Top Verses

Col 1:15-19
15
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him

Rheumatoid Awareness

Rheumatoid Awareness

Monday, May 8, 2017

RA Post: Iritis

It's always something with autoimmune. Most people get secondary diseases, or super fun complications. The worst I heard of for RA was someone's brain being attacked by the white blood cells....and there was nothing they could do, seemingly.
I have joined the club by having psoriatic arthritis. Basically RA, but with a skin addition and lots of nail damage. 
Now enter iritis. So now my immune system has decided to attack my eyes, Fortunately at this point the anterior (front) chamber of my eye is still separate from the posterior. The white blood cells are mainly in the front of my eye, getting into the iris of my eye, and causing a huge amount of ACHE! 
The only thing that helps is sunglasses, to keep the white blood cells from being scraped across my iris as the muscle contracts or relaxes, and sometimes even putting gauze across the eye, held in place by the glasses so my eye is shut and NO light can get in. 
I also am taking steroid eye drops. Which have the fun benefit of possibly making you blind just like the iritis. Catch 22. Use the steroids as little as possible. Boy, they help, too. Aching eyes are right up there with a toothache..only no pain medication seems to help.

I have always always been scared of being blind. I hate the dark. I hate pitch-black dark. If there is any light, I am fine. Stars are enough. So here I am facing one of the worst fears. Then I started thinking about my studying---both medical and theological. How would I manage that? I write notes all over the place. And even if I had a Dragon system to speak into and books that read themselves to me, it would be so hard to find the notation I wanted. I have a bit of a photographic memory, so I can find things based on what the page looked like. It had a stain. I underlined it with a pink highlighter. It was before this section, it was after that. 

Just hang on regardless. Somehow God uses us all---even if it is simply to sit in the light of Him. Not all are called to be missionaries to a far away land, not all are called to be pastors. But we are all called to honor and love Him. And as my last post pointed out, that is a pretty important thing. 

Immeasurable

"Lebanon does not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering." Is 40.16
"Such is the divine majesty that only a sacrifice so great as to be immeasurable would be commensurate with it." The Old Testament Library, Watermann, 1957, p 51

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." Hos 6.6

The only sacrifice that could ever be immeasurable would be Christ---God Himself. Nothing can possibly reach the level of honor and glory and respect in a sacrifice without it's being Him. The amount of effort that was done for sacrificial law was incredible--the perfection of the animals, the perfection of the mood of giving the sacrifice (as Christ says of leaving tithes and remembering the crossness you have of a brother), the perfection that the priests were to go through. 
But! Those sacrifices had to be repeated and repeated and repeated. The depth of the sacrifice was not enough to be an immeasurable sacrifice covering the great and demanding level of our constant insults toward the Lord of All. 
Our sins pour off of us in unimaginable waves. Yet with the blood of God Himself, an immeasurable measure of sacrificial blood, His sin-covering goes on beyond the tidal waves of Sin. 

To this end, all we must do is say that God is indeed God. That we are not God, that we cannot in any way save ourselves from the price of Sin. Sacrifice has been done and completed. We must honor God with the truth that He is God, the Lord of All and Creator. That is the best honor we can give God for His immeasurable death--to remember Him. 

Christ said when He was at the Last Supper to "do this in remembrance of Me". What is it we humans want most of others? To be remembered. To be loved. How much more, then must a Father who loves us enough to die such a death want to be Remembered? How much more, then, must He deserve to be Remembered?

RA Awareness Day

RA Awareness Day