Stress!
Chronic stress, we know, creates lots of trouble: cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, nerve degeneration, etc. But how about acute (short-term) stress?
Apparently acute stress is good for you. Well, at least a little bit!
All that lounging in a hot tub or in a pool or in the Mediterranean is not the best way to spend your time it seems.
Nope, that’s not what the rats teach us. Yes, rats!
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have found that a little
Heart!
Emotions? Utterly untrustworthy.
Or so they said.
I remember a popular gospel tract that pictured the sequence as a train: “Fact” was the engine; “Faith” was the rest of the train; “Feeling” made up the caboose, the last car. In other words, don’t worry about the Feelings. As long as you got the Facts and you have Faith in the Facts, the Feelings will automatically follow.
Or so they said.
We humans, however, have always had the suspicion that this neat order
Mark 8:27–9:13
The hope of future glory encourages disciples amidst present suffering while following Jesus.
“If anyone wishes to follow behind Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me!”
Mark 8:34
Allusions to who Jesus is have permeated the Gospel all along thus far; the crowds have often been amazed at Jesus’ words and deeds, and they have congregated in large numbers before him, but everyone—crowds and disciples—have failed to (fully) grasp the person
Squared!
Ever thought of the existence of square wheels? That would be the ultimate flat tire. And they would give you a pretty jarring ride on your usual flat road, if you put a couple of those wheels on your bicycle.
But apparently a mathematician—yes, a mathematician!—has created a bicycle (actually a tricycle) with square wheels. And, it gives a perfectly smooth ride.
Provided you ride it on a special road.
This trike with square wheels rolls quite smoothly, keeping its axle
Talk!
Despite all the advances we’ve made towards equality of the sexes, in one area girls are better off than boys: language skills—they acquire it faster and employ it with greater ease and complexity than boys of the same age. It’s often been said women talk more than men. Well, now we may have scientific proof of these facts. There is apparently a biological explanation for the discrepancy between a woman’s 20,000 words/day and a man’s 7,000.
For many years, scientists
Mark 7:31–8:26
God can be trusted for the provision of life’s daily needs.
“Do you still not see or understand?”
Mark 8:17
This text demonstrates the continued lack of discernment on the part of Jesus’ disciples, which had been a constant theme in Act I of Mark (1:1–8:26). This last depiction of the disciples’ obtuseness (8:1–21) is bracketed between two miracles of perception: a deaf and dumb man is healed on one side (7:31–37), and the sight of a blind man is restored
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.