Cancer or Dementia - which is worse?

Cancer and Dementia – Which is the Worst?

Cancer and dementia are two terrible diseases, but which is the worst? Stephen Baker considers this question, and discusses our mortality.

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Is it Better to get Cancer Rather than Dementia?

Someone said to me recently that it would be better to get cancer than dementia_ Now I wouldn’t like to make the choice but I know where they are coming from. 

The prospect of beating cancer is higher than it ever was compared to the limited availability of treatment for people suffering from dementia. But having seen what friends have had to handle before they _beat_ cancer I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. 

How to live for the good of others

It is reported that there are 7.5 billion people living on planet earth today and sad to say not many of them could say that they have never misappropriated something that belonged to another person i.e. that they have not committed theft. Possibly, the same could be said about lying but that is another subject.  

The eighth commandment is ‘Thou shalt not steal’, the sixth is ‘Thou shalt not kill’, the seventh ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’. So, God was precise in giving us an exact code of moral conduct for life.  

The definition of theft is to ‘dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it’. The word ‘theft’ covers many acts of misappropriation - larceny (theft of personal property), robbery, fraud (identity, benefits, expenses, mortgage, insurance etc), embezzlement and burglary.  

Hard Words

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Do you remember the famous song from Mary Poppins: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Many of us could say it or even sing it, but what about spelling it? That is easy; some would say, ‘I…T’! That is how I’d respond in my classroom, much to the dismay of an annoyed teenager! In the film, Mary Poppins even recites the word backwards, but that may be pushing it a bit too far for today. 

 

Over the years, I have met several people who get tongue-tied with words like ‘thief’, often pronounced ‘fith’ and ‘specific’, which is often confused with ‘Pacific’. That is without the real tongue twisters like ”She sells seashells on the seashore. The shells that she sells are seashells, I’m sure.”  

Uganda - Part 1

Hi everyone, 

I have been in Uganda for nearly two days now and I’m getting on well. I arrived in Entebbe on Monday evening (22nd March) and have been in Kampala for two nights. We are staying in a place called Hotel Nexus which is very good. I have attached photographs of the trip so far as I thought you might be interested. You need to keep all your personal belongings on you and be careful. We leave today to go to Mbale which is 5/6 hours away. We will be there for four nights. I’ll send you more pictures which I get there.

Stephen 

Are you prepared to believe the evidence?

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Believing the Evidence

J. Warner Wallace was an atheist for 35 years. He was passionate in his opposition to Christianity, and he enjoyed debating with his Christian friends. He became a Police Officer and eventually advanced to Detective. Along the way, he developed a healthy respect for the role of evidence in discerning truth. When he took time to be honest with himself, he had to admit that he never gave the case for Christianity a fair hearing. When he finally examined the evidence properly, he found it difficult to deny, especially if he hoped to retain his respect for the way evidence is utilised to determine truth. J. Warner found the evidence for Christianity to be convincing.

Deception

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None of us likes to be deceived, yet we may be subject to some kind of deception almost every day. Perhaps you have been deceived in the purchase of some commodity; for example, if the car you bought was ‘clocked’. That means the milometer (the device recording the number of miles the vehicle has travelled) had been turned back to give the impression that the distance travelled was a lot smaller than the true mileage. Along with this, the price was increased because supposedly you were buying ‘a very nice low mileage car’. Sometimes a soccer player is tackled and the tackler hardly touches him but he rolls around the turf so that the referee is deceived into awarding a ‘free kick’. Many people have been deceived by politicians who promised lots but delivered little.

We remember, when we were at school, the excuses we made because we did not have our homework done. We deceived the teacher. One of the worst deceptions was when we deceived our parents by lying to them about places we had been and the company we were with. As we look back over the past our cheeks blush and we feel most uncomfortable.

Measuring by the right standard

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In the process of sorting through some items last week I came across some unusual rulers. At a cursory glance, nothing appears to be out of the ordinary, but a closer look reveals two lines of 12 inches on the top face. Both begin at the same mark, but finish in different positions.

Someone I know tried making a box with the help of one of these rulers. He took a tape measure and carefully marked the cutting position of one side then used the ruler to mark out another. When all was done, the box was screwed together, but the lid didn’t fit — the box was out of square. Taking the tape measure to each of the sides, the discrepancy was soon discovered but it took a little longer to realise it was because he had used a ruler with a different inch.

My rulers were from grandpa. He was the sort of person who shined his shoes every day before going to work and oiled and polished his tools once a week. He was able to craft things out of wood near perfect because he was a ‘patternmaker’. Whilst much of this is done today with the help of computers, years ago, when a manufacturer needed a metal object to be reproduced a large number of times, a mould would be used and this was made from a ‘pattern’. One complication with this task is that molten metal shrinks on cooling, so the pattern had to be slightly larger than the finished object. To save the patternmaker from performing these calculations whilst working, a patternmaker's ruler would be used with the shrinkage rate already accounted for, hence the larger inch.

Moving the Boundary

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Earlier this year, a farmer driving his tractor noticed a large stone in his path, and moved it out of the way. Such an event would not normally cause headlines, but it did on this occasion, for the stone had been there for two hundred years, marking the border between Belgium and France. Thus, ‘on the ground’, the farmer was increasing the size of Belgium by about 7.5 feet, and reducing France by the same amount! It appears that he did not know the significance of his action, but it was serious nonetheless; for the boundary had been established by a treaty in 1820, and no-one had the right to move it.

That reminds me of a boundary that God has set up: between right and wrong, truth and error, good and evil. Some people deny its existence, or ignore it, while others think that they can decide for themselves where it lies. However it remains, fixed, and we all have transgressed it: "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" Ecclesiastes 7.20. That is a serious matter, whether we realise it or not, for sin is against God, and we must face His judgment for it: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" Ezekiel 18.20. "The wicked shall be turned into hell" Psalm 9.17.Although the farmer was in the wrong, the authorities had a forgiving attitude, and informed him that if he returned the stone to its proper place he would not face charges. Yet they also made it clear that if he refused to comply, a border commission would be convened, and he could suffer a large fine. I am glad to tell you that God does not want you to face the consequences of your sins either, and He offers a merciful solution to you. "The Lord … is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" 2Peter 3.9.

A Diamond Rush

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South Africa is famous for its diamonds. Not many ‘world records’ stand for more than a century, but a diamond discovered in that country in 1905 remains the largest ever found. So when, a few months ago, a cattle herder unearthed a promising-looking stone near a village in the east of the country, he hoped that it was that precious mineral. Word spread, and by mid-June this year many people had arrived, from different parts, to dig in the earth. Most were poor, and longed to discover gems that would lift them out of poverty.The Bible describes a poverty that is not material, but spiritual, and which affects not just a high proportion of the population, but all of it: the condition of sin, which afflicts all of mankind. The wealthiest are not exempt: the Lord Jesus spoke of "a certain rich man" who was "not rich toward God" Luke 12.21. In Scriptures such as Luke 7.40-50, sin is likened to a huge debt, which we cannot pay. Hence, if left to ourselves, we would remain unforgiven, to suffer the consequences, in the Lake of Fire: a state of unending spiritual poverty, with no hope of escape.

The Anchor of the Soul - what is the foundation for your life?

Life can be uncertain! Things can change in an instant! So, what keeps your feet on the ground? What gives you certainty? What is the foundation that your life is built on? Maybe you have never looked at life from this perspective. Well, there's no better time to do it than now. This message may get you thinking. I hope so

The first-century symbol of Christianity was an anchor, not a Cross. Christians adopted the anchor as a symbol of hope in the future because the anchor was regarded in ancient times as a symbol of safety. The message of the biblical message of the gospel teaches us how we can be ‘safe’ or ‘saved’.

You may ask why we need that safety or what we need to be saved from? 

The answer is that, in reality, life without God life is hopeless, There is an absence of hope. Life does not make sense without God who is the creator, the source of all things. This may not be your world view but it makes sense of the world and everything fits when God is in the picture.

How to handle your mistakes!

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An article was published some time back that discussed whether or not erasers should be banned from classrooms. It was suggested that they create a culture of shame about error — that they are a way of lying to the world, which says, ‘I did not make a mistake. I got it right the first time.’

Whilst one spokesman thought the banning of erasers would be a harsh action, he pointed out that, ‘the observation of children’s mistakes is essential to good teaching… teachers need to observe all the attempts children make so that they can target their instruction.’

How would we feel about all our mistakes being left permanently on display? What if, in the process of making a chair I cut one leg too short — must I leave it, or should it be removed and replaced? In these circumstances, I am sure you will agree that the matter needs to be put right.

Tomorrow - handling the unknown!

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The evening before anything major happens in your life can be quite traumatic - that’s of course if you know something is going to happen the next day. An exam, your wedding, a court case, the result of medical tests - most of us know what the fear of the unknown can make us think and feel in the dark lonely hours of the night. The rational becomes irrational, our strength of resolve seems to run for cover and leave us feeling exposed, the smallest possibility of things going in the wrong direction seems to be amplified until it's unbearable.