Health & Freedom Abundant Life Newsletter
Abundant Life Newsletter - Vol 3.1.1
Leaping Lepers Announce Deliverance For Samaria, Aid To King Dies
The economy recovered yesterday, just as Elisha predicted. The administration still refuses to comment about the various predictions of his that have come to pass recently. And this miraculous report came from four lowly lepers. According to one, “We were so miserable, just waiting at the city gate for the end. Then we reasoned, ‘Why sit we here until we die? If we go in the city we’ll die, and if we stay here we’ll die.’ So we decided to fall unto the host of the invading Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.”
When they came to the camp there were no men. And it was apparent that they had fled in haste, having left behind their tents, horses, asses, and everything of value. In great joy the lepers feasted and spoiled the camp. Then these good lepers remembered the rest of us, trapped here in the city, and came to the porter of the gate. They informed him of the great news that the siege was over. Many, including King Jehoram were hesitant to trust the word of mere lepers. But men and chariots were sent to the scene. And BEHOLD it was true.
Local elders are praising the wisdom of the lepers. On every corner you can hear people saying, “Why sit we here until we die!” This new phrase seems to be motivating many previously apathetic citizens to civic action.
In a related incident, one of the king’s aids was killed at the city gate. When the multitude charged the gate to leave, after hearing the news of our deliverance, the aid was crushed by the unruly mob. We are withholding the name of the aid until the family has been notified. It is rumored that his death was prophesied by Elisha, also. For more details see the article in II Kings 6 &7.
The Kingdom Chronicle
The Very First Psalm
Our way, our lifestyle, is determined by our thoughts, our actions and our words. In this psalm the walk comes from one’s thoughts, the stand from one’s actions and the seat from one’s words. Who do you think, act, and talk like? Jesus or the ungodly?
PSALM 1
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
What's News?
Children, Television and Metabolism
Dr. Robert Klesges, a psychologist at Memphis State University, found that when children watch TV, they lapse into an almost semiconscious state that is metabolically between resting and sleeping. Thus when they sit quietly for 25 minutes (without commercial breaks) to watch a show, their metabolic rate falls lower than it would if they just sat still without watching.
With a lower metabolic rate, children burn fewer calories watching television than they do when doing nothing, and the drop in caloric usage while watching TV is greater for children who are overweight than for normal-weight children.
In Klesges’ study, children of normal weight had a metabolic drop 12% below their resting rate while watching a tape of “The Wonder Years;” the drop for obese children was 16% while watching. He stated, “Since we already know that obese kids watch a lot more TV than do normal-weight children, this drop in metabolic rate could be a major contributor to their obesity.”
“Children today are watching over three hours of television a day and reading less than five pages a day. That is wrong,” President Bush told a GOP dinner in Atlanta referring to the Department of Education’s.
National Assessment of Educational Progress, published in May, 1992:
- 62% of the fourth graders surveyed said they spent more than three hours a day in front of the television in 1990, down from 69% in 1988.
- 64% of the 8th graders reported watching more than three hours daily, as did 40% of the 12th graders (down from 71% and 49%, respectively).
- One-third of 8th and 12th graders read fewer than five pages a day for school in 1990.
Information from articles by Jane Brody (4/5/92) and Tamara Henry (5/28/92), in The Ann Arbor News.
I came across this description in the Britannica. Sounds like children, or adults viewing television. This may explain the rise in violent crime among undisciplined people.
Hypnosis, a special psychological state with certain physiological attributes, resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state. This state is characterized by a degree of increased receptiveness and responsiveness in which inner experiential perceptions are given as much significance as is generally given only to external reality.
The hypnotized individual appears to heed only the communications of the hypnotist. He seems to respond in an uncritical, automatic fashion, ignoring all aspects of the environment other than those pointed out to him by the hypnotist. He sees, feels, smells, and otherwise perceives in accordance with the hypnotist’s suggestions, even though these suggestions may be in apparent contradiction to the stimuli that impinge upon him. Even the subject’s memory and awareness of self may be altered by suggestion, and the effects of the suggestions may be extended (posthypnotically) into the subject’s subsequent waking activity.