With the health-care crisis looming so large on the horizon, the prospect of alternative forms of healing may appear to be more of a viable option to many, and because of this, there are a few instructions we should observe, if we would not fall victims to the devices of the enemy of righteousness. Many folks have now turned to televangelists, spiritual healers, and soothsayers, because they may not be able to afford proper care, and in desperation, some often pay whatsoever is required of them in exchange for healing.
Desperation often makes people vulnerable, and it has opened the door for many to be deceived, and taken advantage of, and because of this, it has now become necessary to make a very clear distinction
between the true and the false. Before proceeding, it is necessary for us to first understand the reasons why we are where we are, how we got here, also, the scriptural solutions to the ballooning problem.
Drugs have many different uses, and are employed when surgeries are being done, for anesthesia, for sedatives, and for the treatment of some diseases. However, the continual use of drugs produces some side effects which are often overlooked by doctors, and patients alike, for if we were to carefully read the warning labels on many prescription drugs, we will discover side effects such as vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, hallucination, suicidal thoughts, rashes, drowsiness, and a host of other negatives.
And the apparent benefits are often outweighed by the adverse side effects, some of which tend to be long lasting. Thus, a history of the development of the problem of drug addiction is in order. Let’s read:
[2SM pp 451>452] When drugs are introduced into the system, for a time they may seem to have a beneficial effect. And the disease, which the drug was given to cure, may disappear, but only to re-appear in a new form, such as skin diseases, ulcers, painful diseased joints, and sometimes in a more dangerous and deadly form. The liver, heart, and brain, are frequently affected by drugs, and often all these organs are burdened with disease, and the unfortunate subjects, if they live, are wearily dragging out a miserable existence.
(CNN) By Sonia Moghe.
Updated 6:41 AM ET, Fri October 14, 2016
Why are opioids so addictive?
(CNN) The abuse of opioids, including prescription painkillers and drugs like heroin, is something the United States has struggled with since before the 1900s. But it's a problem that keeps coming back. To understand how we got to this current epidemic, let's take a look back. Early 1900s: Morphine, and the creation of pain management.
Civil War veterans whose injuries were treated with morphine were among those hooked on opioids at the turn of the century. But "drugs were already on the scene and being consumed at alarming rates long before the start of the war," said Mark A. Quinones, a scholar who studied drug abuse during the Civil War. In 1898, the Bayer Co. started production of another opioid, heroin, on a commercial scale.
From its first clinical trials, it was considered a "wonder drug," and its use spread as addicts discovered that its effects could be amplified by injecting it. Kimberly Johnson, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment said that in the early 1900s, there wasn't much known about these poppy derivatives. Drugs like heroin were used as cough suppressants.
"They are effective pain relievers, and that's what they were being used for," Johnson said. "There weren't many other options." World War II was a turning point for physicians treating pain as doctors worked to treat severely injured soldiers. Anesthesiologists opened "nerve block clinics" in the 1950s and 1960s to manage pain without having to resort to surgery, according to a history published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003.
By the mid- and late-1970s, when Percocet and Vicodin came on the market, doctors had long been taught to avoid prescribing highly addictive opioids to patients. But an 11-line letter printed in the New England Journal of Medicine in January 1980 pushed back on the popular thought that using opioids to treat chronic pain was risky. In it, Jane Porter and Dr. Hershel Jick mentioned their analysis of 11,882 patients who were treated with narcotics. They wrote that "the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history of addiction."
Jick told the Washington Post in 1977 that less than 1% of patients he studied died from a reaction to the drugs. Patients with terminal illnesses started being treated more with prescription opioids, and doctors and researchers wanted to look at treating patients with chronic pain. Six years later, a paper by pain-management specialist Dr. Russell Portenoy chronicled 38 patients treated with opioids for non-cancer pain.
He concluded that "opioid maintenance therapy can be a safe, salutary and more humane alternative" to surgery, or to not treating a patient with chronic pain. The studies created a discussion in the '90s around making pain treatment a priority for all patients. "People started talking about pain as the fifth vital sign," Johnson said. Purdue Pharma started testing OxyContin as a long-term painkiller in 1994, and it went on the market in 1996. In the early '90s, the number of painkiller prescriptions filled at U.S. pharmacies increased by 2 million to 3 million each year, according to a National Institute on Drug Abuse study. From 1995 to 1996, the number of prescriptions jumped by 8 million.
In 1998, Purdue Pharma created a video promotion called "I Got My Life Back." It followed six people who suffered from chronic pain and were treated with OxyContin. The company distributed 15,000 copies of the video to be used in "physician waiting rooms as a 'check out' item for an office's patient education library."
"They don't wear out; they go on working; they do not have serious medical side effects," a doctor featured in the video said. "So, these drugs, which I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medications, should be used much more than they are for patients in pain." A year after the video came out, the overall number of opioid painkiller prescriptions filled jumped by 11 million.
Purdue Pharma took out ads for OxyContin in medical journals across the nation in 2000. Seven years later, the company and three of its executives would be charged with misbranding its drug and downplaying the possibility of addiction. Three executives pleaded guilty, and the company settled with the U.S. government for $635 million.
Making pain treatment a priority came to the attention of the Joint Commission, a nonprofit that sets standards and accredits hospitals and medical centers. The group created this standard in 2001: "Pain is assessed in all patients." Medical centers and their doctors were required to examine their patients' pain levels. The Joint Commission printed a book in 2000 for purchase by doctors as part of required continuing education seminars. The book cited studies that claimed, "There is no evidence that addiction is a significant issue when persons are given opioids for pain control."
It also called doctors' concerns about addiction side effects "inaccurate and exaggerated." The book was sponsored by Purdue Pharma. Portenoy, the doctor who wrote one of several studies that claimed there was little risk of addiction in using opioids to treat chronic pain, spoke out about his own role in the epidemic. "Clearly, if I had an inkling of what I know now then, I wouldn't have spoken in the way that I spoke. It was clearly the wrong thing to do."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that immediate-release opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and fentanyl will now have to carry a "black box" warning about the risk of abuse, addiction, overdose and death.
However, The Lord does not propose to fix any and every problem the human family might be afflicted with, especially those problems which are brought on by a continuous, deliberate violation of natural law. Healing from Christ is most often on a case by case basis, with the fundamental elements of true confession, repentance, and our willingness to turn away from harmful indulgences, playing a vital role. Let’s read:
2nd Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
Thus, as we embark upon our study, the following are a few important observations, relating to our healthcare system:
[1] Our health-care system in its current form, isn’t sustainable, for it does not sufficiently replenish the money which is used to fund it, and any system that does not replenish itself is doomed to fail, sooner or later. Our congressmen, on both sides of the aisle may be doing their best to solve the problem, but they will encounter headwinds at every turn, since there are fundamental concepts of healthful living that must first be adopted at the grassroots level.
[2] The opioid epidemic is the result of our drug dependency, for many drugs put in motion a deadly chain of circumstances, which can often lead to an addiction of some kind. It is worthy of note that America consumes about 80% of all the drugs manufactured world-wide, as is evidenced by the following statistics given out by the CDC.
Physician office visits:
Number of drugs ordered or provided: 2.8 billion Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 74.2%
Hospital outpatient department visits:
Number of drugs ordered or provided: 329.2 million Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 72.5%
Hospital emergency department visits:
Number of drugs ordered or provided: 296.7 million Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 80.4%
[3] Unless prevention is incorporated as the main element in our healthcare system, finding solutions will be the equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack. Christ’s method of healing always focuses primarily on prevention, with natural remedies, and miracles being the last resort. In other words, we will have to take responsibility for our choices and actions, wherever this is possible, and warranted.
In our day, many spurious miracles, and claims of healing have been introduced, some, for hire, some for purchase, and some for donations. Thus, it is very important for us to understand that there are genuine miracles, as well as counterfeit works of healing, because for every good thing God has given to us, satan has a counterfeit waiting in the wings, and some have gone to great lengths to make a profitable business of the issue. Therefore, it is now imperative that certain cautions be given out which should raise a red flag, and guard our minds against satanic ploys.
[Red flag #1] Any miraculous healing that involves payment, or money of any kind is a fraud, period. This point must be clearly understood, because in our day, a plethora of so-called healing items, such as green prosperity handkerchiefs, blessed salt, and holy water, are now for sale, bringing in millions from unsuspecting victims. In addition, the sale of anointing oil, for folks to receive The Holy Ghost is a fraud, comparable to, if not much worse than the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. And just like with Bernie, those who peddle such items have "Made off" with millions, from the needy, the greedy, and the vulnerable. Let’s read:
Matthew 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses.
The example of Paul:
1st Corinthians 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
12 Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
15 I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die.
18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
(CNN) By Sam Stringer.
Updated 3:03 PM ET, Mon March 16, 2015
Creflo Dollar is hoping a few folks will see fit to bless him. The minister, known for being a prosperity preacher at his Atlanta-area World Changers Church International is seeking "200,000 people committed to sow $300 or more (to) help achieve our goal to purchase the G650 airplane."
The figures were presented Friday in a nearly six-minute video on the Creflo Dollar Ministries website and total more than $60 million needed to buy the Gulfstream G650, which goes for a reported $65 million. "The G650 is the biggest, fastest, the most luxurious, longest range, and most technologically advanced jet -- by far," according to the site.
Acts 8:18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
23 For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
1st Kings 13:6 And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
7 And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
8 And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:
9 For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.
13 And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,
14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak.
15 Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.
16 And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place.
18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
19 So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.
20 And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back:
21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee,
22 Thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord.
[Red Flag # 2] Wherever there are mass invitations for healing, promoted by ministers, televangelists, and faith healers, be very, very careful, for it’s most likely another fraud. If a sick person desires healing, he, or she exercises their faith by sending for the “Elders”. But if the elders presume to offer healing services, individually, or en-masse, without being asked, it signals to us that a counterfeit is likely on the way. Let’s read:
James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Acts 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
The solutions:
[1] We need to make sound choices, and decisions in fostering good health. This will include the use of the God-ordained diet of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains, wherever this is possible. We will also need to incorporate the laws of health, such as regular exercise, adequate rest, sufficient water, not eating between meals etc. God’s miraculous power, in our behalf, is manifested when we do all we can do, to work in harmony with the guidelines given. Let’s read:
Exodus 15:26 If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
[2] Change habits and practices where necessary, for it is in our power, to a great extent, to forestall a host of preventable ills and diseases. This will also include adopting God’s system of healthcare, which focuses more on prevention, rather than cure. Let’s read:
John 5:2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda.
5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
6 When Jesus knew that he had been now a long
time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool.
8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9 And immediately the man was made whole.
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
[3] Do not open the door to sinful health-destroying habits, for they will cost us more than we are willing to pay, and they will keep us longer than we are willing to stay, and the take us further than we are willing to go. Living by faith in God does not happen by chance, nor does our entire dependence on Him occur in a vacuum overnight. Thus, it is necessary that we wean ourselves off of man-made systems of health, that are contrary to God’s order, for He is willing and able to heal and restore according to His will, all those who trust in His mercies.
We close with an important quote, and passage:
[C.D. pp 73] When the third angel's message is received in its fullness, health reform will be given its place in the church, in the home, at the table. Then the right arm will serve and protect the body.
Psalms 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
God bless!