tested positive for the virus underwent ultrasounds, even as some chose not to. In addition, 16 women who had tested negative for Zika received ultrasounds.
Those not stricken with the virus all showed normal results. But ultrasounds for nearly a third of those infected by Zika showed abnormal results. Among the problems that surfaced: a lack of amniotic fluid, central nervous system damage to the fetus (including potential blindness), stillbirths and microcephaly, a condition marked by babies born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
"The frequency was so high," Karin Nielsen, one of the study's co-authors and a pediatric infectious disease at the University of California, Los Angeles, said of the percentage of women with Zika who experienced complications. "These abnormalities are very significant; they are not minor. These are serious, serious problems."
[A Zika breakthrough: Scientists detail how virus can attack fetal brain]
Unlike previous efforts that suggested a link between Zika and potential birth defects based on case reports, a team of U.S. and Brazilian researchers in Friday's study followed a group of women with common characteristics, tested them for infection in real time and followed what happened as their pregnancies unfolded. They said the women had no other risk factors for abnormal pregnancies.
What they found was illuminating, and also "extremely concerning," they wrote.
Two women infected by Zika -- one 36 weeks pregnant; one 38 weeks pregnant -- discovered during an ultrasound that their babies had died. Another had to have an emergency Cesarean section after doctors realized she had no amniotic fluid in her uterus; the baby now appears to be healthy. Of six live births, two babies were small for their gestational age; a third was born at normal weight but with severe microcephaly. Two of the infants also had lesions in their eyes, which could indicate blindness. Two infants born to mothers who had normal ultrasounds appear to be healthy.
"What we're seeing is that microcephaly is not the only" abnormality linked to Zika, Nielsen said. "It is a whole spectrum of conditions."
The researchers noted that the problems associated with Zika have similarities to those caused by other congenital viruses in the past, such as rubella, which affected hundreds of thousands of infants in the United States in the late 1950s and 1960s. But they noted that "a major ominous difference" between the recent Zika outbreak in Brazil and the rubella infections in the United States more than half a century ago. Most U.S. women of childbearing age already had been exposed to rubella and had antibodies to the disease. Today in Brazil -- as in many countries affected by the current outbreak -- almost no one in the population has antibodies to Zika, meaning almost no one is immune.
The researchers acknowledged that Friday's study has some weaknesses. Most notably, the sample size was limited. Nielsen said she and her colleagues are continuing to enroll pregnant women for additional research and intend to follow the outcomes of the children involved.
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Verse 2
[2] There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
It seems Martha was a person of some figure, from the great respect which was paid to her and her sister, in visits and condolences on Lazarus's death, as well as from the costly ointment mentioned in the next verse. And probably it was at their house our Lord and his disciples lodged, when he returned from Jerusalem to Bethany, every evening of the last week of his life, upon which he was now entered.
Verse 3
[3] Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Then Mary, taking a pound of ointment — There were two persons who poured ointment on Christ. One toward the beginning of his ministry, at or near Nain, Luke 7:37, etc. The other six days before his last passover, at Bethany; the account of whom is given here, as well as by St. Matthew and Mark.
Verse 7
[7] Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
Against the day of my burial — Which now draws nigh.
As you may know, a few weeks ago we ended our service with a call to action to provide mosquito nets and repellent to pregnant woman in Haiti who are at risk for the ZIKA virus. Leah Rashidyan told us about an organization that she works with called MamaBaby Haiti and how some of these supplies could really help these women and their unborn children. Well, we are happy to report that after many hurdles, the mosquito nets and repellent have arrived in Haiti and began being distributed on Monday! Challenges included finding a purchaser who had 200 nets immediately available, getting the DEET repellent to Haiti after being denied by American Airlines, getting the mosquito nets on a private shipping plane after their plane broke down the first week, and finally setting up a distribution method from MamaBaby Haiti! These efforts have involved no less than a dozen individuals who gave their time and problem-solving skills to successfully deliver the items to Haiti.
The MamaBaby Haiti board has thanked us for our contributions towards protecting 200 women and their babies from the Zika virus. Please continue to hold women and their children in your prayers during the rainy season in Haiti.
Click here to read an article further explaining the dangers of Zika for pregnant women. Below are some photos of midwives educating and distributing the items. Visitwww.mamababyhaiti.org if you'd like to learn more about MamaBaby Haiti, or to donate to the cause. Thank you Leah for bringing this opportunity to us!To Your Health
Zika likely behind more pregnancy problems, birth defects than anyone realized, researchers say by Brady Dennis March 4
A pregnant woman sits on a bed after being released from the hospital where she was treated for the Zika virus in Cucuta, Colombia, last month. (Dania Maxwell/Bloomberg)
Researchers following scores of pregnant women in Brazil infected by the Zika virus say the pathogen can cause a range of "grave" complications and birth defects -- including some that have not previously been linked to the virus -- and that problems can surface at any stage of pregnancy.
A study published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the cases of 88 women treated at a clinic in Rio de Janeiro between September 2015 and last month; 72 of the women tested positive for Zika in their blood, urine or both. Forty-two of the women who tested positive for the virus underwent ultrasounds, even as some chose not to. In addition, 16 women who had tested negative for Zika received ultrasounds.
Those not stricken with the virus all showed normal results. But ultrasounds for nearly a third of those infected by Zika showed abnormal results. Among the problems that surfaced: a lack of amniotic fluid, central nervous system damage to the fetus (including potential blindness), stillbirths and microcephaly, a condition marked by babies born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
"The frequency was so high," Karin Nielsen, one of the study's co-authors and a pediatric infectious disease at the University of California, Los Angeles, said of the percentage of women with Zika who experienced complications. "These abnormalities are very significant; they are not minor. These are serious, serious problems."
[A Zika breakthrough: Scientists detail how virus can attack fetal brain]
Unlike previous efforts that suggested a link between Zika and potential birth defects based on case reports, a team of U.S. and Brazilian researchers in Friday's study followed a group of women with common characteristics, tested them for infection in real time and followed what happened as their pregnancies unfolded. They said the women had no other risk factors for abnormal pregnancies.
What they found was illuminating, and also "extremely concerning," they wrote.
Two women infected by Zika -- one 36 weeks pregnant; one 38 weeks pregnant -- discovered during an ultrasound that their babies had died. Another had to have an emergency Cesarean section after doctors realized she had no amniotic fluid in her uterus; the baby now appears to be healthy. Of six live births, two babies were small for their gestational age; a third was born at normal weight but with severe microcephaly. Two of the infants also had lesions in their eyes, which could indicate blindness. Two infants born to mothers who had normal ultrasounds appear to be healthy.
"What we're seeing is that microcephaly is not the only" abnormality linked to Zika, Nielsen said. "It is a whole spectrum of conditions."
The researchers noted that the problems associated with Zika have similarities to those caused by other congenital viruses in the past, such as rubella, which affected hundreds of thousands of infants in the United States in the late 1950s and 1960s. But they noted that "a major ominous difference" between the recent Zika outbreak in Brazil and the rubella infections in the United States more than half a century ago. Most U.S. women of childbearing age already had been exposed to rubella and had antibodies to the disease. Today in Brazil -- as in many countries affected by the current outbreak -- almost no one in the population has antibodies to Zika, meaning almost no one is immune.
The researchers acknowledged that Friday's study has some weaknesses. Most notably, the sample size was limited. Nielsen said she and her colleagues are continuing to enroll pregnant women for additional research and intend to follow the outcomes of the children involved.
FacebookInstagramNHUnited.orgEmail Pastor BrentOur mailing address is:
4650 Mansfield Street
San Diego, California 92116, United States
Normal Heights United Methodist Church
Normal Heights United Methodist Church
4650 Mansfield Street
San Diego, California 92116, United States
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