February 01, 2013
Medicinal Spirits
For over a week now I’ve been housebound with the worst sore throat
I’ve ever had in my life. My old friend Marvin, a Southern Baptist teetotaler,
told me that he and his wife had also been out of commission and they finally
resorted to two teaspoons of gin every two hours. “I don’t like the stuff, but it was the only thing we had on hand. We
don’t ever drink it, we just use it for soaking our raisins.” My grandma
was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and her home remedy for
a cold or sore throat was a mixture of Jim Beam and honey. Isn’t it interesting
that even though Paul had the ability to perform miraculous healings, he
encouraged young Timothy in the use of good old home remedies. “Stop drinking only water, and use a little
wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” (1 Tim 5:23 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Our bodies are biological machinery. They are giant clusters of organized chemical and electromagnetic interactions. Both the availability of chemicals and electromagnetism as well as the propriety of their organization are vital to health. The immune system is just one of all the multitudes of the body’s organizations. Within a state of normal health, the immune system consumes about fifteen percent of the chemical materials in the body’s “warehouse” of available, relevant goods. When the body is invaded by more than a normal number of pathogens, the percentage of the body’s available goods the immune system MUST have to successfully defend your health rises to as much as twenty-five percent. That’s a whopping lot! And for the immune system to get the goods it needs from the existing warehouse, some other organized function of the body must use less.
-----Maybe a doctor can answer the question about what some presence of alcohol in the blood might do to pathogens. I presume it might do a bit of the same thing as some alcohol wiped on a countertop. But from certain tidbits I’ve learned about stress and poor sleep and the chaotic demands of anger and despair and the additional consumption of chemical materials from the body’s warehouse effected by these natures, there might be something more wonderful to presume. And the presumption seems pretty good.
-----It starts with some revelation. God says to us, “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones,” (Proverbs 17:22), “A tranquil mind gives life to the flesh, but passion makes the bones rot,” (Proverbs 14:30), “Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life,” (Ecclesiastes 10:19). Getting drunk and living drunk are stresses of their own, but Paul did stipulate, “...a little wine...” Stress also consumes a lot from the body’s chemical warehouse. It becomes heads up competition against the immune system. It can rise to the point that the immune system starves for even its fifteen percent to just idle, let alone the twenty-five percent needed when under heavy attack. Invasions of pathogen hordes at such times are not pretty. Worse are the long term effects even without invasion. Every moment of your life, some ten thousand or so cancer cells develop within you. That bothered me when I heard it. But when I also heard the immune system handles all those cells quickly, I upped my intake of veggies. When unaided by our volitional reduction of stress, and especially when not fed well enough, these cancer cells can begin to win the ball game. And that’s really not pretty. There are a lot of stress reducers; wine is just one. But wine works possibly two effects: this one and maybe the sterilizing effect I presumed above. Whatever about that, it does further verify an even greater stress reducer - the truth of God’s revealed Word. Dig in! You’ll not only like it; you’ll live healthier.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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