Quarter of US Teen Girls Have STD
A shocking health report came out on US teenage girls from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). More than one fourth of them have some form of sexually transmitted disease! An estimated 3.2 million U.S. girls between the ages 14 and 19 (about 26 percent of that age group) have a sexually transmitted infection such as the human papillomavirus or HPV, chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis. See news report on Reuters, New York Times and US News. This is indicative of growing promiscuity among teens in the US. When teen pregnancy and abortion were on the decline, many thought teens are…
Every Good Friday, in most churches around the world, the people of God would meditate on the seven verses spoken by Jesus from the Cross. First verse: Jesus said, "Father, forgive them: for they do not know what they are doing." And they parted His garments, and cast lots (Luke 23:34). Second verse: One of the malefactors said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into your kingdom". Jesus said to him, "I tell you the Truth, today you will be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:42-43) Third verse: When Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, Jesus said to His mother, "Dear woman, here is your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Here is your mother!" (John 19:27). 
It is an old adage that says “hurt people hurt people.” It is well known that those who have been emotionally damaged tend to inflict their hurt and pain on other people. For example, a large percentage of those who have been sexually abused become the abusers of others; those who suffered under an alcoholic parent often themselves cause their future family to suffer because of their drunken stupors. Until we as a church deal with the whole person as shown in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 our congregations will be filled with people who are spiritually gifted but act like emotional infants. As in other words, the church must deal with emotional health and not just spiritual health and power.
In this story of different kinds of faith, I want to give us the opportunity of examining our levels of faith. The author of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. Faith is an action word. It does something. It moves forward. It is responding to a Person. Indeed, faith is to believe what we do not see and the end reward of this faith is to see what we believe. The woman with the issue of blood touched the heart of the Father when she fanned into flame the faith that was inside her. Today, are you asking God, “If only I could touch the hem of your garment”. He is here to heal. He is here to touch and make you whole. The same Jesus that we read about in the gospels is right here. Come and respond to Jesus. Only He can touch you. Only He can heal you. Only Jesus can make you whole.
In Passion of the Christ, Jesus appears helpless – a victim of religious hatred and intolerance; a victim of social power-play between religious orders clamoring for a shrinking social space in the face of alien occupation; and a victim of a Roman governor who reflected his own insecurities of political failure, nonetheless different from the Empire he represented in the troubled Roman outpost. Why couldn’t God help Jesus? Where was God when Jesus was falsely accused and unjustly punished with a death penalty? It hurts to see BAD things happen to GOOD people. Even today, there are many whose right to life itself is crushed by forces of systematic evil, which constantly re-invents itself and continues to threaten hope for new life. Jesus’ pain and powerlessness and his consequent death raise a question, ‘Where is God when it hurts?’