Blood and Sin -- An Analogy

Why is the shedding of blood necessary for forgiveness? Did God just make a decision that blood was required for atonement, or is there some inherent truth that demands blood as an antidote for sin? The fact that sin is not a trifling matter is indicated by some of the words and phrases that are associated with salvation: redemption, atonement, sanctification, ransom, justification, righteousness, born again. The variety of words indicates a deep and obscure nature of one’s escape from the results of sin.

But blood seems to be an integral part of the salvation of humans from sin. Under the Old Covenant, the sacrifice of animals was prescribed in great detail, and animals were to be sacrificed many times a year. And not just any animal would suffice. It had to be the best available and was sometimes described as one “without blemish.” Additionally, the high priest of the Hebrews was to offer a special sacrifice in the section of the temple known as the Most Holy Place. The high priest was the only person who could enter this room and he could only enter once a year “and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.” (Heb. 9:7)

If we continue to read in the ninth and tenth chapters of the book of Hebrews, we observe that the annual offering by the high priest is a shadow of the sacrificial offering of the New Covenant. “Day after day every priest performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Thus, in the New Covenant, the sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb of God is sufficient to atone for the sins of all, once for all time.

Now I propose an analogy based on a recent experience I have endured. Less than two years ago I was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Leukemia is a disease of the blood. We know that “life is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11) With leukemia, cancerous cells in the bone marrow prevent a healthy production of blood. Because a sufficient amount of healthy blood cannot be produced, without medical intervention, the end result is death. For our analogy, think of cancer as “sin.” It is something not created to be in the body, is harmful to the body, and leads to death.

The main symptom I experienced as a result of the leukemia was severe anemia. My body did not have enough healthy blood. So I needed for people to donate blood for me. I was given blood transfusions to help keep my body working until the cancer could be brought under control. Think of the blood donations as sacrifices. Of course, donating blood does not cost one his life, but it does require giving some time, and having a rather large needle stuck in your arm for several minutes. In the course of my treatment, I needed blood transfusions time after time, never leading to a cure for the cancer. The blood also had to be from healthy people, not the weak and frail.

What was proposed as a way to bring the cancer in my body under control was multiple repeated rounds of chemotherapy. Think of chemotherapy in our analogy as human efforts to control the sin in our lives: perhaps like meditation, therapy, psychological analysis, self-mutilation, incarceration, or even religion. In my case, the chemotherapy brought me into remission, but it did not seem to be able to cure the cancer. In the case of the sin in my life, I may have the sin under control for a while, but the result of my sin is death. In both my physical life and my spiritual life, I need a cure; a once-for-all infusion of healing blood.

For the treatment of AML, there is now a wonderful treatment called a bone marrow stem cell transplant. My brother’s bone marrow was a match for mine and he was willing to “sacrifice” some of his blood for me. So along with enduring medical tests and having to take shots of powerful medicines for me, he went in to the hospital on two consecutive days, sat almost without moving for over four hours each day with large needles in both arms, and gave 5.3 million stem cells for me. But I also had a role to play in this treatment. In essence, I had to agree to die in order to receive his blood. The chemotherapy that would be given me would weaken or kill much of the bone marrow stem cells in my body. Enough would be killed that if I did not receive the new stem cells, I would die. The purpose of the new stem cells is to come into my body, see my stem cells as foreign and kill them. My cells would resist, but they would be so weakened by the chemotherapy that they could not stand up against the new healthy stem cells. So in theory, all the cancer in my body would be killed, and I would be cured.

Of course, the stem cell transplant procedure is risky. So I made a decision. I decided to believe that the process would cure me. From the time that I decided to allow my blood to die and until the transplant, I merely allowed the nurses to give me the chemotherapy, and at the appropriate time, to give me my brother’s stem cells. In the analogy, think of the receiving of the stem cells as being baptized. This is how I accepted the life-giving blood given by my brother. How ridiculous would it have been for me to say that I believe that I can be cured by a stem cell transplant, and then not let the nurses give me the blood. The analogy is so strong here that it is common for the nurses to sing “happy birthday” to the recipients when the stem cells are infused. They think of a person as being born again, with new DNA in their blood system. The day of infusion is called day 0 and the “age” of the recipient of the transplant, and therefore the appropriate treatment, is measured from that day.

When I transfer my thoughts to the sin in my life, and in your life, I know that ALL of us are dying because of sin. For Jesus to give enough blood for all of us to be cured, it took all of His blood. He had to give his life for us all to be cured, that is, be saved. In my mind, it is a human miracle that I now have my brother’s blood keeping me healthy, and that I am free from cancer. But that miracle is nothing when compared to the miracle of new birth in Christ, free from the power of sin.

May God be praised by our words and by our deeds every day that we live sin free because of the sacrificial blood of Jesus. And may we never take salvation lightly.

A Hard Rainy Day

It was an emotionally difficult time Saturday morning. We put out the first of six signs advertising our garage sale just after 6:30 am. By the time we put out the second sign one-half block away it was raining. When we put out the last sign it was pouring. "Well," we said to each other, "maybe the rain will only last an hour." Nope! It lasted all morning.
But even if it had stopped raining, certain people might not have found the sale. Below is a photo of our sign at the corner of Judge Ely and EN 10th. You see, Be had figured out that she wanted to wait until she put out the signs to draw the arrow heads. That way we would not get confused, as we had in the past, and have the arrows pointing in the wrong direction. But she had already drawn one arrow head before she made that decision to wait. No problem. Just put that one sign in the correct position. In our haste to put out signs, draw the arrow heads, and not get wet, this happened.




Here is a photo of what garage sale items we actually got moved outside. The ladder was supposed to be put on stands to hold clothes. It was not for sale. And I put out the other two items the night before. They are still out there. Our garage has eight tables filled with really good things for sale, plus some other stuff all around on the floor and the ping-pong table.

Happy Birthday, Be

Yes, I know that Be's birthday is past, but I want the world to know that though I tease her, I really do love her. So I am publishing the text contents of the birthday card I made for her. And I was on time in giving it to her.


Front page:

To help me

wish you a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
I will quote from a
song by Ray Charles:

I love you
so much
it hurls me!

Middle page:

OOPS!
That was supposed
to say:

Last page:

I love you so much
it HURTS me!

As we both know,
when I am not with
you I am disoriented,
unmotivated, and
largely lost. Thank
you for being my
wife.

Happy Birthday!

Love, Bo

A Remarkable Talent

My wife has a wonderful ability to create interesting the useful shapes from plastic using items from the kitchen to heat them. In an earlier post, I showed a re-sized plastic bottle that she created using the dish washer. Below is another creation she made using the dish washer. It is an ergonomic pie server.




Next we have something that I think might make us not worry about retirement funds for the rest of our lives. We could sell tickets for people to view the "leaning tower of Chili Powder." What do you think?

Adapted Psalm 130 Song

A small group meets at our house every Sunday afternoon except for Care Group Sundays. Lately we have been studying Psalms and different members of the group lead the discussion each week. I had volunteered for last Sunday. I decided on Psalm 130 which is a song of ascent. So it had probably been sung in various settings of worship, especially in and around the temple. But it also had possibly been sung by the Hebrew travelers as they made their treks to Jerusalem for worship.

I remembered the time in Yosemite National Park when our family walked the rim trail, right at the top of steep cliffs. Lenna was 5 years old, and I held her hand, or carried her the entire time we were on that trail because I was afraid she would fall over the cliff. I tried to entertain her by singing "The Happy Wanderer" over and over. I have very fond memories of that hike.

So I decided to write words that capture the essence of Psalm 130, and fit to the tune of "The Happy Wanderer." Here is the result. It is only effective if you sing it.

1. Out of the depths I call you Lord.
O Lord, please hear my plea.
Let your ears care to hear my word
As I cry for mercy.

Chorus:
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Praise the Lord,
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
He is good, he is kind.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

2. If you, oh Lord, kept score of sin
Could anyone survive?
But with you all my sin’s forgiv’n.
I revere you while alive.

3. Deep in my soul I wait for him
On his word I rely.
Throughout the night I hope in him
More than guards seek morning sky.

4. O Christians, hope in God maintain;
Trust his eternal love.
For full redemption you will gain;
Sin vanquished from above.

He's Coming Ba-ack!

When I feel good I love to work in my shop. As a sign that I am getting better, I spent a part of two days making a new bird feeder. In the first photo below, you can see that we needed a new one. In the second photo, you see the finished new feeder. And in the third photo, I am hanging the new feeder.

Of course, I had to wear a mask and gloves while working, but it all went well and I really enjoyed it.

Safe Plastic

In the photo above, there are two plastic bottles. The bottle on the right was washed in our dishwasher. When it went into the dishwasher, it was the same size as the bottle on the left. You can see that the paper label on the small bottle is the same size as it was before being washed.

We have been hearing warnings about reusing plastic bottles. This experience makes us believe there is something to be concerned about. Looking online, we found a site where a medical doctor claimed that plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are safe to re-use. The other numbered plastics have some problems. This bottle is #1 plastic, and the doctor said it should not be refilled. Also, plastic #7 emits some bad chemicals. Our Nalgene bottles that we used for backpacking are #7. Yikes!

There are lots of differing opinions about the safety of plastic. If you find out something definitive, please let us know.

To the League City Church of Christ

Unless some turn for the worse happens in my recovery process, this will be the last time that Becky and I will be in League City on a Sunday. We will be going back to Abilene to a congregation where a young man named Pullen often leads the song service. Go figure. Because we are leaving, I have asked to share a few thoughts with you.

First I want to thank you for the welcoming spirit you have shown us. You have given us warm smiles, you have spoken encouraging words to us, you have sent us cards, you have given us gifts, and you have visited us in the hospital. Your loving spirit does not surprise me because you are Christians, and that is the way Christians live. I think that another reason you have been so kind is because you know my brother R. C., and it is easy to assume that a little brother would be like his older brother, and therefore very loveable. But that conclusion does not automatically hold in this case because R. C. has set a very high standard to follow. I take this public opportunity to thank him and Betty for their generous hospitality, and to R. C. for his stem cells.

As a part of your welcoming spirit, you allowed me to wear a hat sometime during services and I thank you. Some of you men may have been jealous of my getting to wear a hat. I expect you could have the same courtesy if you are willing to pay the price. I do not recommend it.

Finally, I thank you for your prayers. They have been a constant source of encouragement to us during this ordeal, and I ask you to continue to pray for me. In particular, pray that I will not get Graft Versus Host Disease and that my blood counts will come back to normal at the proper time. Also please pray that I will not get serious infections while my immune system is redeveloping the resources to help me live a healthy life.

In conclusion, please let me encourage you in your walk with God. Never did I expect a doctor to say to me, “You have Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.” But he did. I felt as if I were looking into a valley of the shadow of death. The natural question could not be avoided. Am I ready to die? For me the answer was immediate. Yes, I am ready to die, but I do not want to die yet. This faith that I have is not from myself, but is a gift from God. Praise His name!

I pray for each of you that you are walking close enough with God to be able to have the same answer as me. Yes, I am ready to die. If you cannot say that yet, then keep reading your Bible and listening to God tell you how much He loves you, how much He has done for you, and how you should live in response to His love. And also keep praying, asking God to help you better understand and accept His love and mercy.

Many of my friends are wearing a green armband to encourage them to pray for me. On this band is a scriptural reference, Philippians 4:12-13, which says in part, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Indeed, I can live through Christ, or I can die through Christ. No matter what happens, I invoke the other statement on the armband: God is good.

Musings: Standing In The Gap, by Becky Green

While at M. D. Anderson, we do lots of walking around from place to place for appointments, mailing letters, exercising by walking 30 minutes a day across the Skybridge, going to the indoor park for lunch, attending classes provided by the Wellness Center, plus lots of ups and downs on stairs and escalators, but mostly on elevators. I have noticed that as one steps into the elevator, a “ring” occurs that continues until entering the elevator. I have also noticed that if one wants to hold the elevator for a husband or another patient or family member, one can stand in that gap between outside the elevator and inside, the “ring” will continue and the elevator will wait. So, I began thinking about “standing in the gap.”

I see a lot of “standing in the gap” around M. D. Anderson - nurses, bus drivers, caregivers and other patients. And it occurred to me that standing in the gap is something that we can do for others, sometimes with only a little effort. All it requires is a need and someone who is able and willing to fill the need. For example, if I see someone approaching an elevator, sometimes I will “stand in the gap” so the person can catch the elevator and not have to wait. Easy! But there are myriads of other ways one can stand in the gap. All we need is eyes to see and a willingness to serve.

Sometimes it only takes one person to stand in the gap and fill a need. Ezekiel 22:30 tells of one of those times: “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” So the Lord said that he would consume them with his fiery anger. So sad. It would have taken only one.

Sometimes standing in the gap requires a lot. I recall a mountain climbing trip when a particular juncture required a “committing step.” The gap was too wide for me to cross, so my son wedged his body in the gap and I was able to step across safely on his back. But of course, the supreme example of standing in the gap requiring a lot, was our Lord Jesus. He gave his life, stood in the gap between man and God and paved the way from our earthly home to our heavenly home. May we follow his example, obey God’s will and stand in the gap for others.

Encounters Along the Cancer Trail

My dear Christian brother, Willard Tate, died last night -- from cancer. He has been in home hospice for a while so his death was not unexpected. But it has put me in a reflective mood. What I am thinking is that I have lost friends, found new friends, become closer to some of my (already) friends, and come to know some friends of friends. All of this while walking the cancer trail. Let me give you some examples from the last few days.

Of course, one of the friends that I have lost is Willard Tate. He went into hospice long after I came to Houston to stay for about 100 days. But I had hoped to see him again. That was a selfish hope - it was for me, not him. He is better off now. I pray that his family will have peace and comfort in this sad time.

This morning as I was leaving the bed area towing my tower to take a 30 minute walk, I saw Nancy. Nancy is the caregiver for her daughter Katie who recently had a stem cell transplant, and Nancy was staying at the same apartment complex as us. We would see her and visit with her at we rode back and forth to the hospital. Then I was surprised to see Katie walk up. She is already out of the hospital and doing well. Katie has a little one-year old daughter, so that is especially difficult, but the baby gives the mother motivation for working hard on her healing. I had given them one of Randy Becton's books when I first met them. They are from Louisiana.

Some friends we have become closer to are the Hughes: Franklin, Jackie, and Samantha. Samantha is the freshman at ACU who has a cancerous tumor spread throughout the middle area of her body. This family is in our care group at UCC, but we are walking the cancer trail together here at M. D. Anderson. They visit me when they can, and we visit them when we can. We pray together, and share our good news and bad news. So we are becoming closer day by day. Please pray that Samantha will know when to stop the chemo and have surgery to remove the tumor. Incidentally, I gave the Hughes a copy of Randy Becton's book.

Finally, just a few days ago when we got on the shuttle, a young girl with an Abilene Christian University shirt got on behind us. I struck up a conversation with her, and before we had exchanged two or three sentences of greeting, an elderly man across the aisle said, "Do you know Jim Bradford?" This man is Ken Stone, and he and Jim became friends when they were both in school at the University of Oklahoma. This was a long time ago because Jim was a graduate student at that time. They have been friends ever since. We had a good visit, and I gave him a copy of Randy Becton's book. Then yesterday we saw him and his wife again on the shuttle and I found out that he has a Gruver connection. He is distantly related to the Holt family who have lived at Gruver for as long as I can remember. He even came to Gruver as a part of a wheat harvest crew one time. Finally I made a connection to the Stone name. I mentioned that I used to go with mother to visit a Mrs. Stone in the Spearman nursing home. He immediately said, "Aunt Ida." His aunt Ida raised his dad for a while after the dad's mother died and before his granddad remarried. I e-mailed Jim, and we now have a three-way conversation by email. Jim was unaware that Ken had cancer and he has now put Ken at the top of his daily prayer list, right below me.

Life along the cancer trail is interesting.

Milestones

I have a lot to tell you. There was much time in the hospital when I did not feel like even opening my computer. There is a significant amount of time that I do not remember. So here is a quick summary of what has happened in the last month.

I tried to keep a journal of what was happening each day. From Monday, Dec. 14, through Thursday, Dec. 24, I did pretty well, except I made no entries on the 22nd and 23rd. A few days after they passed, I wrote for days Dec. 26 through Dec. 29, "Blur." On Wed., Dec. 30 I wrote, "1 unit red blood?"

Thursday, Dec. 31 I wrote, "Started losing hair, platelets, 1 unit red blood." Then on Friday, Jan. 1, I wrote, "Coughing up red gunk. Breathing labored." That day I was moved to the ICU unit, a milestone. I stayed there a week and do not remember much of that week.

Another milestone is that Be came back to Houston on Wednesday, Jan. 6. You cannot imagine how glad I was to see her. The next milestone was the following Friday. I was supposed to move into a part of the hospital for which the care was between the ICU and the 11th floor stem-cell transplant area. But I ended up back on the 11th floor, and in the same room I was in before. Amazing.

Then I needed to start gaining strength by walking and doing other exercises. I could barely walk, and the first time I tried, my male nurse held onto a belt around my waist and Be followed with a chair on wheels in case I needed to sit down quickly. My legs felt like trees. It was difficult to get them to move. I worked hard, and on the following Tuesday, my doctor said, " I think it is time to get you out of the hospital." I could not believe it, and I was actually afraid (lack of faith) that it was too soon. But I left the hospital on Thursday, January 14, and the doctor was correct. I have been making steady progress since then.

In the hospital, I was constantly getting infusions of all kinds of medication. Since I left, much of this medication has to be taken orally. Here are the original 9 different medications and the schedule for my taking them.


On Saturday, January 17, we moved into an apartment that is close to M D Anderson. This apartment is a part of the ministry of the Kingwood Church of Christ, and is a great blessing. Below are pictures of me on the couch and half of the kitchen.




We continue to go to the hospital daily to get infusions of certain medications and to have my blood tested. A big part of what I must do now is gain strength and keep from getting infections. I have developed a runny nose, and that is possibly not good. But a nasal washing (yep, it is as bad as it sounds) came back with negative results, and Be's nose often runs when mine does, so we are just tolerating it.

Since leaving the hospital, I have not had to have any infusion of blood products, nor a shot of the white blood cell stimulator Neupogen. That means that the transplant is making progress in taking over the production of my blood. That is tremendous.

The final milestone I will mention is that I have been given permission to eat fresh fruit if it has thick skin. I am enjoying bananas and watermelon for the first time since the end of April. Yum, yum.


Please keep praying for me. Your prayers are having a great affect. Thank you!