MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“(CBS/AP) A new leukemia treatment has experts buzzing over a possible cure that may one day change cancer treatment forever.

How does it work? According to experts, the treatment is a gene therapy that turns a patient’s own blood cells into assassins that tracks down and destroys cancer cells.

They’ve only tested it in three patients so far, but the results were noteworthy. Two patients appear cancer-free a year after treatment, and the third patient still has some cancer but is improved.

‘It worked great,’ said study author Dr. Carl June, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. ‘We were surprised it worked as well as it did.’

Currently, the only hope for a cure is bone marrow or stem cell transplants, which don’t always work and can be fatal.

Scientists have been trying for years to find ways to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability. Earlier attempts at genetically modifying T-cells, our ‘bloodstream soldiers,’ have had limited success -the modified cells didn’t reproduce well and quickly vanished.

June and his colleagues used a new technique to deliver the new genes into the T-cells with a signal that tells the cells to kill and multiply. That resulted in armies of “serial killer” cells that targeted and destroyed cancer cells, even new cancer cells as they emerged. T-cells typically attack viruses that way, but June says this is the first time it’s been done against cancer.

For the study – published in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ and ‘Science Translational Medicine’ – scientists took blood from three patients with very advanced cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and genetically altered it in a lab. Then the scientists returned the blood cells to the patients in three infusions.

The scientists detailed the experience of one 64-year-old patient. There was no change for two weeks, but then he became ill with fever, nausea, and chills. He and the other two patients were hit with this condition that occurs when a lot of cancer cells die at the same time – a sign that the gene therapy is working.

‘It was like the worse flu of their life,’ June said. ‘But after that, it’s over – they’re well.'” Read more.

By David Wood – “Maybe I shouldn’t say ‘in’ Dearborn, since the city only sought to suppress free speech in this case. An outside court (the United States Court of Appeals) had to impose Constitutional law on the city.

Dearborn hosts an annual Arab Festival on Warren Avenue. During the festival, the street is reserved, but the adjacent sidewalks are not reserved and therefore remain public property. Hence, prior to 2009, many people would distribute pamphlets, DVDs, CDs, etc., on the public sidewalks. However, when Ronald Haddad took over as Chief of Police, he announced that no one would be allowed to distribute materials on the public sidewalks. Indeed, he insisted that no one would be allowed to distribute materials within five blocks of the festival. (He justified his decision by claiming that he needed to keep the area clear for pedestrian traffic.)

From a Constitutional perspective, this was quite disturbing, as the government was officially limiting free speech on public sidewalks. Moreover, those of us who attended the festival noticed that security only enforced the policy on Christians. Muslims remained free to distribute their materials.

Pastor George Saieg, an Arab Christian from the Sudan (who has observed the effects of Islamic law in his home country and therefore understands the importance of free speech better than many of us) decided to take the case to court. The freedom fighters at the Thomas More Law Center (praise God for them) took the case free of charge, and they won.

Lower courts had ruled in favor of Dearborn (i.e. that Dearborn police could stop people from exercising their freedom of speech on the public sidewalks adjacent to the festival). The appeals court reversed the decision on Constitutional grounds. Here are two excerpts:” Read more.

June 2010:

Matthew 1:21, “She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name YESHUA, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”

Isaiah 12:2-4, “Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD, the LORD, is my strength and song; and he has become my YESHU’AH.  Therefore with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of YESHU’AH.  In that day you will say, ‘Give thanks to the LORD! Call on HIS NAME. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that HIS NAME is exalted!'”

Isaiah 62:11, “Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy YESHU’AH cometh; behold, HIS reward [is] with HIM, and his work before him.”

By Ava Thomas – “ISRAEL (BP)–White and blue flags rustled in the breeze, and kebabs sizzled on the grill. Ben Martin* gathered the group around and offered a prayer of thanks for the food.

‘Thank You for this food. Thank You for this nation. And thank You that after 2,000 years, You haven’t forsaken Israel.’

He hasn’t forsaken it — in fact, Jesus Christ is at work among the Jews more than ever, Martin said.

The crowd at this Israeli Independence Day party was more diverse than one might expect for a get-together celebrating the founding of the Jewish homeland in 1948.

There were Iranian Jews. Iraqi Jews. Russian Jews. American Jews.

‘The face of the Jews here isn’t what you’d expect,’ said Martin, a Christian worker among the Jews. ‘Because of ‘the return,’ it’s a very diverse group.’

The return of Jews after 1948 to what is Israel today brought the Diaspora — Jews scattered worldwide — back from different countries and cultures. But despite differences, the work among them is expanding all the time, Martin said. Baptist work in Israel started in the 1920s in an Arab town, and the Messianic work among the nation’s Jews is a growing phenomenon.

Now there are an estimated 150 Jewish congregations around Israel meeting in different languages. The number of believers is estimated to be around 20,000, growing exponentially from 1948 when 12 Jews who believed in Jesus could be counted, to 1987 when there were 3,000 and 1997 where there were 5,000.” Read more.

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Zechariah 13:6, “And one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thy hands? And he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”