QUARANTINE BLOG # 231

November 16, 2020

Continuing the series of Jesus’ interviews of individuals, here is “Jesus and the Persecutor,” from the Crawfordville pulpit http://davidsisler.com/sermons/Jesus_and_the_Persecutor.mp3.   

👉  You’ve heard the announcement that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s and German firm BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has proven to be 90 percent effective at stopping people from getting sick during phase 3 trials.

Now, Uğur Şahin, the 55-year-old CEO of BioNTech, says he expects it to “bash the virus over the head” and ultimately end the pandemic.  “If the question is whether we can stop this pandemic with this vaccine, then my answer is: yes.”

He said he’s confident the treatment will work because (and here I’m going to tell you, as Paul Harvey used to say, more than I know) it attacks the virus on multiple levels.  The vaccine hinders COVID-19 from gaining access to our cells. But even if the virus manages to find a way in, then the T-cells, which determine the body’s response to foreign substances, move to eliminate it.  “We now know that the virus can’t defend itself against these mechanisms,” he said.

Recipients still have strong immune response after six months and Şahin believes the vaccine could work for up to a year, and the world will return to “normal” by next winter.  This blogger’s sleeve is rolled up!

👉  With apologies, if you do not get the following comic strip from Bill Amend’s “FoxTrot,” ask someone who is a fan of Disney+’s “The Mandelorian” for an explanation.  This is the way.

👉  On the other hand (there are five different fingers):

Go ahead.  Click it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JooUMsDdA.  You know you want to.

👉  This one is from our “Some People Have Too Much Money Department.”  New Kim is worth her weight in gold and then some – actually much, much more.  A wealthy Chinese pigeon racing fan put down a record price of $1.9 million for the Belgian-bred bird.  The bidder, operating under the pseudonym Super Duper, is one of a new breed of Chinese billionaires who have too much money and are now spending it on gambling, with some prize pots exceeding $10,000,000.  

👉  “Sue” wishes to remain anonymous.  She is a mixed media artist who likes to collect “old stuff.”  She was helping a family member sort through some old items, and the relative gave her a box of old children’s paper dolls, books and toys.  Included in the box was a plastic bag filled with cards featuring black-and-white photographs on the front and Sporting News advertising on the back.

Ten years after receiving the cards, she showed them to a friend who is a “sports nut” who was immediately excited about the discovery of 176 of the 200 card set of 1916 M101-4 Sporting News cards.  One of the cards is a Shoeless Joe Jackson card rated EX.  Another is a Babe Ruth rookie rated VG-EX.  Other Hall of Famers such as George Sisler, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Casey Stengel are in the collection which will go up for auction in December.  

The opening bid on the Ruth card will be $200,000.

You remember the old saying, “I used to be a millionaire and then my Mom gave away my baseball cards.”  Yup.

👉  Robert Robinson had a rough beginning. His father died when he was young, and his mother, unable to control him, sent him to London to learn barbering. What he learned instead was drinking and gang life. When he was 17, he and his friends reportedly visited a fortune-teller. Relaxed by alcohol, they laughed as she tried to tell their futures. But something about the encounter bothered Robert, and that evening he suggested to his buddies they attend the evangelistic meeting being held by George Whitefield.

Whitefield was one of history’s greatest preachers, who is said to have had a voice that was part foghorn and part violin. That night he preached from Matthew 3:7: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” Bursting into tears, Whitefield exclaimed, “Oh, my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!” 

Robert immediately sobered up and sensed Whitefield was preaching directly to him. The preacher’s words haunted him for nearly three years, until December 10, 1755, when he gave his heart to Christ.

Robert entered the ministry, and three years later, in 1758, at age 23 while serving Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England, he wrote a hymn for his sermon on Pentecost Sunday. It was a prayer that the Holy Spirit flood into our hearts with His streams of mercy, enabling us to sing God’s praises and remain faithful to Him. “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” has been a favorite of the church since that day (some hymnals list it as “O, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”).

Take a few moments to offer this hymn as a personal prayer, especially remembering those last insightful lines:  Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.  Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;  Here’s my heart, 0 take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD-k9q_TVyY.

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